From: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com (aml-list-digest) To: aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: aml-list-digest V1 #483 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 Tuesday, October 16 2001 Volume 01 : Number 483 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 14:45:38 -0600 From: "ROY SCHMIDT" Subject: Re: [AML] CHANDLER & CHANDLER, _The Gun of Joseph Smith_ (Review) I thought the gun Joseph had at Carthage IS on display at the Church History Museum. Can anyone on the list verify? If not, I'll call them. Roy Schmidt >>> Jeff Needle 10/11/01 06:33PM >>> Wow! Amazing stuff. Perhaps it will indeed end up someplace where we can all see them, maybe the Museum across from Temple Square. - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Brown" To: Sent: Wednesday, October 10, 2001 10:43 AM Subject: Re: [AML] CHANDLER & CHANDLER, _The Gun of Joseph Smith_ (Review) > INTERESTING, Jeff. Reminds me--I held in my hot little hand the pistol > Joseph Smith had with him in Carthage Jail. It belongs to Alva Matheson in > Cedar City, the 98 year old amazing fellow who actually conversed with John > Higbee when John was 80 and Alva was 8. He has a little tiny bedroom in his > basement and MANY guns used in the Mountain Meadows Massacre, plus other > artifacts that would blow you away. Hopefully they will go to a museum > someday! VERY interesting! Marilyn Brown > > > -- > AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature > > - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 21:03:34 +0000 From: maryjanejones@att.net Subject: Re: [AML] DAVIS, _The Other Side of Heaven_ (Deseret News) Where do you live, Larry? Chances are good that Excel may still be trying to get Brigham City into your city. Brigham City is still playing around the country, and is opening in Florida, Wisconsin and Tennessee in the next couple of weeks... There are many factors that determine where we are able to open a film. Excel has to show the theater chain booker that the film will perform well in different regions. Local interest in the film is probably the most important factor we consider--we only have so many marketing dollars, and we have to maximize their effect. Other factors in scheduling where and when a movie will open include past performance of the film in similar markets, the personality of the booker, the current financial situation of the theater chain and a myriad of other factors. Hope that is a helpful answer... _______________________ Mary Jane Jones Media Relations, Excel Entertainment Group - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 14:53:42 -0600 From: "Marianne Hales Harding" Subject: Re: [AML] Gen. Conf. Music >Of course, the tune for "Hie"(Kingsfold) is really just a slowed down >version of >the Irish Drinking Song "Star of the County Down" Do you know the lyrics? Would you post them for our hymn-altering amusement? 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: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 12:59:11 -0700 (PDT) From: "R.W. Rasband" Subject: [AML] Nobel Winner V.S. Naipaul (was: The List and the WTC) Here is another indication of how much things have changed since Sept. 11. V.S. Naipaul has just won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Naipaul was born in Trinidad to Indian parents and has some very harsh things to say about corruption in the Third World. He is about the most politically incorrect world-renowned writer there is. His book "Among the Believers" is a damning indictment of Islam, not just "Islamic fundamentalism"; he doesn't see much of a difference. I don't know the date the Swedish Academy voted on the prize, but it's not hard to see a connection between this award and recent events. It's stunning to observe that notoriously left-leaning organization giving the award to this author. ===== R.W. Rasband Heber City, UT rrasband@yahoo.com __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Make a great connection at Yahoo! Personals. http://personals.yahoo.com - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 14:13:55 -0600 From: margaret young Subject: Re: [AML] Gen. Conf. Music Hie to Kolob--I prefer to think of "there is no end to race" it as "the race of gods." Sadly, the more I've learned about early Mormon perceptions of race (the tribe of Ephraim in particular), the more I'm convinced that W.W. Phelps (the author, right?) did not intend a generalization of race, but a particular race and bloodline. I hope that in the afterlife I can ask him about it and discover I was wrong. [Margaret Young] - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 17:44:15 -0600 From: "Jacob Proffitt" Subject: RE: [AML] Audience for Journals - ---Original Message From: Benson Parkinson > I'll bet you don't know much about your great-grandparents, > unless one of them wrote in a journal or did a history or one > of their descendants did it for them. Most people would lots > rather know about their great-grandparents, who still have > something of significance genetically and temperamentally in > common with them, than a 10th-great ancestor on (or off) the > Mayflower. At certain times of life especially people get > hungry for it, which is why, when I write histories, I assume > a reader in college or just off a mission--that's a common > time for it to hit. I'm surprised at how little some of my > nephews and nieces know about their parents, let alone their > grandparents. We all assumed our kids would know, but while > all my brothers and sisters are artistic, only some of us are > storytellers. When I wrote my grandfather's biography, his > second wife, who knows him better than anyone, was surprised > at a lot of what I found. This is certainly true. I don't know