From: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com (aml-list-digest) To: aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: aml-list-digest V1 #461 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, September 24 2001 Volume 01 : Number 461 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2001 12:50:32 -0400 From: "Debra L. Brown" Subject: [AML] Fw: MN The Light of the World (Pt. 2) Fact sheet The brain-storming sessions for Light of the World began almost three years ago, with a team of proven professionals. COSTUMING "The World" Between 1,500 and 2,000 costumes will be created for Light of the World, including 450 new costumes for the Tabernacle Choir, 100 costumes for the pioneer sequence and approximately 300 international costumes for the "Parade of Nations." Each of 50 pioneer dresses is decorated with an original handsewn pioneer quilt pattern. The dresses also feature dark bars down the skirts and on the edges which, when seen from above, give the impression of wagon wheels spinning. MUSIC: The Language of the Spirit The score for Light of the World is being composed by a collaboration of five award-winning Latter-day Saint musicians. The five, who meet together in home studios, are anonymously volunteering their time and talents to compose the score. Music for Light of the World will be prerecorded with the 80-piece Temple Square Orchestra and the Tabernacle Choir. Most of the show will be set to music - either songs or underscoring. SOUND Each sound on the soundtrack must be synchronized with the lighting and scenery computer systems. Virtually all of the assemblage, manipulation, recording, editing and mixing is done by computer. LIGHT: The Central Message Over 5,000 conventional lights already installed in the Conference Center will be used in Light of the World, in concert with 400 automated lights added for the show. High-powered computer systems control each light's intensity, color and beam characteristic during every minute of the show. John Featherstone, a resident of Chicago, Ill., is the lighting designer for the production. His impressive resume includes lighting concert tours for prominent musical groups. He has also provided the lighting design for the NBA All Star Jam Session every year since 1993, and has lighted various attractions at Universal Studios and Walt Disney theme parks. Together with his team of assistants and programmers, Featherstone can program one minute of Light of the World lighting in about an hour's time. Approximately one month will be spent programming, rehearsing and coordinating cues for the show. SET Although an entire team of designers is working to create the set for Light of the World, two general designers - one located in Provo, Utah, and the other in Chicago - are heading the task. Because of the physical distance between designers, venue and directors, a private Web site has been established to allow designers can post ideas and discuss possibilities. In addition, a computerized rendition of the Conference Center was created to make communication and proper design of elements easier. The set for Light of the World measures 130 feet wide and 100 feet deep - about one-third the size of a football field - and is being built at various locations in Utah. The set resembles the dome of a globe, and is specifically designed to encourage thought about relationships between people, the earth and heaven. VENUE The Conference Center is the largest religious auditorium in the world, seating 21,000 in an auditorium large enough to house a Boeing 747 jet. However, no audience member is farther than 270 feet from the stage, providing every viewer of Light of the World with a spectacular view as the Center becomes a huge canvas with image projections larger than IMAX, light effects, flying performers and a 1,000-member cast. Before Light of the World begins each night, the lobbies of the Conference Center will be filled with pre-show activities. International people representing their own culture and dressed in native costume will perform music and greet visitors. INTERNATIONAL CAST In addition to the International Children's Choir, several Brigham Young University groups will be involved in the production, including Young Ambassadors, Living Legends, Folk Dancers, Dancer's Company and BYU Children's Dance. Production managers, desiring to do more than simply dress American performers in costume, are seeking out international people living in the Salt Lake area to appear in their native dress - children, young adults, middle-aged adults and seniors. FLYING Branam Enterprises, Inc., a California-based company that has flown actors for music tours, television, and movies, will be brought in to fly actors up to 70 feet in the air above the Conference Center stage. Because performers will move up and down and rotate 360 degrees in midair, those involved in flying will generally have a background in dance or gymnastics. Music: The Language of the Spirit They are award winning, renowned and anonymous. The five Latter-day Saint composers commissioned to work as a team to create the score for Light of the World will never have their names on a marquee or receive credit for their accomplishments. They say their reward is being given the opportunity to compose music for an international audience during February 2002. For months they have been plunking out tunes, tweaking lyrics and exploring tempos, trying to get just the right sounds down on paper - sounds they