Scott Parkin writes:

As she points out, this is one of the strong draws of science fiction,
fantasy and horror--the fact that we can build distance between the very
real tension of the story and the tension of self-identification with
specific elements of that story..

I think this is part of why so many of our more literarily successful
writers are explicitly not writing Mormon-specific stories for Mormon
audiences (FUBU). The "lost generation" simply couldn't write the deeply
Mormon stories they wanted to tell for Mormon audiences--Mormons felt
too threatened and tended to leap to defend themselves rather than
accepting the *story* itself as an exploration.

It's a problem. Is the answer that our best writers *need* to focus on
outside audiences--not unlike

::Chiam Potok::

, who had to reach his own people from the outside in rather than the
other way around? Perhaps when enough of them succeed, the inside
audience will finally be able to read stories
about their own culture with less sense of direct threat.

It's a long process that takes decades to mature. Which means we need to
start very, very soon.

¶ 6:43 PM 0 comments

cory huff wrote:

I've said it before, but I think that it bears mentioning again. I
don't think that Mormons have to try to tell non-mormon stories in
order to be recognized or to sell or even to reach a certain artistic
level. The example I love to espouse is

::Brian Friel::

He's Irish. He writes Irish plays, about Irish people doing things
that are unique to their culture.

::Martin McDonough::

is the same. They're both incredibly commercially successful, and
they're both artistically brilliant. What Mormondom needs is a mormon
writer who can just write really, really well, and then it will
happen. I'm not saying that there aren't any out there, because there
are. At some point the match will meet the fuse, and the keg will
explode.

Stephen Carter wrote:

[my wife] has no idea why I enjoy the books and movies I do (i like
gritty realism). To her, they're just scary.. Sometimes we try to talk
about what we've been reading or watching, and I'm always amazed at
what deep issues the books she reads tackles. Who knew that a book
about talking mice could delve so deeply into psychological darkness

:: (The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents)?

Think about

::Harry Potter::

, the further we get into the series, the darker it gets. ::

Sadly, she still takes the idea that liking fantasy and children's
literature is less than cool. I'm supposed to be the one with all the
sophistication. Maybe I'm the dumb one. I have to see things without
the veil of metaphor to figure out what's going on. (I actually think
that I just have the ability - innate or developed, probably both - to
see realism as a metaphor.)

..This idea is surprising to me in its implications about Mormon
writers. It seems like this would mean that Mormon writers, if they
want to talk about their own culture and sell their books, need to
focus mostly on reaching the non-Mormon audience. Because we're
talking mice to those people. We're the people removed from their
experience, so they can see themselves in our writing without having
to directly see themselves. I think that's the reason why

::Terry Tempest Williams' _Refuge_::

is so popular outside Mormon circles. The Mormons are dealing with
environmentalism, rather than a group the non-Mormon reader is part
of. The Mormons who want that one step of removal aren't going to buy
our stuff - and as far as I've seen, that's most of them.

¶ 4:49 PM 0 comments

http://www.spotlightministries.org.uk/harrypottermain.htm

Hmm.. that'll be one to analyze..

¶ 9:31 PM 0 comments