I don’t mean to harp on Brandon Sanderson, but while writing my previous post on Rosalynde Welch’s critique of thematic-focused Mormon criticism, the following thought occurred to me:
How do you explain Sanderson’s interest in the robust, rules-based magic systems that have become his raison d’être ? Is a Mormon explanation warranted? Is it sufficient?
I can [...]
From time to time I see news items about attempts to remove a book from a school libraries and classrooms. The reasons are even appealing at times. One text is bigoted against African-Americans. Another against Asians. But more often the reasons are less appealing (at least to me): Harry Potter is attacked for teaching about [...]
Much of the response to Rosalynde’s Patheos column “Oxymormon: LDS Literary Fiction and the Problem of Genre” focused on a defense of genre. For example, several of the comments in the discussion of the piece at By Common Consent specifically reacted to the term “trashy genre fiction”, which Rosalynde used in the subhed to her piece. [...]
Brandon Sanderson’s preoccupation with deification has been mentioned in passing in at least two Writing Excuses episodes (Season 2, Ep. 12 [transcript]; Season 3, Ep. 18 [transcript]). The way it manifests itself in his work is not necessarily uniquely Mormon, but certainly Sanderson’s Mormon-ness is a likely culprit for the source of the preoccupation.
I mention [...]
What do we mean when we use the word exaltation? Is what we mean different than what those who are not Mormon mean when they use this word?
Off and on for the past few years I’ve worked on a kind of dictionary of Mormon Terms (this link is to website where this project is hosted—free [...]
Over at John Salzi’s blog, the sci-fic author James S.A. Corey (the nom-de-plume for the writing team of Daniel Abraham and Ty Franck) defends sentimentality in fiction. In fact, they come right out and say, “Embrace sentimentality.” And they contrast the joys of embracing the sentimental with the tactic of either going Fluffy Bunny (not taking [...]
Last week the Salt Lake Tribune reported that Deseret Book has produced its own eReader app to make its books available on Apple iPhones and iPads. Since its ebooks were already available on the Kindle, I’ve been thinking about why many publishers have decided to do this, and what it might mean for the future [...]
“My lifetime is shorter than my literary ambitions” writes Anneke Majors in the forward* to her new book, The Year of the Boar. She continues, “Many of the stories came to me in a much more barebones form than you see here. . . But I stand by these stories as true stories because [...]
So here’s the deal:
I now have a separate personal web presence for myself as an author/critic. You can see me in action at WmHenryMorris.com or receive updates via my Facebook page and/or Twitter account.
If you’re curious about why I’m doing this and what it will be, you can read my navel gazing post about it. But [...]
Wm says: I’m proud to bring you two more excellent entries from the Bedlamites contest.
Adam Greenwood’s entry:
Jibr Archaelogic Catalogue
Fragment XVIII, Menninger Expedition
Wo unto the mites of Bedla
And unto Ylum’s ass.
For in Bedla [there] is no people
And in Ylum no corn.
The mosquitos mourn that once sucked blood
in Bedla,
and in Ylum,
the locust hungers.
Wo also unto those [...]
Poet Karen Kelsay has been on my radar since Th. pointed me her direction eighteen months or so ago in conjunction with my work on Fire in the Pasture: 21st Century Mormon Poets. She’s got an exquisite voice and her lyric is grounded in both its formal features and content that centers on making connections [...]
Fresh from their big win at the Rocky Mountain Harmony Sweepstakes (Champions and Best Song “Monsters, Animals, THROAT (a band that’s managed by and includes Mister Tim) will be performing TONIGHT (8:00-11:00 pm) at the Velour Music Gallery 135 N. University Ave Provo, UT.
Lyrics with esoteric leanings, a fair amount of techno, and [...]
Writer, designer/illustrator and AMV co-blogger Anneke Majors has recently self-published her second novel The Year of the Boar. She was gracious enough to answer some questions about it**.
What is The Year of the Boar about and what was your writing process for it like?
I’m going to give the long version of the answer first, which [...]
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I realized the other day when I heard the last five minutes of Terry Gross’s interview with Trey Parker and Matt Stone about their musical The Book of Mormon that for all the times I’ve listened to Fresh Air, for all the interviews about Big Love and Angels in America and such, the closest she’s [...]
I can’t claim to understand all of what I have read thus far in the Paul de Man essay collection The Resistance to Theory (”Hypogram and Inscription” is particularly obtuse to me). Nor do I have a strong enough background in philosophy and literary theory to properly contextualize or situate his arguments. But in the [...]
