Hello all. I thought I'd give my AML friends a heads up that I'm going to be posting on the Segullah blog every month on the topic of LDS lit. My most recent post, called Writing with Charity, can be found here. I challenged myself to read a novel published by either Deseret Book or Covenant (and I haven't read fiction from either of these publishers in almost a decade). I thought it was rather disingenuous of me to dismiss LDS lit based on experiences from the 80s and 90s--and cheesy covers and plot summaries. So I picked a novel, read it, was disappointed (not necessarily in the quality of the prose--more in the quality of the story and what the novel represented in terms of the wider world of LDS publishing), thought about the novel's problems long and hard, and wrote my little essay. Check it out if your interested.

If you click on the highlighted "here" above, it should take you to the site. If not, go to www.segullah.org and click on the blog.

Eric,

I love how you put it: that certain people are afraid to love anyone who is flawed. I've never really thought about it that way, but it makes a lot of sense. It's a great way to describe why I return to certain writers. Ann Tyler, for example. I started reading her when I was a teenager (stole the books from my mom), and she's "comfort reading" for me because she loves all her crazily flawed characters so much.

There are some very talented LDS writers who write literary fiction, but their work--however well written--doesn't do much for me, because they don't love their characters. I have a difficult time with angry writers, in much the same way as I have a difficult time with preachy, sentimental writers--and I think the reason is that both types of writers deny characters their essential humanity. Their ability to do good AND do bad. And I know this isn't literature--and that the show isn't as good as it was the first couple of seasons--but look at the TV show Lost. I love that show because every single character is real and flawed, but has a little bit of hope, too, and goodness and desire--all those wonderful human emotions. There aren't any completely good guys, or even completely bad guys. Even (oh, I forget his name), the squirrely guy with the glasses, the leader of the Others. My heart breaks for him a little, too.

People write for lots of different reasons. They love language, they want attention, they are keenly interested in the human experience, they want to try to understand the world, they want to entertain people, they want to persuade, they want to heal, they want to create . . . on and on and on. But one of the most interesting experiences i had in a writing class was when the teacher asked us all to complete the sentence "I write because . . ." I was surprised to see that a few people in the class finished the sentence this way: "I write because I'm angry."

It had never occurred to me to write because I was angry. I mean, I do get angry--plenty--but my core reason for writing is because I'm eternally interested in other people's stories, and when other people are too guarded or private to tell me theirs honestly, then the next best thing to do is make some up. (And I love language. And I want attention. And it's a way to be creative. And I want to avoid doing the laundry. But the assignment was to pick one thing, so I did.)

I think there are some Mormon authors who would finish the sentence this way: "I write because I want to set a good example," or "I write because I want to share the gospel." Now being angry, and setting a good example, and sharing the gospel are all perfectly reasonable feelings to want to explore, but I think if those are your primary motivations, it makes it awfully hard to write good fiction. Or at least the kind of fiction I like. The kind that sees characters as real and complex and unpredictable and, ultimately, worth caring about, at least in some capacity. Writing that is full of charity. Have you read Gilead, for example?? Oh, so wonderful. So full of charity . . . and some of the most delicious prose I've ever read. I'm still waiting for a Mormon Gilead.

Angela, I read your entire post in Segulla and it was worth the read. I noticed that our daughter Candace's poem Holy Night was listed there in Honorable Mention. I reread it and found it appropriate to the season.