From: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com (aml-list-digest) To: aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: aml-list-digest V1 #458 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 Thursday, September 20 2001 Volume 01 : Number 458 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 11:43:29 -0600 From: "Amy Chamberlain" Subject: Re: [AML] What's Wrong with Me - ----- Original Message ----- From: Gae Lyn Henderson To: Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2001 12:04 AM Subject: RE: [AML] What's Wrong with Me > Letterman asked Rather if he could help him understand why we are so hated. > Rather said that bin Laden and associates see themselves (although they > would never admit it) as the losers of the world. They are filled with > intense jealousy, anger, bitterness. They hate us with an unmitigated rage > that only wants our death and destruction. He said that to any in the > Western world, much less the United States, such unqualified hatred, such > evil, is not comprehendible. He believes we are faced with evil of such a > nature that we almost cannot conceive of it. > I like Rather's answer. I've also found that the tree of life dream in the Book of Mormon offers a hint on this subject. Nephi sees that the people in the great and spacious building are pointing, laughing, and mocking those holding to the iron rod. I've always thought, well, if I were in that building, I wouldn't waste my time with that. I'd be partying--drinking cocktails (always been curious about champagne), eating decadent chocolates, and socializing. And completely ignoring the people at the rod. After all, it's a great and spacious building, with probably lots to do inside. Why would these people spend their time making fun of people who are leaving them alone? It took me a few more years to realize the answer: people who are good, who are trying to do the best they can, or who are successful to any degree will always draw fire from those who aren't. In the few times in my life when I've stuck to my guns and done what was right, I experienced withering scorn and contempt from those who were doing otherwise--and the reaction was far greater than my piddling little actions would justify. While America is far from perfect, as a country we're far enough ahead of others in matters of liberty, personal freedom, and stability that we are a natural target for hate and envy. On TV this week, a member of the clergy, when asked what we Americans had done to be so hated, said "It's time for all Americans to take a long, hard look at ourselves and repent of what we have done to create such enemies." I seethed. In fact, I yelled at him, "We haven't done ANYTHING to deserve such enmity! That's just what evil does!" (My one-year-old looked concerned.) I don't want to paint with too broad a brush, or condone everything that Americans do. Certainly we have plenty to repent for. But the assumption held by some in the media that we must have done something terrible to bring such acts on our heads is wrong. Amy Chamberlain - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 12:01:35 -0600 From: "Todd Petersen" Subject: [AML] Purpose of Art Scott Parkin wrote: "one of the reasons I cringe at the recurring "What is Art?" thread, = because in the end Art is whatever the consumer determines it is [...] = But the essential quality of art remains a deeply individual determination.= " This is a much clearer articulation of why I shifted away from Eric's = position on art. Thank you, Scott. Chris Bigleow wrote: "I've started thinking of Brian Evenson and Neil LaBute as cultural terrorists. I'm not sure terrorists don't serve an important role. After all, Satan plays an important role in the plan of salvation. (What's great about literature is that it's not real life. It's just ink on paper.)" This is a very interesting and BOLD thing to say at this point, and surely = not a perception Brian or Labute would share. Nevertheless, it is = interesting, and it makes me consider my position as a writer. I am not = trying to entertain, though that is not a horrible pursuit, rather I am = trying to analyze my culture--both the LDS one and the larger American and = contemporary one. I am trying to be catlytic in my adressing of culture. I hope that my = work will (a) help me see my world with a little more clarity, and = rendering it in narrative seems to help; (b) enable other people see their = worlds with a little more clarity; and (c) reveal assumptions we make = about our cultures that cause us to act with less kindness, empathy, and = neighborliness. This is, however, when I'm at my best and most noble-feeling. Mostly, I'm = just trying to make the sentences beautiful, and the dialogue ring true. = That other stuff just rides along like an oxpecker perched on the back of = a rhinoceros. - -- Todd Robert Petersen - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 14:44:16 -0500 From: Ronn Blankenship