From: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com (aml-list-digest) To: aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: aml-list-digest V1 #859 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 Monday, October 14 2002 Volume 01 : Number 859 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2002 13:11:38 -0700 (PDT) From: William Morris Subject: Re: [AML] Mormon Publishing Options - --- Paris Anderson wrote: > But your experiment will prove only one thing--it all comes down to > marketing. The established publishing houses know how to market (for > lack > of a better term) low-ball Mormon literature to Mormon audiences. The > market they've set-up won't work for high-ball Mormon literature. > > In order for your experiment to be successful you will have to create > and > nurture an audience. You will have to find the people who would be > interested in buying a copy and advertise directly to them. First: I admire Paris' experiments in the arena of book making Second: If someone decides to make a serious try for the Mormon literary market (that middle road we often talk about - --I'm not interested in other genres at the moment), I'd be happy to do some free consulting work. I haven't done any book marketing and do not have an academic background in the field, but I know a little about marketing and a lot about pr and know of some good resources on the subject. Drop me a line privately. I'm not at a point where I can devote serious time and resources to the project, but I could probably give some good advice and point people in a positive direction. ~~William Morris, Mormo-American pr flack __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Faith Hill - Exclusive Performances, Videos & More http://faith.yahoo.com - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2002 16:23:25 -0600 From: "Nan McCulloch" Subject: Re: [AML] Lisa Hopkins (Singer) That's a great story, Richard. Thanks for telling us about your niece Lisa Hopkins. Here's hoping La Boheme is still playing in New York in the spring when we are there. Utah Opera is also doing La Boheme, but I would much rather see your niece Lisa. She sounds wonderful. Nan McCulloch - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 11 Oct 2002 09:57:57 +1000 From: "Covell, Jason" Subject: [AML] _Finnegan's Wake_ and _Ulysses_ > On tastes in literature, Clarke Goble wrote: > >Put an other way, how many people here - even those > grumbling about lack of > >literary tastes - willingly read _Finnegan's Wake_ or > _Ulysses_ by Joyce? > >Yet that is one of the top novels of the last century. > > What objective, rational principles are used to evaluate > literature? As a > philosophic objectivist I am part of that tiny minority of > readers who > consider both "Finnegan's Wake" and "Ulysses" to be literary > frauds--virtual > attacks on language and rational thought. They've become > "classics" because > certain people have said they are such and that anyone who > doesn't share > their opinion just "doesn't get it." In short, they are the literary > equivalent of the Emperor's new clothes. > > ROB. LAUER Ah, the Emperor's new clothes argument. You know, I remember in my student days whenever Joyce came up in discussion, either in class or in some artsy soiree, there was always one person in the group whose face would darken at the repeated name of _Ulysses_ or _Finnegan's Wake_. Finally, it would become too much and the outburst would come - "I think Joyce is a fraud!" or some similar expression of disdain on behalf of plain-thinkers everywhere. I always tried to be gentle about handling this. Yes, he's not for everyone, and I don't intend that to sound snobbish. Plenty of highly cultured, well-read, intelligent people don't like Joyce. I happen to love him. But there's one thing people forget - he's an IRISH WRITER, and his rhythms, cadences, music are so quintessentially Irish that to forget that is to miss out on just about everything about him. Want to hear what I mean? Listen to a reading of Joyce read by an Irish actor - it's almost essential. My point is that if you don't understand what he is in essence, it is possible to fall into the trap of thinking that Joyce is only the sum of his literary critics. Now, to try a mental experiment: take, say, a couple of dozen of the volumes, journals and theses of the thousands written about him, and try to write a book that fits all the interpretations and theories, all the deconstructions and obscure references therein. What do you get? I can only shudder at the thought - it would be as woeful and abysmally fraudulent as anything Joyce's critics could describe. But it wouldn't have anything to do with Joyce. I first heard a radio lecture and reading on Joyce when I was about 10, and I've loved him ever since. I think the impishness of what he had done appealed to me at the time (still does), but I was equally affected by the passion and joy with which the lecturer described his own encounters with Joyce. I wouldn't dare to make the claim to have read _Finnegan's Wake_ from start to finish - it's more like a treasury, with the bits I know and love and like to read aloud (I've done a few at parties), the bits I'm getting to know, and the many bits in between I haven't even discovered yet. But I've got a lifetime for that. Jason Covell ************************************************************************** This message is intended for the named addressee(s) only. It may be confidential. If you receive this message in error please notify us immediately by