From: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com (aml-list-digest) To: aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: aml-list-digest V1 #82 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, June 26 2000 Volume 01 : Number 082 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2000 17:40:52 -0600 From: "J. Scott Bronson" Subject: Re: [AML] re: Movie Ratings > ___ Scott ___ > | Currently, the ratings are hard on violence and easy on sex. > ___ > > While I think Hollywood has become much more liberal with sexuality > and has started to feel uncomfortable with violence, I really don't think > the above is true. What I meant -- what I tried to imply in the remainder of the post -- was that currently, the ratings are harder on violence and easier on sex than they used to be back in the early seventies when they first started using (abusing) squibbs and I saw the same kind of blood and gore in GP movies that I see now in R movies. If I were a conspiracy theororist I'd say it was a Hollywood plot (designed by Satan) to recast moral issues so that we will believe that unwholesome (using Steve Perry's definition of the word) sex is better for our viewing than wholesome violence. That sounds a bit twisted, but my personal belief is that there are treatments of both sex and violence that can be instructive and edifying or destructive and demoralizing. For the most part I think the MPAA board puts the serious, wholesome treatments out of reach, as it were, by giving them an R rating, while putting the unwholesome treatments well within our grasp by giving them PG or PG-13 ratings. As I said though, that's a generalization; the dividing line is a wavy line drawn in the sand of a beach where the water keeps washing it away and someone has to keep going out there and try to remember where they drew it the last time. scott bronson - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 23 Jun 2000 19:33:05 -0700 From: Jeff Needle Subject: Re: [AML] Marion SMITH, _Riptide_ (review) I really appreciated this review. Some years ago there was a book titled, I think, "Secrets." It was from Deseret Book and dealt with the issue of abuse from the standpoint of a totally out-of-touch bishop. Has anyone else read this book? At 04:13 PM 6/22/00 -0600, you wrote: - --------------- Jeff Needle jeff.needle@general.com - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Jun 2000 08:21:07 -0600 From: "mcnandon" Subject: RE: [AML] Marion SMITH, _Riptide_ (review) Re Marion Smith's book _Riptide_: This may be fiction, but there is a well know case here in the SLC area that is stunningly similar. The difference is that the abuser didn't get killed, but has *finally* gone to jail where he belongs. In this case there were many Mormon enablers along the way. Kind, naive souls who forgave 7 x's 70. Forty Five years of *abusing* leaves a devastating wake. Nan McCulloch - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2000 01:08:16 -0600 From: Jacob Proffitt Subject: [AML] Baby Announcement Hi all. Just a note to announce the birth of Cordelia Elinor Proffitt. Happened at 11:20 pm on June 23rd. Mom and baby are healthy and doing = well. She weighed in at 8 lbs. 5 oz (baby, not mom). Jacob - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2000 02:59:11 -0600 From: "D. Michael Martindale" Subject: Re: [AML] Where's our LDS Pulitzer prize winner? Terry L Jeffress wrote: > But these people do have an affect on the market. In my ward, the young > women's president told the youth (both boys and girls) that reading fiction > is a sin because they should be reading the scriptures, and that writing > fiction attempts to take over God's role as a creator. I still have to deal > with my kids telling me how sinful I am for reading fiction. That is scary! I would be curious to hear if you did anything about it. I know what I'd do. It wouldn't be pretty. I would classify this behavior as more than just foolish interpretation of doctrine. This is a destructive thing to do, and ought not to be tolerated. I had a similar, if milder, experience with my six-year-old. His Primary teacher said they should never watch any shows with guns in them. I guess that means "Be vewy quiet, I'm hunting wabbit" is right up there with R-rated movies now. - -- 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 http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2000 06:51:27 -0600 From: "Sharlee Glenn" Subject: Re: [AML] (Andrew's Poll) Vote I'm breaking my self-imposed vow of silence on the AML-list in order to cast my vote for Best Mormon Novel of the 90's. (The vow is aimed at keeping me focused on my own writing projects and deadlines. The allure of the list is such a distraction! :-) My choice would have to be _Salvador_ by Margaret Young. I was completely wowed by this book--though I must admit more by the style than by the content. The very first page of the book let me know right away that I was dealing with a major talent here, someone who obviously loved language and knew how to make it do her bidding. The style reminded me of a mix of Annie Dillard, Anne Tyler (at her best), and