much about my great-grandparents. Though, I actually know quite a bit about my parents, so that doesn't really apply. I *am* interested in reading about them so I suppose I should take my cue from that and make sure I keep plugging away on the journal for the posterity meme. I'd particularly like to read a journal from my mother's father. He was kind of taciturn, though, and didn't keep a journal. It turns out that those relatives I don't know anything about from their own telling, weren't the ones to keep journals, either. I *did* see some interesting notes my grandmother had from him (political diatribes that indicate that politics might be genetically transmitted), some interesting Sunday School lessons, and a heavily marked up copy of Nietzsche's "Beyond Good and Evil". He also had the biography of Matthew Cowley I spent so much time fruitlessly searching. I hope my grandmother will let me have the notes and stuff eventually. > It struck me after I wrote his biography that my grandfather > lived, not just a fascinating life, but an admirable one, and > that by writing his story I'd extended his reach, given him > the ability to influence his posterity from beyond the grave. > The older grandkids all saw how he tended our grandmother for > five years after she was paralyzed by a stroke, and I don't > think there's anyone in our family after that who didn't > assume you do your best to care for your old folks at home. > But the younger kids like me, let alone all _our_ kids, and > _their_ kids, are too young to remember him doing it. It's > not quite that his actions spoke louder than his words, as > that when he said afterwords that it did him good to take > care of her, that he was happy doing it, you believed him. By > preserving the stories, I think I've made it more likely our > grandkids will believe it too. Ah. I have a particular problem with that one. Most of my progenitors weren't very nice. Some were actively evil, some just selfish, most were tramps of one kind or another. Until relatively recently, there isn't much laudatory in my ole fambly tree. One very lonely line with anything at all to show for itself (um, come to think of it, that's the line that came from the guy who managed to pull himself back up on the Mayflower). Which brings up another interesting problem. Taking the grandparents as a baseline, I have one line that is distinguished for its drunkenness, one line that is distinguished by the need for rapid, unannounced moves, one line that got booted from Germany, and one single, solitary line that crossed the plains, helped found Cardston, Alberta, died in Kanab, Utah and includes royalty if you go back far enough. So, what stories do you tell? Selecting just the faith promoting one seems kind of, well, dishonest. "Here's your ancestors kids, aren't we grand!" I'm saving up family lessons on genealogy until my kids can handle the PG-13 subjects. I still can't figure how anyone considers this stuff boring, though... Jacob Proffitt - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 18:12:37 -0600 From: Scott and Marny Parkin Subject: Re: [AML] Gen. Conf. Music Tyler Moulton wrote: >I remember a huddled group of BYU students singing this hymn on the >cold stone steps of an Egyptian railway station, after which a >teary-eyed veteran CES teacher bore his solemn testimony of this >verse, preaching the eternal nobility of all races and that they >would endure everlastingly--as opposed to what he had been taught >growing up: that other races were the results of various curses for >wickedness. Yeah. I've always thought that listing race in and among all those other attributes normally associated with godliness was a clear indicator to us that racial diversity is another aspect of that godliness, and thus to be viewed not with suspicion, but celebration. Infinite diversity is part of eternal progression. Or not. Maybe it's just a typo where the "g" got left off. I prefer the idea that it was intentional. Eric Samuelsen wrote: >With the exception of that one line, I love the hymn. It's the >strangest, loopiest poem in the Mormon canon, which is why I like it. Ain't it, though? It's a really interesting speculation on the nature of both the spiritual and the physical realms. One of Mormondom's earliest efforts at speculative literature. W.W. Phelps as sf writer...Cool! Scott Parkin - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 20:42:35 -0500 From: Larry Jackson Subject: [AML] re: Gen. Conf. Music Eric Samuelsen: My wife and I have sung Hie to Kolob as a solo on many occasions. We sing it "Nor to the human race." _______________ I like that. I always thought the line simply meant there is no end to people, but that doesn't rhyme as well as Eric's phrase. I like the music setting much better in the current hymnal than in the older one, too, even if you could do rubbings of the Tabernacle organ from the cover of the old book. I'm curious, though. When Eric and his wife sing this hymn as a solo, do they ever both duet together? Larry Jackson PS: It was a thrill and a pleasant surprise to find myself singing under the direction of Steve. The music of that session, and all of them, seemed particularly appropriate considering the current state of the world. ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/web/. - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2001 01:03:55 EDT From: Paynecabin@aol.com Subject: Re: [AML] Gen. Conf. Music I always thought "there is no end to race" meant, like, humans. Sorry. Marvin Payne - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 12 Oct 2001 23:50:57 -0600 From: Scott and Marny Parkin Subject: Re: [AML] Stories about War In a completely random and otherwise unrelated bit of coincidence, I just noticed that the nastiest bits, the actual massacre part of the Mountain Meadows Massacre took place on September 11, 1857 (the extended attack began several days earlier). Eery, in an extended, metaphorical/symbolic sort of way. Scott Parkin - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 13 Oct 2001 02:20:17 -0600 From: "D. Michael Martindale" Subject: Re: [AML] Gen. Conf. Music "Eric R. Samuelsen" wrote: > > My wife and I have sung Hie to Kolob as a solo on many occasions. We sing it "Nor to the human race." > With the exception of that one line, I love the hymn. It's the strangest, loopiest poem in the Mormon canon, which is why I like it. I can't bring myself to like any song that uses the word "hie." But I do like the satire that's been done on the word over the years. - -- 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: Sat, 13 Oct 2001 20:55:17 -0500 From: Linda Adams Subject: Re: [AML] Gen. Conf. Music Re: the line "there is no end to race..." "I actually understood it as "grace" when they sang it. Did you?" Steve No. For one reason--I had my closed-captioning turned on--due to five young boisterous children watching Conference with me, and without it I'll definitely miss something. The CC'ing definitely stated, "race." >With the exception of that one line, I love the hymn. It's the strangest, >loopiest poem in the Mormon canon, which is why I like it. > >Eric Samuelsen I keep wondering, in spite of how beautiful the arrangement and the singing, WHY they chose this particularly weird, loopy hymn to sing in General Conference (Sunday morning session, correct?), a time when we are more especially trying *not* to look weird, but acceptable and normal. And Steve, nice job conducting. Your music was beautiful. I was disappointed, however, that we mostly saw only the back of your head while you conducted. :-) Linda Adams adamszoo@sprintmail.com http://home.sprintmail.com/~adamszoo - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2001 13:57:30 EDT From: Jhotodd@aol.com Subject: Re: [AML] Gen. Conf. Music > >[MOD: My suggested edit would be "No end to human race," which I have always > >believed (or chosen to believe?) was the intended meaning...] > We served a mission in the Bahamas several years ago. The two branches were a beautiful reflection of the Lord's worldwide church - people from the Bahamas, Haiti, Philippines, Indonesia, U.S., and Jamaica - people of different colors, languages and cultures - but all brothers and sisters in the gospel. One of the Bahamian members was VERY sensitive to racial matters. The first time she sang this hymn she asked us what that phrase meant "there is no end to race". Our explanation was that there's no end to the human race. It never occurred to us that it meant anything else. Joe & Julia Todd - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2001 15:35:54 EDT From: BroHam000@aol.com Subject: Re: [AML] Gen. Conf. Music I can only remember singing "If You Could Hie to Kolob" once - at least in recent history - but I have been delighted to hear it twice since that time. The first time was about six weeks ago in sacrament meeting, attended by my missionary son's best friend, Daniel. He was deeply touched by it; I think the idea of a "divine infinity" was deeply comforting to a young man so inately spiritual that, I believe, he had felt like a stranger and sojourner upon this earth all his life until that day. He was baptized Oct. 6 (making the passage of my half-century birthday a gloriously odd event - as opposed to just odd), during which meeting his sister (already a member) and another friend sang it. You can imagine my delight again the next morning to hear the swirling arrangement done by the Tabernacle Choir. When lovely things happen in close series like that, I feel especially uplifted, as if Infinity were tossing mortality gently about, reminding me of what is real. How marvelous it is that words and music, written in the spirit (I truly believe), and received in the spirit (D&C 50), carry the same power through all ages. Linda Hyde Rosemark, TN - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2001 11:06:35 -0700 (Pacific Daylight Time) From: "Marsha Steed" Subject: [AML] Re: Gen. Conf. Music the in-box. I think we've now been rather thoroughly over the meaning of "race," etc. At this point, I probably won't be posting any additional messages on this topic unless they make a point that has not yet been made in the discussion.] Sender: owner-aml-list@lists.xmission.com Precedence: bulk Reply-To: aml-list RE: Hie to Kolob's "race" verse, and Tyler's comments on the CES teacher.= =20 As a side note, technically, there is only one 'race' that human's belong= to Everything else is merely a cultural distinction. A bug is a different= =20 race' as is a cat and an aardvark, but an African and a Japaneese and an American, all belong to the 'human' race. I'll spare you the latin.=0D =0D Marsha Steed - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2001 12:28:44 -0500 From: Jonathan Langford Subject: [AML] Gideon Burton on _Left Behind_ (pt 1) [MOD: This is a paper delivered by AML-List member (and AML president-elect)= =20 Gideon Burton at the most recent AML annual conference, which he has=20 graciously permitted us to post to the List. Thanks, Gideon. It will be=20 posted in two parts.] National Christian Fiction and Publishing: Have Latter-day Saints Been _Left Behind_? Gideon O. Burton Rising out of its early obscurity, imaginative writing by and about the=20 Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stands poised to grow and=20 prosper. A healthy stable of established and younger writers and a thriving= =20 LDS book trade are good portents of success. And though authors continue to= =20 complain of limited venues for submitting their manuscripts, they need only= =20 look back to the early 1970s when Deseret Book or Bookcraft published almost= =20 no fiction; when independent publishers like Covenant sold only scripture=20 tapes (and others like Signature did not even exist); when there was no=20 Internet for self-publishing and self-promotion--to see just how far LDS=20 publishing has come. But where will LDS publishing go? This is an issue for authors as they=20 choose genres and subject matter; for publishers, as they market literary=20 properties and develop product lines; and for retailers and readers as well.