From: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com (aml-list-digest) To: aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: aml-list-digest V1 #325 Reply-To: aml-list Sender: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Errors-To: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk aml-list-digest Thursday, May 17 2001 Volume 01 : Number 325 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 16 May 2001 15:26:09 -0600 From: "D. Michael Martindale" Subject: Re: [AML] WEYLAND, _Ashley and Jen_ (Review) Tracie Laulusa wrote: > > But lots of readers really like his books and they sell. Obviously it > doesn't bother everyone. Why should he change if what he is doing works? > Maybe he really enjoys writing that way as well, so doesn't even have a > personal motivation to change. He writes, they buy. It works. Interesting topic of discussion. Shall we invoke the truism, "If it ain't broke, don't fix it"? Or shall we invoke the concept of eternal progression? As you can probably tell by the way I worded the issue, I vote for the latter. Notice I didn't say Weyland should change the type of stories he tells (I am quite certain there are people who wish he would). I am suggesting he should learn to write them better. If an amateur painter paints some intriguing works of art that catch people's attention, but he hasn't mastered the skills of a painter, should he really be content with where he's at? Or would it only make his paintings more intriguing to more people if he mastered those skills? Wouldn't that increase his ability to paint things that are powerful? An amateur painter who does it for a hobby needs to decide for himself whether he wants to bother mastering those skills--it's all for fun, after all. But Weyland is no amateur. He has his books professionally published, and expects people to plunk down good money for them. In my opinion, he has a moral obligation to hone his craft as time goes on. If, after twenty years, he still doesn't understand the concept of point of view, something is very wrong. Weyland would only increase his audience and have a more powerful effect on his current audience if he mastered the skills of writing. There's no reason why doing so would turn off his current audience, because I'm not asking him to change the type of story he writes. In my opinion, his audience likes his stories in spite of his writing skills, not because of them. If he told those stories better, everyone would come out a winner. - -- D. Michael Martindale dmichael@wwno.com ================================== Check out Worldsmiths, the new online LDS writers group, at http://www.wwno.com/worldsmiths Sponsored by Worlds Without Number http://www.wwno.com ================================== - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 May 2001 16:47:29 -0600 From: "J. Scott Bronson" Subject: Re: [AML] Favorite Moments in LDS Lit. On Wed, 25 Apr 2001 16:57:20 -0600 Steve writes: > If I left you in a room with your three favorite pieces of LDS Lit. > and gave you 5-10 min with each title, which scene(s) would > you choose to reread? There has been talk from time to time about the need or desire for a dramatic equivalent in Mormon theatre to "Fiddler On the Roof." I think that has happened with "The Trail of Dreams" by Arrington, Perry and Payne. There are a few moments in the play that do stand out, most notably "The Ballad of Rocky Ridge," but for me, the three or four months I spent rehearsing and performing in that play I consider to be the most worshipful thing I have done in my life. I spent a good amount of time listening and analyzing the piece and finally came to the conclusion that "Trail of Dreams" is as near to perfection as anything I have seen and heard in musical theatre. Not LDS musical theatre, but all musical theatre. I LOVED being in that play. That's the kind of thing, indeed, the very thing, that should be showcased in the Conference Center Theater. I really like Scott Card's _Saints_. That book and Truman Madsen's _Joseph Smith the Prophet_ have done more to increase my understanding and feeling for who and what Joseph Smith, Jr. was than any combination of sermons or lessons I have ever been a party to. Dinah giving up her children for the gospel is a particularly moving scene, and I think epitomizes the level of sacrifice that many Saints have -- and continue - -- to make for the Lord's sake. I've been sitting here trying to think of way to say modestly that one of my own plays fits into the category of Favorite Moments in LDS lit, but there's no disguising the absolute hubris of making such a claim, so, modesty be hanged; I really think "Stones" by Scott Bronson