From: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com (aml-list-digest) To: aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: aml-list-digest V1 #382 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, July 5 2001 Volume 01 : Number 382 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 02 Jul 2001 09:58:51 -0600 From: "Eric R. Samuelsen" Subject: Re: [AML] _Peculiarities_ Tonight? We--meaning the Playwright's Circle--were going to stage Peculiarities at = UVSC, but for various reasons, mostly having to do with my being in = London, we weren't able to pull it off. We're going to stage it, I hope, = in Springville this fall. I sincerely apologize for any misleading = advertizing that may be out there.=20 Eric Samuelsen - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2001 09:22:15 -0600 From: "J. Scott Bronson" Subject: [AML] Re: Fiction in Church Mags (was: Institutional Art) Jacob Proffitt: > > By implementing a no fiction policy at Church magazines on the > > sly..., they imply things that they probably don't mean (that fiction > > is bad). James Picht: > I think that making the reason for the policy explicit is possible > only if the brethren can articulate it to themselves. Jacob: > > But then, explaining things is hard. And dangerous. Apparently there is an explanation out there. Frankly, I'm surprised none of us have heard it. I was explaining this all to a friend the other day and he said that in his ward a letter was read to them saying that the reason the fiction is being removed is that too many members are just unable to distinguish between fiction and reality when it comes to church publications. Too much fiction, apparently, is being quoted as doctrine, or near-doctrine from the pulpit. I think it's quite possible that the Brethren would really like to publish fiction because they know the value of it. President Kimball knew: The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball (P. 384.) "There is available a wide selection of books which will give development to the aesthetic and the cultural. Music, drama, poetry, fiction, and other cultural fields are available to everyone. The contributions come to us from great minds and great hearts and great sufferers and great thinkers. "In addition to all the serious study there should be time for just plain reading for pleasure. Here one needs assistance to select that which is pleasurable in a worthwhile way. There are countless works of fiction which help us to understand ourselves and others better, and to get real pleasure in the learning." Yet, how many times have we heard about the Steeds from the pulpit? How many Mormons are desperately trying to find a link to the Steeds in there genealogy? J. Scott Bronson -- Member of Playwrights Circle - ------------------------------------------------------------------------- - --- "The sun, with all those planets revolving around it and dependent upon it, can still ripen a bunch of grapes as if it had nothing else in the universe to do." Galileo - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2001 13:59:02 -0500 From: "REWIGHT" Subject: [AML] Magazine for Mormon Women I think there's room for several different types of church magazines. = Not necessarily put out by the church. I think the reason why others have failed is because no one outside of = Utah knew about them. There's a whole world of English speaking Mormons = outside of Utah. =20 I find it sad that the church discontinued the RS magazine. And now = that the Ensign will be filled with mostly GA's, we will not hear = women's voices. There are many "women's" magazines out there. Offering advice on how to = have better sex with your boyfriend, showing models who are impossibly = thin, showcasing clothes that a temple wearing Mormon can not wear, = offering recipes that require alcohol, and suggesting that how we look = is more important than who we are. There is not a general magazine out = there for the Mormon woman. I don't want to see a doctrinal mag for LDS women. We already have the = Ensign that serves that purpose. What I would like to see is a magazine = that offers a lot of the same type of things that other women's = magazines do, but with an LDS bent. I want to see something that is = written by LDS women. Not just the ones in Utah, but women throughout = the world. The readers should be the contributers. Recipes for food storage, large families and low budgets. Crafts with LDS mottos, images, and artists. Fiction, poetry, humor, art and music from LDS women. Interviews with LDS women. Talks by the RS, Primary and YW leaders. Letters to the editor. Geneology, food storage, community