From: owner-aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com (aml-list-digest) To: aml-list-digest@lists.xmission.com Subject: aml-list-digest V1 #537 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 Wednesday, December 5 2001 Volume 01 : Number 537 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Mon, 3 Dec 2001 22:08:33 -0800 (PST) From: William Morris Subject: [AML] YOUNG & GRAY, _Standing on the Promises_ I'm pleased to report that in my ward's gospel doctrine class yesterday _Standing on the Promises_ was used as one of the main sources for a lesson on the June 1978 revelation on the priesthood. Granted this is a fairly liberal ward, but it was still cool to see. And it was also nice to be involved in a lesson where much of the discussion and presentation wasn't 'here's how we answer the question of why the blacks didn't get the priesthood until 1978' but instead was focused on the experiences of African Americans and black Africans in the Church. ~~William Morris __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Buy the perfect holiday gifts at Yahoo! Shopping. http://shopping.yahoo.com - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2001 10:05:36 -0700 From: Christopher Bigelow Subject: [AML] _Irreantum_ Proofers Needed The autumn issue of Irreantum is almost ready for proofing (yes, we are still a couple of months behind--we are working to catch up). This issue is completely devoted to Eugene England. We are looking for some volunteers to read through it for typos and errors (but not stylistic preferences, at this point). We can provide you a PDF, or you can pick up and drop off a hard copy at approximately 8th North and I-15 in Orem, Utah. If you proof a PDF, you can either e-mail us your changes (which requires some orientation typing, such as "On page 3, second column, 7th line from bottom, there is an extra period"). Or you can fax or drop off just the pages you've marked. We anticipate having the proofs ready by December 16. Your turnaround time will be 72 hours. Please let us know ASAP if you can help and how you want the proofs (paper or PDF). The more eyeballs the better. Thanks in advance! Chris Bigelow chris.bigelow@unicitynetwork.com - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 04 Dec 2001 16:53:51 -0700 From: "Todd Petersen" Subject: Re: [AML] (Andrew's Poll) What's the Point? To be fair, Andrew should have mentioned that most of the English-speaking world was anti-novel during the mid- to late-1800's. Brother Brigham was simply following the current fashion. My answer to the question of why read all these novels is this: fiction helps me empathize. Also, as art critic Dave Hickey once argued, difficult art makes people better able to deal with difficult personal, political, and social problems. It's a kind of exercise for the brain. I do think it's a waste of time to be sucking up entertainment all the time. It's good some of the time, very good. For me it's a balancing act; writing, reading, charity. I can only do each of them for so long, and then I must clean the kitchen. - -- Todd Robert Petersen - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 04 Dec 2001 16:59:27 -0700 From: "Todd Petersen" Subject: Re: [AML] Quotation Marks Cormac McCarthy seems to think that all punctiation marks except for [. , ?] are unneeded extravagances, and I must admit that in his writing, I've never missed them because his rhythms more than make up for the lasck of punctuation. James Joyce employed the French model where dialogue looks like - --Yes, Gabriel said. We should go to the party. - --Why? She looked about the room, thinking of a suitable answer. - --Because that Austen woman will be there, she said, curtly. And so forth. Some people don't want to separate the dialogue from the description. I don't always think that's a wise choice. But that's part of an answer anyway. - -- Todd Robert Petersen - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2001 16:49:17 -0700 From: "Jacob Proffitt" Subject: [AML] RE: (Andrew's Poll) What's the Point? Um. I've always been comforted by the quote by Brigham Young when he was asked point blank about dime novels. His response was (and I paraphrase), "It's better to read dime novels than to read nothing at all." Which isn't precisely an endorsement, but certainly qualifies as a decent excuse... Jacob Proffitt - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 04 Dec 2001 17:02:37 -0700 From: "Todd Petersen" Subject: [AML] Adverbs (was: "Great" Books) This whole leaving out the ly adverbs is important only if writers use them to create more interesting verb structures. For example, to eat quickly is to "wolf" to run quickly is to "dash" or "dart." In most cases these are metaphorical uses of verbs which indicate to me a much greater control of the language, which is something good writers (with few exceptions Dos Passos, for exapmle) always demonstrate. - -- Todd Robert Petersen - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2001 17:14:35 -0700 From: "Eric D. Snider" Subject: Re: [AML] Scott BRONSON, _Stones_ Barbara Hume: >I think that Eric Snider was off in saying that the first part >needed closure. To me, it was about those two