is a fine piece of literature for the stage. I think that if it ever gets produced, and if I can get enough people to see it, it will be a seminal event to rival the importance of works like "God's Army" or _The Backslider_ in terms of its potential to be a milestone. Of course, that could be my own little trail of dreams I'm walking. Possibly my favorite moment comes when Joseph lectures his stepson, the young Jesus, about courtesy and respect. In the writing of it I discovered the possibility that living a perfect life doesn't necessarily mean that Christ never made mistakes as he grew and developed, but that he learned perfectly from the mistakes he did make. And never made the same mistake twice once he was taught the right way. J. Scott Bronson Member of Playwrights Circle "An Organization of Professionals" www.playwrightscircle.com - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 May 2001 19:38:52 -0600 From: Steve Subject: [AML] BECK, _Finding Your Own North Star_ Info. on Martha Beck's "Finding Your Own North Star." http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/081293217X/ref=pd_cart_end_4/102-5914 480-4180966 - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 May 2001 16:50:51 -0600 From: "D. Michael Martindale" Subject: [AML] Marilyn BROWN, _Wine-Dark Sea of Grass_ (Review) THE WINE-DARK SEA OF GRASS by Marilyn McMeen Brown 2001, Salt Press 393 pages "What Has All the Fuss Been About?" I can't remember the first time I heard about the Mountain Meadows Massacre. But ever since that day, it was always in the context of a shameful act that cast dispersions upon the Church. It's a favorite of anti-Mormon writers and speakers. An uncomfortable hush seems to fall upon any group of Mormons whenever its hyper-alliterative name is mentioned. But I never really knew anything about it. Some Mormons wiped out a company of Missourians traveling through southern Utah--men, women, and children--and it was a bad thing. That's about it. Every so often I'd hear the accusation that Brigham Young ordered it. Bad Brigham Young, bad Mormons, bad Mormon Church--ergo, Mormonism is false. Or something like that. Then I read Marilyn Brown's _Wine-Dark Sea of Grass_. I read it with the anticipation one feels while watching a disaster film like _Poseidon Adventure_ or _Earthquake_: waiting for that calamitous shoe to fall; the earthquake hits, the huge wave tips the ship over, or the evil Mormons massacre the hapless families passing through their midst. After all these years, I wanted to know what happened, why it happened, and what was so terrible about it. I received my answer. I found out what happened. I found out why it happened. And I also found out how terrible it was. It wasn't pretty. It was terribly tragic. But I came away scratching my head. Okay, a dreadful thing happened. A certain atmosphere prevailed, caused by great stress and fear; solutions were debated and planned, based on choosing the least offensive among a pallette of undesirable options; as the solutions were implemented, things went terribly wrong; human beings did the best they could trying to cope, being forced to make split-second, life and death decisions. A cover-up occurred (usually a bad decision), but word leaked out anyway. Of course, the word that leaked out was inaccurate and exaggerated. Those that were involved, especially the leaders, were haunted by what happened, by what they did, and by the vicious rumors that spread about them. All very tragic. Many victims came out of that episode on both sides of the battle. But this sort of thing has been happening with humans since the dawn of time. Why has this event been such a focal point all these decades? I didn't get it. What happened is no big mystery, is over and done with, and those who were involved have suffered. It's really time to put all this behind us. That's the impression I came away with from reading Brown's _Wine-Dark Sea of Grass_. The novel itself is historical fiction in the same vein as the "Work and the Glory" series: real events told from the point of view of the fictional Lorry family. It starts out with a beautiful and tragic symbolic foreshadowing of the massacre itself. The Lorrys are confronted by thieves in the night. Young Jacob Lorry discovers two men slaughtering their cow. They hear a sound and end up killing his dog. He sneaks off, fearing for his life, and runs home to tell his parents, father J.B. and mother Suky. As he does so, they hear a noise outside. The father investigates: "Who goes there?" he called into the gathering dusk. A dark figure stood beside the woodpile, a silhouette, a shapeless form plucking wood into his arms. "I