service=20 News of LDS women around the world,=20 Personal stories Volunteer and charity efforts Book, movie, music, and computer program reviews Reports and talks from women's conference Someone may ask why women would need this when they already have Relief = Society. The truth is that most women don't get to go to Relief Society = on a regular basis. Some women will spend everyday taking care of = toddlers, come to church on Sunday, spend sacrament out in the hallway = with a little one who won't behave, then head down to the nursery where = she will spend two more hours with toddlers. She may not get to speak = to anyone other than to say hello. If she's lucky she might have = visiting teachers who come once a month and she might get to enrichment = night once a month. These women do an important job, but they are = invisible. Not every woman in RS lives in a community where everyone else is LDS. = She may be the only LDS woman in a community where every other woman = isn't home in the day. Some have to drive an hour to get to a church. = Often she may be far away from her relatives. Would a magazine solve these problems? No. But it might offer a = connection to other women out there. And sometimes it's helpful having = the instructions there in front of you than to just hear them at = enrichment night. It would also be neat to see what women outside of our little communitys = are doing, and showcasing these women's talents. Of course, this could be done on the net, but paper is more satisfying = and readable. I would start it myself if I could. But I have no money nor the no how = of how to start anything like this although I would be more than happy = to work on it if there was one. And ads? Sure it can have ads. As long as they're from reputable = companies and don't represent anything against LDS standards. Anna Wight=20 - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2001 19:29:39 -0300 From: "renatorigo" Subject: Re: [AML] Sex in Literature > The two cycles: 1) sexual repression - (goes to) - abnormal sexuality - (goes to) - sexual enphasy... SEX IS THE MAIN THEME 2) sexual education - (goes to) - normal sexuality - (goes to) - sexual as a normal part of the life - SEX HAS SPACE IN THE STORY BUT DOESN=B4T HAVE THE MAIN FOCUS.... i only think the kind of literature that follows the first cycle is boring, without creativity... But the market isn=B4t like me... People really buy Harold Robbins and Sidney Sheldon... ONLY MY OPINION Renato Rigo - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2001 19:44:31 -0300 From: "renatorigo" Subject: [AML] Electronic Publishing (was: Midstream Mormon Publisher) > Every person I know that loves to read loves to have material books...shelves...etc ibooks is an easy way to send the book all over the world where you can=B4t have the material version of this book. I think classical books (from international literature) could be send by mail to the students all over the world mainly in some countries where people don=B4t have money to buy them. The habit of reading is developed during the school years. If you grow up reading good books you will love them and you want to keep them with you (your personal library) I noticed this is a list full of writers... I=B4m the only readers here :-) Am I? The opinion of a reader: Write them , PRint them, Sell the by the net, sometimes give them by the net... Renato - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 02 Jul 2001 17:05:40 -0600 From: Kellene Adams Subject: Re: [AML] MN Brady Udall's New Novel Looks at an Indian in Mormondom: Salt Lake Tribune Okay, I have to ask: Does > > I haven't read the book, but I can guess. And it really scares me. You CAN'T > write about the good Mormons. It's boring and sappy. So the question is > WHAT'S REAL? Marilyn Brown Okay, I have to ask (although it may just be redundant because it sort of ties into 90 percent of all the lines we have going on AML, so if it's redundant, please ignore the question): Why does writing about good Mormons have to be boring and sappy? I know a terribly good Mormon couple, married almost 40 years, dealt with lifelong chronic depression, a five-year bout with prescription drug abuse, one daughter who had a son out of wedlock, one son who had to get married, one son who is inactive, one son killed in a car accident, and on top of that, they are not the best two personality matches in the world (he's a control freak and she's a submissive, '50s, "leave it to Beaver" mother figure and marching into the '90s created havoc in their marriage as she began to discover that there was more to life than her little young children, who were