hope will speak to a worldwide audience. "Above all, the music is going to carry the spirit of the show," says one. "I hope the music will transcend language barriers and bring the feeling of the production to the hearts of the audience." "The responsibility is staggering," says another. "But I don't care how many times we have to rewrite it to get it there. I just hope that when we're done it's right." To get it "right," the team has been meeting for hours each week, alternating home studios and nailing down concepts. Ideas, born as scribbles on white paper, are often short lived. During a typical session, a composer perches at the keyboard while another strums on his guitar. Three others hover over sheets of music - singing, humming and exploring new harmonies. Then, like musical chairs, the five switch roles and continue. They say it's hard work. Music composition requires constant rewriting and patient rehashing as it is - but the process is magnified fivefold when five artists, with their own styles and opinions, are added to the mix. But this challenge, the composers say, also has proved to be the strength of the group. "As we come together, especially as the songs start to take shape, we have each tried to focus on a different aspect or a different portion of each musical piece. We've been able to individually write about things we feel passionate about." Countless melodies have been tossed in the trash during this unique collaborative process, but the best ideas surface and stick, ultimately becoming pieces such as the Light of the World Anthem, which is sung by the world-renowned Tabernacle Choir accompanied by an 80-piece orchestra. These composers, accustomed to winning Emmys, and Pearl awards, will be silently sitting in the Conference Center during February 2002, watching as their words and music wash over visitors from all around the world. They will be looking for that intimate connection that sometimes only music can bring as it speaks to the hearts of those of other cultures, countries and experiences - and when they see it - they say that will be reward enough. Costuming "The World" Behind the massive stage in the Conference Center lies a small room filled with sewing machines, dozens of fabric bolts and thousands of pins. Crammed in this tiny room, costume designer Janet Swenson and her team of eight seamstresses work side by side, their efforts unknown to many. But come February 2002, visitors from all over the world will see the result as an international cast of more than 1,500 dazzles audiences in colorful costumes as they twirl, flip and even fly through the air in Light of the World. Because of the enormity of the Conference Center auditorium and the numerous performers, Swenson says "the costumes' bright colors and detailed patterns will be essential in communicating the program's message to a multicultural, multilingual audience." The key factor in creating the costumes for Light of the World was research. While most of her team has been involved with the project for only nine months, Swenson began the legwork over two years ago. "I have lots of research that I've gone through and colors and textiles and masks and headdresses," she explains. "Once you've done the research and you have it in your head, you just put it away and sit down and start your sketching and see if it all comes together." That's what happened when Swenson began work on the100 pioneer costumes for the production. The unique design of the pioneer dresses was modified several times before the final product was approved. Originally, the dresses were patterned after the pioneer dresses of the 1850s. But in order for the dresses to flow with the choreography, the pattern was altered from a straight skirt to a "circle skirt" with authentic bodices. Bands of dark material were incorporated into the dresses which, when worn with hats, will give the illusion of wagon wheels spinning as the dancers twirl across the stage. Each of the dresses includes a unique pioneer quilt pattern square with a name sewn into it, and a honeybee, representing the industry of the early pioneers. Visitors might just see a reflection of themselves and their native lands in the impressive "Parade of Nations" featuring over a hundred different countries. Swenson and her team canvassed Utah looking for international costumes, and what they couldn't find, they created, with an eye fixed on authenticity. While Swenson has worked for many years in the costume design industry and has outfitted performers in countless productions, she has never experienced anything quite like this before. "I'm sure this will be the biggest thing I ever do in my life, " she said. "You may as well enjoy the ride. That's the one thing that I tell myself every morning: Enjoy the ride!" Bringing "The World" to the Stage The 21,000-seat Conference Center auditorium, known for its worship services and concerts, will be transformed in February 2002 into a state-of-the-art theater staging a multimedia musical production on an unprecedented scale. "The Conference Center is going to be a marvelous place to experience live theater," says Randy Boothe, co-director of Light of the World. "It has a capability unlike any other theater to carry every member of the audience on an intimate, powerful journey they will long remember." The set design for the production uses both technical complexity and visual simplicity. Its central feature is a 130-foot dome that spans the entire length of