need some of your woodpile to build a fire." "Who are you?" J.B. called out. "Passerby," the dark silhouette said. Now the white of his face was partially visible in the light from the house. "Where you passin' by?" J.B. asked. Jacob recognized the cap, the plaid wool coat. "That's him," he breathed. "That's him, pa." Suky pulled on the arm of J.B.'s coat. "Jacob says that's him! He killed Lil and our dog. And tried to kill Jacob." Her whisper died in the wind. If J.B. heard her, he did not say. "Passin' through to California." "You wouldn't happen to be from Missouri?" There was an empty silence. And then from the white face in the dark, "Now what'd be the reason ye'd ask that?" "Usually it's the Missouris that don't ask for things but just take 'em. There's been innocent people raped and killed."... "Don't see as how I owe you no answers, old man," the visitor snarled. "If you're one of them Danites ransacked Missouri you have a debt to pay longer'n your ass's ears. I don't feel like waitin' for Johnston's army. And I'll just collect here." The man twirled his rifle in his fingers like a walking stick, then raised it into position. "It's him!" Suky screamed. "Shoot, J.B. Or I will. Shoot. He's raising that gun!" The man was calm. He grinned at J.B., whose old "Youger" stood uncocked and out of position under his arm. Suky stood behind J.B. Without warning, she raised the Colt revolver. Slowly, she sighted toward the stranger. Her hands shaking, she pulled the trigger. J.B. turned back toward her, stunned. Jacob saw the blood in the pale face of the man as he slid to the cold grass, the rifle falling out of his hand. They hurriedly bury the body and utter not a word about the incident to anyone. But within the hearts of the family, especially Suky, the troubling deed takes its toll. As the train of settlers from Missouri and Arkansas that the thieves were part of continues on its way to California, coming into conflict with the local Mormons, stealing supplies from them that the Mormons won't sell because of instructions from their leaders, and threatening to return with an army from California to exterminate them, we see the same scene played out on a grander scale. _Wine-Dark_ helps us feel personally the effect of the massacre on real historical figures, like John D. Lee, who becomes the scapegoat for the entire affair, and his family, who become pariahs among Mormon society in southern Utah. It also lets us understand the effect on the community in general using fictional families like the Lorrys as proxies for the real people who lived back then. As an added bonus, the book paints an eye-opening and troubling portrait of daily life among a polygamous people. How strange it feels to have a married father and his son vie for the affections of the same young girl! There would be fodder in here for those who are anti- polygamous, and for those who accept the principle as divinely inspired for those times, reminds us how challenging the commands of God can be. Yet at the same time, we recognize that the failures within the institution of plural marriage are only the failures of human beings imperfectly implementing God's command. We have comparable problems in modern times with our own monogamous relationships. Brown wrote _Wine-Dark_ with a poetic style. She seems to have been more concerned with writing well-crafted literature than with relentlessly realistic moments among the characters, almost as if she were using the voice of a fable-teller rather than a contemporary novelist. This is a matter of personal preference that would not be my first choice--I am a real proponent of story over style--but no doubt her style will please many readers. There were times when I felt like the story was on the verge of bogging down as we dealt with the personal matters of the fictional Lorrys, but before that could quite happen, history picked up again and drew me back into the narration. Endnotes keep us informed chapter-by-chapter on what is historical. This is something I appreciate. It would appear that the endnotes may have gotten lost in the shuffle of a rewrite for the revision I read, because some of them didn't line up correctly with the chapters as they appeared in my copy. Still, it wasn't hard to sort them out. Brown crafted some vivid, memorable characters for us to live with, particularly the anti-hero father J.B., a well-evoked character who is a driving force behind many of the plot turns. Suky, his first wife, lives the guilt of the massacre symbolically for everyone else. Elizabeth, J.B.'s plural wife, plays a major role in illustrating the hardships of polygamy. Maggie, a lost-soul relative, is a wonderful