return mail and delete the message (and any attachments). Neither the NSW Department of Community Services nor the NSW Department of Ageing, Disability & Home Care are responsible for any changes to this message, or the consequences of any changes to this message. ************************************************************************** - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2002 21:59:36 EDT From: BroHam000@aol.com Subject: Re: [AML] Mormon Culture: Good & Bad Zion is going to be a really exciting place, culturally as well as in every= =20 other way. What are we missing here? Frankly, I think you "western" (as in= =20 western USA) Mormons are more shackled by a so called Mormon culture than= the=20 rest of us. Still, I can't help but think that when President Benson spoke= =20 of infusing the world of "culture" with Mormon art, literature, etc., he=20 really was being visionary; in other words, it really is possible to make= our=20 culture a vibrant thing, worth sharing...and I think it is a vibrant thing. = =20 You know, I've really been debating about whether to get into this=20 discussion...sometimes it has sounded very large-and-spacious-building-ish= to=20 me, particularly in speaking scornfully of Charly, the book and the movie. = =20 I've never read the book, don't particularly feel called upon to see the=20 move...I loved "GA" and particularly "BC"...does the fact that someone else= =20 really feels uplifted and enlightened by reading or watching Charley point= to=20 some vital character flaw on his part? I don't think so. I remember= reading=20 a story in the Ensign a few years ago about a black lady in Chicago, I=20 believe. She was converted to the Gospel, but found herself seriously=20 wondering where her place was (I think she had been called to be the RS=20 Pres. or something). I can't remember whether it was a dream or what kind= of=20 answer to prayer, but her answer was that there's room in Heaven (and in the= =20 Kingdom of God on the earth) for all God's children. I remember having a=20 friend of mine, whom I had met as a missionary in Italy, visit my house= once.=20 There was one of the Bob Hope/Bing Crosby road pictures on the late show. = I=20 thought it was incredibly lame; she thought it was hilarious. It was fun=20 watching her delight. Can't we just be gracious, recognizing that it's okay= =20 if someone honestly IS edified by some piece of literature or cinema that we= =20 find superfluous? It's not like anyone has a corner on edification, or on= =20 the myriads of ways it can come to the myriads of types of God's children=20 that fill this earth and this Church. =20 Linda Hyde - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2002 19:23:57 -0700 From: Jeffrey Needle Subject: Re: [AML] Lee Benson on _Charly_ I'm not clear why the Deseret News would take such a strong stand against the movie. I can understand the Trib doing so, but this seems so out of place. Can someone explain this to me? - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2002 23:28:27 -0500 From: "webmaster" Subject: [AML] Re: [AML-Mag] Mary Whitmer Video Query You are referring to "Fourth Witness: The Mary Whitmer Story" (1996) The video was directed by Spencer Filichia while at BYU, made at LDS Motion Picture Studios. It can be ordered from BYU Creative Works. http://www.creativeworks.byu.edu/catalog/index.cgi?userid=102-1034309054-868 &TM003=Video Filichia is very nice. I'm sure he'd appreciate hearing from you. Let us know off-list if you'd like us to forward your contact info to him. He lives in Burbank. Preston, ldsfilm.com - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2002 21:25:15 -0700 From: Jeffrey Needle Subject: Re: [AML] CLEAGE, _What Looks Like Crazy_ What is the book about? 10/9/2002 10:34:03 PM, "Tracie Laulusa" wrote: - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2002 21:30:38 -0600 From: Kellene Adams Subject: Re: [AML] Lee Benson on _Charly_ In Lee Benson's article: > > It makes you wonder, what's next? "Johnny Lingo" in its expanded, > big-screen version? Will they move "The Testaments" to the 16-plex? Will > "Mr. Krueger's Christmas" be coming soon to a theater near you? This is actually in filming right now in New Zealand, if what I've heard is true. The Johnny Lingo story is not a Mormon story--it's one of the most popular stories in the world, which makes sense--it's message is solid, moral, inspiring, etc. Of course, the seminary version of it lacked some of what we would expect today, but I've been looking forward to the movie's release, which I think is sometime next year. Kellene Adams - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2002 22:39:18 -0700 From: "Kim Madsen" Subject: RE: [AML] Mormon Culture: Good & Bad Chris Bigelow wrote: (My latest scam is that, while reading scriptures out loud to my wife every night, I've started leaving off the last half or so of chapters. It's Isaiah, so she doesn't notice the difference. If anyone tells her, I will maim you.) Now THAT is a hilarious bit that could be worked into a sitcom, novel or whatever. If nobody elses steals it and uses it, I will! Kim Madsen - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2002 22:59:42 -0700 From: "Richard R. Hopkins" Subject: Re: [AML] Mormon Culture: Good & Bad Chris Bigelow asked: What, am I supposed to just stop (or drastically reduce) reading, > listening, and watching and instead fill all my spare time playing Candyland > with my kids or mowing widows' lawns or whatever? Or buck for some kind of > Church calling that eats up