men coming to a >complete willingness to make the sacrifice. One they were ready, the >play was over. (But it's a good thing we did know what happened >next!) I agree it was about two men coming to a complete willingness to make the sacrifice. Had it ended with that willingness established, I'd have been fine with it. It was the fact that Abraham actually raised the knife and made to go stabby, in a quick, jerky motion, that was off-putting. If the play's going to go THAT far with their "willingness," I think it needs to let us breathe again by showing us that he didn't have to go through with it after all. Still a great play, though. Eric D. Snider - -- *************************************************** Eric D. Snider www.ericdsnider.com "Filling all your Eric D. Snider needs since 1974." - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 04 Dec 2001 18:03:47 -0700 From: Steve Subject: Re: [AML] Harry Potter Movie on 12/3/01 11:58 AM, Christopher Bigelow at Chris.Bigelow@UnicityNetwork.com wrote: > From what I've read so far of Rowling, however, she's not as > fresh and original as Roald Dahl. Hmmm. Whimsical and fetching as Dahl can be, I came away from both the Harry Potter books and the Harry Potter movie thinking, "J. K. Rowling is what Roald Dahl could have been without his unquenchable inner core of bitterness and hatred." Steve - -- skperry@mac.com http://stevenkappperry.com - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 04 Dec 2001 19:15:23 -0600 From: "Preston" Subject: [AML] AML "Best Film" Award The AML recognized "God's Army" both for its artistic merit as well as its historic importance. Because of its trend-setting nature, such far-reaching praise may not be repeated any time soon. But clearly the Association for Mormon Letters would like to grant awards in this category in the future. Some might point out that "Gods' Army" was an easy choice because it was the only "Mormon film" released commercially in 2000. But, unlike with the Academy Awards, there are no rules specifying commercial release as a requirement. Perhaps the AML "Best Film" Award could have gone to Kieth Merrill's extraordinary large screen epic "The Testaments of One Fold and One Shepherd," which was also released in 2000, although it was shown only in the Joseph Smith Building in Salt Lake City. But "Testaments" is a work commissioned by the Church. Perhaps it was not even have been considered by the AML. But the AML does not seem to exhibit anti-institutional bias. Deseret Book publications have been honored in the past, and in 2000 the AML Award for Personal Essay went to Pres. Gordon B. Hinckley for his book Standing for Something. Could another contender for "Best Film" have been Neil LaBute's Showtime special "Bash: Latter-day Plays"? It, too, features Latter-day Saint characters. But perhaps this would only have been considered in the Drama category, because it was essentially a taping of the off-Broadway play. And there is the question of films without Latter-day Saint characters. What about other year 2000 feature films such as LaBute's "Nurse Betty" or Bluth's "Titan A.E."? These were probably not considered. Should they be? While most AML Award recipients have featured overt LDS themes and characters, not all have. Anne Perry's Victorian mystery The Sins of the Wolf and Slover's "A Joyful Noise" are set before 1830 and certainly feature no Latter-day Saint characters, yet both won the AML Award. Card's AML-winning Xenocide features an Ender Wiggins who identifies himself as Catholic, forgetting his half-Mormon parentage (the philosophy and metaphysics of the novel, not the religious affiliation of the characters, are what caught the AML's attention). Martine Bates' The Dragon's Tapestry and The Prism Moon are outright sword-and-sorcery fantasies. Naturally all of these works exhibit Latter-day Saint ideas and motifs. But could not the same be said of "Titan A.E.," with its space-faring re-creation of the Pioneer Trek, Christological symbolism and planet-forming conclusion? Perhap these questions are purely academic. Regardless of whether or not these other films were considered, the truth is that "God's Army" was more deserving of the "Best Film" distinction than these other possibilities. Without even considering where it was shown, or whether or not it features Latter-day Saint characters, it is a better film than "Testaments", "Bash" or "Titan A.E." And "God's Army" is a better film than a number of year 2000 movies made by Latter-day Saints and released on video with little or no exposure in theaters, such as Kels Goodman's "Y2K, A Comedy", Treu's "The Brainiacs.com", Dayton's "Where the Red Fern Grows", Hendershot's "Message in a Cell Phone", Featherstone's "Return to the Secret Garden", Kemp's "Fedora", etc. What will happen with the AML Best Film Award in the future? In the year 2001 there were two feature films made by and about Latter-day Saints: Richard Dutcher's "Brigham City" and Mitch Davis' "The Other Side of Heaven." It seems almost certain, and appropriate, that one of these will be singled out by the AML as the "Best Film" of 2001 in the realm of "Mormon Letters." "Brigham City" was an excellent film, even better