no longer children, and he discovered that his strong personality actually crushed her more than helped her). However, the very foundation of their lives is their commitment to the gospel and their belief that somehow working through all that life has thrown them will be worthwhile in the end, and that working through it based on a strong belief in Jesus Christ is the best (and really only) way to work through it. To me there is nothing boring and sappy about their story at all. (Okay, maybe it could get a little sappy in the wrong hands because their absolute commitment/love is kind of inspiring. . . . ) But why do the stories of good Mormons have to be boring and sappy just because their view of life may be basis and simple? (Okay, now I'll just sit back and prepare for the onslaught. . . . I'm cringing as I push the send button) Kellene - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 02 Jul 2001 23:04:13 From: "Eric D. Snider" Subject: Re: [AML] _Testament_ > >Eric Snider wrote: > > > > >Apparently, I need to go see this "Testaments" thing. I've been putting >it > >off for a while because of the reasons that have been discussed on this > >List: It seems like it's probably a bit manipulative, hokey, or whatever > >else, though probably rather touching, too. I don't look forward to it, >and > >since no one's MAKING me watch it, I haven't done it yet. > > Travis Manning: > > > >Eric, I'm officially MAKING you watch "Testaments!" Besides, if you never >go see it on the big screen, the Church will replace it with something else >in a few years and you'll have to watch it eventually on video or DVD -- on >the "small screen." Another "besides," if you don't see it, we will be >missing your masterful critique of it! If we don't critique stuff now, who >will help make our church films "better"? You got to see it. > > > Well, you've discovered one of two ways to get me to do something: flattery. (The other one is money.) I'll go see it, and I'll write about it, and then we'll all be sorry. Eric D. Snider _________________________________________________________________ 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: Mon, 2 Jul 2001 17:10:10 -0500 From: "REWIGHT" Subject: Re: [AML] Literary LCD But isn't this already happening. Rachel Nunes wrote in her first Ariana book about a young woman who finds herself in an abusive drug addicted relationship. Yorgeson in Secrets wrote about various forms of abuse within a ward, including child sexual abuse. Broken Covenat, published by Deseret, is a book about the affects of adultery. The Work and The Glory showed one of the main characters as a wife beater. Weyland (although many people don't like him) deals with real issues all the time. Rape being one of them. In Children of the Promise, Hughes deals with blood, gore, starvation, rebellion, etc. Yes, I've read a few sappy "feel good" novels where the heroine has to severely repent because she's sexually attracted to a man, so she ends up moving back home. I read one short story in a book that was a lesson in whether you should kiss on the first date. In that same book was a lesson about how you should keep your apartment clean in case that special guy pops over. Yes it made me roll my eyes and say "oh brother". But those were older novels. Current LDS novels do recognize real problems and real issues. Fiction depicting real people making real mistakes is LDS literature. Anna Wight - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 02 Jul 2001 17:11:48 -0600 From: Thom Duncan Subject: Re: [AML] MN Brady Udall's New Novel Looks at an Indian in Mormondom: Salt Lake Tribune Brown wrote: > > Brady writes: "It's high time somebody out there, if not me, wrote about > Mormons in a real and honest way." > > I haven't read the book, but I can guess. And it really scares me. You CAN'T > write about the good Mormons. It's boring and sappy. Good Mormons get divorced, remarried, or stay single. Good Mormons sin and repent. Good Mormons sin and don't repent, even. But let's say you don't want to go that far. What good Mormon doesn't have a wayward kin? Are good Mormons so totally isolated from the world that they don't know someone in the world. > So the question is > WHAT'S REAL? I would suggest that any combination of the above would be real. - -- Thom Duncan Playwrights Circle an organization of professionals - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2001 19:15:22 EDT From: ViKimball@aol.com Subject: Re: [AML] Good News In a message dated 7/2/01 5:24:59 PM Central Daylight Time, eedh@emstar2.net writes: << I'm delighted to announce that my first picture book, HALLOWEEN SURPRISE, will be