From: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com (aml-list-digest) To: aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: aml-list-digest V1 #541 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, December 11 2001 Volume 01 : Number 541 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2001 12:06:09 -0600 (CST) From: Rich Hammett Subject: [AML] Re: [AML-Mag] Pete EARLEY, _Prophet of Death_ (Review) On Thu, 6 Dec 2001, Jeff Needle wrote: > Review > ====== > > Pete Earley, "Prophet of Death -- The Mormon Blood-Atonement > Killings" > 1991, William Morrow and Company > Hardback, 448 pgs., price not known > > > Reviewed by Jeffrey Needle [snip] > In the end, of course, Lundgren is apprehended. Justice has had > the last word. With this I should be satisfied. But I'm not. > My great fear is that another Jeffrey Lundgren is out there, just > waiting for the vulnerable and the weak to come to his side. > "Prophet of Death" is a grim reminder of the evil that can so > easily beset us. We need to be vigilant. On my returned missionary e-mail list, we recently had a discussion about this same topic, sparked, of course by the religiously-motivated events of 9/11/01. At least half the people participating in the discussion said that they would kill anyone if told to by their prophet or priesthood leader. They somehow thought this differentiated them from the terrorists, because the returned missionaries were _right_. I didn't read this list much in the last two months, so I apologize if this has been discussed already. Tying it back to mormon lit, does Deseret, for example, publish books that examine when the "right" time to disobey a leader is? Is that too subversive? I don't remember seeing the issue treated in _Ensign_, but I don't read it very thouroughly. rich - -- \ Rich Hammett http://home.hiwaay.net/~rhammett / rhammett@HiWAAY.net \ They that can give up essential / liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve \ neither liberty nor safety. -- Benjamin Franklin - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2001 12:28:41 -0700 From: "Cathy Wilson" Subject: Re: [AML] Harry Potter Movie Jim asks what it is about the Harry Potter books that everybody likes. It's been months since I read the books, but as I recall, you get true British flavor in a children's book--similar to what CS Lewis did in his Narnia books. Then again, the action trots right along so it's a pleasant narrative. The characters are drawn just a little past real life but just a little short of fantastic, so you can experience that pleasant world inbetween reality and fantasy life. Most of all, though, Rowling fills the books with original and fascinating detail. She's wonderful at creating this fantasy world without being cutesy or derivative. If you're familiar with boarding-school stories, this can be read as a funny takeoff on that genre. Her prose is consistent but not brilliant--but that didn't stop me from really enjoying the novels. And, as everyone else has said, the children adore these books. Even the younger kids who hadn't to that point tackled longer novels just took up these books and read. :) Cathy (Gileadi) Wilson Editing Etc. 1400 West 2060 North Helper UT 84526 - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2001 12:59:37 -0700 From: "Jacob Proffitt" Subject: RE: [AML] Harry Potter Books - ---Original Message From: D. Michael Martindale > > Anyway, sometimes ya gotta read past the first few chapters > to get to > > the good stuff. > > I believe there is no good excuse for starting a book out > this way. Why any author would think the reader should be > willing to slog through a lackluster beginning is beyond me. > If it doesn't grab in the first few pages--one way or > another--I don't think the most exquisite writing on earth in > the following pages can justify a poor opening. I think this is a matter of audience again. Just because those first few chapters don't pull you in, doesn't mean that they are poorly written or should be changed. I say that because those first few chapters pull the intended audience in right from the start and the book doesn't let them go until they've finished. How many times have you heard that Harry Potter hooked a reluctant (or even non) reader and expanded their horizons? I can give you two personal examples from my own family (but then, I have a large family). It may be a poor opening for you, but there is a *lot* of solid evidence that it is exactly right for who it was written for. Jacob Proffitt - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2001 11:37:46 -0700 From: Terry L Jeffress Subject: Re: [AML] Harry Potter Books On Wed, Dec 05, 2001 at 06:29:14PM -0600, James Picht wrote: > I have some idea in