than "God's Army," and if it had no competition I would see nothing wrong with awarding Dutcher a second "Best Film" award in a row. But "The Other Side of Heaven" offers serious competition, and I believe the AML will intensely consider the merits of both. With a budget 7 times higher than "Brigham City," and the guidance of Hollywood veterens such as Jerry Molen and John Garbett, I'm sure there are people who predict "Other Side" will be hard to beat. But I haven't seen it yet. And I'm not a judge. "The Mountain Meadows Massacre", a documentary, was released on video this year, but it is doubtful that it will be considered a competitor in the "Best Film" competition, although it has been shown at the Eclipse and Young LDS film festivals. Perhaps a "Best Documentary" category will be implemented to consider the merits of films such as this one, as well as Triffo's "Men of Valour: Heroes of the Victoria Cross" and "Disasters of the Century", Swofford and Smoot's "Shackleton's Antarctic Adventure", Van Wagenen's "The Haunted Desert: Archaelogy and the Dead Sea Scrolls", Chamberlain's "There's No Place Like Home," Brandon Arnold's "Loie", Durham's "Woodwork", and Mikita's "Sea Voyage of the Saints." The question of whether or not to consider feature films without LDS characters may be a moot point this year. The release of LaBute's "Possession" was postponed until early 2002. Richard Rich's animated "Trumpet of the Swan" was the only other theatrically released non-documentary film of 2001 that was directed by a Latter-day Saint. "Trumpet of the Swan" is a lot of fun (my kids love the DVD), but it, along with family-friendly direct-to-video releases such as T.C. Christensen's "The Penny Promise" and "Bug Off!" are unlikely to be compared directly to "Brigham City" and "The Other Side of Heaven." 2002 will be the first year with serious, perhaps unpredictable competition, and some interesting questions to resolve. At least four feature films by and about Latter-day Saints are expected to be released to theaters in 2002: Kurt Hale's "The Singles Ward", Adam Anderegg's "Charly", Cary Derbidge and Ryan Little's "Out of Step" and Kels Goodman's "Handcart." From what I know about these productions, all of these will be excellent, artistically accomplished films with wide viewership. Perhaps these four films alone will be the field of nominees for AML's "Best Film" of 2002. But each of these films was helmed by a director who has never before had anything shown in commercial theaters. Judged purely on artistic merit, it is unlikely that any of these four films will surpass LaBute's much anticipated "Possession." On top of the fact that this is LaBute's 4th major film, he also had studio backing, and a much larger budget. And the talent: The four "LDS Market" films feature incredible talent: Will Swenson, Jeremy Elliott, Michael Buster, Heather Beers, Connie Young, Kim Wares, Daryn Tufts, Alison Akin Clark. But can they compete with LaBute's direction of Gwyneth Paltrow, Aaron Eckhart, and Jeremy Northam? Realistically, it may be necessary for the AML to officially restrict the field to films with overt LDS themes and characters, and leave "Possessed" to the Academy Awards voters. There are two distinct possibilities for what will happen after 2002: If "The Singles Ward", "Out of Step", "Charly" and "Handcart" (or at least some of these) are good movies, and they are commercially successful, the following years will see the advent of yet more LDS-themed films, of increasing quality. But if these are mediocre or embarrassing films, and if they fail to attact audiences (and returns on investments), the AML "Best Film" Award may be retired because there will be nobody to give it to. Preston Hunter www.adherents.com - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 4 Dec 2001 22:24:43 -0500 From: "Debra Brown" Subject: [AML] Fw: MN Internet: Personal and Small Business, Literature Websites: Kent Larsen 3Dec01 US NY NYC I4 Personal and Small Business, Literature Websites NEW YORK, NEW YORK -- The number of personal and small business websites run by members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints seems to be growing rapidly, and this week's new websites demonstrate their prevalence. The new websites include a massage and doula business, a wedding invitation business, a filtering software business and a floral business, in addition to a few personal web pages. Also new this week are a couple of literature resources, including one that specifically focuses on Mormon literature. Among the businesses, the nicest design comes from LDSfilter.com, which sells filtering software meant to screen pornography websites while using the Internet. Also nice is Rebecca's Sunnybrook Flowers, which includes floral arrangements for weddings and other occasions. However, the site doesn't have photos of its arrangements catalog available yet. The literature sites include Suite101.com's Mormon (LDS) Literature page, which includes a few articles on Mormon literature in addition to discussion boards and links. However, the site misses much of the Mormon literature material available elsewhere. While it doesn't specifically aim at Mormons, Katharsis.org