From: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com (aml-list-digest) To: aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: aml-list-digest V1 #672 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 Wednesday, April 10 2002 Volume 01 : Number 672 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 8 Apr 2002 17:58:00 EDT From: OmahaMom@aol.com Subject: Re: [AML] Not in Sunday School I'm not sure how the teacher figured that tortillas counted as unleavened bread. It's matza or nothing. Matza's have no leavening--tortillas (though flat, as is lefse) do have leavening. If people are going to do lessons on the Passover, they ought to do their homework and bring in the things used in the Passover Seder, rather than just anything that they think will do. There's some other things that you had mentioned that are not along with the instructions as well. But I think some of this goes along with reading material that is available to see what is done, vs. going off on our own ideas of what is acceptable. It's not just in SS, but I see it from many varieties of people in all walks of life these days. It seems like some people aren't as willing to do a little research to find out their facts before sitting down at the computer--that's why some of the books I've read lately haven't sit well & I've discarded them and the author. (Except don't ask me which ones specifically at the moment--as I'm not quite awake yet--have a 12 hour night shift ahead of me & I just got up.) Karen Tippets - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 08 Apr 2002 16:22:06 -0600 From: Barbara Hume Subject: [AML] Carolyn HOWARD-JOHNSON, _This Is the Place_ (FW article) I came across this piece in a newsletter for women writers. I asked Carolyn= =20 for her permission to post it on this list, and she gave it to me. She also= =20 expressed an interest in the list itself, so I gave her the URL to the AML= =20 Web site. We've been discussing the problem of people thinking writers should not=20 portray Mormons as having any faults - - - - here's something in the other= =20 direction! barbara hume ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ NAWW FEATURE ARTICLE ~ Carolyn Battles Intolerance With a Sharp Pen by Carolyn Howard-Johnson We have seen generation after generation emulate the intolerance of=20 their elders. If intolerance can be taught by example, then certainly we=20 can turn the tables and teach tolerance instead. Acting on that premise, Carolyn Howard-Johnson wrote her first novel,= =20 This Is The Place. A child of two cultures (her father was Mormon and her mother was=20 Protestant), Carolyn suffered from a =93gentle=94 form of prejudice. The=20 descendants of the same pioneers who had suffered at the hand of=20 intolerance generations before wanted her to share their religion.=20 Proselytizing, however, sends an unspoken message. =93You are different. You= =20 are not as smart as I or you would choose my way. Because of your beliefs=20 you are deficient in morality.=94 Such messages often produce a serious backlash and, in fact, have=20 produced one among the Non-Mormon population in Utah. For Carolyn it didn=92t. Perhaps because of her mixed heritage she was= =20 able to see both sides of the issue and came to realize that intolerance is= =20 a disease that is contagious and that it is often disguised by love, family= =20 and community. Long before people even discussed the holocaust very much,=20 she could see how intolerance affected anyone who was not part of the=20 majority. Intolerance was a plague that inflicted itself upon those who=20 were =93different.=94 Homosexuals. Those who are over or under-weight.= Women.=20 People of color. Very fair people who don=92t tan. The list was endless. =93I wanted to do something but I didn=92t want to preach,=94 she= says,=20 =93And writing is what I do. Just telling a story seemed perfect. That way= =20 those who are ready for a message will understand it and those who are not= =20 ready won=92t feel an implied criticism.=94 Thus, This Is The Place was born. The book tells a romantic story of= =20 how a young woman who is hell-bent on marrying a Mormon man encounters=20 subtle but destructive prejudice in her own family. She finds that=20 intolerance is cyclical. It not only destroys the spirits of those who=20 practice it but those who feel its sting often lash back at the very same=20 people who used it against them. =93The Place=94 in the title is a reference to the words Brigham Young= =20 uttered when he brought his bone-weary followers into the Salt Lake Valley= =20 but is also a reference to =93the place=94 in each of us where we find out= who=20 we are and also find the courage to stand against anything that is=20 destructive. This Is The Place is set in Utah in the 50s in the very valley= =20 that Brigham selected for his followers. Carolyn, who has just retired, says, =93I think that my having waited for so= =20 many years before I wrote a novel allowed me to tell a story differently=20 from the way I might have told it when I was young. It is gentler. And,=20 over the years, I have seen discrimination destroy souls in ever more=20 varied ways even as our society worked so hard to extinguish it. That=20 enabled me to explore the subject more thoroughly.