my head about why Dahl and Nabokov are good > writers. Could anyone be a little more direct about Rowling's > literary virtues? I don't recall seeing a post regarding just what > it is that many of you like about her. I'll throw my hat into the fray. I like to read Nabokov for the sheer elegance of the language. You don't even really have to look to deeply. His writing has such an innate rhythm and flow that you literally glide through his texts as if on ice-skates. Rowling does not have Nabokov's ability with words. She uses very basic language with a lot of made-up words thrown in for flavor. Her strength comes in worldbuilding. She has taken her model from the British boarding school genre an set hers in a magical world parallel to the mundane, "muggle" world we inhabit. The occupants of this world have all the same problems: boy/girl, bullies, school, politics, terrorists, and sports. Sentence for sentence, you really can't find much to praise in Rowling's texts, but with those plain sentences, she evokes a world filled with people that consider magic as an everyday element of life. What kids, and many of us adults, don't wish for a more interesting existence, where wondrous things happen with the flick of a wand. I do like that it takes seven years of schooling to earn even a fundamental understanding of the magical arts. Although wonders do come at the flick of a wand, the characters do have to study and go through numerous mistakes before they can confidently wave their wands. I think you can draw many parallels between Harry Potter and Joseph Campbell's heros. Harry comes from an obscure, but royal, background, must go through many trials, and eventually -- so Rowling has led us to believe -- in volume seven must face the ultimate live-or-die challenge. And while reading Rowling, you have a good time. You hope for the best. You get some interesting surprises. You laugh a little. You never cry. The nurse can mend almost any broken bones in a matter of hours. And the good guy always wins. - -- Terry L Jeffress | Perhaps in time the so-called Dark Ages will be South Jordan, UT | thought of as including our own. | -- G. C. Lichtenberg - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2001 13:07:06 -0700 From: "Jacob Proffitt" Subject: RE: [AML] Harry Potter Books - ---Original Message From: D. Michael Martindale > Whatever I may say about my personal reaction to the book or > film, I still consider the Harry Potter series to be great. > Anything that can get so many millions of young people to > read in this day and age--especially those who never cared > for reading before (I know one such kid personally)--and is a > cut above the usual spook fare, deserves the appelation > "great," no matter how many writing errors I personally think > Rowling may have committed. But that's what I am talking about. You keep talking about writing errors, and I'm still not convinced Rowling made any. True, I think that Dianna Wynne Jones is an order of magnitude better in the same genre, but that doesn't mean that my perception of error is an accurate one. We may *think* that we know good writing when we see it, but do we really? Particularly in this specific genre? And if we know so much better than she does, why aren't we on track to be the first author *ever* to earn a *billion* dollars from our writing? Given the success of J. K. Rowling we would be *much* better served if we could figure out how to write *just* *like* *her* than we are if we try to find out how to "improve" on her writing. Improve if you can, and if you find a way to engage children better than she does, then more power to you. But I'm betting that some of the very things that we consider writing errors might actually be a part of what makes her so successful. Jacob Proffitt - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2001 13:18:31 -0700 From: "Brown" Subject: Re: [AML] (Andrew's Poll) What's the Point? Hi. I'd say that more than anything else a novel gives me an in-depth experience of standing in someone else's shoes, broadening my experience. Putting me in touch with another world. So that I can understand people better and learn to love them more. (Marilyn) - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2001 13:44:17 -0700 From: "Brown" Subject: Re: [AML] Marilyn BROWN, _House on the Sound_ (BYU Newsnet) I give, Barbara. I'm not sure that's what I said over the phone. People say my writing is not as accessible. I guess that's what I was saying. Although I make perfect sense out of it, myself. I think some writers are more difficult to read. Faulkner? Cheers! Marilyn > At 12:07 AM 12/3/01, you wrote: > >"What sells in Mormon writing is easier to read," Brown said. > >"But I wanted to write