more time? (Teaching elders quorum once a month > is sweeeeet, baby, though I wish we had sacrament meeting first so I could > prepare during the talks instead of carving 20 minutes out of my busy > culture-vulturing the evening before.) Selfishness is a major problem we all have to deal with, but I'm going to assume from all that Chris has said that that isn't his problem. I think, like many in this culture, he's suffering from needless and inappropriate guilt because what he likes is different from what some sources of Mormon culture suggest he should like. Personally, I believe God favors the pursuit of excellence in all areas of art. So Chris, I say pick something you love and become excellent at it. Humor and satire could work for you. Look what they did for J. Golden Kimball! Richard Hopkins - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 10 Oct 2002 23:03:53 -0700 From: "Steve Perry" Subject: [AML] Marvin Payne Albums (was: Lost Mormon Literary Classics) On Thursday, October 10, 2002, at 01:18 AM, D. Michael Martindale wrote: > "J. Scott Bronson" wrote: > >> I would like to see all of Marvin Payne's early albums like: >> >> Ships of Dust >> Utah >> Houses and Towns >> Grasshopper >> >> on cd because it's great stuff and ought not to disappear. > > Ditto that. I once tried to buy some of the older albums from Marvin > himself, and they were unavailable. They need to be available again. Go to www.marvinpayne.com and your wishes can be fulfilled. Steve - -- skperry@mac.com - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 14 Oct 2002 20:54:32 -0500 From: lwilkins@fas.harvard.edu (by way of Jonathan Langford ) Subject: [AML] PLUMMER, _Second Wind_ & _Waltzing_ (Reviews) Tom Plummer. _Second Wind: Variations on a Theme of Growing Older_. [Salt Lake City]: Shadow Mountain Press, 2000. $16.95. 186 pp. cloth - --. _Waltzing to a Different Strummer_. Salt Lake City: Bookcraft, 2002. $9.95. 184 pp. paperback With _Second Wind: Variations on a Theme of Growing Older_ (2000) and _Waltzing to a Different Strummer_ (2002), Plummer has published four books of personal essays to date. The first, _Eating Chocolates and Dancing in the Kitchen_ (1998), won AML's award for personal essay; the second, _Don't Bite Me, I'm Santa Claus_ (1999), appeared only a year later. At the rate of almost a book a year now, one might expect to see a score of works from him in the next decade. What those works look like could be different from the humor that has marked the quality of Plummer's writing thus far. In considering these two works together, I detect a shift in tone from the witty to the contemplative. Perhaps Plummer is just interested in writing something a little different. But whether by author's choice or publisher's decree, the audience for these works seems to be part of the shift. The change raises some interesting questions for the status of the personal essay in Mormon literature which I hope will be addressed by the end of my review. In _Second Wind_, Plummer assembles a highly-readable assortment of personal essays that weave together stories and observations about life at various stages. The overriding tone of the stories is funny. These are the kinds of stories that even my prepubescent daughter can laugh at. From the perspective of a small child to that of a middle-aged man facing his mid-life crisis, from the view of a man approaching his retirement years to observations about his father's untimely death, Plummer explores the theme of aging from multiple perspectives. He achieves a tone that reflects the kind of wry exuberance that one might expect from an academic who's looking back at his life and figured out he has nothing to prove any more--it's just time to laugh about everything and celebrate a little. _Second Wind_ is organized in four parts, reflecting different stages in the process of growing older, plus an introduction. The introduction is written by Louise Plummer, award-winning author of young adult literature, and Tom's wife. The bulk of the book which follows plays like a symphony that achieves a rhythm quite extraordinary for such a casual work. With a mix of personal essays short and long, lists, letters, conversations, and even a recitation, Plummer achieves no small feat in a small space. Although some of the essays border on sentimentality, and a few end a little too abruptly, the book manages to transform everyday experience into something quite profound. "Signs and Symptoms" begins with anecdotes about shoes: the Doc Martens store he shops with his son, and the slippers he unwittingly wears to go out to eat. Quoting German writers Goethe and Jean Paul on old men, he shows the practical applications of knowing the works of dead white males. The next piece switches gears in the form of "a list compiled by Tom and Louise and Al and Ginny over light supper at the Urban Bistro." Such a smorgasbord of styles is never irritating; it's underplayed and helps keep things fresh. Part two is "Separation and Reunion" and includes one piece with the titillating title "You Aren't Supposed to Smell the Same." One of my personal favorite pieces is in Part 3's "Lamentation and Defiance-- A Lament for Two Aging Voices." It is a sort of poem meant to be read aloud, "preferably by two people in their mid-fifties or older." It recites a litany of ailments from A to Z, with banal cries of woe punctuating the scientific prose from a medical handbook. It's the perfect piece for a ward or family reunion talent show--I don't know if you would need permission from the