= =20 Though literary scholars might hope to see the establishment of new=20 independent presses willing to publish more literary fiction and nonfiction= =20 such as John Bennion's recent _Falling Toward Heaven_ or Edward Geary's now= =20 out-of-print _Goodbye to Poplar Haven_, LDS publishing will more likely take= =20 the path already taken by national Christian publishing. Just as Latter-day Saint presses and markets have prospered in recent=20 decades by alternately whetting and satisfying growing appetites for=20 fiction, so have national Christian publishers such as Zondervan, Bethany,= =20 and Tyndale. Such publishers have their trade associations, the Christian=20 Bookseller's Association and the Evangelical Christian Booksellers=20 Association, just as we have the LDS Booksellers Association. Those=20 publishers, like Mormon publishers, do a steady business in Bibles,=20 reference works, and nonliterary products such as talk tapes, children's=20 videos, self-help books, and lesson materials. Indeed, their products,=20 product categories, and retail outlets are uncomfortably familiar in many=20 respects. The difference is one of magnitude. Whereas there are around 300= =20 LDS bookstores (mostly in the United States), Christian bookstores number=20 ten times that and span the globe. We have our Deseret Book, the dominant=20 chain for our market with some 30 stores. The Christian market has Family=20 Christian Stores, with 350 stores. The annual trade show of the LDS=20 Booksellers brings a couple hundred exhibitors and covers a floor and a half= =20 of Salt Lake City's Expo Mart. The comparable meeting of the Christian=20 Booksellers Association attracts 400 exhibiting companies and=20 representatives of 2,800 retail outlets in a convention hall the size of six= =20 football fields. Even by conservative estimates the Christian market is ten= =20 times the size of the LDS market, with more than 50 million evangelical=20 Christians nationwide in comparison to 5 million Latter-day Saints.=20 That order-of-magnitude difference has allowed growth and specialization=20 within the national Christian market not yet possible in LDS circles, but=20 certainly likely. Their success might be our future, and I suggest we=20 evaluate aspects of it that are worth imitating, and aspects that are not. The likelihood of following the national Christian publishing trajectory is= =20 borne out in part by common interests in genre fiction--specifically=20 romance, historical fiction, and speculative fiction. Where an LDS market=20 publisher like Covenant might have a few prominent romance writers like=20 Anita Stansfield or Rachel Ann Nunes with their _First Love_ and _Ariana_=20 series, a Christian publisher like Tyndale can create a separate imprint,=20 HeartQuest, for its cadre of inspirational romance writers, boasting eight= =20 separate romance series and nine romance anthologies--from just one= publisher.=20 Historical fiction has taken Christian markets by storm in recent years--so= =20 much so that in the annual Christian fiction awards, the "Christy" Awards,= =20 separate recognition is given for International Historical Fiction=20 (including biblical fiction) and North American Historical Fiction. Mormon= =20 publishing has been refashioned in the wake of two dramatically successful= =20 series: Gerald Lund's _Work and the Glory_ and Dean Hughes's _Children of=20 the Promise_. These series have, in turn, paved the way for Revolutionary=20 War and time-of-Christ historical series now beginning. Christian historical fiction has anticipated these developments with=20 astonishing breadth. Many Christian publishers put out pioneer and western= =20 series. From Bethany House publishers comes Lauraine Snelling's _Red River= =20 of the North_ series about immigrants on the prairie; Beverly Lewis's=20 _Heritage of Lancaster County_ series about the Amish. (Herald Publishers=20 carries two series about the Amish, including Carrie Bender's _Birch Hollow= =20 Schoolmarm_.) Bethany House also carries the _Spirit of Appalachia_ series.= =20 From Revell publishers comes Brenda Wilbee's Sweetbriar series, about=20 pioneer women in Washington State. From WaterBrook comes the _Heart's True= =20 Desire_ prairie romance series and a historical series for younger readers,= =20 the _Cahira O'Connor_ series by Angela Elwell Hunt's. There are western=20 series almost too numerous to mention, including the _Starlight Trilogy_ by= =20 Marian Wells which dramatizes nineteenth-century Mormon Utah (in ways our=20 audiences would gasp at). Diversifying geographically, Bethany House has put= =20 out the _Annanbrae_ series, historical romances set in post-WWII England by= =20 Noreen Riols, and another series about the settlement of Australia, _Land of= =20 the Far Horizon_. Fictional retellings of Bible stories are also a staple of Christian=20 publishing. Where Mormon markets now carry Orson Scott Card's version of the= =20 lives of Moses, _Stone Tables_, and Abraham's wife, _Sarah_; and as Gerald= =20 Lund begins his time of Christ series, _The Kingdom and the Crown_,=20 Christian publishers have already put out a trilogy from Bethany about=20 Joseph of Egypt called _Legacies of the Ancient River_; Francine Rivers's=20 _Lineage of Grace_ series with fictionalized accounts of Ruth, Rahab, and=20 Tamar; Roberta Kells Dorr's biblical trilogy about Abraham and Sarah, the=20 Queen of Sheba, and Solomon from Moorings Publishing, and many others.