things that were not quite as > >accessible." > > > I would love for Marilyn to expand on this comment. Perhaps I can finally > come to understand what literary writers are thinking. . . . . > > barbara hume - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2001 13:49:58 -0700 From: "Brown" Subject: Re: [AML] Quotation Marks I'm anxious to know what you think of the book, Terry. As far as I'm concerned you are right on with your points as to why an author would use no quotes. It is "stylistically" more literary. Makes it "better." Marilyn - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 07 Dec 2001 15:38:22 -0600 From: James Picht Subject: Re: [AML] (Andrew's Poll) What's the Point? > What's the point of reading all those novels all the time? Don't you have > anything better to do? One could ask the same thing of people in church - why spend time in Sunday School unless you have nothing better to do? Then again, you shouldn't be doing whatever it is you're doing, no matter what it is, unless you have nothing better to do. But doing constant cost-benefit analysis with my time gives me a headache, so "better" in this case isn't going to be better according to some eternal measure of opportunity cost, but of what seems to _me_ better. I read novels because I enjoy it, and happiness is an end in itself. Everyone understands the human rights to life and liberty, but people are awfully intolerant of the pursuit of happiness. That's probably because so many of us confuse happiness with fun, entertainment, and indolence, and in that we're completely mistaken. The pursuit of happiness can be hard work, and it isn't always entertaining or fun. The novels I choose to read sometimes entertain me, sometimes don't, and reading them is sometimes fun, sometimes not. I read them for the same reason I practice the piano - it changes me in ways that I like; it makes me happy. Now will somebody tell me, please, what's the point of doing accounting? Does the activity really make accountants happy? Does it make _anyone_ happy or wise, or does it simply make them rich? Does it have any greater significance to God and the cosmos than playing with your dog? That one really is a mystery to me. Jim Picht - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 07 Dec 2001 15:15:35 -0700 From: "Mary Jane Jones" Subject: [AML] OSOH Cast Members at UVSC FYI.... MEDIA ADVISORY December 6, 2001 Contact: Mary Jane Jones Excel Entertainment Group 801-358-7020, mjjones@xelent.com=20 HOLLYWOOD CELEBRITIES TO PRESENT=20 FREE Q&A AT UVSC Orem, UT=AFThree stars of the upcoming motion picture THE OTHER SIDE OF = HEAVEN will be in Orem Tuesday night to present a free Q&A session about = their experiences during the making of the movie. Christopher Gorham, Joe Folau and Miriama Smith will also be joined by = writer / director Mitch Davis and producer John Garbett. The Q&A will = take place on Tuesday, December 11 at 7 p.m. UVSC=A2s TRIO Student = Support Services is sponsoring the event, which will be held at the UVSC = Institute (adjacent to the Student Services building on campus). The = Institute houses the largest room available on campus that evening. The actors will be welcomed with a Tongan traditional dance from the UVSC = Polynesian Legacy Promo Team, a talented group of Polynesian dancers. The = team will also perform a Tahitian dance to close the event, and will = present traditional leis to the panel. THE OTHER SIDE OF HEAVEN is a major motion picture chronicling the true = story of a young boy=A2s adventures in the Kingdom of Tonga in the = 1950=A2s. The movie opens in Wasatch Front theaters on Dec 14. Christopher Gorham stars in the film as John Groberg, a young Idaho farm = boy sent as a missionary to Tonga. Gorham is well known to television = audiences for his role as Harrison on the hit series "Popular." He has = also made memorable guest appearances on shows like "Party of Five" and = "Buffy the Vampire Slayer." Gorham made his feature film debut in the = movie A Life Less Ordinary. =20 Joe Folau, a native Tongan, is making his American film debut in THE OTHER = SIDE OF HEAVEN. He plays Feki, Groberg=A2s cheerful and resourceful guide = and friend. He is a regular on several popular television shows in New = Zealand, and made his feature film debut in the highly acclaimed NZ film = The Whole of the Moon. Miriama Smith, who plays Lavania, has been making regular appearances on = New Zealand television since 1991. In the past few years she has become a = familiar face as a core cast member of programs like "Mercy Peak" and = "Atlantis High." She has also made notable guest appearances on such = shows as "Xena: Warrior Princess" and "Young Hercules: The Series."