the auditorium and serves as the stage. The dome, made expressly for the Conference Center, has a painted design that will correspond seamlessly to the aisles of the auditorium, all of which radiate from one central point. Performers will move between the stage and audience, coming down the aisles and up and over the dome. At one point in the program, the audience will see a hundred children dancing, running, skipping and jumping over the dome as they venture across the bridge between the production and reality. Boothe says, "In many ways, the set design will become a canvas on which the audience will view relationships and experiences not unlike their own." This unique set design draws upon universal images to enhance the experience of Light of the World - allowing directors to represent both the earth and the spirit of man in their full magnitude and grandeur. The immense space in the Conference Center will allow producers to project larger-than-life images, some even bigger than IMAX, onto various surfaces of the auditorium and the set. Performers will also use this vertical space in a dramatic way. Specially trained actors will soar through the 70 feet from the top of the grid to the floor of the Conference Center. The flying rigs give performers the capacity to travel from side to side, while moving up and down and rotating a full 360 degrees all at the same time - allowing the actors to travel the distance between earth and the heavens. The actors will fly and dance in the air in a way that uses both the technical precision of gymnastics and the finesse and aesthetics of dance. "At the height of this piece the universe comes into full motion. Figures will be flying and moving through the air," says children's choreographer Pat Debenham, "in a manner that allows not only the earth to become alive, but the space above it - the world above it - comes to life as well. All of the sudden, earth and sky come together." "Everything, from the size of the venue and set, to the themes of the Light of the World," adds set designer Mike Magelby, "begs a level of perspective we don't often experience." Light - The Central Message Light has intrigued John Featherstone for as long as he can remember. His earliest memories include using flashlights to light small box theaters he made at his home in England. "Light has always fascinated me - not just artificial light but also the wonders of natural light." Featherstone, a resident of Chicago, Ill., followed his passion to become a lighting designer, lighting concert tours for artists like Janet Jackson, the Pretenders and Van Halen. He has provided the lighting design for the NBA All Star Jam Session every year since 1993, and has lighted various attractions at Universal Studios and Walt Disney theme parks. It was a perfect fit, then, for producers of Light of the World to call on John's talent to illuminate a production in which light is the central message. "One of the key elements we're going to try to convey in this show is the light of Jesus Christ reaching down across the world. It is the same light that touches everyone, that lights up our souls and enhances the inner light that is already there," Featherstone said. Light of the World will feature over 5,000 lights. Most fixtures will be standard lights already in the Conference Center, but an additional 400 motorized lights will also be used. "One of the challenges of working in a space as large as the Conference Center," Featherstone says, "is that you need a lot of lighting fixtures to light a stage as big as we're going to be using." Featherstone's crew will examine each fixture individually and assign a position, intensity and color for every cue in the show. That information will then be input into a high-powered computer system that will control the lights during the production. "It will take us an hour to program a minute of show," Featherstone says. "That's why it's going to take us most of a month to program the production." The result will be light that steers the audience through a roller coaster of emotions through intensity, color and texture that can simulate various weather conditions as well as feelings of joy, anger and passion. "It's going to be a light that is very alive, very kinetic, very direct and uplifting in a way that it's going to reach out and touch the various members of the cast who represent the stories we're trying to tell." But Featherstone, who is not a member of the Church, emphasizes the lights should enhance the message of the program - not detract from it. He hopes the lights in Light of the World will show the light of Jesus Christ as well as the light within each individual. "One of the most flattering and humbling parts of being involved with this show is being given the awesome responsibility of representing the light of the transcendent," Featherstone says. "To me as a lighting designer, there is no greater honor I think you can have." Featherstone believes the combination of computer technology, video projections and lights will make Light of the World a cutting-edge show equal to any other major production in the world. "It's going to be every bit the size of show that one would see at the kind of spectaculars of the Academy Awards and the Grammys." # # # Source: The Light of the World LDS Church News Release 19Sep01 A1 http://www.lds.org/news/article/0,5422,116-6310,FF.html >From Mormon-News: Mormon News and Events Forwarding is permitted as long as this footer is included