Barbara Kingsolver, who I had just discovered and fallen in love with. I was in complete awe of Margaret's ability to turn a phrase, to create a mood, to establish a locale, to develop these zany and wonderful characters. I think that the mother in _Salvador_ is one of my favorite characters in all of Mormon literature. Though the book didn't completely live up to my initial expectations (I felt that a few of the characters became pawns of the author and that the climax was rather forced), I still think that it's the best thing, stylistically, that's been produced by an LDS writer since _The Backslider_. Sharlee Glenn glennsj@inet-1.com - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2000 12:20:06 EDT From: Larry Jackson Subject: [AML] re: LDS Church Magazines Are Going Online Kent Larsen: My apologies, Larry. I shouldn't have assumed so much. _______________ Not a problem. I think most, if not all on this list understand the feeling of having something we created taken and either copied or used in other ways without credit. I was sorry to see this happen with your article. I was also very pleased to see another list-owner politely, but publicly jump on a poster who did this with your piece, clearly pointing out to his list that both attribution and permission are required when someone else's work is involved. I believe you do a great service, Kent, with your Mormon-News list. An important part of it's value is that you always include the original source of the article, where it is available. And I enjoyed your background information on this particular story, as well. Since someone (sorry, I was too quick on the delete key) asked what curriculum materials would be in the magazines, I have included that information below. For those who are not interested, now is the time to "press any (delete/next) key", which always brings to my mind the image of the fellow standing over his keyboard with the big sledge hammer ... Larry Jackson This is the additional information I posted to another list. I have summarized it from a one-page enclosure to the letter: Nine times a year, a page in each magazine will identify articles to help parents, teachers, and leaders in preparing family home evenings, teaching Sunday lessons, fulfilling other Church assignments, and in enhancing personal study. The May and November issues of the Ensign will contain the subjects and resources designated by the First Presidency for Melchizedek Priesthood and Relief Society instruction on the 4th Sunday of each month. This was previously published in "Teachings for Our Time". The May and November issues will also identify resources that can be used to update Aaronic Priesthood and Young Women lessons. Items already included in the magazines will continue, such as the First Presidency and Visiting Teaching Messages in the Ensign, and Primary sharing time materials in the Friend. Larry Jackson ________________________________________________________________ YOU'RE PAYING TOO MUCH FOR THE INTERNET! Juno now offers FREE Internet Access! Try it today - there's no risk! For your FREE software, visit: http://dl.www.juno.com/get/tagj. - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2000 10:20:36 -0700 From: "Noel Stott" Subject: Re: [AML] (Andrew's Poll) Best Mormon Novel of the 90s I would like to vote for my favorite. There is a wide variety of authors with many well known and some not so well known. You ought to break your voting down to two groups and use the above criteria. I have read all of Lisa Peck's books and really enjoy her characters and her gospel information. Her Aunt Betsy is a lovable character. She's easy to relate to because she is not perfect and doesn't live a perfect life. She makes mistakes but it's okay you still love her. She pulls on your heart strings with her care and concern for others. And she makes me laugh. I find her delightful. So my vote is for Lisa Peck. You didn't include Lisa's sequel to Dangerous Memories which is More Precious Than Diamonds. The second book is better than the first. You can see how Lisa has sharpened her writing. Lisa's books left a lasting impression with me and I look forward to the third sequel in this series which will be out some time in the fall. Judy Anderson (email judy@stott-family. com) - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2000 13:36:19 EDT From: Larry Jackson Subject: [AML] MN Ricks Looking For Stories, Photos, Artifacts of Spori Building: Inside Ricks From: Ricks Press Release To: Mormon News Subject: MN Ricks Looking For Stories, Photos, Artifacts of Spori Building: Inside Ricks 20Jun00 D3 Date: Thu, 22 Jun 2000 22:30:00 -0400 [From Mormon-News] Ricks Looking For Stories, Photos, Artifacts of Spori Building Inside Ricks 20Jun00 D3 REXBURG, IDAHO -- Ricks College officials are collecting personal stories, photographs and artifacts pertaining to the historic Jacob Spori Building. The stories and photographs will be used in a number of projects that college officials are preparing to commemorate the legacy of the historic building that was built in the early 1900s. The building is scheduled to be replaced with a new