published by Doubleday Books for Young Readers, probably in the fall of 2003. It's an exciting time, with lots to learn. Right now I'm beginning to think about website designs and school/library presentations, and all the things that first-time authors must learn to do to sell, sell, sell those books! It's fun to get to share my news with all of you. :0) Beth/Elizabeth Hatch >> Congratulations, Beth: I was at a Western Writers of America conf. at Idaho Falls and several writers said they hit the conventions, super markets, and even airports to push their books. One writer said he sold 600 in one week end at some really weird conf. Basically, they said the writer spent about as much time promoting as writing. I don't know if this will be the news you wanted to hear. I have discovered that book signings are not that great as a rule. However, my book on young pioneers was the best seller at the Barnes & Noble book signing at Idaho Falls, and I was competing with 70 other writers, some of them famous western writers. Last year it sold well at the Oregon\Ca. Trails meeting. It depends a lot on the group. Good luck, Violet Kimball - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2001 19:18:23 EDT From: KGrant100@aol.com Subject: [AML] Dramatizing the Joseph Smith Story Frank Maxwell writes: >I would suggest 2 other ways to cinematize the First Vision: >1.=A0 =A0 Dramatize the Vision in a way which includes details from all of >Joseph's written accounts (none of which contradict each other, by the >way).=A0 James Arrington did this orally for a conference of the Mormon >History Association years ago, when they met in the Kirtland Temple.=A0 I >think his "combined" account of the First Vision was published in Dialogue. >This version would include both Deities, and angels, and everything else >that Joseph described. >2.=A0 =A0 Dramatize each of his accounts in flashback format, but in a way=20= that >tantalizes the audience into wanting to see the next flashback.=A0 For >instance, start off when he's writing down in his personal journal his >earliest account of the Vision, the one in which he writes that Jesus told >him that he is forgiven of his sins.*=A0 Then show a quick flashback of tha= t >part of the Vision experience.=A0 Then let the movie go forward with other >parts of Joseph's life until it chronologically gets to the point where he >wrote or told his next account of the vision.=A0 Then show more.=A0 By the=20= time >the movie gets to 1838, the audience would be intensely interested in what >really happened back there in that sacred grove.=A0 This approach would sho= w >the essential unity of Joseph's Vision experience, at the same time >acknowledging that he wrote down what happened only a little bit at a time. What an intruiging approach! I have a firm testimony of the first vision,=20 but I have to admit, as a 40-something lifetime member, I've heard the=20 standard version so many times that it rarely impacts me on any deep level=20 any more.=20 I would find it refreshing and engaging to see the story of the first vision= =20 depicted as you suggest in option 2. It sounds as though it would be closer= =20 to what really happened. Members would have a chance to appreciate this=20 pivotal event on new levels. I could even see that approach giving=20 nonmembers a chance to experience the witness of the Spirit as they not only= =20 learn about the vision itself, but as they see the prophet continuing to=20 learn from and live by it. Certainly it would give the first vision a=20 context inviting serious reflection. Let me know when you start selling tickets :) Kathy [Grant] - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 02 Jul 2001 16:29:47 -0700 From: Elizabeth Hatch Subject: Re: [AML] Good News Yeah, I know. I was a little heavy on that point. The reality of commercial publishing, though, is that I must learn to do this (however foreign it is to my nature), and do it well, if I want to continue to publish commercially. In this business, the bottom line rules. Sigh. Beth Hatch Craig Huls wrote: > Congratulations Elizabeth....Go forth and SELL SELL SELL! > > Craig Huls > > > > - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 02 Jul 2001 17:24:42 -0600 From: Thom Duncan Subject: [AML] _Pearl Harbor_ Screenwriter (was: Midstream Mormon Publisher) "Eric R. Samuelsen" wrote: > [Pearl Harbor] I don't know the writer, and I don't know where the story came from. The screenwriter was the same Wallace who wrote the much better film "Braveheart." - -- Thom Duncan Playwrights Circle an organization of professionals - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 02 Jul 2001 