Subject: Re: [AML] Where Were You? At 10:43 PM 9/18/01, Diann T. Read, Maj, USAFR wrote: >[snipped only for brevity] > >On Tuesday, 11 September I was looking forward to the last three weeks of >a 90-day tour of duty here at Lackland AFB, TX when MSgt Pete Chavarria >dashed into our office and said, "Turn on the TV! A plane just crashed >into the World Trade Center!" We turned on the TV, saw smoke billowing >out of the first tower, and began speculating on everything from an >amateur pilot in a small craft to a faulty navigation system--and as we >stood debating, we watched in disbelief as the second airliner plowed >into the other tower. > >My 90-day tour of duty won't be ending in another two weeks. Please pray >for us, and for the wisdom of our leaders. > >Diann T. Read, Maj, USAFR >On duty for our nation Right after the above message, I read the following: >BREAKING NEWS from CNN.com > >-- U.S. Air Force will deploy more than 100 aircraft to "forward areas" in= =20 >the Persian Gulf, sources tell CNN. Details soon. > > >(c) 2001 Cable News Network, Inc. >An AOL Time Warner Company [repeating the end of Diann's message:] >My 90-day tour of duty won't be ending in another two weeks. Please pray >for us, and for the wisdom of our leaders. > >Diann T. Read, Maj, USAFR >On duty for our nation We already are, Diann. We already are. - -- Ronn! :) God bless America, Land that I love! Stand beside her, and guide her Thru the night with a light from above. From the mountains, to the prairies, To the oceans, white with foam=85 God bless America! My home, sweet home. - -- Irving Berlin (1888-1989) - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 14:26:49 -0600 From: Thom Duncan Subject: Re: [AML] The List and the WTC Barbara Hume wrote: > At 02:30 PM 9/14/01 -0600, you wrote: > >> Please forgive me for this. How are the rest of you doing? > > > I don't want to watch the plane hit the tower. I don't even go to movies > with pretend planes hitting pretend towers. The sight of people dying, > whether real or simulated, is not my idea of entertainment. I > fast-forward, I skip pages, I stay home from the movies that might > overwhelm and desensitive me with images of violence. Can desensitizing really occur? I watch every disaster movie that comes out but I still wept watching the towers collapse and,later, seeing the families of missing people talk about their loss. I keep waiting for the desensitizing to occur, but it hasn't seemed to kick in yet. Who are "they" talking about when they say that movies can desensitize us? Thom Duncan - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 14:41:05 -0600 From: Scott and Marny Parkin Subject: Re: [AML] Fw: MN Former MoTab Organist Schreiner Honored >"More than any other, he has influenced LDS music in this century," >said Dan Berghout, author of the new book, "Alexander Schreiner, >Mormon Tabernacle Organist." This book was published by BYU Studies. It is a very interesting biography with lots of pictures. For more information, email byu_studies@byu.edu. Marny Parkin - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 17:33:54 -0500 From: James Picht Subject: Re: [AML] The WTC and the Death of Irony and Satire Ed Snow wrote: > Second, I have no desire to write humor ever again. No doubt I will write > it again, someday, but as R.W. Rasband, my twin from a different mother, > has pointed out, irony and satire are dead. I've read with great interest the outpouring of emotion in editorials, letters, and e-mail this last week. I feel some of it, but far, far less powerfully than those who have decided to share their feelings with the rest of us. My sense of humor is intact - irony and satire live. They're a bit subdued right now - most of us feel it would be in poor taste for them to cavort front and center so soon - but if they could survive two world wars and uncounted atrocities in the last century (to say nothing of the paper cut I got this morning), they'll survive this. > Dave Berry ran a syndicated column last Saturday that read like a NYTimes > editorial. So did Robert Kirby last week in the SLTrib. Even if they'd felt like humor, social expectations forbade it. After a tragedy, it's only good manners to put on mourning clothes. You don't cut up at a funeral, even if you dislike the deceased. You bite your cheek to force a tear, even if you're thinking "good riddance." After the immediacy of seeing almost the entire disaster live on TV and then seeing it replayed again and again and again, I understand why almost everyone thinks it's time to reflect and be sober. What I don't understand is why so many people think that reflection has to be funereal. I've visited war zones in the immediate aftermath of fighting and found people celebrating with all the gusto they could grab - "it was awful, it's still awful, but we're alive, there'll be a tomorrow!" Laughter sounds wonderful in the wake of catastrophe. Some delightful irony has drifted from the ashes