Tuesday, January 31, 2012

Lost Languages: Do We Need Them?


In Sunday School a couple of weeks ago I asked a question about language. I framed it something like this: “Why was it so important to preserve the language of Lehi’s fathers that they had to go back and get the plates?” Most of the class looked at me funny and then several people patiently explained that without the written word they wouldn’t be able to read the scriptures and their history would be lost.

Which wasn’t exactly what I was getting at. I’ve been reading A Little Book of Language by David Crystal, and it’s a fantastic book—really well written and interesting. According to Crystal, there are about 6,000 languages in existence today. Two thousand of those are spoken in Africa. A language disappears (meaning the last native speaker dies) about every three weeks. So over the next couple hundred years, thousands of languages will be lost—just as Lehi’s language was lost long ago.

Despite the fact that languages disappear with the last native speaker, people on Earth continue to be able to communicate with one another. If we were to map out the development of languages, I wonder if we would start with one or just a handful of languages, and if they would spread out like a huge tree from there, and if now those branches are being whittled down to just a handful or possibly just one language at the other end.
If I were one of the few last English speakers in the world, would I fight to keep it alive, or would I adopt the more widely-used,  influential language around me? I’m not sure. But where Nephi and Lehi and their families were going, was there already a language in use? Why not just use that one?

William Hamblin of BYU’s FARMS department explains that there were several “reformed Egyptian” languages and scripts as people mixed their own alphabets and hieroglyphic characters with others in the search for an efficient and easy way to keep records. I wonder what Lehi’s reformed Egyptian looked like. Would Mormon have been able to understand centuries of writings? I have a hard time reading some things that were written in English hundreds of years ago. That must have been some job.

Monday, January 30, 2012

Motifs from the Life


I read an article in the Denver Post yesterday about pop culture’s strange impressions about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It turns out that the Book of Mormon Musical isn’t the only theater production right now that features Mormons.

Ray Mark Rinaldi, in his article “See You Latter: Sorting Out Pop Culture’s Weird Take on Mormons” quotes some lines from Denver Center’s hit play The Whale, and they’re not very nice quotes—if you’re a Mormon, that is. Rinaldi says that audiences think they’re downright hilarious.

Now, I like to laugh about Mormon culture quirks as much as the next guy, but it seems to be open season on Mormons right now, and it can get a little uncomfortable. Here’s Rinaldi’s summary of current productions focused on the church: “In each case, Mormon doctrine is twisted, turned or selectively emphasized by non-Mormons in the name of art. And while some individual Mormons in these pieces turn out sympathetic once we get to know them, the overall Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints itself is rarely redeemed.”

What do we LDS writers and artists do with this current pop culture climate? Is there a place for sympathetic Mormon characters created by Mormons? Or does that look like propaganda in the marketplace. Certainly, other religious authors have been “allowed” to create their own sympathetic characters. Shmuel Agnon won the 1966 Nobel Prize in Literature “for his profoundly characteristic narrative art with motifs from the life of the Jewish people.” Will the Nobel committee ever appreciate motifs from the life of the Mormon people? It’s hard to imagine.

Friday, January 20, 2012

The Original Book of Mormon Musical by B.H. Roberts


As I write this in Denver today, there’s a full-page, section-leading article in the Denver Post about the Book of Mormon Musical because tickets for the Denver shows are going on sale this weekend. The Book of Mormon Musical creators are from Colorado, so they’re starting their tour in their own backyard.

People have called the Book of Mormon Musical“groundbreaking,” but it’s really not because B.H. Roberts, a nineteenth-century LDS historian, wrote a novel called Corianton, which is based on the Book of Mormon way back in 1902, more than a hundred years ago, and this novel was turned into a Broadway show. Granted, Roberts’ musical wasn’t called the Book of Mormon Musical—it was called An Aztec Romance—but he got there first. You can read B.H. Roberts’ Corianton at Project Gutenberg for a glimpse of very early LDS lit.

Of course, where Matt Stone and Trey Park sprinkle expletives, B.H. Roberts sprinkles verses of scripture, so we’re talking a very different genre. But Roberts’ fiction-turned-Broadway has high drama, conflict, and even a female character named Joan, which doesn’t sound terribly Book of Mormon-ish. She’s lovely, though—sweet voice, Nephite heritage, slightly sarcastic, interesting (“And with this tantalizing witchery she left him”). One wonders what Roberts would have named Nephi's wife. Pam? Sylvia?

If LDS fiction—not the biting, patronizing kind, but the sincere kind—made it to Broadway 110 years ago, certainly there’s room today. Who’s going to write the next episode of Corianton and Joan’s adventures? 

Thursday, January 19, 2012

E-books and LDS Lit


How will e-books change the face of LDS literature?

Since its inception, there have been only a handful of LDSpublishers, and they’re general run on shoestring budgets because the readership of LDS fiction is so small. Because of this, the books themselves are expensive, and the quality of cover design, page set-up, and so on is sub-par, compared with books produced by publishers with national reach.

Also, self-published books have never garnered the respect that traditionally published books have held because there’s no filter for self-published books. There are no editors to sift through the heaps of manuscripts and pick the very best.

But now we have e-books and Kindles, and I have a feeling that LDS literature is going to be blessed--as we would say at church--by these developments. Distribution can be much wider, and cover and page set-up quality will not be as important. There will be lots of mediocre e-books out there, to be sure, but some will rise to the top, and we’ll get to hear some new voices and maybe even some new styles and themes.

It’s an exciting time to be writing and reading in Mormondom.

Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Written in journal entries, letters, and notes, Last Entry First explores what can happen when very different people end up in the same place. Their crossing lives make lasting impressions on each other, for better or worse.

Annie Smith moves from Provo, Utah, to Seattle, Washington, where her husband will attend graduate school. Their moving van burns up somewhere in Idaho, and all they have left are the meager belongings in their small, old car.

Jane Watley, a 14-year-old wannabe detective, spends her free time spying on her neighbors, family, and ward members. She soon finds out, however, that there are things she doesn't want to know, but it's too late to avoid getting involved.

Courtney Williams, a young woman from a difficult background, has become involved in addictions beyond her control. But then she meets a boy who seems to see the real her, and she wonders if it isn't too late to straighten out her life and be the girl she really wants to be.

Join these characters for a journey that will change all of them forever. You can buy the Kindle version of Last Entry First at Amazon for just $.99.

http://www.amazon.com/Last-Entry-First-ebook/dp/B006ON3HM0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1326918648&sr=8-1