Mormon News items may not be posted to the World Wide Web sites without permission. Please link to our pages instead. For more information see http://www.MormonsToday.com/ - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2001 12:52:17 -0400 From: "Debra L. Brown" Subject: [AML] Fw: MN New Products: New Romances; Ward Activities for the Clueless: Kent Larsen 19Sep01 US NY NYC A4 New Products: New Romances; Ward Activities for the Clueless NEW YORK, NEW YORK -- As the big, Fall book season starts, new LDS romances are among the most prominent titles to hit bookstore shelves. Today we look at two of these new romances, "A Bridge to Eden" from Cedar Fort and "Beyond Summer Dreams" from Covenant Communications. In addition, Bookcraft has released a welcome help for those planning church activities, while long-time LDS author Carol Lynn Pearson has a new 'fable for our times.' New and recent products: A Bridge to Eden by David Turrill Cedar Fort Book; LDS Publisher; Fiction; Mormon Author and Subject $13.95 Psychological romance in which widower finds a remarkable resemblance to his late wife in a new neighbor. Ben Riveridge begins to believe that his wife has somehow "exchanged places" with the neighbor in a story that builds to a surprising ending. Beyond Summer Dreams by Jennie L. Hansen Covenant Book; LDS Publisher; Fiction; Mormon Author and Subject $14.95 Romance about a new graduate, Taylor Jordan, who forced to spend her summer with her 78-year-old grandmother in a small town. There she meets a veterinarian, Clay Curtis, who has rented part of her grandmother's house as office space. When the office and house are burglarized, the two are thrown together in an effort to discover who is responsible and why they are after Curtis. Ward Activities for the Clueless by Clark Kidd, Kathryn Kidd, Kent Pugmire, & Shannon Pugmire Bookcraft Book; LDS Publisher; Non-Fiction; Mormon Author and Subject $17.95 Hundreds of ideas for activities for wards and groups of all types, shapes and sizes. Includes service projects, socials and other types of events. The Gift: A Fable for Our Times by Carol Lynn Pearson, Kathleen Peterson Gibbs Smith Book; National Publisher; Fiction; Mormon Author $9.95 Based on a Tao tradition, The Gift explores what are the most precious gifts we own. It teaches that the most precious gifts are those that give us light in an otherwise dark world, helping us see things as they really are, and that all things work together for good. >From Mormon-News: Mormon News and Events Forwarding is permitted as long as this footer is included Mormon News items may not be posted to the World Wide Web sites without permission. Please link to our pages instead. For more information see http://www.MormonsToday.com/ - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2001 11:59:58 -0600 From: "Cathy Wilson" Subject: Re: [AML] What's Wrong with Me I wrote a post, which Jonathan kindly rejected, reminding me that it was just a political comment, responding to Michael's comments on Israelis and Palestinians. I don't think that the Palestinian aggression in Israel has to so much to do with disenfranchisement as it has to do with total rejection of the Other, of the Not-Me. Palestinians, and other Islamic terrorists, cannot admit the Other--they must destroy it. I think this kind of feeling can capture anyone who belongs to any kind of group, especially one theological (like us). Many of us have a visceral response (such as faint rejection coupled with missionary zeal) to non-Mormons. Even though I style myself a very accepting human being, when my daughter wants to date a non-Mormon, I get bristly and suspicious, at least till I get to know the guy :). In some ways, we can at least recognize and acknowledge what's behind the Islamic conservative mind--our LDS conservatives sometimes share it, a judgmental attitude that doesn't allow for what isn't US. Jerry Falwell, the same, no matter how afterwards the gentleman doth protest. Re not feeling strong feelings about the bombings--I realize that for me, after the initial shock of the news, there was only endless, endless commentary on the news. Why? I finally got it when the special issue of Time came here. Those first horrific moments were when the news happened. After that. . . .destruction but not active news. In an interview, some senators and others mentioned that they had seen plenty on the news, but that they had no clue of how huge the area affected really was. When they really visited Ground Zero, they were stricken with how big the horror actually was. I think we might have felt insulated from powerful responses in part because we coudln't get a real sense of the devastation through the TV and radio broadcasts. I am also struck by the near-universal religious response by Americans. A gorgeous contrast to the no-prayer-in-school news we so often get: everybody, everybody's praying. Just amazing. Cathy Cathy (Gileadi) Wilson Editing Etc. 1400 West 2060 North Helper UT 84526 - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2001 12:16:09 -0600 From: "Marianne Hales Harding" Subject: Re: [AML] The List and the WTC >Here is where I became angry, because unwittingly Marianne has cut me >to >the quick. I am one of those people. By last Friday I was ready >to move >forward and it seemed everyone else was still grieving. I >felt terribly >guilty because of it, and I didn't want to hurt anyone's >feelings by >seeming callous, but I needed to act. I needed to return >to normal. No >amount of continued grieving, no amount of TV reportage >on the subject, >was going to increase my ability to feel sorrow; the >only thing it would >do would be to make me numb, and I never ever want >to feel numb about >this. > >So let me ask you something--for those of you who think that other people >aren't displaying appropriate grief: > >How do you know? When they say "I didn't feel a personal loss." When they say "It's ok because no Mormons were killed." I have to say I was surprised by your post, Melissa. I do agree that life must go on. I didn't miss any work over this. (Well, I also don't have paid vacation or sick days yet but, still, I didn't think there was anything I could do by staying home and watching more news) I don't sit around crying all the time, though I am a blubberer and was, like Margaret Young, on the verge of tears all week. I do indeed laugh and tell jokes. I was very glad when UPN started showing regular tv shows instead of Dan Rather's "It appears that....Remember please that these are unconfirmed numbers..." (Note that he's much more tentative with "speculative" reports since the election coverage fiasco. Had to admit that made me smile.) I wouldn't have minded (I think) a more light-hearted Relief Society meeting if I had walked away from Sacrament meeting feeling like we, as a congregation, had grieved together. I don't expect everyone to cry all the time, but it was the first time our congregation had met together since the tragedy and it was not even addressed, really. Our light-hearted RS lesson was applauded as "timely" by the counselor in our RS Presidency that was conducting. Hardly anything that is completely unrelated to the tragedies seems "timely" to me right now. Good lesson, certainly, but not especially "timely." I do understand that people grieve in different ways, but I can also tell the difference between people grieving in a different way than I grieve and people who have given this tragedy about as much thought as we usually reserve for bombings in countries far far away or earthquakes in the middle of nowhere that don't have this kind of an impact on our lives and futures. Sort of, "Well, that was a bummer...next?" (Ok, that was a bit harsh too, but I was a little P.O'd) And I don't think that everyone in the congregation felt that way. Just a very vocal few that did, indeed, upset me. I have to admit to being a sap. When I see pictures of bombings in far far countries I *do* mourn for those people. I have been known to cry when reading Newsweek and to cry when watching local news. When a local woman jumped off the Ship Canal Bridge here in Seattle I cried at the callousness of the grid-locked drivers on I-5 that shouted for her to jump (so that traffic could get moving again). My husband thought I actually saw her jump, I was that affected. I just saw the news. So I do know that I am a sap. And I do know that there isn't a huge percentage of the population that takes things to heart like I do. I have learned to live with that my whole life. This was different from that. I don't know why we didn't start to talk about this on the List sooner. Maybe it was too fresh and too intimate. I was in too much shock to put things into words before I did. And I am, after all, a sap, so why would I put a damper on the list conversation when no one else wanted to? But when Eric broke the silence I was in need of someone to listen and so I wrote. I'm glad for the reponses I've gotten from the post and I am truly sorry that it upset you so much, Melissa. We went kite-flying on Monday with the ward. The tragedies didn't come up once. It was a lovely day and a lovely activity. I had a very good time. Life does go on. But it will never be the same. I'm accutely aware of that right now. Marianne Hales Harding _________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2001 12:39:41 -0600 From: margaret young Subject: [AML] _I Am Jane_ Oct. 4 Production Dear list members--we are planning to show _I Am Jane_ on Thursday Oct. 4 at 7:30 p.m. and Friday Oct. 5 at 4:00 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. We just have this one little problem: The venue we have had scheduled since July fell through on Wednesday. Because we were waiting on Church approval before starting publicity and did not get the "no" until Wednesday, we are in the condition of being nearly ready to present the best show we've done to date, but with absolutely no publicity. This post is the first publicity to go anywhere. The moment we have a venue, we will blast every available publicity center with announcements, but the person I need to talk to to schedule a Salt Lake high school or middle school (our most likely venue) has decided to take today off. Isn't this an interesting situation? I won't be able to secure a venue until Monday. What I'm asking you to do is help me get the word out. We WILL perform the show in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Genesis Group. Despite my careful revisions of the script, apparently someone is nervous about how Brigham Young is described in his dealings with Blacks. I can't be sure how things happened, only that we did not get approval to do the show in the Bountiful Regional Center and that word came two weeks before our scheduled showing. Likely, we simply faced broad miscommunication. It doesn't really matter, though. We're where we are. We really do want an audience, though. This is a new script with some significant