of the Holocaust. > I hope humor will be resurrected, but it will not be on the morning of the > first resurrection. The morning of the first resurrection is reserved for > hope. Hope without humor? Don't be ridiculous. Humor is often effervescent with hope, and hope with humor. Without humor there will be no hope. They'll be resurrected together. But that's not something we need look for just yet. Neither one has died. Jim Picht - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 16:16:15 -0400 From: "Debra L. Brown" Subject: [AML] Fw: MN Mormon Websites: Kent Larsen 18Sep01 US NY NYC I4 Newly Listed Mormon Websites: Early LDS Hymns http://www.earlyldshymns.com/ Contains information on reprint of two hymnbooks with more than 140 hymns used during 1836 to 1846. Unlike in the original hymnbooks, the texts of the hymns are paired with their original tunes, or similar tunes from that time. A Family Season http://users.mstar2.net/smithfam9/afamilyseason.htm Site selling book of gospel principle-centered Family Home Evening activities. History of the Saints in Trinidad & Tobago http://www.bordeglobal.com/ebook/index.html Site selling e-book version of a history of the LDS Church in Trinidad & Tobago. Includes two books, software to view the books and many photos and information about Church members in this Caribbean country. Home Teaching Tracker http://dev.idd2.seranova.com/ht/index.php On-line service that allows Wards and Branches to track their hometeaching on-line. Quorum presidents can enter home teaching lists and home teachers can then record the visits they make. >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: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 23:17:33 From: "Eric D. Snider" Subject: Re: [AML] The WTC and the Death of Irony and Satire I’ve read with interest a lot of commentary on the place of humor in a post-terrorist attack society. I write a humor column, “Snide Remarks,” twice a week for The (Provo) Daily Herald. It appears Wednesdays and Fridays. No column appeared last Wednesday (the day after the attacks) because no matter how funny the column might have been, it wouldn’t have seemed funny at all when surrounded with all that awful news. For Friday, I wrote a column that acknowledged what had happened (but did not make jokes about it) and talked about my personal struggles with it. A link to the column is here -- http://www.harktheherald.com/article.php?sid=24744&mode=thread&order=0 - -- but the gist of it is this: I watched the news coverage all day at work, then went home and watched some more. After 10 hours of it, I was feeling incredibly depressed. I had to force myself to turn it off and do something else. I drove to Media Play, hoping to find a DVD to buy that featured a comedy that would brighten my spirits. I bought “Mary Poppins,” one of my favorite childhood movies. While watching “Mary Poppins,” I was finally able to have some emotional release -- impossible all day, due to being involved in helping the Herald cover it, etc. I cried like a baby, and then laughed my head off for the rest of the film. The movie was remarkably appropriate for the situation, as the point of it is that no matter how dreary or difficult life may be, we all have to take some time to go fly a kite every now and then. When have we ever needed to fly a kite more than now? The column itself had funny moments and made the point that we ought to look for the little spoonfuls of sugar in our lives right now. Reaction to the column was overwhelming. I had phone call after phone call and e-mail after e-mail from people saying it was just what they needed -- something hopeful but not overly emotional, something full of joy and humor and optimism. A few anonymous folks posting on the Herald site said it was inappropriate to say anything funny, ever again, but they were definitely the minority. Most readers loved it. Today’s column was even more of a challenge, though. Today, I had to get back to regular “Snide Remarks” business. I ran the column I had originally scheduled for the day after the attacks. It discusses the ACLU, particularly the recent controversy over a woman in Orem who complained about some restaurants’ “missionary discounts,” saying they discriminate against non-Mormons. (In truth, they discriminate against most Mormons, too, since most Mormons are not full-time missionaries. But that point is made in the column.) It’s a funny column, I think, and I knew most Utah County readers would agree with my anti-AC LU stance -- that is to say, it wasn’t the kind of column that would make them mad (which I have sometimes been known to write). The column is full of rather pointed satire and irony; it is not subtle or gentle. The question was, would it make readers laugh? Was anyone in a laughing mood? Would the ACLU and the missionary-discount controversy seem so trivial after the terrorist attacks that making jokes about them would seem irrelevant? (The link is here: http://www.harktheherald.com/article.php?sid=25185&mode=thread&order=0 ) The response, again, was overwhelming. When I arrived at work, I already had six voice mails from people saying they loved the column and thought it was hilarious. (On a typical column day, I might get two phone calls, total.) I had many e-mails saying the same thing. Comments posted on the Herald site concurred (with a few dissenters, of course). As I write this, no one has yet suggested it was inappropriate to make jokes “at a time like this.” Those who didn’t like the column felt that way because they disagreed, not because they were anti-humor. Different people will have different reactions to the terrorist attacks, of course. No doubt there are some who feel all humor is too light right now, and I don’t fault them for that. But what I conclude from my experiences is that most of us don’t want to let these terrible acts affect who we are. And we are people who enjoy humor. Some of us might make a conscious effort to seek out light entertainment and diversion, like I did with “Mary Poppins.” But even if we don’t, I think our natural, subconscious response will be to find ways to amuse ourselves and brighten our spirits. We all know the healing power of humor, and we will seek it out, consciously or otherwise. I’m not saying there will be humor ABOUT the attacks, though no doubt such will arise, appropriate or not. I’m talking about finding humor in the other aspects of our lives. We have friends and co-workers and families whom we generally laugh with, and we will continue to do so, even now. This doesn’t mean we lack respect for those who died. It just means we are human beings who are not meant to shut down and give up when faced with adversity. New York Mayor Guiliani and President Bush have both advised us to go back to work, get on with our lives. The whole point of the terrorist attacks was to destroy us and disrupt our lives. The more we can do to live normally, the more we show the terrorists they haven’t won. Going on with our lives means being of good cheer, laughing with friends, enjoying the simple pleasures, and taking part in entertainment. I still don’t feel much like writing humor sometimes, and I suspect it will be hard for the next few weeks. But reader reaction so far has indicated to me that people WANT humor. I don’t feel needed very often, but I sort of do now. Eric D. Snider _________________________________________________________________ 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: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 13:42:17 -0600 From: Scott and Marny Parkin Subject: [AML] Catharsis and Other Peoples' Stories In the "The List and the WTC" thread margaret young wrote: >Thank you, Eric, for writing this. I was at a book festival over >the weekend and was a little dismayed upon my return to see that >NONE of the AML messages addressed this national "coming of age." >We were still talking about polygamy and Mormon iconography. In the "What's Wrong with Me" thread D. Michael Martindale wrote: >I see people all around reacting with strong emotion to the terrorist >events on September 11, 2001. I see tremendous grief, boiling rage, >trembling fear. With those who witnessed events first hand, or lived >nearby, or who have lost loved ones, it's the understatement of the >millennium to say that this is understandable. But these strong emotions >are not restricted to those personally affected. They seem to be felt by >everyone in the country, and many beyond. So I ask myself, why don't I >feel them? ===== I'm of two minds on the role of the AML List in discussing the WTC/Pentagon bombings (they seem like bombings to me, even though it was commercial aircraft that functioned as the bombs). On the one hand I feel like this list is a place where we can and ought to talk about what it is to be Mormon and Human and to tell our stories, whatever they might be. We are a storytelling people, and as citizens of this planet the events at the WTC and Pentagon and an empty field south of Pittsburgh are part of our stories as Mormons and Humans--especially as they touch on our own ideas about God's plan and the purposes of this life. But on the other hand I do have a hard time seeing the specific Mormon connection. While I happen to believe in a Mormon literature that uses the jargon of Mormonism only sparingly, and I do have a hard time seeing why this event is any more about Mormon letters than a discussion of abortion or drug use or the last American presidential election. Yes, these are important issues that touch directly or indirectly on our lives as Mormons, but they aren't issues of Mormon letters unless published and criticized as such. How can I comment on someone else's response to these events? What is there to discuss that doesn't question someone's right to feel the way they feel? And on the gripping hand I find that as an individual I find the whole thing to be so personal, intimate, and