structure in the near future. "We are looking for memories that involve the building," says Steve Moser, assistant director of Public Relations. "We would prefer written remembrances. However, if you are reluctant to commit your memories to paper, we'd like to interview you in person." Stories may be mailed to Moser at Ricks College, Rexburg, ID 83460-1660 or e-mailed to him at mosers@ricks.edu. Moser is also interested in photographs that are at least 20 years old and of good photo quality. While many photographs exist of the exterior of the building, Moser says interior shots of classrooms and people are needed. He is particularly interested in a photograph of the old staircase. Photographs will be copied and returned, or may be donated to the college archives collection. Memorabilia and artifacts pertaining to the building are also being collected for a future museum display. Such items also may be donated or loaned to the college. For more information, contact Moser at (208) 356-1153. >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/ Send join and remove commands to: majordomo@MormonsToday.com Put appropriate commands in body of the message: To join: subscribe mormon-news To leave: unsubscribe mormon-news To join digest: subscribe mormon-news-digest - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2000 12:29:59 -0600 From: "Jerry Enos" Subject: Re: [AML] Adoption Stories (addition) Have you concidered the grandparents? Either the giving or receiving end? It puts another light on the story but it may be a very good one. Just a thought. [Konnie Enos] - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2000 12:24:31 -0600 From: Kathleen Woodbury Subject: Re: [AML] Adoption Stories At 04:52 PM 6/22/00 -0700, Christopher Bigelow wrote: >I have accepted a freelance writing job from LDS Family Services to write some articles about >adoption for placement in newspapers and Church publications. Catherine Poelman (an LDS writer which makes my post germane to AML-list) has a new book out entitled THE SOUL OF ADOPTION. I think I've seen it at Deseret Book (publisher is Eagle Gate, ISBN is 1=57345-655-1). Kathleen Dalton-Woodbury workshop@burgoyne.com - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2000 12:51:25 -0600 From: "Jerry Enos" Subject: Re: [AML] Sexuality in LDS Lit I don't understand. I write to entertain, not to spiritually motivate. As long as a book doesn't take away the Spirit altogether it should be judged individually. No two people are alike and what one likes another will hate. Konnie Enos - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2000 14:39:08 PDT From: "Jason Steed" Subject: Re: [AML] Re: Writing About Religion >I got the same message Skip Hamilton got from Kristen. Here is the >response I sent to her the other day: > > > I think it is never easy to write about religion. And I'm not > > sure people should. > >[snip] > > > I suspect that the strongest writing we will ever get that can > > be said to be "about" religion will be either expository or, if > > fiction, bitter. > >Why? I've never read Dante's "Inferno" but is it bitter? Is Shakespeare >bitter when he writes about Christ in his plays? I remember kneeling >onstage during a rehearsal of King Lear, watching Ivan Crosland, as Lear, >take Edgar's arms and hold them out -- like wings -- like the bar of a >cross -- and ask that muddy, naked man, "What hast thou been?" Then >Edgar describes a person who is a servingman who has committed many sins. > I realized that night that he was associating himself with Christ's lot. > They were both innocent men, servants to one degree or another who were >made to suffer for the sins of others. It was a tearful epiphany for me. I agree, writing about religion does not have to be bitter--but I feel I should interject here that, to my knowledge, Shakespeare never alludes directly to Christ or Christianity. At least, the general consensus among Shakespeare scholars/critics (as far as I know) is that he remains perfectly ambiguous about religion and religious matters--any "Christian" reading of his play (which would include a particular performance of it) is more the work of the reader or the performers than Shakespeare per se... As for others who have written about religion without being "bitter"--I think Flannery O'Connor, John Updike, Allegra Goodman, James Baldwin, G.M. Hopkins, John Donne, George Herbert, Emily Dickinson, and many others have done it and done it well. > > > It is easier to write about God with clarity when you are > > writing about disappointment and estrangement, because you can feel > > those things so strongly, so vividly, and put words to them with > > such passion. > >Perhaps this is your experience, but it's not mine. I've just finished a >play called Tombs, that is largely a conversation between Christ and his >mother in Joseph's tomb. I wrote vividly, with passion and not a bit of >it had anything to do with disappointment or estrangement. And who says disappointment or estrangement are equal to "bitterness"? I think a crucial part of writing about religion is writing about the struggles religion involves--I