author. Another of my favorites is "Reflections on Conducting My Virtual Funeral." Personally, I've never thought about my own funeral--perhaps it's a guy thing (girls dream about their perfect wedding). In spite of the unflagging delightful humor, Plummer is also able to write poignantly. One of the most memorable prose moments for me is in the essay about a singing canary from Tom and Louise's graduate school years in Cambridge, Massachusetts. "Living with Reality" tells the story of Fang, the bird who failed to thrive once he arrived home from the pet store. After Louise lost interest in the bird that refused to sing, his talons began to fall off one by one as Tom watched the bird slowly fade from life. Plummer continues: One morning I awoke to silence. Fang was not thumping around as usual. I found him on his back, stumps up. I gently put him in a brown lunch bag and buried him at the corner of the apartment building just behind the sandbox. Then I went to Louise, who was still in bed. "Fang died," I said. "I buried him out by the sandbox." My voice broke. Louise held me for a while until I felt better. She didn't cry though. The image of the short-lived pet bird on its back with stumps in the air continues to stay with me. It's the author's tender moments of vulnerability, like this one, that lend the book its real appeal. The strongest single piece of the book is in the fourth and last section, "Conciliation." The essay "Above the Canopy of Stars" is the longest in the collection, and suitably appears next to last. It is the most overtly religious, and it affirms faith in a way that highlights the purpose of the book as a whole. Plummer begins with stories of old people which reassure him of the resilience of the spirit that is possible in later life. But he also recounts story after story of grief and pain, of his own distress in mid-life and the way out he found through a Bible scripture. Finally, Plummer summarizes the power stories and words hold for him: I cling to their story and others like it. I cling to the story of the man who begs Jesus to fill in the gaps of his unbelief. I cling to the words of Job: "I know that my redeemer liveth" (Job 19:25). I cling to these because I know that when I face the last moments of my life, I will be weak. Unwittingly, perhaps, Plummer describes the power of his own book. The craft of storytelling is his forte; his are stories to cling to. The more poignant tenor of his storytelling dominates in _Waltzing to a Different Strummer_. Plummer has his reasons for maintaining a more serious mood in this tome, explaining that it was an answer to a friend's question posed in 1992. In the face of a brain tumor, Plummer inevitably began to take stock of his life and make changes. The friend's question was this: ?How do you manage to stay changed?? Plummer's short answer is this: "I've had to reeducate myself." More overtly religious than _Second Wind_, this book is an account of the searching that brings him to a process of "reconnecting with ancestors; locating past friends; putting [him]self in harmony with God and his world; laying anger to rest; ... striving to become one with God, his children, and his world, and becoming whole with [him]self, coming to at-one- ment." The essay that follows, "Do You Just Laugh All the Time?", suggests that it is not necessarily the brain tumor that has Plummer writing more soberly. It is the need for variety. He explains: "It's clear to me that if we just laughed all the time, we would laugh while we ate, spitting food all over the table; we'd laugh when we brushed our teeth, drooling toothpaste down our chins; and we'd laugh ourselves sick at funerals." Of course, his desire for a bit of sobriety is expressed in rather humorous terms, but he successfully makes the shift by quoting Nietzsche: "'Inverse cripples,' the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche calls them: people who get so attached to doing one thing, who are so locked into a routine, so accustomed to using one hand, one foot, one ear that the whole body becomes that one part--a hand or a foot or an eye." Making the connection to Paul's discourse in Corinthians about the body needing all its various parts would be almost predictable at this point. But Plummer restrains himself. Instead he tells stories about his students, his fishing buddies, and invokes eating as a metaphor of achieving a necessary variety in life. The discussion of Paul doesn't appear until a much later essay "They're My Gifts, I'm Afraid." The choice to quote from the unfamiliar translation in the _New English Bible_ lends a wonderful touch. But it also forges a tie to the earlier discussion of Nietzsche and lets the attentive reader consider the connections between ?inverse cripples? and the Christian community. With these essays, Plummer achieves a pathos that is not quite so available in his earlier work. I cried more than I laughed. The essay "Finding Paths to At- one-ment" reminded me of my own guilt in neglecting those who have previously found reason to connect with me, especially older relatives. And in "Christ's Love for Each Person," the story of Patrick, the difficult teenaged son of some friends, who decided to go on a mission but returned early in a state of frustration and anger, is particularly heart-wrenching. His unexpected reunion with his family tells something of the reconciliation of children estranged from heavenly parents. This is perhaps the overriding theme of this book, for it ends with the essay about Tom's reconciliation with his