Category Archives: Mormon LitCrit

A Short Stay in Hell with The Scholar of Moab

A reader response meander by a literary luddite. I have become a fan of Dr. Steven L. Peck based on his books The Scholar of Moab and A Short Stay in Hell. Well, mostly a fan. Okay, a conflicted fan. … Continue reading

Posted in Community Voices, Mormon LitCrit | 18 Comments

Review: Blacktime Song by Rosalie Wolfe, by Marylee Daniel Mitcham

We Mormons have very few postmodern bones in our bodies. Our idea of a good story is the  Latter-day Saint Voices section of the Ensign—450 words from conflict to resolution. We seem to abhor ambiguity, skipping the Isaiah chapters in … Continue reading

Posted in Mormon LitCrit | Tagged , | 2 Comments

The Mormon Lit Blitz: Week One

Today marks one week since the start of the Mormon Lit Blitz. Already we’ve featured great works by Marilyn Nielson, Wm Morris, Jeanna Mason Stay, Emily Harris Adams, Sandra Tayler, Merrijane Rice, and Kathyrn Lynard Soper. Over the next week … Continue reading

Posted in Mormon LitCrit, Storytelling and Community | 33 Comments

The Why and the How of Book Reviews

For this month’s post, I invited Tristi Pinkston, AML’s new book reviewer, to share her talents with us. Tristi has a great eye for books, and her opinions are a great guide to go by when selecting books to add … Continue reading

Posted in Community Voices, Mormon LitCrit, Mysterious Doings | Tagged , , | 10 Comments

In Tents #10 The Story of Jesus the Pharisee, But First a Meditation on Perfection

He never got vexed when the game went wrong And he always told the truth But why did the game go wrong? Was it because Jesus always won and no one wants to play a game they have no possibility … Continue reading

Posted in Literary Views of Scripture, Mormon LitCrit | Tagged , | 9 Comments

2012 AML Conference

CALL FOR PAPER PROPOSALS Deadline: December 22, 2011 AML Conference Date: April 21, 2012 Utah Valley University, Student Center Theme: Going Forth Into All the World: Mormon Literature in an International Church We welcome submissions on any topic relating to … Continue reading

Posted in Announcements, Mormon LitCrit | 1 Comment

In Tents # 7 Renounce and Reverbs

Seventy years ago come Oct 21 Bessie Lloyd Soderborg married Marden J. Clark in the Salt Lake temple and went across the street to the Hotel Utah to spend their first night together, where Marden’s brothers kept prank calling him, … Continue reading

Posted in Literary Views of Scripture, Mormon LitCrit, Personal Narratives | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Unfinished

I recently finished reading The Pale King, the novel David Foster Wallace was working on when he died, by his own hand, in September 2008.  I love David Foster Wallace.  I love everything he wrote.  I certainly never met him … Continue reading

Posted in Literary Views of Scripture, Mormon LitCrit, On-stage, SF&F corner, Thoughts on Language | 3 Comments

Speaking Out vs. Being Heard

This tension between the rhetorical (one-shot testifying) and the dialectic (extended argument intended to discover new conclusions) is at least as old as the ancient Greeks and has been a staple of academic consideration from the beginning.

The problem is that market forces are not conducive to extended conversations. If your last book sells you get a shot at the next one; otherwise, you’re out of luck and looking for a new publisher. The mechanics of markets tend to push more toward the rhetorical extreme—you have to make the biggest splash you can and deliver the entire conceptual payload in a single go. Continue reading

Posted in Electronic Age, Mormon LitCrit, Storytelling and Community | Tagged , , , , | 5 Comments

In Tents 6

Renounce (Culture) War and Proclaim Peace II, Angle of Repose In my last post I left culture war somewhat undefined. That was partly because when we define ourselves as being at war anything the perceived enemy does can be seen … Continue reading

Posted in Mormon LitCrit, Storytelling and Community | Tagged , , , , | 10 Comments