provides more detailed links and resources for writers. Newly Listed Mormon Websites: Amber's Natural Health and Healing Website http://www.geocities.com/alglmt/ Website covering LDS Church member's massage and doula business. Gives basic information on natural health and healing, including doula services, massage, complimentary health care and energy work, natural family planning, healthy eating and living, polycystic ovarian syndrome, and more. Celebrations Invitations and More http://www.celebrationsinvitations.com/ Midlothian, Virginia LDS Church-member's 20-year-old business selling wedding invitations. Includes links to wedding invitation catalogs, and some favorite sites. Doug Noble.com http://www.dougnoble.com/ Attractive personal page for Mesa, Arizona-based LDS Church member. Includes pages about children, Moab, Utah, Alpine, a picture gallery, ancestry and links to other sites. Katharsis http://www.katharsis.org/ Writer's support website run by LDS Church member Rachel Anne Lister. Includes submitted fiction and poetry, as well as sections on journaling, writing aids, workshops and critique circles. Includes a long list of links to useful writing sites. An attractive and nicely-organized site. LDSfilter.com http://www.LDSfilter.com/ Website for filtering software meant to filter Internet webpages for pornography. LDS-MassageTherapyGroup http://groups.yahoo.com/group/LDS-MassageTherapyGroup Yahoo!Groups discussion list for Latter-day Saint (Mormon) Massage Therapists. Covers professional discussion of massage therapy from a LDS perspective and of other natural therapies, natural healing, body work, or energy work. Nomrom.com: Another Backwards Mormon... http://www.nomrom.com/ Umbrela site that includes site for LDS Pocket PC resources. Also includes personal sites for Andrew Lewis, Curtis Gibb and a wedding album for Heidi J. Fisher and Michael G. Gehmlich. The Pocket PC resource page includes software for syncing the LDS Church's MIS data to MS Outlook, and links to sources for LDS palm resources. Rebecca's Sunnybrook Flowers & More http://www.sunnybrookflowers.com/ Attractive site for Tuscon-based LDS Church-member's floral business. In Search of Ancient Cumorah http://www.ancientcumorah.com/ Website for video produced by LDS Church members Dave Asay and Randy Mellor that attempts to describe the locations of Book of Mormon geographical locations. The video places the Hill Cumorah at the Hill Vigia, near Santiago Tuxtla in Veracruz state, Mexico. It includes interviews with LDS archaeologist Dr. Bruce Warren and LDS Scholar Dr. Joseph L. Allen. Suite 101: Mormon (LDS) Literature http://www.suite101.com/welcome.cfm/mormon_lds_literature Site about Mormon Literature using about.com-like Suite101.com. Includes links to Internet sites on Mormon Literature and general Mormon sites, articles about Mormon Literature and discussion boards. While not as heavily promoted as about.com, suite101.com is nicer, not as heavily coded and its subjects are better organized. >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 ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 5 Dec 2001 14:56:09 -0700 From: Terry L Jeffress Subject: Re: [AML] AML "Best Film" Award On Tue, Dec 04, 2001 at 07:15:23PM -0600, Preston wrote: > What will happen with the AML Best Film Award in the future? First, lets make some adjustments in vocabulary. AML did award Richard Dutcher the 2000 AML Award for Film for his work on "God's Army." The word "best" does not appear in the title of this or any other the award category. The AML Awards recognize an individual for their contribution to the field of Mormon letters. In practice, the year's "best" novel does not necessarily make the greatest contribution to Mormon letters. Also, the AML board does not necessarily grant an award in every category every year. So far, Richard received the first and only award for film. The board might choose not to consdier the film category for the 2001 awards. For example, the board did not grant an award for the novel in 1997 and had no award for drama in 1998. Many award categories come and go. The board has not used the Biography award category since the 1996 awards. Sometimes the board even creates a category (1993 Service to Mormon Letters award to Neila Seshachari) or uses the category "Special Award" to recognize the contributions of an individual that do not easily fall into other more common categories. I certainly do not want to deter the discussion of films worthy of notice and how those films contribute to the field of Mormon letters, but I have seen a general misunderstanding about how the board chooses its awards in this and other posts in the past. If you would like to review the know history of the AML Awards, you can always visit the AML Website and browse the Awards database: http://www.aml-online.org/awards/index.html - -- Terry L Jeffress | Advice to young writers who want to get ahead South Jordan, UT | without any annoying delays: don't write about | Man, write about a man. -- E. B. White - -- AML-List, a mailing list for the discussion of Mormon literature ------------------------------ End of aml-list-digest V1 #537 ******************************