unique, that I'm not sure I want to read about it here--or anywhere. I'm not sure I have a right to participate in other peoples' pain. If I do have that right I'm not sure I want to exercise it. I can't understand the fear of the people who died, and I can't imagine the pain of those who lost friends or family. I don't know what it's like to live in a city partially destroyed by evil men, or how one copes with the crater they've left in the streets. I'm not sure I want to know. I'm pretty sure that I can't know. I've watched more and more snippets on TV over the last few days that attempt to capture the poignancy of those moments and share them with me, and as I see each one I can't help but become jaded to them. They're being manufactured wholesale now, and are shown on every channel and at every opportunity. While watching ESPN's Baseball Tonight earlier this evening I couldn't help but notice how each story was prefaced with a shot of the American flag and one athlete or another crying during the American national anthem. And I felt like a voyeur, a Peeping Tom. I felt like an uninvited guest at the funeral of a stranger. An imposter I know that this is not everyone's reaction, but it has become mine. I cringe every time I see a freshly packaged heart-rending moment, and I find myself becoming at least mildly resentful that so many people want to push my face into other peoples' suffering. Yes, I understand that it's an attempt to let all of us mourn with those who mourn. But how do I comfort those in need of comfort? How do I justify my claim to be one of those in need of comfort when I have had no direct part in the suffering of those who were there? Which makes me think about the stories we tell and the methods we use to tell them. When does personal catharsis move over into casting pearls before swine? When do we leave the grieving alone with their grief? Why do we choose one story of pain and not another? When is it our duty to tell our stories of pain, when is it our duty to keep them private, and when is it bad taste to share them with others? In this I may be revealing the deep pettiness of my own soul. I admit that I'm a little jealous of the massive outpouring of support to New York. When a wildfire burned 8200 acres of forest on two sides of my home last month the Red Cross didn't even bother to set up a shelter. When I stood on top of my roof with a garden hose at 1:00 am and shouted at my wife to grab the kids, jump in the car, and evacuate the area while the 200 foot wall of flame burned less than a block away and the 500 foot whirling tornado of fire burned less than two blocks away, where were the camera crews? On the evening news earlier that night KSL had dismissed the fire as barely newsworthy even though 260 homes were in imminent danger--along with their 1000+ residents. I'm at least a little jealous that when I tried to explain in e-mail the terror of believing our whole world was about to end in fire that my parents' total response was, "We're so glad you weren't burned in the fire. During our vacation we went to..." Is it fair of me to feel cheated at this paltry response to the most harrowing personal experience of my life? No. My parents can't know the fear of that night or my personal guilt when I feared that I had waited too long to send my family away because I was up on the roof with a video camera. They can't understand my deep belief that the prayers of the faithful were answered and the inferno was snuffed out almost in an instant when the wind suddenly reversed direction to blow up the canyon instead of down. No one can understand--except maybe those who live in the houses alongside mine. Maybe those who have survived other forest fires in other places. Certainly those who lost friends or loved ones in those other fires. As much as I want others to acknowledge my right to feel pain for my own near tragedy, I can't really expect it. And I'm no longer sure I'd welcome it. It's something that belongs to those of us who were there, and to no one else. If I feel that strongly about a fire that burned 8200 acres but no homes and that took no human lives, then I have to wonder about those who have experienced so much more loss. And I wonder when good taste demands that we allow those who mourn the 911 bombings to do so in private, and to respect that privacy. I wonder when trying to share another's pain becomes an attempt to co-opt it, to bask in its reflected glow. I don't know. I'm not sure I ever will. And in the interim we each seek comfort in our own ways and in our own places. For those that seek it here, I wish you well. I need to speak to faces, to hear their voices, to be able to touch a hand or a shoulder or to embrace if needed. I need to choose silence by mutual agreement when words are no longer right. I need direct feedback and intimate communication. I need people at the same time that I understand that many people need solitude. A month ago my dearest friend