=20 Mitch Davis and John Garbett first met at Disney Studios while Davis was = an intern. Garbett was an LA-based producer for Shrek, and spent eight = years as an executive for the Walt Disney Company supervising the = production of pictures such as Father of the Bride, Oscar, Three Men and A = Little Lady, and Alive. This is Davis=A2 first major feature film. He = has a Masters Degree in film from USC. ### - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2001 17:40:13 EST From: OmahaMom@aol.com Subject: Re: [AML] Beards The most motivating Bishops I've ever had presented the ward with a goal and a dream--the ward leaders honed in on it and it caught fire. It was a college ward--and I suspect that the age group is a bit easier to fire up than those who have staid, stick-in-the-mud "done it this way for generations" ward members. It was an interesting experience in that there were always returnees each fall coming back to be part of the ward experience, and some new ones. By second semester, those new ones who had caught the vision were excited to be there. Those content to remain lukewarm were looking for other places to move to. Made it easier to envision how Enoch got his city put together. That's not saying there was a "Holier than thou" attitude, they were just more focused on becoming like the Savior. Sacrament meeting attendance was frequently in the triple digits, because ward members brought their dates, rather than go to someone else's ward. I've often said the speed of the boss is the speed of the crew & if the boss wants the crew to be in there pushing, he'd better be in the trenches with them...that would include a bishopric, RS pres or otherwise. Delegating is one thing, but being willing to get down and dirty with the common man makes a big difference when the going gets touch--and isn't that what the Savior did? There's always room for good books on working with people--sometimes fiction is easier to use when trying to teach people. They don't always recognize that they're being taught--but the principles rub off and get absorbed as they read. And then there's the less good books, that the author climbs on his pulpit and preaches through his characters. Karen Tippets - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2001 23:06:35 -0500 From: "Debra Brown" Subject: [AML] Fw: MN Young LDS Woman Fills Internet Niche for Young Women: Kent Larsen 7Dec01 I2 Young LDS Woman Fills Internet Niche for Young Women JACKSONVILLE, FLORIDA -- Stacie Skinner, a young LDS woman in Northern California, couldn't find an LDS young women's e-zine on the Internet, so she decided to create one herself, says a report last week on the web site Mahonri.org. The result is the now two-year-old 'Daughters of Zion' e-zine, a twice-monthly email list that reaches some 150 young women, including some as far away as Russia and England. Skinner says she tried hard to find an LDS e-zine elsewhere, "I subscribed to around 50 e-zines run by girls of all ages, but couldn't find one organized by a member of the church focusing on our religion. So I came up with this idea and Daughters of Zion took off." The e-zine started in August 1999, providing advice, ideas, interviews, dating tips and more. Skinner says she believes her magazine serves as a missionary tool, an informative guide, a social outlet, and as a safe place for young women with high standards. The e-zine includes columns titled Advice4Life, Pen Pals, Choose the Right, Ideas for Devotionals, FHE Recipes, Guy Interviews, Dating Tips, Poetry, Personal Progress, My Favorite, You Speak, Freebies, Make It Yourself, and Birthdays. Source: 19 Year Old Runs LDS Daughters of Zion Ezine Mahonri.org 1Dec01 I2 http://www.mahonri.org/story/2001/12/1/1481/13060 >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/ - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2001 22:21:09 -0700 From: "Scott Parkin" Subject: Re: [AML] (Andrew's Poll) What's the Point? > What's the point of reading all those novels all the time? Don't you have > anything better to do? I read for a number of reasons. * I want to see if anyone else perceives the world the way I do. * I want to see how others perceive the world, how they relate to it, and how they make sense of it. * I want to understand why others perceive the world as they do. * Vicarious experience--to know more than my own senses can teach me, to experience more than my own limited time allows. * Admiration of the well-wrought--be it beautiful prose, elegant style, vividly presented, cunningly constructed, symbolically expressive, metaphorically multi-faceted, stunningly insightful, uniquely amusing, or just nicely balanced in all its elements. I admire expression when it's expressed well. * I want to be entertained with