=20 Christian historical fiction has also taken on the lives of Reformation=20 figures. Jack Cavanaugh's _Book of Books_ series dramatizes the lives of=20 various figures such as John Wycliffe who were instrumental in the=20 Reformation and Bible translation. Mormon speculative fiction has been thriving, and the Winter 2000-2001 issue= =20 of _Irreantum_ highlights how many and varied are LDS science fiction and=20 fantasy authors. But not even Orson Scott Card, publishing nationally, can= =20 approach the runaway success of the _Left Behind_ series by Tim LaHaye and= =20 Jerry B. Jenkins. It is the phenomenon of this series and its first novel=20 about which I would like to speak in greater detail. Not only should its=20 subject matter, a dramatization of the earth's last days, cause "Latter-day"= =20 Saints to pay attention, but so should its storytelling methods, its=20 marketing success, and its influence within and outside of mainstream=20 Christianity. Here are some numbers to get your attention. A critically acclaimed book of= =20 literary Mormon fiction like Levi Peterson's _Backslider_ might sell five to= =20 ten thousand copies. Popular Mormon fiction is considered best-selling if it= =20 reaches sales of thirty to forty thousand. A runaway success like Dean=20 Hughes's _Children of the Promise_ has sold 300,000 total copies to date,=20 while Gerald Lund's _Work and the Glory_ series that has dominated the LDS= =20 market recently has achieved sales of 1.75 million copies to date.[1] Tim=20 LaHaye's and Jerry B. Jenkins's _Left Behind_ series, currently at its=20 eighth of twelve projected volumes, has so far sold 24 million copies in the= =20 last six years. If one adds to this the 6 million sales for the 16 volumes= =20 of the parallel _Left Behind: Kids_ series, the total number of _Left=20 Behind_ books sold comes to 30 million copies (Christian "Voice"). The=20 initial press run of _The Mark_, the most recent volume, was 2.4 million=20 hardbound copies. Each of the _Left Behind_ books has appeared on the _New= =20 York Times_ best-seller list, demonstrating not just the size of the=20 Christian market but the national attention the series has received. In February 2001 a movie version of _Left Behind_ was released (though=20 minimally in densely LDS Utah). The _Left Behind_ franchise includes this=20 movie, the _Left Behind_: Kids spinoff series, audiotape versions of both=20 series, and a full-scale Internet site where people can review and discuss= =20 the works and "witness" about how the series has brought them to Christ.=20 _Left Behind_ is not merely a publishing success; it may well constitute=20 Evangelical Christianity's most significant missionary work in contemporary= =20 America, as I will discuss. We ought to pay attention to such success. At the very least the _Left=20 Behind_ phenomenon suggests how powerful the medium of fiction can be in=20 communicating a specific Christian message. It also suggests the potential= =20 for interdenominational religious publishing, since the series carefully=20 avoids identifying with the Southern Baptists Convention or any specific=20 evangelical denomination. At a time when Deseret Book has just made its=20 first tentative stretch into the mainstream national market with its Shadow= =20 Mountain imprint, it is good timing to consider whether Mormon authors or=20 publishers could or should try to imitate _Left Behind_. Part of the series' success has been capitalizing on end-of-the-world=20 consciousness that has come with moving into the third millennium. This is= =20 apocalyptic or eschatological literature, a literature of revelation and of= =20 final things--death, judgment, and the collapse of this world prior to=20 Christ's return. LaHaye and Jenkins have done their Bible prophecy homework,= =20 and to their credit they lay out a rational narrative for a sequence by=20 which the various biblical prophecies found in Ezekiel, Matthew 24, and=20 Revelation can unfold credibly in the context of today's world. What to most= =20 Mormons remains a set of not clearly understood prophecies about Israel, the= =20 mark of the beast, the Antichrist, and Armageddon, etc., LaHaye and Jenkins= =20 make into a believable sequence of events.=20 Thus, _Left Behind_ is doubly apocalyptic since it is itself a kind of=20 revelation of end times as recorded in the apocalyptic Book of Revelation. = =20 However, the authors' explanations do not come through traditional=20 theological means of expository exegesis, although occasional chapters have= =20 pastors somewhat artificially catechizing proselytes --and the readers of=20 the novel--in the details of end-of-the-world prophecies. No, the literary= =20 vehicle here is the political thriller genre. "More intriguing than Clancy= =20 and Grisham," reads a back cover blurb. Well, the Bible might be plodding work, but _Left Behind_ is definitely a=20 page turner: Buck Williams, an up-and-coming journalist at a national news= =20 magazine, dodges an assassination attempt and works his way into the inner= =20 circle of a rising world leader whom we come to learn will be the=20 Antichrist. This leader, a Romanian named Nicolae Carpathia, preaches global= =20 peace and unity to a world in turmoil, all the while consolidating his power= =20 base for his future role as world leader. A _New York Times_ comment about= =20 _Left Behind_ is certainly true, it "Injects a Thrill into Theology"=20 (Neibuhr).