changes. Even if you've seen it before, I think you'll enjoy seeing how it's evolving. The remarkable Char Nelson has helped me direct it, and it really will be the best show we've done--with many roles re-cast. SO PLEASE put it on your calendars and join us wherever we do it. We will charge a small fee to help us cover our costs--likely $5.00 per person/$20.00 per family (with the request that no children under age 6 attend). PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD. As soon as we're able, we'll do a massive--though ridiculously late--publicity campaign. [Margaret Young] - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2001 14:08:33 -0600 From: "Eric R. Samuelsen" Subject: [AML] Re: The WTC and the Death of Irony and Satire >War is a time during which many artists lose their ability to make art. = >They have often found it absurd to pursue such things in the face of such = >horror. Tadeuz Rozewicz, an Eastern European poet, found himself in = >>such a situation, and though he didn't stop writing, he found himself = >unable to employ any beauty--only starkness. And that is a hard and = >perhaps unnecessary way to live. This summer in London, I had the opportunity to see a superb production of = Rozewicz' play The Card Index. It wasn't stark at all. It was wonderful; = bleakness interspersed with vaudevillian comedy, pain and suffering = transformed through lyrical writing of the first order, farce and tragedy = intermixed. And it was very very funny. Perhaps Rozewicz came to this = decision later in his life, but his one full-length play exhibits the very = best qualities of the best responses by so many Eastern European writers = to totalitarian horror; absurdist theatre. Think of Vaclav Havel, and his = many superb comic allegories; I especially love The Memorandum, about a = bureacrat who comes under suspicion because he writes a memo that is = completely incomprehensible, which means that it's now the perfect = memorandum, which means that he is SO good at his job that he's now = clearly dangerous. Or Slawomir Mrozek, whose play Tango illustrates the = the only possible rebellion open to the children of bohemians; bourgeois = respectablility. Absurdity and absurdism, irony, satire; I'd say these = are the best possible responses to tragedy. =20 Eric Samuelsen - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2001 13:05:16 -0700 From: "jana" Subject: [AML] Up for Review Another title for review: >From Deseret Book-- Purity and Passion by Wendy Watson. This is a nonfiction book, with "spiritual truths about intimacy = that will strengthn marriages." Jana Remy AML-List Review Editor - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2001 13:09:10 -0700 From: "jana" Subject: [AML] Review Selections If you are on this list, please send me your snail mail address. Thanks, Jana Remy AML-List Review Editor - -------------------------- Cutting Edge: D. Michael Martindale Race Against Time Ethan Skarstedt Writing on the Wall Jeff Needle - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2001 14:42:58 -0700 From: "Christopher Bigelow" Subject: [AML] _New Yorker_ Magazine <<>> I received my New Yorker yesterday, and it has a stunning all-black cover = except for the masthead. If you tilt it right in the light, you can see = the silhouette of the twin towers (my wife noticed that--I just thought it = was all black). Inside, there are NO cartoons, tantamount to baking a cake = without sugar. (Each week I try to make myself enjoy the cartoons only as = I encounter them in my normal reading, but more often than not I flip = through and eat my dessert first.) It looks like they managed to gather = almost an entire issue on the attacks (they have some of their normal = reviews toward the end, I think--my wife took the issue first, so I = haven't read it). But they do have the normal ads, it looks like. (You = know, I think the New Yorker is the single best influence on my own = writing, which is why I put a lot of discipline into keeping up with it). Chris Bigelow - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2001 14:54:01 -0600 From: "Eric R. Samuelsen" Subject: Re: [AML] The List and the WTC I was very interested in Scott's take on Bin Laden, someone who murders to = get gain, not monatarily, but in the coin of popularity and adoration. =20 Still, why are we so reluctant to admit that his motives seem to be = genuinely religious? What I've read about him--and I'm certainly no = expert on any of this--is that he genuinely believes in a kind of Islam = that he sees as being desecrated, in part because the holy places of Islam = were desecrated in Jerusalem by the presence of Israel and because the = holy places of Islam in Saudi Arabia were desecrated by American troops = there during the Persian Gulf war. He left Saudi Arabia, as I understand = it, not because he wasn't going to be powerful, but because he was = genuinely disgusted by the corruptness of the Saudi regime. And he = detests America because of our support of Israel, our armed intervention = in the Gulf war, and because of the encroaching values of Western pop = culture. Certainly he's an enemy and dangerous and certainly he's lunatic = fringe within Islam. But why question his religious motives? Why = question his sincerity? Couldn't he be as genuinely, sincerely religious, = as, say Richard Lionheart (speaking of terrorists)? Eric Samuelsen - - 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 #461 ******************************