=94 Carolyn Howard-Johnson is a columnist for The Pasadena Star News and=20 occasionally does a =93Reel Critics=94 review for The Glendale News Press= and=20 writes a regular column for Home D=E9cor Buyer. An excerpt from This Is The= =20 Place, placed in the prestigious Masters=92 Literary Awards and two of her= =20 short stories have been finalists in other major literary contests. She is= =20 now working on a book of creative nonfiction stories called Harkening. The= =20 theme of this collection is that true love accepts others as they are. Visit Carolyn at http://www.tlt.com/authors/carolynhowardjohnson.htm or=20 contact her at HOJONEWS@aol.com. - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Apr 2002 16:54:57 -0600 From: "Jacob Proffitt" Subject: RE: [AML] Blogging - ---Original Message From: R.W. Rasband > One of the most interesting developments on the Internet the > last little while has the popularity of weblogs, or "blogs" > as they have become known. A blog is a journal that you keep > of your opinions and thoughts, along with any links you find > appropriate. They seem to be more flexible than the ordinary > web page, and have greatly proliferated over the last year or > so. As one blogger recently put it: "A newspaper is like a > lecture; a blog is like a conversation." I've become a great fan of blogging, or at least, of a few select blogs that I follow. Blogging is at least one effective answer to what I consider the greatest challenge of the internet. Since everyone *can* be published, the current problem isn't content (as was assumed by many traditional media outlets for quite some time). The big problem these days (and the value if you can provide it) is in editorial evaluation, filtration, and presentation. I track a number of news sources, but I have lately found that I get more value out of Andrew Sullivan's presentation and commentary than from the "straight" presentation of other sources. Marianne Hales mentioned the exhibitionism of some of the sites she saw. I have to admit that such blogs don't have much interest for me. They represent the past fad of vanity sites where people just threw up whatever they were involved in personally (I say this as a vanity website author). What I find interesting about blogs is the analysis, the comments, and the personality of a few blog authors that present news and events in a context that has personal meaning. I think that a part of my friendly reception to blogs is my growing discontent with media outlets that claim objectivity only for me to discover undeclared bias in selection and presentation of material. Many large media outlets have compromised their integrity--or at least my trust. This compels me to search for other sources that I trust better. I have become skeptical of claims to objectivity, so I've decided to favor sources with explicitly stated viewpoints and an open dialogue. I don't agree with a lot of the positions of the blogs I frequent, but at least I know the philosophical basis behind those positions and feel like I am getting an accurate presentation based on the perceived integrity of the author and past authorial statements. News is *not* just fact(s). The presentation of fact(s) requires context, analysis, and reason. I am *much* more comfortable with news (fact *and* analysis) when the reason, position, and thought-process of the author is transparent. I have no idea how they are able to be so prolific. I couldn't keep up the pace that Andrew Sullivan sets, and he suffers the debilitating effects of HIV. I am grateful, however, that they take the time to gather disparate news sources, compile the best they have to offer, add their own comments, and invite comments from others. I think it is possible that blogging *does* represent something of a revolution in internet use and information gathering and dispersion. Looking back, blogging seems to me to be something of an inevitable response to the needs inherent in the explosion of information and the ease of access represented by the Internet. Blogging represents the rise of trusted "editors" that I predicted to friends and family without knowing how it could possibly happen. I expect the trend to grow and I expect it to become a profitable business model for those who can gain the trust of their readers. Bloggers are providing value in a way that is unique to the internet and it is a value that cannot be matched by other media/sources. Or at least, that's how I perceive them. Jacob Proffitt - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Apr 2002 16:21:15 -0700 From: harlowclark@juno.com Subject: Re: [AML] Editing Films On Fri, 5 Apr 2002 21:08:36 EST BonnieLe Hamilton BonBon353974989@aol.com writes: > I never heard of a company with star in the name, but Feature Films > Films For Families is based in Utah. However they do not edit > other peoples work to make them G rated. I believe they do. We have a good friend in Blackfoot Idaho who has a copy of _Windwalker_, adapted from the Yorgason bros. novel by, I think Keith Merrill. I would very much like to see it, because it was filmed in a Native American language. It was originally rated PG, I think. Anyway, it says right on the cover that they've edited it for content. I'd prefer to see the unexpurgated version. I'm not sure this is FFF, it may be Leucadia. Harlow Clark ________________________________________________________________ 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: Mon, 8 Apr 2002 17:24:37 -0600 From: "Jacob Proffitt" Subject: [AML] re: Blogging One of the interesting things about blogging is the perceived large media backlash currently in process. Blogging has obtained something of a critical mass recently, enough that they are attracting the attention of regular news media. A number of news media stories have been very dismissive of blogging and somewhat misrepresentative in the process. I think Asparagirl has a very interesting response that tells something about what she thinks blogging is all about. You can read her own words here though I should warn you up front that she isn't shy to use the occasional swear word (when I say occasional, I really *do* mean rare, but it is pretty forceful when she does) (http://www.asparagirl.com/blog/2002_03_31_archives.html#75098503). I think she's a little bit wrong because she doesn't recognize the editorial nature of some blog sites (including her own) and considers it an editor free medium. Her comparison, however, is right on. Blogging *is* new and entirely different. It is much more personal in a weird way, and it is probably a bad thing to refer to it as some kind of entity of its own because blogging can be literally anything depending entirely on the personality of the author or authors. The more interesting thing about it is that blogging allows people to vote with their own eyeballs what they will consume and what the wont. It is this lack of gatekeepers that makes the form interesting to me. Jacob Proffitt - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 09 Apr 2002 01:28:51 +0000 From: "Andrew Hall" Subject: [AML] Gerald Lund et al. [MOD: In addition to the information provided below, I believe that the new first counselor in the Relief Society General Presidency is the wife of LDS author Dean Hughes. More Mormon lit connections...] Gerald Lund, one of Mormon literature's best selling authors, was called to the Second Quorum of the Seventies on Saturday. Also Sheri Dew, an editor and now an executive at Deseret Book, was released as a councilor in Relief Society Presidency. Lund bore his testimony in a Sunday session (which I have not seen yet). Here is a blurb about Lund from the Deseret News. Elder Lund, the author of several LDS books, has been serving as president of a student stake at Brigham Young University. He earned a bachelor's and master's degree from BYU and did post-graduate work at Pepperdine University. He retired from the Church Educational System after 34 years, where he served as seminary teacher, institute director and curriculum writer. He has served the church as a bishop, bishop's counselor, branch president and full-time missionary. He and his wife, Retta Lynn Stanard, are the parents of seven children. Andrew Hall Fukuoka, Japan _________________________________________________________________ Chat with friends online, try MSN Messenger: http://messenger.msn.com - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Apr 2002 19:09:14 -0700 From: "Rex Goode" Subject: [AML] Alcoholism and Modern Culture I think it is more than availablity that makes alcohol something different than it once was. It is the fast pace of modern culture, something I personally believe the Lord saw coming before it actually hit. Certainly alcoholism existed in ancient times, but I doubt was as prevalent. What makes any addiction more of a problem in our time is how we are conditioned by the media and by our advanced technology to not have to wait for anything. In older times, if we lived far from our extended family, to communicate with them would take weeks or months. Today, we send an email. In older times, if we were in physical pain, an herbal preparation might have helped us after a few hours. Today, we take a fairly powerful drug that we can buy over the counter, and if that doesn't work, we get a prescription for an even more powerful concoction. When it comes to coping with