=20 At the same time, biblical prophecy and end-time events are only a framework= =20 for what sustains the better part of the first novel's story -- a conversion= =20 narrative. The more dramatic events catch one's attention, but their purpose= =20 is clearly to provide a pressing context for personal conversion and for=20 subsequent proselyting. The novel is more about the psychology and the=20 sociology of coming *to* Christ than about the actual coming *of* Christ.=20 The catalytic event that launches both the book and the series is what is=20 known as The Rapture--the sudden spiriting away of all true Christians into= =20 a heaven (that is never depicted) by Jesus (also absent from the drama,=20 apparently, until Book 12 of the series). The Rapture produces both=20 immediate and long-term social chaos as the sudden disappearance of pilots= =20 and drivers causes mayhem in the air and on the ground, and as the remaining= =20 people try to make sense of so many people suddenly gone, leaving behind=20 their clothes where they sat or stood. Narratively, the series requires readers to view the world through the eyes= =20 of the unsaved, the _Left Behind_. Being passed over by Jesus is enough to= =20 frighten those in the story who have even a passing understanding of=20 Christianity, and people begin to rediscover the Bible and evangelical=20 Christianity's plan of salvation, which includes rituals of professing=20 Christ publicly and the obligation to spread the word to those who can yet= =20 be saved. As presented by the authors, seven years of tribulation are=20 outlined in both the Bible and in the _Left Behind_ series, putting pressure= =20 on Christian readers to be sure they are indeed true Christians so that they= =20 will not be _Left Behind_ when the nonfictional Rapture occurs. The book's action hero might be the journalist Buck Williams, but most of=20 the narrative concerns airline pilot Rayford Steele, his conversion to=20 Christ, and his subsequent efforts to bring his 21-year old daughter, Chloe,= =20 to Jesus. The book begins with Rayford plotting an affair with a co-worker,= =20 a flight attendant. He is interrupted by the Rapture, a dramatic scene in=20 which frantic passengers in a transatlantic flight discover that 150=20 passengers are missing. When Rayford finally makes his way back to his=20 Chicago home he discovers that his wife and son are among those taken away,= =20 and he begins simultaneously to repent of his near-adultery and to search=20 out the spirituality that had comforted (and taken) his wife.=20 - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2001 12:36:59 -0500 From: Jonathan Langford Subject: [AML] Gideon Burton on _Left Behind_ (pt 2) [cont'd from pt. 1] Rayford's struggle is both the strength and the weakness of the novel. Like many Mormon conversion stories in fiction, the credibility of his leap from skeptic to believer is strained. For anyone who has had a leap of faith, the change to embracing God can indeed be sudden and transforming. However, the rules of fiction are made in a fallen world where character changes are earned after all they and their authors can do, not bestowed through a form of literary grace--and so at times Rayford's transformation is more contrived than credible. On the other hand, Rayford's conversion is occasionally rendered more realistic by his mixed behavior toward his daughter. At first, overcome with zeal, he preaches to and even tries to shame his daughter into accepting Christ. Later, conscious of how he had once felt crowded by his departed wife's piety, he backs away. "He felt that if he said or did anything more, he would be responsible for her deciding against Christ once and for all" (299). Clearly, one can push too far. As world circumstances worsen, Rayford comes to imitate the missionary approach used by the repentant and zealous pastor at his wife's former church. "To be frank," the pastor says, "I no longer have time for the pleasantries and small talk. . . . We live in perilous times. I have a message and an answer for people genuinely seeking. I tell everyone in advance that I have quit apologizing for what I'm going to say" (423). To the reader's relief, Rayford has the restraint not to pressure his daughter further. He does give his witness, though, to the woman he'd thought of seducing earlier and to the worldly journalist, Buck Williams, risking great personal embarrassment in the process. In a laudable use of fictional technique, it is the daughter's recognition, at a distance, of how much all this means to her father as she observes him confessing Christ to the flight attendant and journalist that finally prompts her to pray earnestly for herself and (in Mormon terms) to gain her own testimony. This conversion, and that of the journalist that follows, comprise the real character development and narrative climax of the book, despite the conclusion's focus on the bloodthirsty Antichrist Nicolae Carpathia which is clearly setting up the sequel. Like many LDS novels, this book appears to be a warning or message to the world, but it is in fact preaching to the choir. Only those already invested in a Christian life will buy into the ground rules respecting the end-of-the-world scenario and especially the conversion process. But the book should not be shortchanged because it will be dismissed by non-Christians or worldly literary critics. Those of us who recognize the struggle to feel one's life acceptable to God and the struggle to open one's mouth boldly but respectfully to friends and family will identify with the protagonists, despite denominational differences. The book is as much an attack on nominal Christianity as it is a general critique of an