From: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com (aml-list-digest) To: aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: aml-list-digest V2 #249 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, January 27 2004 Volume 02 : Number 249 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 08:23:59 -0700 From: "D. Michael Martindale" Subject: Re: [AML] Moody BYU Coeds? JanaRiess@aol.com wrote: > Maybe it's because I went to a college where the term "coed" actually > referred to the handful of enrolled *male* students . . . but what the heck is a > "moody BYU coed"? I don't want to read too much into your statement here, but it > sure rubs me the wrong way. Not to be moody, of course. > Jana Riess Everywhere but your college, "co-ed" means female student. "Moody BYU co-ed" refers to the Mormon drama queen aspect of some female students there. So yes, you probably are understanding it corectly when you feel rubbed the wrong way. - -- D. Michael Martindale dmichael@wwno.com ================================== Check out Worldsmiths, the new online LDS writers group, at http://www.wwno.com/worldsmiths Sponsored by Worlds Without Number http://www.wwno.com ================================== - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 13:16:15 -0700 From: Margaret Young Subject: RE: [AML] YOUNG & GRAY, _Standing on the Promises_ The quick link for AML relevancy: Works by LDS Native American Jane = Hafen and works by Michael Fillerup. There's also a beautiful essay by Lacee Harris on being Native American and Mormon in the now out of press = _Personal Voices_. I suspect, however, that if someone did a trilogy about Native Americans and Mormons starting from Nauvoo (and there was a Native = American presence in the Church and much outreach from Mormon missionaries), = there would be little audience response. Sadly, I doubt the books would do = well, which I think is a reflection on our culture. We are still caught up in = the "us" and "them" mentality--whether we're dealing with cultural or other differences. "They" become relevant when "they" become US. And = ultimately, that's the goal. Ultimitely, there are no "ites." But we aren't there = yet. Those who would buy books about Native Americans would be those who = cared about the subject--and probably had lived near or with Native Americans. = By the way, Joseph Smith compared the plights of Blacks and Native = Americans frequently, as documented in the History of the Church. He felt that = the Native Americans were worse off than the blacks. I've briefly = considered doing something about my own ancestors, the Holbrooks, who lived with = the Ponca Indians on their way west, or about another set of ancestors who adopted an Indian orphan and named him Moroni. (The Saints were = encouraged to "buy" Indian slaves out of slavery and raise them in their homes, = btw). But I'll never write it. I am eager to finish my current = project--another co-authored work where a grand-daughter of a BYU professor who resigned = in 1911 rather than avoid teaching evolution will write about the = controversy with the great great grand-daughter of the man who presided over BYU at = the time--George Brimhall. I'm the Brimhall descendant. After that, I = don't know that I'll be writing as Mormonly as I have in the past. We'll see. = =20 [Margaret Young] - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 22 Jan 2004 19:03:51 -0500 From: "C.S. Bezas" Subject: RE: [AML] Cedar Fort Offer on My Manuscript Best wishes, Eric! We look forward to seeing it. Cindy C.S. Bezas Board of Editors, Advisory Chair http://www.latterdayauthors.com - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 15:01:02 -0700 From: Christopher Bigelow Subject: [AML] (SLTrib) _Latter Days_ Pulled SLC theater pulls LDS, gay movie By Sean P. Means The Salt Lake Tribune PARK CITY -- Gay and lesbian groups, both nationally and in Utah, are furious that a Salt Lake City movie theater has backed away from plans to screen a new romantic comedy involving a gay man and a closeted LDS missionary. "This is a film that needs to be seen and needs to be heard, particularly in a city that has a large Mormon population," said Stephen Macias, entertainment media director of the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation, at a press conference in Park City. "It is a story that [someone] is trying to suppress." Added Michael Mitchell, executive director of the political advocacy group, Equality Utah, "It deserves to be seen here in Utah." The movie, "Latter Days," tells of a West Hollywood hunk who tries to seduce a sexually confused Mormon missionary. It is largely a comedy, though it does depict church leaders trying to "cure" the missionary's homosexuality through electroshock. The movie was written and directed by C. Jay Cox, who wrote the Reese Witherspoon hit, "Sweet Home Alabama." The movie has won audience awards at six gay-themed film festivals, including Outfest in Los Angeles. The movie, which opens Friday in Los Angeles and New York, was scheduled to open Friday at the Madstone Trolley Square Theaters. But last Friday the film's distributor, TLA Releasing, was informed by Madstone's film booker that the New York-based theater chain would cancel the film's Salt Lake City run. The stated reason, said TLA Releasing's President Raymond Murray, was that the movie did not meet Madstone's level of "artistic quality and integrity." Unofficially, Murray was told the Trolley Square theater received threats of boycotts, pickets and customers dropping out of Madstone's membership program. Madstone co-CEO Chip Seelig said several of his staff watched the movie, and "we thought it lacked artistic merit," he said from New York. "If it has merit, we play it." Seelig said he had not heard of any boycott threats. The mix of gay themes and religion are not a turnoff to Madstone, Seelig said, citing the acclaimed documentary "Trembling Toward G-d" -- about homosexuality among Hasidic Jews -- as an example. "We support great films," he said. In a statement from California, Cox said, "At a time when the LDS Church is claiming a supposed newfound tolerance for gay members, I am deeply disappointed by such an intolerant stance. For a church whose founder Joseph Smith believed in "teaching correct principles and letting people govern themselves," I find it quite sad that they would attempt to take such a choice away from the people of Salt Lake. I truly hope that we will be allowed to screen this movie and give people the opportunity to discuss the issues it raises and to judge its artistic merits for themselves." Brooke