emotional distress, maybe a little wine would have once been a good thing. The apostle Paul certainly thought so, but then he didn't live in the fast-paced, quick-fix world we live in. In our modern world, when we might have once had a drink of wine in conjunction with seeking divine comfort, we can move past mere comfort to complete but temporary forgetfulness by drinking even more. That was always the case, but the expectation was that some things are hard and enduring them was virtuous. Today, we don't have to wait for communication. We don't have to wait for pain relief. We can travel to far off places in a day. Everything is faster, so why endure anything? This same impatience also affects the arts. How many people "wait for the movie to come out" rather than read the book? In a way, it's about availability, but availability is only important to the equation when considered with the modern mindset of satisfaction on demand. Our lives our now filled with things that in former days might have presented little challenge, or may have even been beneficial, but in present day represent false gods we come to worship because they themselves seem more efficient and effective than a God who sometimes expects us to wait a little, be longsuffering, and endure to the end. Rex Goode - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 8 Apr 2002 20:27:05 -0600 From: "Clark Goble" Subject: RE: [AML] Sharing Experiences ___ Harlow ___ | What we think of as faults may be virtues. ___ The only difference between a virtue and a fault is how you use it. Whenever I read Ether 12:6 I can't help put think of Sun Tzu and his _Art of War_. One can take ones weaknesses and use them to entrap the enemy. Thus weaknesses can become strength. Disorder came from order, fear came from courage, weakness came from strength. Disorder coming from order is a matter of organization, fear coming from courage is a matter of force, weakness coming from strength is a matter of formation. The trick is to see whether you master your weaknesses or your weaknesses master you. If you master your weaknesses then they are strengths, not weaknesses. Weaknesses become strengths when we use those to gain control over our environment and over our self. Strengths become weaknesses when we use them to avoid being our own mater. There is also our view of the "tragic virtue." This is usually a strength the proves the hero's downfall. This flaw is an ironic one, since the thing which makes the hero such also contributes to his demise. This is different from the tragic flaw that I think some see in heros - the otherwise perfect being with an "Achilles heel." Consider, for example Othello. While we usually focus in on his jealousy, part of the problem is that Othello is a trusting man. This trust, Othello's strength, is used by Iago against him, much as the _Art of War_ suggests. Because Othello is not his own master, Iago can redirect the strengths against him. The opposite can also happen. Consider the many scriptural figures who, while weak of speech, become great speakers? Moses is the obvious one, but there are others. - -- Clark Goble --- clark@lextek.com ----------------------------- - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 9 Apr 2002 03:19:10 -0700 From: harlowclark@juno.com Subject: Re: [AML] SSA in Mormon Lit On Fri, 29 Mar 2002 Jonathan Langford appended a moderator's note to Kellene Adams' post, asking: [MOD: In particular, how many (if any) published works > include characters who struggle with SSA yet remain faithful > members of the Church (a group that I know Rex has commented > in the past is underrepresented in public perceptions)?] I've talked about this before, but will mention it again. A long time ago I was asked to hometeach a fellow who, the bp told me, thought he was gay, but used sex to degrade himself because of horrible abuse he had suffered as a child. I found he did indeed have strong ambivalence about his sexuality. Insomnia, too, so if I was walking the two or three miles home at 2 a.m. from where the last bus from downtown dropped me, he might still be awake and I would stop in and see him. One night after he told me a harrowing tale of blundering into being a male prostitute for the business men of a city not far from the Canadian border, I decided to write down a story I knew about sexual abuse. I chose the name Brendan for the character, a reference to the voyages of St. Brendan, about which I know nothing, but I have the Penguin edition. The issue in telling the story had always been that Brendan is too ashamed to speak the words that describe what the molester does to him, and that he feels that without being able to speak the words he can't repent. (He has no concept of how a molester operates so he doesn't know that the sin is not his to repent of.) It won 3rd place in the D. K. Brown Fiction contest, but hasn't been published, initially