can feel disappointed at the gap between my ideals and my reality, and write about the inherent conflicts therein, without being "bitter"... > > What good, pray tell, does it do to trump up a bunch of fictional > > miracles for the sake of a story, or a story for the sake of a > > bunch of fictional miracles? Is that supposed to do anybody > > any good? > >So, what good is *any* writing then? Is the utilitarian view the only view? (i.e. Do we need to even ask "what good is writing"?) > > As I read her, I wondered if I could write my own God as > > passionately, as concretely as she writes her own bitterness and > > disappointment. I don't think I can. I'm not sure I should. > >But what else is there? All good stories are Jesus stories. "The Iron >Giant." Sacrifice, redemption, forgiveness. Good stories are about >these things. And these things point to Christ. You are writing about >religion, or God, or you're not writing about anything. This is a bit strong. The Christ archetype is not the only archetypal story (there is also, for example, Faust--a sort of opposite to Christ). And are you saying "The Iron Giant" is a _good_ story? (I didn't care for it so much.) Yes, there are good stories that contain Christ figures, or are archetypally Christ-stories. But I would argue the vast majority of literature out there is not directly related to religion or God. If it is, then again, that seems more the reader's doing than the writers'. You may posit that all that is written that is NOT directly related to religion or God is worthless, irrelevent (therefore, if we don't write about religion/God, we aren't writing about anything). But even that, I think, is a bit strong. The only way I can live with this is if we make it explicit that to write about humanity is to in some way write about God (we are, after all, related to God, gods in the making, etc.)--but even this inflicts a "Mormon reading" onto much that is written that is of worth, but that is not explicitly/directly related to God or religion... Still, I agree overall: it is possible (some might even argue mandatory) to write about religion and/or God without being "bitter" or "anti-", etc. Jason ________________________________________________________________________ Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sat, 24 Jun 2000 16:30:49 -0700 From: Jeff Needle Subject: [AML] _Secrets_ (was: Marion SMITH, _Riptide_) I've read "Secrets" and found myself wondering about the central character, the bishop who has to handle all the problems of his rather dysfunctional ward. I had a non-member question to ask, and since you've read the book, maybe you can help me. It seemed that a rather large number of families in his ward suffered from some dysfunction, including his own family. And yet he seemed blissfully unaware of many of the problems. Do you think one of the purposes of the book was to alert priesthood to the idea that they may be overlooking problems in their wards? I found the bishop to be a curiously sympathetic fellow. At 01:13 PM 6/23/00 -0400, you wrote: >Was this book, telling this story, seriously only 191 pages?? I can >read 191 pages in an hour! Having been abused myself, I think I >may pass on this particular story, thanks for the review. If you >haven't read it already, Yorganson's _Secrets_ is an excellent >fiction account (though I know some of the stories were true) of >sexual abuse. _Riptide_ sounds too contrived. >Debbie Brown > - --------------- Jeff Needle jeff.needle@general.com - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2000 09:24:05 -0700 (MST) From: aml@xmission.com Subject: [AML] GATES, _Brigham's Day_ The West Under Cover: Past Haunts the Present in Gates' 'Brigham's Day' Sunday, June 25, 2000 BY MARTIN NAPARSTECK SPECIAL TO THE TRIBUNE Brigham's Day By John Gates; Walker & Company; $23.95 In the opening three pages of Brigham's Day, John Gates' first novel, John D. Lee sits on his coffin at Mountain Meadows in 1877 waiting to be executed. He is asked if he knows the location of "that which is sought" and he says no. On the final page of the book, he is executed. The 182 pages in between are set, almost entirely, a century later. During that time, "that which is sought" results in two murders, and although the exact explanation of "that which is sought" is not revealed until near the end of the book, most Utah readers likely know what it is: a document that proves or disproves whether Brigham Young ordered the massacre near Cedar City in 1857 of more than 100 men, women and children on a wagon train heading west. This is a novel about how the past haunts the present. It's a theme with the potential for greatness, one of the themes used repeatedly by William Faulkner. And it saves Gates' novel from a mundane style, stereotyped characters and carelessness in some details. Although the Mountain Meadows Massacre itself appears in only one brief scene in the novel, more than anything else the book is about that most infamous day in Utah and Mormon history. In the book's more modern sequences, Brigham Bybee is a middle-aged attorney not fully recovered from a drinking problem. He