example of a very fallible member of the church who can never seem to make the Gospel work in her life. Hannah stands in as the representative of the slaughtered families of the Mountain Meadows Massacre. Then there is John D. Lee, a towering figure of strength and character, admired in the community and in his church calling, adored by women everywhere, enthusiastic practitioner of polygamy. He is a faithful member of the church and disciple of God--he always does what he believes is right, what he understands is required of him by church and God. And loses his priesthood, his church membership, and his life in the process. The story of the Mountain Meadows Massacre, this persistent controversy that has no business persisting, is his story, told by Brown in a quiet, unobtrusive way as she pretends to be telling the story of the Lorry family. I came away from reading _The Wine-Dark Sea of Grass_ feeling haunted by those events, sorrowful for the tragedies, the disrupted lives, it caused, and wondering what in the world the fuss has been about all these years. Petty selfishness has been the motivation for making this event a hotbed of antagonistic bickering for decades. It's time to cast off the accusations, the tiresome whitewashing, the demands for apologies, and honor those victims who made hard choices and frightening mistakes in dangerous times as they forged communities in the face of unforgiving nature for us to enjoy in comfort today. _All_ the victims, whether from Missouri or Arkansas or Utah. We dishonor their memory with our bickering. - -- D. Michael Martindale dmichael@wwno.com ================================== Check out Worldsmiths, the new online LDS writers group, at http://www.wwno.com/worldsmiths Sponsored by Worlds Without Number http://www.wwno.com ================================== - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 17 May 2001 00:13:38 EDT From: Higbeejm@aol.com Subject: Re: [AML] George MacDonald >barbara@techvoice.com writes: > I've been trying to learn more about him, and to find some of his > writing. Perhaps you can point me to some sources. The local library's > holdings don't offer much. Two good places to start online: http://www.george-macdonald.com/ The Golden Key site has links to a discussion forum, an e-mail list, critical essays, publishing houses that specialize in MacDonald reprints, and a whole slew of other useful resources. The e-text section has links to about 60 MacDonald works online--non-fiction, fiction, and poetry. There's plenty there to keep you busy for a while. (www.Abika.com also has 32 MacDonald e-books available. All these e-texts are free of charge.) http://www.gmsociety.org.uk/ The George MacDonald Society home page. The Society publishes an annual journal, North Wind, which includes book reviews, scholarly articles, and information about other publications relevant to MacDonald. Some articles are published online. The Society also publishes a quarterly newsletter. As for print copies, MacDonald's fantasy books are the easiest to come by. Major book chains usually carry _At the Back of the North Wind_, _The Princess and the Goblin_, _The Princess and Curdie_, _The Light Princess_, and _The Golden Key_. They will probably be in the children's section of bookstores. It looks like most of his major works are available for purchase on Amazon.com. And I know the Orem (UT) public library carries a couple of volumes of MacDonald's short stories. I can't actually remember how I stumbled upon MacDonald several years ago. It may have been through a mention in C.S. Lewis, or it may have been that I was in the BYU bookstore one day and picked up a copy of the Maurice Sendak-illustrated edition of _The Light Princess_ just because the cover looked so promising. (Yes, I do sometimes judge books by their covers.) _The Golden Key_ is still my favorite of MacDonald's works (also available with Sendak illustrations). I have used it as an allegory in teaching Sunday school lessons on the plan of salvation, the purpose of mortal life, the restored priesthood, and eternal marriage. It's a simple fairy tale plumbing the depths of wisdom. And it's a good introduction to MacDonald's best writing as well as his recurring spiritual themes. Another excellent introduction is _George MacDonald: An Anthology_, which includes short religiously themed readings collected and edited by C.S. Lewis. A similar volume is _Diary of an Old Soul_, the 366 poetic thoughts MacDonald wrote for daily devotional reflection over the calendar year. In the introduction to his anthology, Lewis says of MacDonald, "I know hardly any other writer who seems closer, or more continually