because the editors thought it a bit too explicit ("a good way to lose about a third of our readers"), and later because I want to strengthen the demon imagery from JS's First Vision and just haven't read all six accounts yet. Anyway, Brendan understands after this, the meaning of a word he has puzzled over, _homosexual_, that it refers to sex between people of the same sex, but he thinks a homosexual is a man who tricks teenage boys into having sex with him. He has no concept that sexually molesting people is an exercise of power, not an expression of sexuality, so I knew I had to create a homosexual character who could counter Brendan's impression, and wrote a short novel called _Bedpans and Pizza_, about Brendan going on a split with a missionary, the District Leader, who is going to interview Brendan's friend for baptism, and who, Brendan finds out, is gay. And wants to be married and father children. I started thinking about this character after a passage in _Goodbye, I Love You_ (powerful words, when you finally get to them in the book) where Carol Lynn Pearson describes a friend who decided that more than sexual fulfillment he wanted a wife and family. I wanted to write a story about such a man. _Bedpans and Pizza_ takes place in 1978 or 9, right around the time of the Stonewall riots, not a period when it was common to tell people you were gay. I'm not yet satisfied with the scene where that happens. The elder thinks he's just done something terribly impulsive, but he's actually been moved upon by the Spirit of the Lord, to help bind up Brendan's wound and set at liberty the captive. I know what happens before Eden Gardner's mission--he was a pro-life "Against abortion, against the death penalty, for Life" demonstrator, hooked up with a group of Jesus Freaks, who he tells outside the Utah State Prison at a vigil for Gary Gilmore at the end of _Hangmen Against Vivisection_ he's leaving to serve the Lord as a missionary--but I'm not sure what happens after his mission. Rex Goode has given me some idea, and a hope I can write the story honestly, though I think it's likely to offend people on all sides. I think I need to write _Hangmen Against Vivisection_ first, but though I know how it ends, I don't know how it begins. (Anyone interested in reading The Covenant Breaker, the story about Brendan, can drop me a line--which reminds me, last time I made such an offer Rob Lauer said he'd like to, and I still haven't sent the essay out. Oy, and slap my forehead with my palm.) Harlow Clark ________________________________________________________________ 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: Tue, 9 Apr 2002 09:51:49 -0500 From: "Angela Hallstrom" Subject: Re: [AML] Good Young Adult Lit I just wanted to thank everybody who took the time to put together lists of their favorite books. It is a HUGE help. Although I have quite a few titles in my own head, there are definitely a bunch that you've introduced me to here. I'm going to track a few of them down and read as many as I can. I'm really looking forward to teaching this class, particularly because there is a lot of excellent young adult lit (as well as middle-grade novels--I'm interested in them, too), and many parents don't know what to look for. I know when I was a kid (12-13), I was so hungry for something to read that once I got past the _Little House_ books and other well known children's novels, I delved right into my Dad's Stephen King collection, and read some stuff that I wasn't quite ready to read (but, of course, kept right on reading). As a former English teacher, I'm also concerned that kids get turned off of reading once they hit junior high because they may think that the books they "have" to read in school are representative of all their options. I also look forward to discussing why we read fiction, and want our children to experience fiction, and how parents go about evaluating the content of a novel within the context of the overall message of the novel (for example, when are violence, sexuality, and other possibly disturbing situations appropriate? How do they look when they're done "right"? And I do understand that some sisters might not think that they're EVER done right.) Along with non-Mormon writers, I look forward to using some well-known LDS writers like Plummer and A.E. Cannon in this discussion, as well as Card. Thanks again for all your help. Angela Hallstrom - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 09 Apr 2002 10:04:03 -0500 From: "Rose Green" Subject: Re: [AML] Good Young Adult Lit A few more YA recommendations (sorry, some aren't that recent and you have probably already thought of them--but just in case): The Moorchild, Eloise McGraw The Queen of Attolia, Megan Whalen Turner (also The Thief) The Ear, the Eye, and the Arm by Nancy Farmer (maybe for closer to middle readers) Zenna Henderson, short stories about