has just lost the biggest case of his life, a suit on behalf of a teen-age girl against the man most likely to be next president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Bybee is court-appointed to assist a much younger attorney, the brash Ronnie Wallers, in a murder case in Kanab, which is about as far south as someone can go in Utah and not be in Arizona. (In fact, whether the RV where the murder suspect lives in a trailer park is in Arizona or Utah is a key point in determining his guilt or innocence.) Wallers believes the victim was killed by members of a secret society known as Daughter of Zion (a group better known as the Sons of Dan and the Danites, men who will use violence to carry out the will of church leaders; why Daughter of Zion is singular, or feminine, is never explained). Bybee at first believes Wallers is crazy, as well as obnoxious, but eventually he is converted. Wallers' view is that the victim, an elderly man named Douglas Farnsworth, possessed a document telling some hidden truth about Mountain Meadows. Bybee, meanwhile, romances the beautiful Zolene Swapp, granddaughter of Farnsworth, and shares a prolonged sex scene with her -- a scene that will convince many readers that Gates learned to write from studying not the great master from Oxford, Miss., whose theme he shares, but that other Oxford writer, John Grisham, who makes a lot more money than Faulkner precisely because there are prolonged sex scenes in oddball murder cases (of course, Faulkner also had his share of sex scenes, as readers familiar with Sanctuary will recall). The local sheriff is fat and sloppy and corrupt, the defendant is illiterate and clueless (and, oddly, a minor character), and the granddaughter is one of the most beautiful women the protagonist has ever seen. All out of a Grisham novel/movie, not one of them with anything close to the complexity Faulkner instilled in his characters. There are plot tricks designed more to show the author can come up with clever plot tricks than to reveal characters, as when Wallers tricks the defendant, Owen Parks, to sign a confession as a way of showing co-counsel Bybee that Parks is illiterate and therefore not likely to have murdered someone to steal a document. Why he simply didn't ask Parks if he could read, or give him something to read aloud, isn't even mentioned, let alone explained. The style is unremarkable, adding nothing to the narrative, except when it slips in carelessness, as when, in a brief flashback, we are told that one of the Mormons at Mountain Meadows murders two girls by firing "a bullet into the backs of their necks" (which is possible, of course, if he lined them up, but far more likely Gates intended to say he fired not "a bullet" but two bullets, one for each of the girls). Listing all these shortcomings can make Brigham's Day sound like a bad novel. It's not. It is, in fact, a very good novel, a compelling read, a work that reminds us that the past never goes away, no matter how much we deny it, and that, in fact, the more we hide the past and the more we lie about it, the stronger it grows and the more it controls our lives. - ------ Martin Naparsteck is author of the novels War Song and A Hero's Welcome. Copyright 2000, The Salt Lake Tribune - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2000 09:34:19 -0700 (MST) From: aml@xmission.com Subject: [AML] YOUNG, _I Am Jane_ [From the Sunday Salt Lake Tribune] Springville's Villa Playhouse Theater, 254 S. Main, Springville, is the venue for "I Am Jane," the story of a black Mormon pioneer. Most members of the cast of 25 are African-American Mormons who are members of the Genesis group -- an official arm of the LDS Church that supports members of African descent. Traditional spirituals are included in the telling of Jane's history. Opens Friday; runs Fridays, Saturdays and Mondays until July 10 at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $8 for adults; $7 for seniors and stude - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2000 12:50:13 -0700 From: "Craig Rossiter" Subject: RE: [AML] _The Real World_ My contributions to this list over the last year or so have been next to nothing. But the discussion on the Real World has really got my attention. Last Sunday I was in a motel room in San Marcos, CA, bored out of my mind, to the point of actually surfing through channels like MTV. I ran across the interview with Julie, and that was immediately followed by the first episode. I was hooked. To me, Julie is the typical Mormon young woman that we all want our sons to take to the temple. I find her very fresh and alive, and not so much na=EFve as sheltered. After just two episodes, I am seeing her widen her view of humanity, and look past some of the behaviors she doesn't condone to the person underneath. I was moved by her comment that she was too quick to judge her gay housemate, and maybe she has been too quick to judge others as a matter of course. I can't wait for Tuesday night to see the next episode. In my opinion, it would do a lot of the BYU student body good to cycle through this type of experience. Regarding the