and I sat together on his front porch at 4:00 a.m. after the fire had fled away and tried to understand what had just happened, and what had not. A week ago that same friend was in lower Manhattan for a business meeting and saw the first tower collapse from about two miles away. I want to know all of his thoughts and feelings after directly experiencing two extraordinary events in only a month's time, but I have no right to ask because while I seek to give comfort I also seek to find comfort, and I'm not sure it's fair of me to demand that of him. Are some stories too important to tell--or to ask others to tell? Are some stories too personal to share? What is our responsibility in telling our stories, especially when we know that others have far more important stories to tell than our own? I don't know, but I think we need to tell whatever stories our souls demand. But not all people want or need to hear all stories, and that's okay too. I'm stupidly optimistic about the entirety of the world's response to these events. We have survived, and we can choose to be strengthened. Nations everywhere are now forced to rethink their methods and their reasons. As nations we have an opportunity to repent of past mistakes, to reverse policies made for political expediency, not moral superiority. For a short time we can all change our minds without losing face, and that means that we can choose to be better than we have been. But as a citizen of the only nation ever to use nuclear weapons against an enemy I think American national innocence was lost long ago. Each new generation can be wounded afresh, and our response will tell use who we have become since the last injury. I hope we discover nobility, because that is the only proof we have against those who accuse us of pettiness. I still believe in the goodness of people in times of crisis. Is that innocence or naivete? Only time and each of our individual responses will tell. Sorry for the ramble. My way of coping is to talk, and an e-mail discussion list allows for a far more maundering and self-indulgent wallow than live conversation. A limit (or maybe hazard) of the form, I guess. May God's peace find us all. Scott Parkin - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 19:47:16 -0700 From: Rachel L Knecht Subject: Re: [AML] The List and the WTC I was born the year Saigon fell. I was 10 when the challenger exploded. I was in high school for the Gulf War. I'm just a kid, really, and I've always felt like one too. I'm on the tail end of Generation X (whatever happened to that term anyway?) The only memories of violent world events are fuzzy at best. I have lived a relatively peaceful life. So when I heard the news on my way to work that the United States had been attacked the only thing I could think of to do was cry because I had never been in a situation like that before. What has my generation experienced except for the break down of communism and a new century? We've never experienced a national tragedy like this before. And then I realized that no one had. That this was the biggest thing to happen to all of us, ever. That just because I wasn't around when Kennedy was shot or Pearl Harbor was bombed doesn't mean that my generation is the only one at a loss as to what needs to be done. I happened to be on the freeway heading towards Los Angeles as all of this was unfolding and what made me realize my error in thinking was the look on everyone's faces as the news from the radio became more unreal and the city became closer. I could read their minds. Are we next? Is the First Interstate Building going to be hit? We have twin towers in Century City. Where's my cell phone? It didn't help that the DJ I was listening to was saying the exact same thing in a rather panicky voice. There we were, thousands of commuters alone in our cars listening to unimaginable tales that were all too real. Both men and women were crying in their cars. Fear was not the only expression on those faces though. There was frustration. I had it on my face I'm sure. Utter frustration that I was sitting in traffic with _no one_ to talk to. I work about 15 miles from down town and was happy to get off the freeway, out of my car and into work where people were ready to talk. I stood and spoke with my co-workers for a few minutes but what can you say about mass death and destruction. So I went to my desk and started writing. I wrote down all that had happened and tried to express how I felt and then I started working on my story I had been stuck on for weeks. My main writing emphasis is children's literature, specifically middle grade to young adult. A common theme in that genre is coming of age. I've always had a difficult time writing about that because my life has always been so easy. I never had a truly defined coming of age moment. I came into adulthood through time not experience. Sure, I went to college and now I have my very own grown up job with benefits and everything. But