Comments on: Commentary: “Wayne Booth Remembered” at the 2006 AML Conference

By: P. G. Karamesines

P. G. Karamesines — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 15:19:00 +0000

J.B., Thanks for the heads up on Booth's memoirs; looks like another "must have" for Boothians. I'm going to try to revisit A Rhetoric of Irony (irony is important to me; I'm working up a series on it to post here)and also try to pick up The Company We Keep ASAP. I plan to squeeze My Many Selves in there too. Posted by P. G. Karamesines

By: Justin B.

Justin B. — Thu, 09 Mar 2006 15:32:00 +0000

I noticed that USU Press is publishing Booth's memoirs. I'd like to get a copy. My Many Selves

By: P. G. Karamesines

P. G. Karamesines — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 21:36:00 +0000

Shawn: Thank you for fleshing out points on Wayne Booth's relationship with Mormonism. I can't remember who said this--Kramer or Duerden (probably Kramer, maybe you remember better)--but one of them suggested gently but firmly that the overall Mormon rejection of Wayne Booth's fellowship was more than a little stingy (my word) and that in his fostering of young Mormon intellectuals and the way his work reflected upon the church Booth paid a generous tithing. Posted by P. G. Karamesines

By: William Morris

William Morris — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 13:59:00 +0000

Thanks for the write up, Patricia. Sadly, I only encountered Wayne Booth's work once (and that briefly) in my literary studies. So I'm pleased that he has at least some honor in his own country -- I wouldn't have known to seek his work if it hadn't been for the AML. Posted by William Morris

By: S. P. Bailey

S. P. Bailey — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 13:56:00 +0000

I was also impressed by the Wayne Booth session and hope to soon read some of his works. I anticipate discovering a rich and respectable way of looking at literature that transcends the basic literary criticism I had imposed upon me in college (with all due respect to lit crit types everywhere, I got the impression that current literary criticism is something of a wasteland where critics ravage or exalt texts (any pretty much anything else they want--why limit literary criticism to literature?) according to their narrow causes). The idea of looking at the ethical stance of literature--and understanding a work by considering what the author was going through--strikes me as very interesting. Thanks, Patricia, for your thorough report. I hope you don't mind me adding a few things that stood out to me: 1. In the context of discussing Wayne's lifelong relationship with Mormonism, they reflected on the arc of Wayne's belief in God. It was memorable (and a little touching too) to hear that he described himself later in life as a lapsed or backsliding atheist. They also noted an interesting sounding article Wayne had written laying out the Ironic Proof of the Existence of God, i.e., that irony only makes sense if you posit a Divine Being who laughs when rain falls on your parade. 2. The comment about Wayne being the best missionary we had came after he apparently gave a speech at a big conference (MLA I think) in which he bore his testimony (the words of the presenter) not of the Book of Mormon itself, but of reading the Book of Mormon with one's family. Anyway, I hope we can (and I mean this in the most generous, warm, unpresumptuous way possible) reactivate Wayne posthumously. Or at least ensure he is present and honored at the Mormon literary equivalents of ward parties. Posted by S. P. Bailey

By: P. G. Karamesines

P. G. Karamesines — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 13:08:00 +0000

Justin, A thousand "thank yous" for filling in this important gap! PGK Posted by P. G. Karamesines

By: Justin B.

Justin B. — Wed, 08 Mar 2006 11:12:00 +0000

Thank you for your interesting report. I did some searching and discovered that the February 1989 Sunstone reported that Booth won AML's "Special Recognition in Criticism" for 1988. According to Sunstone, the citation read: "Wayne Booth's The Company We Keep is not specifically, not doctrinally a work of 'Mormon criticism'; yet it is the work of a Mormon critic who has always acknowledged the roots of his most enduring values, his persistent sense of the world and what is worthy in it, as first nourished in Mormon country and community - in a place some still call 'American Fark.' In the present situation of literary criticism, which often can seem desiccated by skeptical polemics rather than fertile with plurality, Booth argues learnedly, lucidly, generously, and delicately for not just the relevance but the necessity and centrality of ethical criticism, and demonstrates the athletic complexity of its action, as if his life - as if all our lives -depended on it. And he persuades us that our lives do indeed depend on our alert, quickened ethical relations to those who offer us the community at large, and the smaller community of Mormon letters within it, is one that promises (or threatens) to keep on giving. We thank him heartily, glad of his company." Posted by Justin