close, to the Spirit of Christ himself." Lewis first read MacDonald's _Phantastes_ as a teenager and credits that book for beginning to turn him from atheism toward Christianity. It is not one of MacDonald's overtly religious works, and not his best literary work; the quality Lewis says he recognized and was moved by was simply "goodness." It's that kind of "goodness" that I think often comes through in our writings as devoted latter-day disciples of Christ, whether our work is overtly religious or identifiably Mormon, or not. MacDonald is worth reading for many reasons, but mostly for that goodness. Janelle Higbee higbeejm@aol.com jhigbee@wordassembly.com www.wordassembly.com "Truth is truth, whether from the lips of Jesus or Balaam." --George MacDonald - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 16 May 2001 23:07:46 -0500 From: Larry Jackson Subject: [AML] MN Labute in London: Controversial Mormon Playwright & Director Has New Play: London UK The Observer From: Kent Larsen To: Mormon News Date: Wed, 16 May 2001 13:00:00 -0500 Subject: MN Labute in London: Controversial Mormon Playwright & Director Has New Play: London UK The Observer 13May01 A2 [From Mormon-News] Labute in London: Controversial Mormon Playwright & Director Has New Play LONDON, ENGLAND -- Mormonism's most controversial playwright and director, Neil LaBute, is in London directing his new play, "The Shape of Things," a look at the darker side of human nature, like the previous films and plays he has written. In Sunday's London Observer Sean O'Hagan interviewed LaBute and wrote about what makes him so controversial and so contradictory. LaBute's latest play, written for the Almeida Theatre where his three-part play about Mormons, Bash, was produced last year, looks at how far a person will go to humiliate another. Set in the contemporary art world, it features an art student whose ambition knows no bounds. LaBute says that the notion sometimes hits close to home, "People talk about their relationships as if they are pursuing a career trajectory - 'Is this a good move? Can I do better?' I wanted to get that all in, and the notion that an artist could exploit not just themselves, but someone else, someone they are close to, in the pursuit of art. I mean, I do it myself to a degree. In the midst of an argument I'm often thinking, 'that's a great line, I could use that.' It's terrible really, but I walk through life thinking, 'Is this a potential scene or character?'. " LaBute's works show this view of human nature, a pessimistic view that can make an audience recoil in horror, or shock them into denial. And it is exactly this message that conflicts so much with LaBute the person. O'Hagan describes him as a bespectacled enthusiastic academic (he once taught drama in Indiana) with "a gentle good humor and impeccable courteousness." But while his demeanor may fit with the stereotype of a Mormon, the conflict with his writings are difficult for some to reconcile, "People assume that because I'm a practicing Mormon there's this Old Testament drive underpinning everything I write. But I don't think Mormonism colors my view of humanity any more than, say, being a man, or being an American. I've always had this rich interest in the basic religious tenets of sin, confession, damnation, whatever." Raised in Liberty Lake, Washington, LaBute loved bible classes but had a contentious relationship with his truck-drive father, who was often absent because of work and who discouraged his writing. He attended BYU and there he thrived on BYU's restrictive environment, soon joining the LDS Church, "I was inundated with all the trappings of the religion and I found it quite comforting. Sometimes I wonder how much my conversion had to do with me being away from home for the first time and was maybe tied to the security I needed at that time. I grapple with that occasionally, but the big stuff I have no real trouble with. There's nothing I like more than the idea of faith. People can study and discuss the nature of it all they like but it just comes down to making that leap. Also, I figure what's the worst case scenario if I'm wrong - that I've lived a relatively good life." But BYU didn't look very favorably on his early plays and school authorities even locked up the theatre to prevent a performance of a play he wrote called "Lepers," which he later adapted into his film, "Friends and Neighbors." LaBute says that he was influenced by the early work of his hero, acclaimed playwright and director David Mamet, especially his groundbreaking, and still controversial, play "Sexual Perversity" and Mike Nichol's film "Carnal Knowledge." "Those were chilling and