nothing life altering has happened. The story that I'm working on has nothing to do terrorists or air planes or New York City. But it's a story that deals with loss and grief and responsibility. Things I had suddenly become well acquainted with in just one drive to work. I have come of age now. We have just seen an entire nation come of age. I've been a religious lurker of this list for 3 years now but I think I've only spoken up once before some years ago. So in a way I feel like I'm intruding a little on a private conversation. Several times I have wanted to respond (like to Eric's comparison of Cooperstown and Church Historical Sites. I had a very similar idea when I made the pilgrimage last year.) but I never have because of time, insecurities, lack of something interesting to say. I'm not sure why this has brought me out. Probably because I've done a lot of writing this week that I haven't shared with anyone and it has given me only temporary relief. Like all writers, I felt the need to be heard. Rachel Knecht ________________________________________________________________ GET INTERNET ACCESS FROM JUNO! Juno offers FREE or PREMIUM Internet access for less! Join Juno today! 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: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 17:59:40 -0600 From: "Annette Lyon" Subject: Re: [AML] What's Wrong with Me D. Michael said: "We would want the Mexicans--_all_ Mexicans--to feel the pain they are causing. We would attack using methods that caught the attention of the Mexicans in very personal ways. Innocent Mexican citizens would die, and we would not feel bad about it." I beg to differ. Without a crystal ball, there is no way to know how "we" would do any of this stuff, let alone not feel bad about it. Granted, I can see the frustration, even some hatred, that might evolve, but to say that such a situation would make us all amoral and scarcely human is beyond the line. The movie your refer to actually makes my point, if I remember it correctly. No one was destroying huge numbers of innocent people. The guerilla warfare was targeted at military and leadership areas, wasn't it? Targeting innocent lives, especially in such large numbers as we've seen recently is beyond the rules of even traditional war (granted, modern war has altered the rules considerably). And remember, there was a little thing called the Mormon Battalion, where many saints went to help the very government that had done them wrong and driven them from their homes. Not everyone responds to such treatment with murder. We can't paint all of humanity with the same brush. On the other hand, it would be interesting to explore these issues in writing, since it is widely accepted that even the worst villains aren't 100 percent evil. It would be a stretch for me to try to get into the heads of terrorists and find the shades of gray and white. I don't think I have the skill--or the stomach, frankly--to attempt it. Annette Lyon - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 18:51:56 -0600 From: Barbara Hume Subject: [AML] Review Language [Original thread title assigned by Barbara: Eric Snider, eat your heart out. . . .] I found this segment of a play review in the July 1810 issue of La Belle Assemblee (a ladies' magazine). I thought you mind find it entertaining: With respect to the language of the piece, we have not much praise to bestow. It was in the ordinary parts tame and prosaic; and in the characters of the Marquis and his Lady it was overstrained and flowery. Its characteristic distinction was a feeble luxuriance, a prurient imbecility, in which much was attempted and little done. This play has met with great success. barbara hume - - AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature http://www.xmission.com/~aml/aml-list.htm ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2001 01:38:17 -0600 From: "D. Michael Martindale" Subject: Re: [AML] Critical Relativity (was Eric SAMUELSEN, _Gadianton_) Scott and Marny Parkin wrote: > That doesn't mean we shouldn't all offer our opinions and the reasons > for them. But I think there's an important difference between making > an absolute judgement about a work and stating an opinion about it. > It's one of the reasons I don't write reviews very often these days. > I can offer an opinion, I can comment to what the story made me think > about, and I can make broad statements about how well the piece fit > into my own concepts of what makes good story. But I can't tell you > whether you should read it or not--I'd have to know each and every > potential reader intimately to make such an evaluation. I agree, a review is only stating an opinion, and not making an absolute judgment. But I think this is something that is (or ought to be) considered a given, therefore does not need to be mentioned. I write my reviews in an absolute judgment mode because, for me, my reaction _is_ absolute. That's how I experienced the work. I leave it