imagination that's not my own, with stories I have not conceived. I want to discover both the familiar and the new. * I want to learn both new facts and new ways of thinking. * I want to understand how good fiction is made so I can try to make it myself and share the joy with another generation of readers while discovering what it is that I really believe. - ----- Do I have better things to do? Maybe. But I don't perceive the search for truth and understanding as a waste of time or a fruitless pursuit. If the purpose of this life is to work out our salvation with fear and trembling, then to pursue understanding of human thought and mind and spirit is not just a valid hobby, but a primary purpose of our whole existence. For me literature is the tool that has spoken most directly to my soul (film second--a special case of literature, IMO--and music third, fourth, and fifth) about those things that seem important to me--understanding myself and others. It's indicative of my hubris (and a fundamental tenet of Scott's Private Heresy Number 1b) to believe that one can in fact come to understand another person, to mourn not just near them, but *with* them; to revel not j ust for them, but *with* them in equal power and honesty. In so doing--in so caring about another that you literally become as they are, perceive as they perceive--I believe you start to become as God. With sufficient triangulation, I believe you define what it is be God. Sort of a pointillist theory of life--to know a truth about yourself is to place a dot on a conceptual canvas. To know another truth about yourself places a second dot. To know the same truths as perceived by someone else adds hue to those dots. With enough dots in enough hues, eventually a pattern begins to form. When the pattern is sufficiently formed, the mind leaps forward and unifies dots and hues into a grander meaning, a coherent picture. That is the moment of epiphany, of grand understanding. That is to become as God. Literature--both the reading and the writing of it--is a tool of my selfish desire to know and to understand. Because if I can understand enough, I hope to transcend my own selfishness and discover something wonderful, something marvellous. And if I'm lucky, maybe I can become a part of it. Scott Parkin - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2001 23:39:49 -0700 From: rwilliams Subject: RE: [AML] Dahl (was: Harry Potter Movie) Jim writes: >I really enjoy stories >like "Pig," but in the stories Dahl displays a nasty streak that's much more >subtle in the books, an inky misanthropy of splendid proportions. >Harry Potter may include elements of Charlie and James, but that's Dahl >pretending to be nice. If Rowling were really like Dahl, I doubt her books >would be terribly popular with children. I'm sorry, perhaps I'm just not following your argument. How do you know that in Dahl's portrayal of Charlie and James that he is _pretending_ to be nice, but in "Pig" he is _sincerely_ "nasty"? (The argument implying that Dahl is basically incapable of any human warmth: i.e. he MUST have been pretending). Of course, it would be just as wrong to argue the opposite. I'm not going to say that Dahl was absolutely incapable of hatred, but, as long as we're generalizing, I'll be the one arguing FOR Dahl. I'm much more inclined to read Dahl's texts as ironic--wonderfully ironic--in their so-called "nasty" moments (I mean, this guy is FUNNY). Take, for example, the poem that Dahl sent in reply to one of his readers: "Dear Children, far across the sea, How good of you to write to me. I love to read the things you say When you are miles and miles away. Young people, and I think I'm right, Are nicer when they're out of sight." I think the fact that Dahl cared enough to actually reply shows he did, in fact, care quite a bit about his little readers. But how delightfully mischievous to write such a reply! How FUNNY! Is it possible that he is being genuinely hateful here? I doubt it. Consider also a few words from Dahl in an interview with Brian Sibley broadcast by the BBC in 1988: DAHL I think probably kindness is my number one attribute in a human being. I'll put it before any of the things like courage or bravery or generosity or anything else. B.S.: Or brains even? DAHL Oh gosh, yes, brains is one of the least. You can be a lovely person without brains, absolutely lovely. Kindness--that simple word. To be kind--it covers everything, to my mind. If you're kind that's it. Finally, think of Eric Snider. Eric has been accused more than once of misanthropy, and yet (at least in my experience with him) he's one of the most genuine, thoughtful, and sensitive people I know. Sure, he mocks people a lot (I can recall several times when Eric