The People Diana Wynne Jones some by Robin McKinley (only, maybe omit Deerskin. They probably wouldn't like books about incest.) J.K. Rowling (although you may have to get around the protests by women who have never read them and think they are promoting witchcraft, or some other nonsense) Elizabeth Marie Pope, Perilous Gard (a sort of Tam-Lin retelling) Madeleine L'Engle Lloyd Alexander Michelle Magorian, Goodnight Mr. Tom Frances Temple, Ramsay Scallop Karen Cushman Susan Fletcher, Shadow Spinner and Walk Across the Sea Iain Lawrence, Lord of the Nutcracker Men Rose Green _________________________________________________________________ Send and receive Hotmail on your mobile device: http://mobile.msn.com - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 9 Apr 2002 09:22:00 -0600 From: Christopher Bigelow Subject: [AML] Proofers Needed for AML Annual The AML is looking for some volunteers to comb through the 2002 AML Annual before we send it to the printers. This volume contains papers on literary topics given at AML meetings last year. If you volunteer, I will send you a PDF file and you can send back your corrections via e-mail. Or you can make arrangements with me to pick up and drop off a hard copy in Orem. The annual is about 180 pages long, and the proofing deadline will be April 30. Please contact me directly at chris.bigelow@unicitynetwork.com. Thanks in advance for volunteering--you help the AML raise its level of professionalism. Chris Bigelow - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 9 Apr 2002 09:31:42 -0600 From: Christopher Bigelow Subject: [AML] News for Utah writers Following is from the League of Utah Writers: - -----Original Message----- From: Crofts [mailto:Crofts@numucom.com] Sent: Tuesday, April 09, 2002 12:25 AM April 8, 2002 Dear Writer: Spring Workshop for 2002 is fast approaching. For those who have their membership paid up-to-date the Workshop is FREE as long as you pre-register no later than April 16th. If you do not pre-register, the Spring Workshop will cost you $10. You can download a copy of the pre-registration form from the League website: www.luwrite.com or email Annette Lyon at annette@lyfe.com to let her know you plan to be there. A luncheon will be provided ONLY for those who order in advance and pay $7 for your choice of: Turkey w.swiss sandwich, potato salad, baked beans & jumbo cookie or, Fettucini Alfredo with chicken breast and garlic bread You can mail your $7 check to Annette Lyon, Utah Valley Chapter President, 2808 East 1400 South, Spanish Fork, UT 84660 Even if you do not want to order a lunch, you still NEED to pre-register ASAP. You are also invited to bring non-members of the League with you. They will be charged $10. The Spring Workshop will be held on May 4, 2002 from 10:00 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the Provo Libary at Academy Square (550 North University Avenue) in Provo. Speakers include Marilyn Brown and Carol Lynch Williams. Marilyn Brown will speak on "Catching People's Interest with Exciting Truths" and Carol Lynch Williams will speak on "13 Steps to Improve Your Writing" Just a reminder that the 2002 League Contest is now underway. If you are interested in entering full-length manuscripts or any of the poetry categories in the contest that are listed under Member's Only, let me just remind you that you MUST have your League Membership current as of September 2002. So, if you expire before September please renew anytime, otherwise you are not eligible for the Member's Only categories. I would like to encourage you to get your entries in the mail early just in case there are things you have forgotten to do (like last year). Rules, Guidelines and Entry Form can all be downloaded from the website. Please send your $24 check to Dorothy Crofts, LUW Membership Chairman, 4621 West Harman Drive, WVC, UT 84120 For those who may be interested, I have been notified about an all-day Writer's Seminar which will be held Saturday, June 8, 2002 at the Hampton Inn, 10690 South Holiday Park Drive, Sandy, UT. The Seminar is being offered by Ken Rand, a local professional writer who will help new and advanced writers of fiction and nonfiction be able to write better, write faster, and earn more. The all day "Breakthrough" seminar will explore the concepts of "Coming up with Ideas," "Writing," "Editing," and "Marketing." There will be hundreds of dollars worth of free books as door prizes. You must register before June 1, 2002 as space is limited to the first 30 applicants. The cost is $60 (which includes a copy of his book "The 10% Solution: Self-editing for the Modern Writer) and can be mailed to Ken Rand, 1498 Bora Bora Drive, West Jordan, UT 84084 or you can contact Ken at KRand27577@aol.com For those of you who have let your membership expire, I hope you will have a desire at some point in the future to join us again. Roundup this year is going to be wonderful. I hope you will want to be there. Check out the League website: www.luwrite.com to see more information about who our guest speakers and visiting editors and agents will be. Just to let you know, we are having Mary Higgins Clark. Check it out! Good Luck in all your writing endeavors! Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns about the League. Dorothy Crofts Crofts@numucom.com - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 09 Apr 2002 11:01:53 -0600 (MDT) From: Ivan Angus Wolfe Subject: Re: [AML] Editing Films > --- Debra Brown wrote: > > The reason I am asking this is because I would actually be = > > interested in the original movies they have done so far, and I want to = > > find out how they got our phone number. As far as I know, there isn't = > > supposed to be a LDS mailing list, but I could be either an idiot or = > > naive. > I haven't received that call, but I'd like to know how the Living > Scriptures people got the phone number and address for my wife and me. We > were actually 'tracted out' by one of their representatives. My wife (a > convert) was somewhat confused by the idea, esp. since we are very careful > about giving out our home address. > ~~William Morris I once was suckered into a training seminar for sellign the Living Scriptures by a friend and it made me fairly mad - mad enough I refuse to buy their products. They specifically saidn that they somehow have obtained mebership records for some areas (they didn't say how) and that they deliberatley try to sell first to the bishops, relief society presidents and elder quorm presidents so that they will then use their positions of authority to spread the word about the products at church. I stayed for the free pizza, but I have yet to buy anything from them, and I doubt I ever will. - --ivan wolfe - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 09 Apr 2002 13:44:12 -0500 From: KBellamy@aol.com (by way of Jonathan Langford ) Subject: [AML] OS Card Writing Class and Literary Boot Camp Orson Scott Card asked me to send you the following information. If you should have any questions, please let me know. Thanks. Sincerely, Kathleen Bellamy Assistant to OSC Uncle Orson's Writing Class 2002 and Literary Boot Camp 2002 Held at Utah Valley State College - Orem, Utah Uncle Orson's Writing Class 2002, open to novice and experienced writers alike, is a two-day seminar where you'll get to discuss the essence of writing with the master storyteller. Participants will take part in discussions, lectures and idea sessions from morning until night, with Orson Scott Card leading the way. Find out how he molds character and makes obscure ideas accessible for his readers. The class meets on Monday, July 8, from 9 a.m. - 4 p.m. and on Tuesday, July 9, from 9 a.m. - 9 p.m. The cost for this two-day seminar is $150. Literary Boot Camp 2002 enlists only 18 aspiring writers for four intense days of creating, developing and critiquing stories: BOOT CAMP STYLE. Literary Boot Camp is open only to serious writers, college aged or older. It is a six-day series that begins with Uncle Orson's Writing Class on July 8-9 and culminates with an intensive writing workshop running from 9 a.m. - 9 p.m. on July 10-13. Early dismissal is possible, but come prepared to roll up your sleeves and work. Enrollees must submit a writing sample. The cost of the week-long series is $695 and includes Uncle Orson's Writing Class. Literary Boot Camp 2002 applications and writing samples must be received by May 1, 2002. - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 9 Apr 2002 11:20:34 -0700 From: "Susan Malmrose" Subject: Re: [AML] Bye Bye Oprah? > At 01:23 PM 4/5/02, you wrote: > >Comment: So is Oprah saying there is not one good book per month? That will > >help the industry, right? > > Oprah only likes a certain kind of book -- apparently, depressing books > about black people. She actually said that she would never feature a book > with a happy ending. I tend to avoid any book with her recommendation on > it, although I like her a great deal as a person. I wouldn't write off all of the books with her recommendation on it. I haven't read many, but I have read one that didn't feature black people or a depressing ending. (_Deep End of the Ocean_.) Susan M - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 9 Apr 2002 11:24:25 -0700 (PDT) From: William Morris Subject: Re: [AML] Irony vs Sarcasm Jim wrote: > Well, the Mecca storey is mostly unfunny (though it has some good > black-humor > possibilities), but I don't see that you or anyone else have said > anything to > make me think that irony isn't appropriate. You were careless, that's > all. > What's the issue here? If you make a pratfall in front of a streetcar, > don't > ask me whether physical humor is dead. By the way, if you don't think > getting > beheaded by a streetcar is funny, have I got a