up to the reader to be wise enough to know it's just one man's opinion. Your reason for not writing reviews should actually, in my opinion, compel you to write them. Because reviews can only be relative to the filter of the critic, we need multiple points of view submitted into the public arena, so readers can triangulate something approaching a more absolute judgment from all these heavily filtered opinions that are out there. The more points from which to triangulate, the more accurate the final judgment is likely to be for the reader. - -- 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: Thu, 20 Sep 2001 09:52:52 -0400 From: "Tracie Laulusa" Subject: Re: [AML] Where Were You? Tuesday was a beautiful morning. It was the first morning in a long time I had felt like getting out of bed when I woke up in the morning. I was doing all the stuff I normally do but with out feeling like I was having to slog my way through a fog with fingers that reached out and grabbed at me and tried to pull me back. When the planes hit I was outside walking our dogs with one of my daughters. I remember looking at the sky and thinking about how that shade of blue is my favorite color. Sharlee caught that color in one of her poems--Blue, blue endless blue. I love it. I felt happy. Almost light hearted. We got home just before two of my other daughters walked in the door from their piano lessons (we homeschool--it was still morning) looking a little wide-eyed and frightened and said "Did you here that the World Trade Center was bombed." I thought they were joking. We turned on the television and it was still at the time that the television people were figuring out that this was a terrorist attack. My husband was in the shower and I ran up to tell him. And could hardly get the words out. It was almost impossible to say "Both of the towers of the World Trade Center have been hit and they are saying it was commercial airliners." And a few minutes later, "And the commercial airliners took off from Boston." I had been shocked, horrified and appalled before I learned it was Boston. But that brought it just a little closer to home. David had just traveled back and forth for three weeks to Boston. It didn't add anything to the shock--how could it when I was already thinking of thousands of people? But somehow it made it more real. As I watched over the next couple of days the news stories of the people still looking for their loved ones I had mixed thoughts. I thought, why are they being so stupid? I know that sounds insulting and it's not quite what I was thinking. It wasn't a single word like that. I could understand hoping the day of. When people were having so much trouble finding phones that worked. But the next day..... After watching the towers fall over and over again, seeing the destruction, thinking about why they fell--hot enough to soften the steel...... I knew there just weren't going to be many, if any, survivors. And I wondered, still do, about how I would be reacting if it had been David in the towers or on the plane. And I wonder why I don't feel more than I do. I listened to announcer after announcer talk about Americans feeling anger and rage. And all I feel, when I feel anything about it at all, is a great sadness. I saw the pictures of the Palestinians celebrating in the streets and all I felt was a great sadness--that their lives were such that they could find reason to celebrate in the face of this kind of disaster. I've thought that I should write about this in my journal. But I haven't been able to find the words to work through it all in my mind. I can feel part of my thinking feeling around the edges, brushing lightly against things that are really to horrible to think about. And, because some of my views about why this happened are not the politically correct, popular one, I find that there are very few people I can really talk to about how I think and feel about the situation. I haven't felt scared. I think I could still fly again. Yet, I went running at a park near our house yesterday. The path winds through fields, by a small river, and under a major highway. I looked up at the underside of the road and thought about how easy it would be for someone to plant an explosive under there. When I went to the library last night I thought about how there is very little security in most the buildings I am in on a routine basis. I still don't feel 'scared'. But I think about things that I never really thought about before. Things that belonged somewhere else. Not here in America. Well, Jonathan, if you decide not to post this, because I'm really not sure it is within the list guidelines you posted, I'm still glad I wrote it. I'm going to print it out and put it my journal. It is at least a start. Even though reading it I know it is a public view of what is in some ways too personal to talk about yet. Tracie Laulusa - - 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 #458 ******************************