unchristian world. Throughout the book humbled "Christians" come to realize their lack of commitment and see for the first time the difference between having the *name* of Christ and having the "*mind* of Christ" (197). Oddly, the book could be called a kind of devotional literature, a distant descendent of Ignatius Loyola's sixteenth-century exercises in spiritual self-examination. Any piece of fiction that can lead to sober self-reflection of one's state before God is worth a Mormon's attention. However, it comes at a price. The very kind of nominal Christianity that the book explicitly critiques it may implicitly enable. That is to say, it urges the reader to come to Christ, not out of recognition of one's fallen nature and consequent need for Christ, but to escape the Tribulation Period and assure oneself a place in the Rapture. "This is God's final effort to get the attention of every person who has ignored or rejected him," says a raptured pastor who was prescient enough to make a motivational videotape for those Left Behind (212). Characters on the cusp of conversion are given stern warnings. "I have this urge to tell you not to wait too long because you never know what might happen," says the converted Chloe to the dubious Buck Williams. The _Left Behind_ series is hellfire and brimstone repackaged, scaring the unconverted or half-converted into full Christian commitment, rather than persuading them. The fictional medium emphasizes sensationalistic and exterior motives for conversion, rather than deeper, interior motives for change. In effect, one could say that this book series about the Rapture is in effect a pseudo-rapture--it has carried away 30 million "faithful" readers, and the message is that we must avoid being Left Behind (in the series, that is). Such a statement may sound like a cynical take on this publishing phenomenon, but ministry through marketing has become a clear and defended standard among Christian booksellers. In 1997 the Christian Booksellers Association launched an "Impact x 2" campaign, "a challenge to double ministry impact by doubling sales through Christian retail stores by the year 2002" ("Industry"). Apparently the idea of doubling their ministry by doubling sales is stated entirely without irony, as though sales of books constituted "ministry" itself. Evidently, the _Left Behind_ series has enabled Christian retailers to meet their ministry and growth goals: more than 80 new Christian bookstores are opening each year, and established bookstores report that Christian fiction, in competition with Bibles and gift books, is the highest or second-highest category of book they sell (Christian "Media" 8). Mormon authors and publishers may indeed feel _Left Behind_ as they witness how savvy Christian businessmen are working media tie-ins that enrapture readers and audiences--both mainstream Christian and beyond. For example, _Left Behind_, the movie, was marketed with a host of contemporary Christian musical artists on its soundtrack, including Michael W. Smith, Rebecca St. James, and Avalon. Those artists, like the sensational _Left Behind_ series, are making possible breakthroughs to mainstream media markets. A Christian Booksellers Association report boasts how various teen pop acts like Rachael Lampa and Stacie Orrico recently "went straight to the top of the charts and broke into mainstream media outlets like MTV and Disney. Lampa made an appearance on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno and has been featured in teen magazines and other TV specials. . . . Sixpence None the Richer's lead singer Leigh Nash saw two songs find favor on the major Hollywood film _Bounce_, starring Gwyneth Paltrow and Ben Affleck, and Atlantic's P.O.D. went all over the world, becoming an MTV favorite, proclaiming their faith to _Rolling Stone_ magazine and shock-jock Howard Stern." (Christian "Media" 8) If there is a modern media Antichrist, it is Howard Stern, a man who has somehow developed a near cult following and a prime-time cable show built upon exploiting and pandering to all that is vulgar and repulsive in American culture today. One has to wonder about Christian publishing when it measures its success by how well it has played into, rather than critiqued, the worldliness of modern media. Also of note is the introduction of a Christian credit card program in July 2000. The card, issued by First Bank of Omaha, is "a no-cost marketing tool designed to keep the Christian store at the top of consumers' minds by reminding consumers about Christian product[s] and stores every time they use the card and by providing monthly incentives to visit the store" (Christian "Media" 2). Proselyting meets plastic. Perhaps we should resist the rapturous attractiveness of _Left Behind_'s 30 million sales and the $3 billion-a-year industry of Christian merchants, retailers, marketers, and promoters that stand behind it. Don't get me wrong. I believe in a glorious flowering of Mormon letters, but having Miltons and Shakespeares of our own may not mean having Tom Clancys of our own, or Stephen Kings of our own, or Britney Spears of our own--especially when literature becomes a marketing and media phenomenon instead of a private and personal exchange between an author and a reader--something much closer to the model of conversion we find in Joseph Smith reading the epistle of James or ourselves reading Moroni 10. We would do well to re-read Neal Chandler's classic story, "The Only Divinely Authorized Plan for Financial Success in This Life or the Next," which parodies Mormon capitalistic hunger as Carmen Stavely seamlessly blends the gospel with multi-level marketing. In the end, as Hugh Nibley has so often reminded us by recalling Brigham Young's worries over the