From: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com (aml-list-digest) To: aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: aml-list-digest V1 #466 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, September 27 2001 Volume 01 : Number 466 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2001 10:05:40 -0600 From: "Marianne Hales Harding" Subject: Re: [AML] Fw: MN The Light of the World (Pt. 1) >For its day, >it was quite the trend setter in costuming for Mormon epics (the play was >three >and a half hours long, which makes it epic in stage time, if not in scope >. Three and a half hours???? My behind hurts just thinking about it (not to imply that my behind is thinking about it as my brain is actually located elsewhere :-) Marianne Hales Harding _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2001 09:24:42 -0600 From: Gideon Burton Subject: [AML] Children's Book Writers Conference John Bennion asked me to forward this info from Carol Williams to AML-List Gideon Burton - -----Original Message----- Utah/So. Idaho Chapter of the Society of Children's Book Writers & Illustrators "The Write Tools for the Job" Annual Conference Friday & Saturday, September 28-29 Salt Lake Community College, Redwood Rd. Campus Featured speakers: Author/Storyteller Aaron Shepard on the business of writing for children; Author/Illustrator Max Haynes on the illustrator's perspective of picture books; Author Karen Warrick on creating exciting nonfiction; Agent Barry Goldblatt on what an agent can and can't do for you; Author Rick Walton on what makes a good or bad picure book; Author Carol Lynch Williams on the 13 top tips for writers; Author Mette Ivey Harrison on the art of revision. Friday Evening: 6-8 p.m. Portfolio Display and Refreshments 8:15 - 9:30 Illustrators' Workshop Professional's Forum Saturday 8:00 a.m. Registration 8:30 Welcome 8:45 Keynote Address - Aaron Shepard 10-12 Workshops 12-1:30 Lunch Break 1:30-4:30 Workshops 4:30-5:00 Door Prizes/Autographs Costs: Friday only - $25 for SCBWI members/$30 nonmembers Saturday only - $75 for SCBWI members/$90 nonmembers Fri. & Sat. - $90 for SCBWI members/$110 nonmembers To register, contact Kim Williams-Justesen at (801) 571-5162, or by email at: utidscbwi@aol.com - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2001 10:34:31 -0700 From: "Susan Kroupa" Subject: [AML] Re: Fantasy Canon I've never tried posting here, though I've been reading the digests for several months, so we'll see if this works. Annette, if you haven't read the Wzard of Earthsea series by Ursula LeGuin, you should try that--it's a classic. And Orson Scott Card's Alvin Maker series. Some of my favorite authors are Kate Elliott, Robin Hobb, Sean Russell, Sean Stewart (contemporary fantasy), Diana Wynn Jones (teen), David Farland a.k.a. Dave Wolverton, and, of course, J.K. Rowling. I really recommend Robin Hobb's ASSASSIN'S APPRENTICE and also her ship trilogy and Sean Russell's series. Some current 'big" names in fantasy, whose works leave me cold, are Robert Jordan (will his series EVER end?), Terry Goodkind (violent and poorly written), & George R.R. Martin (very well written but just not to my taste). There is a trend among some of the newer writers to set fantasies in worlds which KIRKUS aptly described as "fashionably sadistic." (Of course, "fashionably sadistic" also applies to many of the thrillers and suspense books being written right now.) All these authors, despite my not liking them, get advances and sales to die for. :) I should add, since I'm new to the list, that I'm a writer. I've published short fiction in professional magazines, some science fiction and some fantasy, won some literary awards, and am currently shopping around a novel which is a historical fantasy. I also select the fiction, including the fantasy and science fiction, for Orem Public Library. Hope this helps! Sue - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2001 19:20:28 -0700 From: "Jeff Needle" Subject: Re: [AML] Re: Literary Expectations > >My views are different than Barbara's. I'm always delighted when something > >unexpected happens in a writer's work, and anxiously look for the next book, > >hoping I will once again be surprised. > > For me, it depends on why I'm reading the book. If it's a comfort read, I > want it to do what I bought it for. If it's an intellectual quest, I want > it to do something different and take me outside the box. I've had enough > unpleasant surprises in life not to find myself having paid for one! > > BTW, Jeff, I always enjoy your reviews. > > > barbara hume > Likewise, I always enjoy your posts and feedback. It keeps me thinking! - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2001 17:57:33 GMT From: cgileadi@emerytelcom.net Subject: [AML] Re: Religious Fundamentalism (was: What's Wrong with Me) Melissa Proffit writes: Where is our understanding of terrorist mentality going to lead us in the end? > This is such an excellent question, especially when dealing with religious fundamentalism, because fundamentalists of all kinds believe that their way is right and everyone else is wrong. It's them and God against the world, a world that is immoral, deceitful, and in every way WRONG. Mormon fundamentalists are pretty much the same. There's always this sense of overwhelming pride you feel from such people, and a rigidness impossible to overcome. Even though you may seem to be having a conversation, you are really hearing "pre-recorded" messages. I used to say that I could have a conversation with a certain fundamentalist I knew without even having him present :). I knew both sets of lines :). So if you're writing about such a person, you are almost forced into good/evil. You have to make that judgment. IS this person partners with God? Do I buy all these prerecorded messages? Where