comment that missionary service provides real world experience-It may have 20 or 30 years ago when we had to manage our money and find our own apartments and even cook our own meals, but now I am not so sure. The opportunity is there to experience some real world stuff, but the missionaries from my ward return to describe a fairly sheltered experience. I understand why things have changed, so that they can worry less about physical needs and focus on the work, but I am not convinced that it offers the growth potential that it once did. Hooray for Julie, I will be rooting for her on Tuesday. And I will be rooting for the other six as well. Craig Rossiter - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2000 05:49:47 -0700 From: Jeff Needle Subject: [AML] STEWART, _The Zarahemla Vision_ (review) Review ====== Gary Stewart, "The Zarahemla Vision" (c) 1986, St. Martin's Press Fiction, 280 pp., hardback, $15.95 Not sure if it's still in print Reviewed by Jeff Needle "The Zarahemla Vision" is the second novel in a series of Salt Lake City-based novels featuring Gabe Utley, a private investigator. Born and raised Mormon, he has since departed from the faith, but continues to live in Salt Lake City, chasing bad guys and solving mysteries. His cast of characters includes a friend inside the Church hierarchy, at least one Native American, lots of odd-ball Mormons of all stripes, and a wildly-improbable plot. If this all sounds familiar, it's because the formula is identical to Robert Irvine's efforts. (I haven't checked to see which author released the earliest first novel.) "The Zarahemla Vision" opens with Gabe being summoned by an aunt who claims that their crazy relative Parley has kidnapped the President of the Church. Gabe dismisses it as wild speculation, but when the President suddenly "dies" and is buried in a closed-casket funeral (no viewing), he becomes suspicious. He teams up with his erstwhile lover/competitor Mona (a reporter for the Deseret News) to discover the truth. Central to all this is a file containing the so-called "Zarahemla Vision." Everyone seems to want to get their hands on this file, but it disappears in a frenzy of confusion and murder. In the meantime, the Church organization is taken over by evil business interests and their cowardly followers. Gabe, however, won't give up. The book is filled with loony characters, and not a single normal Latter-day Saint. The Church is portrayed as directionless, wrongly-motivated and evily inclined. Some years ago I coined a phrase "distractive fiction." (I think it's original to me -- if it isn't, I apologize and earnestly solicit correction.) It describes a type of writing that presents a veneer of historical authenticity, but in fact so thoroughly distorts the history to a point where the reader, confronted with an entirely unbelievable story line, ceases to wonder whether the underlying "facts" are indeed facts. "The Zarahemla Vision" is just such a work. An example will illustrate: Fundamental to the plot is the passion of the current President of the Church to bring the gospel to the Lamanties. Given the world mission of the Church, this really, so far as I understand, has not been a central focus of the Church for many years. The uninformed reader will hardly question the authenticity of the presentation of the mission. The way in which it is pursued is so ludicrous that it "distracts" from even a casual exploration of the underlying "factual" basis for the story. The author, who grew up in Salt Lake City, and who, according to the jacket "...grew up assuming that most of the civilized world was Mormon," nonetheless displays some interesting views of both the Book of Mormon and the city of Salt Lake. Throughout the book, Lemuel is spelled "Lemual," something that should have been caught in editing. I've walked, and driven, both 13th East and South Temple, referred to in the book as "13 East Street" and "South Temple Street." I'm not certain what the official street names are, but I'm very certain I've never heard the word "Street" appended to the street names. Most serious is the author's attitude toward the subject of racism in the Church. An organization called the Indian Placement Mission is portrayed at one as a benevolent association to bring the Gospel to the Native Americans, and then as an extension of an arrogant, racist ecclesiastical organization that has no purpose but to subdue, and ultimately to transform the "red savages" into a people "pure and delightsome." I found this picture to be both distasteful and distracting to the real mission of the Church. Had the book not been placed in the Mormon setting, the story line might have been amusing and interesting. In fact, Stewart is a pretty good writer. He keeps the action moving; he keeps you guessing as one character after another turns out not to be who you thought he was. But there is a real danger that casual readers will think that the author is trying to buttress a wild, improbable plot with an authentic setting. The setting is anything but authentic. "Distractive fiction" worries me. "The Zarahemla Vision" is every bit as inaccurate