own sons in "The Hearts of the Fathers." The story of an unexpected encounter with the dentist on the same day as his son Sam's leads him to consider the symbolic connection with his father through the unlikely object of a razor. Passing on the razor from one generation to another becomes a symbol of reconciliation for him. The essays in _Waltzing_ could be sacrament meeting talks. One would be hard- pressed to use the essays from _Second Wind_ in church meetings, mainly because of their humor. But the effacement of Mormonism in _Second Wind_ leaves me wondering about the possibilities for achieving broader recognition of the Mormon experience with an audience that appreciates the experience of the divine as well as of the comical. There could be a certain value in being a ?fool for God,? but Plummer does not want that playfulness to be associated with his Mormonism. Perhaps this is more a function of the publishing company. Shadow Mountain Press is billed as "the national trade publishing and music imprint of Deseret Book Company" which produces books of general interest. Perhaps this explains why Plummer never uses the word "Mormon" in his more humorous work, in spite of the fact that he mentions growing up and later settling in Salt Lake City, taking trips across the country to Utah for conference, attending the University of Utah, and working at Brigham Young University as chair of the Department of Humanities. I find this effacement technique to be downright irritating. It allows Mormon readers to be self-congratulatory at knowing the tradition behind the experience, while at the same time allowing them a peak at how Mormons might appear to "outsiders." I'm not sure "outsiders" would be receptive to a style that refuses to explain; it comes off as patronizing. Let me cite an example. Plummer's humor is particularly well-wrought in the touching, hilarious story about the woman whose sister died and was about to be buried without her having a chance to say good-bye. The confusions of the funeral attendees might have been more readily explained if a slight but significant difference in traditional Mormon services had been described as specifically Mormon rather than as generically "different." If Plummer is serving as the woman's "clergyman," why not call it a Mormon bishop? Examples abound in _Second Wind_. Plummer told me himself one time that it's a good idea not to let people know you're Mormon, at least don't wear it on your sleeve; he could tell stories. However, it seems to me that effacing one's Mormonness in stories of a personal nature is at least unnecessary, at worst confusing. And if you have stories to tell, why not do it here? If Plummer mentions Utah, he may as well mention he's Mormon. He can still reach a wider audience. Besides, it could be fashionable to be Mormon these days--just ask Mitt Romney fans. _Waltzing_, on the other hand, is designed to reach an exclusively Mormon audience. Published by Bookcraft, the arm of Deseret Book aimed for Mormons, the book also doesn't mention Mormonism, but is full of Mormon-specific language. References like "bishop," "home teaching," "President Spencer W. Kimball," "Ensign," and "Satan's plan" can only be understood by Mormons if left unexplained. These are clearly essays for the insider. But perhaps there these texts can have universal appeal. Such a reaching for a broader audience would require some explanatory remarks. Perhaps the editors were too weary over the idea of including a massive section of footnotes. Figuring out which terms need explanation and which don't might be even more wearisome. But Plummer seems close to achieving it in _Second Wind_, in the essay that most closely resembles those of _Waltzing_. His best essay in _Second Wind_, the most overtly religious, is also the most touching. In it, he manages to explain that a mission is what brought him to live in Europe for 30 months, though this fact was omitted in an earlier piece in which he describes traveling with his provincial parents when they came to pick him up after his long stay in Austria. Can there be room to be playful as well as profound in recounting the stories that come out of religiously-motivated experience? I hope someday someone, or some publisher, will be brave enough to follow Richard Dutcher's lead in the Mormon film world and do it more consistently from a Mormon point of view. Plummer is perhaps forging new paths for the personal essay in Mormon literature. If I had to make a choice, I would say that the essays in _Waltzing_ are much stronger. But _Second Wind_ is downright hilarious, and would probably make a better gift for members of my family. If Eugene England was ponderous, and Mary Lythgoe Bradford confessional, then Plummer falls somewhere in between with a distinctive sense of humor thrown into the mix. Elouise Bell might have been his tutor on the humor front, but she seems to operate more in the function of cultural critic; more likely his wife Louise influences his style. Perhaps the more restrained manner in _Waltzing_ is a defensive gesture; Plummer may want people to know he has other sides to him as well. But somewhere in between his humor and his religion, there may be a collection of essays waiting to be born that manages to reconcile both dimensions of his writing to show the wider world that committed Mormons can write simultaneously for the outside world and for their own. (Laraine Wilkins) - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ End of aml-list-digest V1 #859 ******************************