prescient works when they debuted and they still have a certain timelessness. I always felt I had to go beyond that kind of drama, find something new and unsaid and essentially truthful about our time and the way we behave beneath the veneer of respectability that all of us, to one degree or another, hide behind." And he did just that, making a splash with his low-budget film "In the Company of Men" which won acclaim and pans, including reactions from the Los Angeles Times, which called it "the psychological equivalent of a snuff movie" and from Newsday, which wrote, "you walk away from it feeling as if you've witnessed a rape that you've done nothing to stop." He went on to write "Friends and Neighbors" and "Bash," the most informed by Mormonism of his works. He has also directed, gaining acclaim for last fall's popular film "Nurse Betty." But LaBute says that the script went against his instincts, "I liked working within the constraints of that genre and the studio system. But, that said, my instinct was to have her plane explode at the end. I suppose the fact that she ended up alone and disillusioned with the American dream was enough. I just couldn't have done the pat Hollywood happy ending. It's not in my nature to go along with that big lie that they tell us over and over and that has no correlation in reality." With the upcoming release of the film based on A.S. Byatt's novel, Possession that he directed, LaBute will soon be back in the public eye in the US. In the meantime, he will direct "The Shape of Things," and continue to let the public puzzle over his contradictions. O'Hagan says that where great writers are so often despicable human beings, "Neil LaBute is the opposite: a nice human being who specializes in depicting the often despicable nature of everyday lives. His words are to be savored, even as you choke in disbelief on them." Source: Donny Osmond he ain't London UK The Observer 13May01 A2 http://www.observer.co.uk/review/story/0,6903,489953,00.html By Sean O'Hagan Mormon Neil LaBute may be devoted to God, but the casual brutality of his films suggest a low opinion of humanity. Sean O'Hagan finds out what the director of Nurse Betty plans next. See also: LDS Filmmaker LaBute Shooting New Film http://www.mormonstoday.com/001006/A2LaBute01.shtml 'Nurse Betty' Leads To LaBute Profile in LA Weekly http://www.mormonstoday.com/000910/A2NurseBetty01.shtml LDS Playwright Neil LaBute's 'Bash' on Showtime Tonight http://www.mormonstoday.com/000903/A2LaBute01.shtml LaBute's Bash Opens In Washington DC http://www.mormonstoday.com/000312/A4LaBute01.shtml LaBute's 'Bash' Praised and Criticized in London http://www.mormonstoday.com/000206/A4LaBute01.shtml 'Bash's' Brutality a Shade Too Bitter http://www.mormonstoday.com/991212/A2LaBute01.shtml Winslet may star in controversial LDS playwright's 'Bash' http://www.mormonstoday.com/991010/A2LaBute01.shtml A Filmmaker's Faith in God, if Not in Men http://www.mormonstoday.com/990627/L2LaBute01.shtml People walk-out of new LaBute premeire http://www.mormonstoday.com/990620/L2LaBute01.shtml >From Mormon-News: Mormon News and Events Forwarding is permitted as long as this footer is included Mormon News items may not be posted to the World Wide Web sites without permission. Please link to our pages instead. For more information see http://www.MormonsToday.com/ Send join and remove commands to: majordomo@MormonsToday.com Put appropriate commands in body of the message: To join: subscribe mormon-news To leave: unsubscribe mormon-news To join digest: subscribe mormon-news-digest - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 17 May 2001 08:28:08 EDT From: OmahaMom@aol.com Subject: Re: [AML] WEYLAND, _Ashley and Jen_ (Review) I doubt that Jack Weyland's books are in the same category as the Work and the Glory series, and maybe they don't qualify as the great American novel...but hey, for light reading (& sometimes not so light reading), I enjoy them. My inactive daughter likes him and reads his stuff, so maybe his messages will touch her heart and she'll have a desire to change her life style a bit. Karen Tippets - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 17 May 2001 08:32:19 EDT From: OmahaMom@aol.com Subject: Re: [AML] Mormons as Flawed Can it be that there are some who want us all portrayed much as the somewhat one dimensional characters in Added Upon (which has its place in literature, even if it isn't great stuff)? I don't care what some people do, there will be some who don't like it. If we all liked the same things, we'd all fall in love with the same person, and that WOULD be chaos. Gratefully, it's ok for us to be able to appreciate different