Well, maybe only I am excited ;-)

“where a character falls over himself to explain that Mormons no longer practice polygamy…”

A friend of mine got a civil divorce, but not a temple divorce because he didn’t want to break the seal to his kids. He later remarried in the temple. He is therefore currently married (in the eyes of the Church) to two women who are both living. Lots of men are sealed to more than one woman, where one has passed away.

I’m not advocating polygamy, but I think Church members have to be careful not to think that because polygamous civil marriages are not longer sanctioned by the Church that it is no longer part of the doctrines or temple-related practices of the Church. If you think it’s ‘disgusting’ you might want to consider the LDS teachings on the celestial kingdom a little more closely. Plural marriage is an eternal concept. It hasn’t magically gone away.

I’m really glad that many people have learned the value of examining our church’s history more thoroughly and thinking through the implications as opposed to burying them.

I’ve had several moments of worry as I have begun to rewrite a story. The feeback I got was to put more of the controversial elements of Church history into it. I want to, but I also don’t want to put off Mormon readers. It’s a fine balance… and no matter what there will always be the Sister Lees who will be offended no matter how delicately the subject is treated.

Laura and I have bickered over the fiction/nonfiction thing before but ultimately I think we’re both right. What we really need here is a complete literature.

Anyway, I think we do have to tell our own stories–but I think it’s interesting how we define what our own stories are. Most of us choose to tell our own stories through fiction so we can massage some of the feeling and details for various purposes. Fiction, in many ways, makes it easier to get our own points across. BUT if it’s context we’re looking for, fiction falls short. Perhaps we should start telling our own stories by actually telling OUR stories–as in the non-fiction versions.

Modern non-fiction leaves a lot of room for creative expression and also allows for plenty of contextualizing detail. After all, what is a memoir but an explanation of a person?

I couldn’t wrap my head around polygamy until I read my own ancestors’ accounts. Their journals made all the difference.

Perhaps that’s some of Sister McKay’s frustration.

That said, if we worry more about context than about good storytelling, we’ll end up writing scenes like the one in Half Faked where a character falls over himself to explain that Mormons no longer practice polygamy in a way that doesn’t ring true with the premise of the scene. So, if nothing else, you’ll have to be very clever about how you introduce the context you want your audience to have, or you’ll have to be brave enough to let some things slide without fully explaining them.

I don’t think the world is all that wicked and I feel it’s better to tell excellent stories while trusting the audience than to give lessons cramming story into the cracks. One of my favorite people of all time is Moroni and I’m reminded of what the Lord told him:

Fools mock, but they shall mourn; and my grace is sufficient for the meek, that they shall take no advantage of your weakness . . . .

What’s the worst that can happen? As He once asked someone else,

. . . if the billowing surge conspire against thee; if fierce winds become thine enemy; if the heavens gather blackness, and all the elements combine to chedge up the way; and above all, if the very jaws of hell shall gape open the mouth wide after thee, know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee eexperience, and shall be for thy good. The Son of Man hath descended below them all. Art thou greater than he?

(Not to be overly dramatic or anything.)