as anything I've ever read in the field of Mormon-oriented fiction. Clearly Stewart had a lot of fun writing this book, but I fear for the negative impact such literature may have on the Church. - --------------- Jeff Needle jeff.needle@general.com - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 25 Jun 2000 23:25:03 -0500 From: Linda Adams Subject: Re: [AML] Where's our LDS Pulitzer prize winner? Along these lines, I don't have time to look up quotes but I *know* it's in the biography of President Gordon B. Hinckley that good books, INCLUDING FICTION and especially the classics, were a very large part of his upbringing and education. I remember reading about the library in his home as a child and getting the distinct impression from either his biography or media interviews that he loves to read a good book. (Fiction, even. Gasp!!) I am certain that not only B. Young and S. Kimball but our CURRENT prophet must disagree with this statement by the sister in your ward!! I wonder where on earth people come up with such ridiculous "doctrines" as the one quoted below? It's not in the scriptures... and I have read and do read those too. As well as good books. For the love of.... well, fiction--didn't Jesus himself TEACH mainly through parables? The parables are fiction, are they not? Therefore, there is fiction right *in* the scriptures themselves--does this woman read all the scriptures save for the parables? And aren't we supposed to emulate and be like Christ? I think I'm justified here. In both reading and writing fiction. Linda Adams At 01:54 PM 6/23/00, you wrote: >Terry L Jeffress wrote: > > > > But these people do have an affect on the market. In my ward, the young > > women's president told the youth (both boys and girls) that reading fiction > > is a sin because they should be reading the scriptures, and that writing > > fiction attempts to take over God's role as a creator. I still have to > deal > > with my kids telling me how sinful I am for reading fiction. > > - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 10:26:24 -0600 From: "Terry L Jeffress" Subject: Re: [AML] Marion SMITH, _Riptide_ (review) Debbie Brown wrote: > Was this book, telling this story, seriously only 191 pages?? I can > read 191 pages in an hour! Having been abused myself, I think I > may pass on this particular story, thanks for the review. If you > haven't read it already, Yorganson's _Secrets_ is an excellent > fiction account (though I know some of the stories were true) of > sexual abuse. _Riptide_ sounds too contrived. Yes, 191 pages. And $14.95 for all that, too. _Contrived_ didn't come to mind while reading _Riptide,_ but _narrow_ did. - -- Terry Jeffress - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 10:58:50 -0600 From: "Terry L Jeffress" Subject: Re: [AML] Where's our LDS Pulitzer prize winner? Replying to several posts at once quoting prophets and their recommendation to read literature widely: > "This horrifies me! Where is this place? Please tell > me it's not Utah." South Jordan to be exact. For exact geographic placement, the Jordan River Temple sits in my ward boundaries. In fact, about once every two months, someone gets up in testimony meeting and mentions how Uncle/Grandpa X donated his land for the temple site. (Some of these accounts would make excellent oral history, but the disdain of writing will probably condemn this history to oblivion.) Some in my ward to condone reading, if done in conjunction with doing your Genealogy. When I first moved into my ward, I think I was one of two families that weren't related to all the rest. I think my wife was the only one with an advanced university degree. The woman I quoted comes from one of the hardest core, and most interrelated families. As you can imagine, our attendance at youth night might reach 20% on good nights. These fundamentalists also disdain going to the doctor because we should rely on faith and the priesthood, not the knowledge of man. Ok, enough venting. Due to the farmer types selling their land to developers, my ward now has a better balance. I have seen youth reading Dean Hughes in the meetinghouse without a word from those who disdain the practice. - -- Terry Jeffress - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 26 Jun 2000 11:32:38 -0600 From: Margaret Young Subject: Re: [AML] Marion SMITH, _Riptide_ (review) Are you thinking of Linda Sillitoe's book published by Signature? I don't recall the title, but it might've been _Secrets_. I would be REALLY surprised if Deseret Book published a book about an out-of-touch Bishop. Jeff Needle wrote: > I really appreciated this review. > > Some years ago there was a book titled, I think, "Secrets." It was from > Deseret Book and dealt with the issue of abuse from the standpoint of a > totally out-of-touch bishop. > > Has anyone else read this book? > > At 04:13 PM 6/22/00 -0600, you wrote: > > --------------- > Jeff Needle > jeff.needle@general.com > > - > AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature > http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ End of aml-list-digest V1 #82 *****************************