things in the world. So the missionaries in God's Army sometimes acted childishly. The spiritual impact was still there in the movie. Alas, which one of us is already perfect in everything we say and do. I'm looking forward to seeing Brigham City, but it hasn't hit Omaha yet. Karen Tippets - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 17 May 2001 07:27:41 -0700 From: "LauraMaery (Gold) Post" Subject: [AML] Re: Mormons as Flawed >LauraMaery, an interesting experiment would be to interview a couple of the >strong, faithful people you've observed. What have they gone through? More than I could handle. One, a family member: 1. Her father died when she was about 12, after a very long illness that wore out the entire family and depleted all their resources. They were left completely impoverished. 2. Multiple suicide attempts by her mother, combined with her mother's nervous breakdown and institutionalization. 3. Serious medical problems of her own that prevented pregnancy for years, and then resulted in about six miscarriages. 4. The death of one of her babies shortly after birth. 5. A nearly crippling injury to her husband, which left him unable to work. She had to tend to him round the clock (while caring for her infant children), and so was unable to work...which put the whole family on welfare. 6. The horrifying nervous breakdown of her husband, which left him institutionalized for several weeks, and incapacitated for months. 7. Grinding lifelong poverty. They've finally -- after twenty years of marriage -- just bought their first small home. 8. Several instances of having been swindled by business partners -- a major factor in the poverty during adulthood. 9. Major medical problems with two adopted children, both of whom were born crack addicted. >Do they consider themselves faithful Yes. >or strong? I'm sure she hasn't considered the question. >And after interviewing them, if you were to depict them in fiction or biography, how would you make their characters "round"? I couldn't, because Thom would review it and call me a liar. She is the most cheerful, kind, loving, generous person you could ever imagine. If I were to portray an accurate account of her life, NObody would believe it. (She and her hubby decided a few months back that as a family project, they would compile a family history. She says, laughing, "We started writing things down, and got so depressed we just dropped it.") - --lmg - --------- WHAT DO WE DO? We homeschool! Here's how: "Homeschool Your Child for Free." Order your copy today, from Amazon.com. - --------- . - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 17 May 2001 10:26:59 -0400 From: "Tracie Laulusa" Subject: RE: [AML] Donny Osmond Concert This one happened to be in Columbus Ohio. The female half of the morning show on one of the radio stations is a rabid Donny fan. They have had several on the air phone conversations with him. And she hosted the back stage gathering. He really has quite a following in the area. And every one says continually how nice and gracious he is-along with what a great voice he has, and what a fabulous concert it was. Tracie - -----Original Message----- Where was this concert? I like Donny's voice, and he's a very nice man. I recently bought a CD of his, mainly because he's Mormon and nice, and found that I really enjoy it. I was thinking, listening to his strong, clear voice, that it must be wonderful to open your mouth to sing and have something that sounds great come out! Not an experience I've ever had. The CD has a cute duet with Donny and Rosemary O'Donnell, which is amusing after their little tiff. Barbara R. Hume Editorial Empress TechVoice, Inc. barbara@techvoice.com - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 17 May 2001 10:47:14 -0400 From: "Tracie Laulusa" Subject: RE: [AML] Public Domain Thanks Bob and Harlow and Thom, At least all this gives me a place to start. I will take it that, at least with Emily Dickinson, you'd have to look at each poem, and when it was first published, and which version and all that. The particular ED collection I have is Collected Poems copyright 1991 by Running Press Book Publishers. The whole question of public domain came up because I am currently investigating writing greeting cards (prostituting myself as a writer as I have heard some refer to it.) One currently popular card form uses a quote on the front with some related sentiment on the inside. You can make up quotes or use quotes or excerpts of poetry in the public domain. (Unless you are Chicken Soup publishing Chicken Soup cards using quotes etc that you already own the copyright to.) I really like poetry, though I'm not a pro like