From: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com (aml-list-digest) To: aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: aml-list-digest V1 #519 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 Friday, November 16 2001 Volume 01 : Number 519 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2001 19:11:11 -0700 From: "K.D. Enos" Subject: [AML] Re: Aliens in Mormon Lit. Ok, this got my cogs turning. Actually one episode of Star Trek (the original) had a planet with human looking aliens whom they thought were sun worshipers but at the end of the show the black, female communications officer whose name I can't spell told them that they were worshiping the Son of God. That is something I could believe could happen. Konnie Enos - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2001 19:14:37 -0700 From: "K.D. Enos" Subject: Re: [AML] Created Spiritually? I never much thought about the creative process till today. I'm working on another story of mine and I realized that one of the character is not just a wiz with math but good with money as well. A fact that I didn't know about her until it came up in the writting today. Also just yesterday I was telling my husband that my characters have a life beyond what gets discovered in the course of my story. Things I know about them that don't end up being part of the story. And yes, I'm a writer and I always have the voices in my head. I get full conversations going between my characters. It's not something I expect just anybody to understand, but it helps me write my stories. They sound better that way. Konnie Enos - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 14 Nov 2001 23:12:43 -0500 From: "Debra Brown" Subject: [AML] Fw: MN New York Times Raves about LDS Historian's Latest Book: Kent Larsen 13Nov01 US NY NYC A2 New York Times Raves about LDS Historian's Latest Book NEW YORK, NEW YORK -- A review by Yale historian John Demos in this week's New York Times Book Review raves about the most recent book by LDS historian Laurel Thatcher Ulrich, calling the book, "The Age of Homespun," "remarkable" and an invitation to "reflect deeply and reconsider fully" in a time of cultural reckoning. Demos calls Ulrich a "supremely gifted scholar and writer" who in this book has "truly outdone herself." According to Demos "The Age of Homespun" ventures off in "a new and highly original direction" by putting physical objects produced in the home, such as textiles and furniture, at the center of her study. These objects are enshrined in myth as an entire way of life, that still today, according to Demos, has an emotional hold that remains undiminished. This view of the early U.S. lifestyle is called on in debates on "family values" and homeschooling. It surfaces in the production of quilts to memorialize those that have died from AIDS and even appears in Hillary Clinton's claim that "it takes a village to raise a child." But Ulrich doesn't just describe the 'homespun' objects. She uses "a deeply creative process of analysis and contextualizing" to give 14 different objects meaning by joining them to "the experience of the people who produced, owned, used and preserved them. It is, finally, the connections that make her investigation so unusual and rewarding," says Demos. Ulrich's work is also "grounded, as it must be, on a total mastery of innumerable physical details, up to and including the procedures used in making each object." These details appear, for example, in her description of spinning wool into thread, which Ulrich writes, "Some writers refer to ... as unskilled work. They have obviously never tried it." She adds this knowledge of each object to detailed research into local and family history, genealogy and folklore in order to bring each object and its connections to life. Demos says what might have been dull description becomes easy reading because of Ulrich's talented writing. "Ulrich is a hugely accomplished prose stylist; she fills ''The Age of Homespun'' with wit and playfulness, lightening what might otherwise become dense and difficult reading." While Ulrich, who is a professor of history at Harvard University, doesn't directly discuss Mormon objects in the book (most of the objects are from New England, covering the period from 1676 to 1837), those she does discuss are also present in Mormon history (including both Mormon quilts and furniture, which are the subjects of their own books). Furthermore, her use of family, local history and genealogy resonate with most LDS Church members. The praise for Ulrich's book isn't unfamiliar territory for her, either. In 1991 she won both the Bancroft Prize, the most prestigious award for the study of history, and the 1991 Pulitzer Prize in history for her book "The Midwife's Tale." That book was subsequently made into a PBS special. Source: 'The Age of Homespun': Learning About the Past From Objects New York Times 11Nov01 A2 http://www.nytimes.com/2001/11/11/books/review/11DEMOST.html By John Demos >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 ------------------------------ End of aml-list-digest V1 #519 ******************************