will this kind of thinking ultimately lead? I am in process of writing a novel about this sort of thing in modern Mormonism, an exploration of what I call neo-polygamy, this very fundamentalist POV. I have had three chapters done now for almost a year :). I haven't made the time to write my own stuff; as a freelance, I do everybody ELSE's stuff. It all comes down to "worldview." You know--we all have one, and everything we do springs from it, and most of it comes from our upbringing. I am constantly astonished at how Mormons who seem to espouse much of the same theology have wildly divergent worldviews. Most of the time--interesting and harmless. But in the case of fundamentalism, a place where we draw the line. Cathy Wilson - --------------------------------------------- This message was sent using Endymion MailMan. http://www.endymion.com/products/mailman/ - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2001 13:00:11 -0700 From: "Terri Reid" Subject: Re: [AML] Fantasy Canon I really like Charles de Lint, who writes mostly Urban Fantasy. Terri Reid - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 25 Sep 2001 01:55:04 -0600 From: "D. Michael Martindale" Subject: [AML] Savior complex (was: Religious Fundamentalism) William Morris wrote: > I do have a bit of a take on whether or not bin Laden is motivated out of > gain or out of religious gain. I think the answer is both (aah! always > the cop out way to go). In his mind, his gaining popularity and power > helps accomplish his mission of being the savior of the Islamic world. > Too what extent he has a savior complex is something I haven't seen > adequately written about, but, from what I have read, it is there. And > that is why the answer is both. This got me thinking how often we run into this savior complex thing. Frankly, it's all around us. People are always wanting to save others from something, because they know best. I want to save LDS literature from the Jack Weyland/Gerald Lund doldrums it's in, because, well, I know best. In fact, there's been all sorts of things I've wanted to be a savior over. I'd like to save the world from Microsoft if I could. I want to save our society from Hollywood. What I wouldn't have given to save my country from Bill Clinton for eight years. I feel a need to save Southern Baptists from their wrong-headed Christianity, heathen religions from their non-Christian beliefs, and unbelievers from their materialistic mindsets. I want to save generations of children from the public school system. I want to deliver beknighted readers who never touched a science fiction book from their plight of cultural ignorance and help them join the enlightened readers. I want to do all this because--isn't it self-evident?--I know best what's good for everyone else. Unfortunately (or perhaps, for the world, fortunately) I've been too lazy to follow through on any of these to completion yet. But this state of affairs is another one of those grand opportunities life hands us to comprehend something that may have been imcomprehensible to us before. How in the world could Lucifer, supposedly blessed and intelligent as he was, go and get himself fallen? What kind of a fool would do such a thing? Apparently, a very common form of fool. Wasn't Lucifer just doing the same thing millions of us do--indulging in a savior complex because he knew best what was good for everybody else? If Lucifer was a fool, he's in good company, even among those who rejected him in the pre-existence. Here's an example of why pride is such a dangerous thing. We can get to thinking how our outlook on life is the only viable one. We come to believe that we know best for everybody else, therefore we have a God-given duty to save everyone else from themselves. Bin Laden has taken this thinking to a spectacular extreme. But in the end, aren't we all little latent Lucifers just waiting to fall if we let our pride get out of hand--because we know best? - -- 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 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2001 12:37:17 -0600 From: "Jacob Proffitt" Subject: [AML] Savior Complex (was: Religious Fundamentalism) - ---Original Message From: D. Michael Martindale > How in the world could Lucifer, supposedly blessed and > intelligent as he was, go and get himself fallen? What kind > of a fool would do such a thing? Apparently, a very common > form of fool. Wasn't Lucifer just doing the same thing > millions of us do--indulging in a savior complex because he > knew best what was good for everybody else? If Lucifer was a > fool, he's in good company, even among those who rejected him > in the pre-existence. I've often wondered about this. I see Lucifer's problem as two-fold. He wanted not just to use force, but to have all God's glory to himself. I sometimes wonder what might have happened if he had proposed just the use of force and not asked for all the glory. I *think* that perhaps the story of the pre-existence and the war in heaven shows that the use of force is inherently self-aggrandizing--that it would be impossible for Lucifer to propose forcing us to be good and not simultaneously ask for all the glory for himself. I certainly see that in my observations of politics and business. People who attempt to use force to gain their ends always (I can't think of exceptions and that's kind of my point) put themselves forth as deserving the glory of their ideas. Thus we see bin Laden accepting the adoration of his followers, we see politicians proposing new limitations on our freedom accepting the role of righteous crusader, we see businesses attempting monopoly accepting praise for their keen, singular business acumen. Jacob Proffitt - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ End of aml-list-digest V1 #466 ******************************