has told me that I "have no butt"), but it is never done maliciously. It's funny! - --John Williams. - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2001 23:47:35 -0700 From: "Clark Draney" Subject: [AML] Story Beginnings (was: Harry Potter Books) D. Michael wrote: >I believe there is no good excuse for starting a book out this way. Why >any author would think the reader should be willing to slog through a >lackluster beginning is beyond me. If it doesn't grab in the first few >pages--one way or another--I don't think the most exquisite writing on >earth in the following pages can justify a poor opening. Hello everyone, I have been lurking on the list for awhile and D. Michael has been encouraging me to post. I guess the time has come, and in response to a D. Michael post at that. A brief (very brief) intro, first. I don't write fiction of any kind (so far). Instead, I am a graduate student in English and I *teach* academic writing at Idaho State University. I have an interest in AML because of the impact it has on me as a critic. I appreciate very much the insightful and stimulating conversations held in this forum. D. Michael has a point, I think, about the beginning of a piece grabbing you and pulling you in. Certainly reading like that is the easiest to "get into." I wonder, however, if there isn't something to be said for "working at it" to get into a piece of writing. I was thinking of Dickens's _Bleak House_ for example. That begins with a long and pretty dry segment about the legal system in Great Britain at the time. When I first read that for a class I really had to slog through it to understand what Dickens was talking about and why it was there. But having done so, _Bleak House_ then became a rich and wonderful experience dealing with complex characters and situations whose complexity arose partly out of what I knew about the legal system in London. The tie it to Mormon Letters is simply that *our* mindset and outlook on things is so complex and interesting in itself (and so indecipherable to many outside the church) that it may also be fodder for additional layers of meaning in your (OK, our) writing. I can hear the counterarguments too. Will a semi-interested reader take the time and exert the energy to get through the "stage-setting" and "background" necessary to convey these complex things in print. I think that experienced, committed readers will, especially if a book is published by a reputable publisher and comes recommended in some form. (And I know that many books with difficult (notice I didn't say "lackluster") beginnings get read because they are assigned in classes, etc. Sometimes that's what it takes for us to get into and therefore appreciate the tougher, but no less valuable, classics.) Best, Clark Draney - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 7 Dec 2001 23:52:10 -0700 From: "Clark Draney" Subject: RE: [AML] Harry Potter Movie Jim Picht wrote: >Could anyone be a little more direct about Rowling's literary virtues? I don't recall >seeing a post regarding just what it is that many of you like about her. Myself, I am drawn to the detailed and workable world that she creates. Not only does she drawn usefully and successfully on classic and mythological sources, but she also adds dimension to her world by shifting the referents a little and making them work HER WAY. (It doesn't hurt to have a sympathetic orphan to be concerned about either.) Clark D. - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 08 Dec 2001 00:06:19 -0700 From: Christine Atkinson Subject: [AML] RE: (Andrew's Poll) What's the Point? I read because I can't not read. I've always been a reader. In third grade I got in trouble for writing corrections in the margins of my library books. (It wasn't disrespect for the books, it was an attempt to help other readers have a better reading experience. Honest.) If there is something in my line of sight, I will read it. I have memorized my shampoo bottle. (I still, after all these years of trying, have not figured out a way to read books in the shower.) In lines at grocery stores I read the covers of all the magazines. At banks I read the announcements of changes in their policies - even if I don't bank there. I read every word of the Sacrament Meeting program. I buy a purse with only one requirement - a paperback must fit. I don't know how to get to sleep if I can't read, even if it's just for thirty seconds. I read while I brush my teeth. I read while I cook. I read while I work out. I even read while I watch television. Is it a waste of my time? No, I don't think so. Partly because reading has had a significant affect on who I am - how could I call that a waste of time? And partly because it doesn't take all my