Bob. But true poetry doesn't really cut it as greeting card verse. But it does work as a quote on the front of the card. So.......hence the question, how do you figure out what is in the public domain. Tracie Laulusa - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 17 May 2001 08:53:02 -0600 From: Margaret Young Subject: Re: [AML] Cracroft's LDS Classics (Meridian) Interesting that Richard includes Marilyn's book about the Mountain Meadows massacre (which he reviewed so positively in BYU Magazine), but not Bennion, Peterson, or Brady Udall. (No surprise that Brian Evenson isn't there.) Also interesting that he includes one of Michael Fillerup's collections, but not _Visions_. I'm flattered to be included, but very aware that only one of my books which Richard mentions is still in print. (My twin, Marilyn Brown, has written a number of other fine novels which are also out of print.) Anyway, it'd be a daunting task for ANYONE to compile such a list. Richard Cracroft is a good man for it. Gene England's list would be a little different. So would mine. I have a reading list for my creative writing students (who self-direct their assigned reading so they can find the "mentor writers" they respond to personally.) John Bennion, Levi Peterson, Brady Udall, Darrel Spenser, and Walter Kirn are all on the list. To date, of ALL the writers I recommend (which includes Mormon and non), Brady Udall is the one my students get most excited about. [Margaret Young] - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 17 May 2001 08:10:13 -0700 From: "LauraMaery (Gold) Post" Subject: [AML] Re: Public Domain >Interestingly enough, I did a search on the Book of Mormon. It is >available as a public domain book. The pre-1923 text itself is in the public domain. More recent edits are not; nor are chapter headers or notes. If you were to scan in your in-your-lifetime edition of the Book of Mormon, and post it to the Web, you'd be in violation of copyright. Like it matters. - --lmg - --------- WHAT DO WE DO? We homeschool! Here's how: "Homeschool Your Child for Free." Order your copy today, from Amazon.com. - --------- . - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 17 May 2001 09:21:24 -0600 From: "bob/bernice hughes" Subject: Re: [AML] Public Domain >From: harlowclark@juno.com >When was the book published, Tracie? When we did Marden Clark's >_Liberating Form_ back in 1991-2 we included one of ED's poems, and the >book said the same thing, so we wrote to the publisher (Oxford UP? >Harvard UP?) and they wrote back and said that we didn't need permission >as ED's works were in the public domain. I had a similar experience with a poem by Carl Sandburg. The copyright notice indicated 1946, but when I sought permission I was told it was in the public domain. The executor of a literary estate may do this for several reasons: If an earlier version is already in the public domain and permission is not given for a later version, then the requestor will simply use the earlier public domain version and continue publishing an erroneous version. Also, if they don’t give permission the requestor may pass that author by and go to another author, hardly a desirable outcome. Reputable publishers will not want to publish erroneous material, however, so the inevitable tension between the parties begins anew. >The 3-volume variorum ("including variant readings critically compared > >with all known manuscripts," as Thomas >Johnson, ed. _The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson_ put it) came out in >1955, but wasn't widely accessible, so Johnson brought out a >non-scholarly collection, _Final Harvest_ in 1961. (see p. 1233. >Interesting that ED starts out volume 2, the moderns.) The latest version, which corrects errors in the Johnson edition, is edited by Ralph W. Franklin, director of the Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library at Yale, published by Belknap Press/Harvard University Press. Three volumes, 1650+ pages, and costs $125. regards, Bob Hughes _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 17 May 2001 09:25:10 -0600 From: "bob/bernice hughes" Subject: Re: [AML] Public Domain >From: Thom Duncan >Interestingly enough, I did a search on the Book of Mormon. It is >available as a public domain book. > But only the earlier versions. The current version, published by the Church, has many changes (as pointed out by many parties) and is under copyright. We can go out and publish our own editions of the BOM based on the public domain versions, but who would buy it? regards, Bob Hughes _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ End of aml-list-digest V1 #325 ******************************