18:24:29 -0500 From: James Picht Subject: Re: [AML] GAs in Church Pubs > If I understood you correctly, McConkie was working on a SF trilogy? What > is the history behind this? Oh dear. I really need to be more careful about saying things like that. I don't know whether BRM was at all interested in reading SF, let alone writing it, but the image of him working on something of the sort so amused me, and the idea that we'd never be able to tell that he _wasn't_ working on it seemed so pregnant with possibility, I decided to write as if unknowable reality fit my mental picture of it. Perhaps my deliberate perception of that reality could collapse the universal wave function and make it so. The only history behind this is my own warped sense of humor. Now I do have it on very good fourth-hand authority that President Kimball penned some excellent historical romances under a pseudonym, but the principles in that story have all passed on, and we're left only with intriguing between-the-lines hints in _The Miracle of Forgiveness_, which, when analyzed by a computer (as in the Bible code) yields passages from three best-selling Harlequin romances and Norman Mailer's _The Tropic of Capricorn_. Hmmm. Jim Picht http://vic.nsula.edu/scholars_college/picht/home.html - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 2 Jul 2001 16:25:13 -0700 (Pacific Daylight Time) From: "Marsha Steed" Subject: [AML] Re: Midstream Mormon Publisher Well folks, I'm back. I don't know how may of you may recall a sort of q= uiet but opinionated moderate ( yes, I know 'Rush' detests that title ) w= ho once dwelt amongst you. =20 I was interested in the E-book and Future of Irreantum discussions. I = believe I'd love to be involved in both of these ventures. I think that p= utting some books on tape is a fantastic idea. I know when I travel, the= re are never enough titles that I want to choose from. If it could be do= ne economically, it could be a huge service as well as a profitable niche= =2E I have a great voice and would love to read. ( Yes, I'm humble too.= I have always held to the definition of humility as 'knowing one's stre= ngths and weaknesses )=20 Keep talking, some of us are listening and the wheels are turning.=20 It is *Goood* to see some of your names again. =20 - --<--{@ Chantaclair Rose aka Marsha Steed http://Chantaclair.com/Poetry.htm - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 02 Jul 2001 18:01:16 -0600 (MDT) From: katie@aros.net Subject: Re: [AML] Jennie HANSEN, _Macady_ (Review) Quoting Jeff Needle : > Thanks for submitting this. I enjoyed your point of view very much. Thanks for being so kind. :) > I've adopted something of a George Bush-type attitude toward Mormon > fiction. > You don't expect much, and you're surprised when the author does well. > You > make good points, but they didn't detract at all from my enjoyment of > the > book. Yeah, I've done a lot of that myself. Like I said in a post a couple of months ago (?) about Jack Weyland, sometimes you gotta look past some of the writing flaws to find what really is an enjoyable story. But I really wish we could get these enjoyable stories without the writing flaws. Why can't Mormons write???? I remember that when I started reading _Macady_, I was determined not to like it. I'd read Hansen before once, and found the writing flaws to be irritating to the point of distraction. Plus I didn't want to read a horse story, and the cover shows some chick riding a horse. So I'm not sure why I chose to read it in the first place, except maybe to gripe about it. So I was probably harder on the book early on than I would have been otherwise. If I'd wanted to like it, I would've looked past the flaws more. (That doesn't mean that they aren't still there.) But somewhere near the end, I remember, I got to where I couldn't put it down. Pretty good for a book that I wasn't going to like. > I found the mentions of the now-departed characters to be important to > the > plot. Macady's ex-fiance, for example, is an ongoing influence on how > she > behaves in various situations. Well, I'm not in a very good position to argue anything, since I don't remember much of the book. But from my notes, it looks like her feelings also could have simply been due to her father's abandonment of her family. Why bother with the ex-fiance subplot at all? Except perhaps to solidify her "desirable" status, since someone as desirable as her would surely have been married before now... But, like I said, I really don't know. I haven't looked at the book since 1998. - --Katie Parker - - 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 #382 ******************************