Saints' potential prosperity, we may find capitalism compromising, not complementing, our religion. And it is not merely multi-level marketing or large corporations that pose this threat to our culture. It is the humble world of LDS publishing, doomed by its own health to grow less humble year by year, or at least more blind to how publishing success may not equal spiritual or religious success. A case in point is the lesson of Betty Eadie's brief and meteoric success with her best-selling book, _Embraced by the Light_ (Placerville, Calif.: Gold Leaf Press [Aspen Books], 1992). Riding the wave of a shallow and sensationalistic national interest in near-death experiences, Aspen Books may have believed that its capitalistic calling and election had been made sure when it secured a multi-million dollar contract from a national press for the book's paperback rights. But the company's follow-up titles by the same author and in the same genre failed to sell; and under the lofty weight of its pious but unrealistic expansion plans, Aspen itself had a near-death experience. The fizzling of this publishing phenomenon saved Mormon publishing, at least temporarily, from securing too strong a place in the realm of sensationalistic spiritualism, but there are many other appetites a hungry public wants fed, and Mormon writers and publishers appear ready and willing to satisfy those appetites without looking too closely at where those hungers come from or where they lead--even if they cheapen or supplant the most profound aspects of our spirituality and religion. In the end, I think _Left Behind_ presents an interesting and highly readable model of a conversion narrative for Mormon writers to study. For Mormon publishers, though, the series is more problematic. Its success might appear to LDS publishers to be a dazzling prophecy for their own future bottom line; however, it should serve more as a warning to them about compromising our faith by capitalizing upon what is, in the end, too important and too delicate to survive much buying or selling. I do not mean to suggest that the subtleties of spiritual conversion or religious experience cannot or should not be mediated through literature. But I do mean to suggest that at a certain level of financial success for publishers--even publishers manifestly devoted to Christian ends--they will naturally ignore thorny moral issues about commodifying spiritual experience (as I believe Eadie and Taylor at Aspen did) or corrupting the correct motives for repentance (as I believe Jenkins, LeHaye, and Tyndale have done in _Left Behind_ by exploiting the sensationalism and stereotypes of popular genre fiction). How could publishers pass over these matters? Rather than fearing that the literary experiences they vend may not in fact bring about (or may adversely affect) religious faith, or worrying that Christian fiction could be supplanting Christian scripture, these publishers interpret their economic success as spiritual success. A satisfied customer might indeed be a returning customer, but is a happy customer necessarily an edified one? Unfortunately, it is more likely than not that economic success in Christian markets will fool both publisher and public into believing that what is popular must be good. Can one seriously double the impact of Christ's atonement by doubling sales of Christian products? Does the adversary really lose ground at each opening of another discount Christian superstore--or Deseret Book? Jesus taught that the kingdom of God is within, a place where we must probe our motives and rectify our relations to others. But to Christian publishers the outward sign of clamoring customers seems to relieve them and their authors from similarly examining the morals of their publishing mores. The temptation to believe one's financial success is also a missionary success is simply too easy. The _Left Behind_ phenomenon is a success that counts on maintaining no distinction between the faithful and the faithful customer. Do we want to be carried away by such success? With an LDS products market already approaching $100 million in annual sales and with popular fiction series thriving among Latter-day Saints, perhaps it is already too late to be Left Behind. GIDEON O. BURTON is Assistant Professor of English at Brigham Young University where he teaches Renaissance literature, rhetoric, and Mormon literature and now serves as president elect of the Association for Mormon Letters. This paper was presented at the annual conference of the Association for Mormon Letters, 24 February 2001, at Westminster College, Salt Lake City. NOTES 1. Statistics for Hughes and Lund provided by Cory Maxwell of Deseret Book. 2. "Fiction is general[ly] the top or second to the highest-selling category of books in the typical Christian retail store. Over the past several years, Christian fiction has exploded in popularity, making it the top-selling book category in many Christian stores" (Christian "Media Kit, 8). WORKS CITED Chandler, Neal. "The Only Divinely Authorized Plan for Financial Success in This Life or the Next." Benediction: A Book of Stories. Salt Lake City: U of Utah P, 1989. 13-22. Christian Booksellers Association. "Voice of the Industry." "Behind the Bestsellers: 2000. The Year in Review" http://www.cbaonline.org/voice/behind.htm. - ---. "Industry Overview." http://www.cbaonline.org/who/overview.htm - ---. "Media Kit." http://www.cbaonline.org/pdfs/info.pdf LaHaye, Tim, and Jerry B. Jenkins, _Left Behind_. Wheaton, IL: Tyndale House, 1995. Niebuhr, Gus. "The Newest Christian Fiction Injects a Thrill into Theology." New York Times. October 30, 1995. - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ End of aml-list-digest V1 #483 ******************************