Harper, president of the Salt Lake Film Society, which operates the art house Tower Theatre and Broadway Centre Cinemas, said the quality of "Latter Days" may indeed be the issue. She called the movie "awful" and "embarrassing," and she has no plans to book it. The Tower and Broadway frequently show gay-themed films, and Harper said "the entertainment options available for gays and lesbians in our society today are too varied and too high in quality to expect people like myself to exhibit films like "Latter Days" in the name of bringing representation of gay and lesbian people into cinema." Mitchell said Madstone's move may backfire because appeasing one set of customers may rile up another set. "Whenever I go to a movie there, I see a lot of gay and lesbian people. I don't see a lot of conservative folks," he said. Equality Utah likely will send a protest letter to Madstone, and Mitchell said he is helping TLA find another venue. movies@sltrib.com - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Jan 2004 20:49:45 -0800 From: "Jongiorgi Enos" Subject: Re: [AML] YOUNG & GRAY, _Standing on the Promises_ - ----- Original Message ----- From: "Margaret Young" ... I suspect, however, that if someone did a trilogy about Native > Americans and Mormons starting from Nauvoo (and there was a Native American > presence in the Church and much outreach from Mormon missionaries), there > would be little audience response. Sadly, I doubt the books would do well, > which I think is a reflection on our culture.... I am currently working on a series of books which have strong Native American themes, particularly dealing with early Mormon history and Native American relations. The first manuscript, "Sweetwater Ford," while predominately a romance about a Gentile conversion in 1860, also follows two Native American characters who end up becoming very closly allied with early Saints. The manuscript is basically done and the novel is currently in polish stage. It should be part of an eventual series of four, the other three of which deal less with Native American storylines, but which have recurring Native American characters. A second series, a trilogy, "The Chronicles of George Washington Hill," now only in the outline phase, have a strong Native American storyline, particularly the third volumne, following GWH's mission among various Native American tribes, and the deeply disappointing collaps of that effortby the late1880's. I suspect strongly that your statement, Margaret, is very true. Therefore, my tactic in preparing these manuscripts and outlines (thinking ahead to marketing) has been to come at the subject very indirectly. In each case, the Native American theme is a subplot, surfacing within and inbetween much more traditional (and marketable) romance/adventures. My hope is that intererest in other storylines will allow for a greater marketing potential which will allow for a "sneeking-in" of the other (and more important) themes. I certainly don't propose to do for Mormon/Native American relations what you and Darius have done for Mormon/African American relations in our early history. But this intent (or lack thereof) is calculated and I hope will allow for a greater long-term effect. Actually, on that topic, I have taken very seriously your request a few weeks ago (or it may have been months) with regard to your distress as to "Standing on the Promises" overall sales and marketing, etc. While I have been swamped with other work and have not responded (yet), I have begun a very careful consideration of those questions you posed, and will begin to propose some of my thoughts soon, I hope. I am currently preparing a paper for submission for possible inclusion in this year's annual conference, and while my thesis was not initially related to an examination of your struggles in selling SOTP, I find that I have used SOTP as a central example of part of my thesis, and I have become facinated with hypothesizing on how that important work might have worked better (or at least had a larger audience), had the formating and strategy (in the writing phase) been somewhat different. I hope that my ultimate remarks will not be taken as unduely critical, and I appologize in advance, because I do find (now in my more carful examination of what I have always considered an ESSENTIAL work which you and Darius have accomplished), that I have several criticisms of the work (or rather how the work was ultimately presented), critiques which may be wrong, but which may have created a vastly different, and more widely lauded product (and by more widely lauded, I mean outside of LDS book-buying circles). But I will address the specifics of those thoughts at another time, and perhaps save some of them for a private discussion with you directly. The only reason I'm responding today is in regards to your fears about "our culture". Generaly, I agree with your statement, but I also think that we as artists are quite frequently too quick to blame the lukewarm response to our work on a "bad house" (to use the metaphor from my theater days). I will grant you that the "house" IS very often bad. (I'm in complete nose-dive in my pessimissm with regard to LDS film at the moment, for example; we can't sell tickets to save our lives.) That said, however, I think that what these difficult conditions do is force us to get much more creative, much more concerned with the marketing of our products from a very early phase in the development of our creations, much more open-eyed in our analysis of market conditions, and much more brutal with ourselves in our analysis of the work we ultimatley offer for consumption. I am not inclined to give up on the hard subjects quite just yet, but I do think we have to build a better mousetrap. I think you are absolutly correct in thinking that a Native American trilogy--in the format of SOTP (my emphasis)--would not do well. But I am inclined to think that it is THE FORMAT which is partially at fault, and not JUST the sad reflection on our culture which makes it difficult to sell such books. I have a lot more to say on this subject, but am not prepared to do so right now. But you have very much got me thinking... so much so that considering your work and your questions and the marketing of historical stories which deal with difficult questions of our cultural history is at the absolute forefront of my mind, and is actually taking up the vast majority of my thinking at the moment. Thanks for your work and your efforts. Keep it up. Jongiorgi Enos - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ End of aml-list-digest V2 #249 ******************************