time. I still go to work. I still have about a zillion things I like to do that don't allow me to read. I still babysit my nieces and nephews, go out on dates, clean my house, visit my family, go shopping, play on my computer, have conversations, make pottery, watch movies, listen to music, spend time with my friends... I have a full life. And it includes reading. I suppose a full life for another person might not include reading, and for that person reading would be a waste of time. But a full life for me *must* include reading - watching more TV would be a waste of time. Or ironing. (Sorry, Mom.) By the way, I've solved almost all of my "what to read while waiting in line" problems with my Palm Pilot - all but that pesky shower issue. When they release a waterproof PDA with a shower-mounted stand, I'll be completely set. - -Christine Atkinson - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 8 Dec 2001 00:40:11 -0800 From: harlowclark@juno.com Subject: Re: [AML] Writer's Lament (pt. 2) On Fri, 23 Nov 2001 17:42:39 -0700 "Scott Parkin" writes: > [MOD: This is Part 2 of a 2-part post.] > I wish I knew whether I could dismiss the dream as just a dream, > because it's completely confused my goals as a writer. (If anyone > is interested, I'm willing to share the details of the dream in a > private note.) I'm interested. > * Event 3 -- The AML-List * > I started lurking on the AML-List in late 1995, and started > participating actively in early 1996. By the middle of that > year I was a regular contributor and was writing one of > the weekly columns. The AML-List had completely > engaged my interest. > > This was both good and bad. > My time began to be taken up by reading and writing for the List. Wait a minute, the voice is the voice of Parkin, but the story is the story of Clarkin (Sorry, Scott, I couldn't resist a good rhyme--Emily Dickinson's advice to say all rhymes but say them slant notwithstanding.) > I began to focus on pop criticism as much as adding my own bits to > the literary canon. I became a popularizer, not a producer. Except that criticism is itself a literary activity for me. I see myself as carrying on the spirit of Thurber's insightful and hilarious "The Wings of Henry James." > I still spend hours a day writing (yes, these mini-essays take me > hours to write), but none of it is the body of work that I would > like to be known for--my fiction. I feel the same way. But I also have done some very good work combining personal essay and literary theory and lit crit and creative non-fiction, something I've wanted to do for a long time because I think it's a grave mistake to divorce criticism and creative writing the way we do in most English departments. There was a lot of tension between the critics and writers at the UW, and that's not unique. But I'm both. > I could be content as a cheerleader if I weren't so desperate to be > a player in the game. I want to write, and I want to do it well. Likewise. > But like Salieri in _Amadeus_ I feel like I've been cursed by > God with a desire to do something that I'm ill-equipped to > succeed at. Just take the leap of faith and write. You may simply have to turn off your critical faculty when you write. I remember a wonderful book that I only read part of by one of my professors, Roger Sales, _On Not Being Good Enough_. He says "None of us is good enough to teach the literature that we teach." That's true--I'm a lousy teacher, but I _am_ good enough to criticize the literature that I criticize, and if I keep working hard enough I may yet write something worthy of someone else's critical energies. > I have enough critical faculty to know what I want, but I'm > not sure I have enough talent to realize it. You may simply have to spend more years writing before you realize what your achievement is. I love Ray Bradbury's image of the writer as Zen archer. Quantity will eventually produce quality just as the Zen archer becomes a master not by doing a few shots superbly, but by practicing his discipline over and over and over thousands of times. (See his Capra Press chapbook _Zen and the Art of Writing_ or it's expansion (also from Capra) _Zen in the Art of Writing_.) > And worst of all, it plays back into the fears that had started years > ago, that I never did have the talent to succceed, that I've been a > self-deluded imposter all this time. We all feel that way at times. Thanks for the eloquent expression/exorcism of that feeling, Scott. Harlow S. Clark (another relatively short post. I must be losing it.) ________________________________________________________________ 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 ------------------------------ End of aml-list-digest V1 #541 ******************************