book for you. Yep. That's one funny book. [_The Master and Margarita_ by Bulgakov---Jim was coy about his source, but I don't have to be since I've been flogging this apocalyptic horse for the past year now]. And Bulgakov's audience thought so too once they finally got to read it. In the U.S. the book has become a darling of the literary elite, but it deserves a wider audience. I think it deserves a specifically Mormon audience, but I'm still working on why I feel that way. Of course, I think Kafka is hilarious so perhaps I'm not the best judge of these things. Perhaps my sense of irony is just way too dry. I got this sneaking suspicion, though, that the spirit, if not the exact form, of _The Master and Margarita_ could do well with a Mormon audience. ~~William Morris __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - online filing with TurboTax http://taxes.yahoo.com/ - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 9 Apr 2002 13:54:30 -0500 From: Jonathan Langford Subject: Re: [AML] Irony vs Sarcasm It seems to me that irony is, of all the literary modes, one of the most sensitive to context *and* community. Contextual clues are important, but context alone isn't enough; you need to be speaking within and as part of a community with fairly well-developed standards of what does, and what does not, constitute irony. (This, by the way, is one of the reasons why I discourage irony and sarcasm on AML-List: because we as a community are united by our concern with certain topics, but highly diverse in how we view those topics. Irony only works with people who view things more or less the same way you do.) For several years, I helped to teach college freshmen how to interpret and respond to texts that (supposedly) represented the sort of thing that college students should be able to deal with as a basic standard. Typically, many of these texts would include representations of the ideas to which they were responding, alternating with the author's own (different) take on the issue. I found that many of my students had difficulty being able to tell the difference between the author's own opinion and the author's restatement of the opinion to which he/she was responding. Not, perhaps, quite the same thing as irony, but a related sort of problem. The author's attitude toward his/her own material is always a difficult thing to determine, unless you know the author or can reasonably assume that you know a lot about how he/she views the world. Which leads me to another question: how much of the really "great" literature we look at has been inspired, not by a desire to speak to the world, but by an interest in speaking to a fairly narrow group of peers? I think that most of Chaucer's work can be considered in this category. His work is full of in-jokes and (again) irony. I'm sure he's not the only one. Shakespeare's genius, I think, lay in part in his ability to create plays that worked on multiple levels: winks to the in-crowd, and broader stuff for the general audience. I think many of the difficulties we have in interpreting literary works, and the sometimes radically different interpretations different people can devise for the same work, arise in part from this problem. It's not entirely one that can be solved by historical research, either. If your view of Chaucer is that he was a sly, probably corrupt (after all, he was a tax-collector!), clever observer of humanity, then you'll interpret him fairly differently than if you think of him as wise, gentle, and compassionate. (And yes, he can be--and has been--read both these ways.) The interpretation you take will depend in part, I submit, on yourself, and on what you want to find, and how the work struck you on your initial reading and later rereadings. Historical research can inform, but ultimately literary criticism of this type rests, to a certain degree, on a critic's confidence that he/she has achieved a certain personal sympathy with what the author was about. Which leads to all kinds of caveats about the possibility of being misunderstood as an inevitable part of any kind of communication. (Did anyone else notice the closing prayer for the last session of General Conference--or maybe it was of priesthood session--where the speaker said something about having been instructed in words that we could not misunderstand? I approve the sentiment, but as a technical writer, I'm not sure I believe that words can *ever* be stated so clearly that they cannot be misunderstood...) Irony is a powerful, powerful tool of language--but I think it's always likely to increase the misunderstanding factor, particularly when speaking to people with a variety of different backgrounds and assumptions. Jonathan Langford Speaking for myself, not for AML-List jlangfor@pressenter.com - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ End of aml-list-digest V1 #672 ******************************