In Orson
Whitney's essay on Home Literature, he emphasizes two main points: "Seek ye
out of the best books words of wisdom; seek learning, even by study and also by
faith." -- D&C 88:118
and
"Truth is truth, wher'er 'tis found,
On Christian or on heathen ground,"
On Christian or on heathen ground,"
Both Oroson’s ideas invite the rising
generation of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to contemplate
how they are writing and encourage them to flood the literary world with
"moralistic and faith-promoting stories." This is precisely what
Nephi Anderson does in his fictional story Added Upon. I would argue, however,
that the Part One of Anderson's story is more based in LDS theology and
addresses an LDS audience more so than the "mortal realm" we read
about in Part two. In fact, the story that Nephi tells in Part One is closely
approximated with the scriptures, and thus 'quot[es] out of the best
books" as Whitney encourages. Additionally, at one point, when the spirits
are ready to come down to "Earth," the angel who is sending them down
advises them that it will be "by
the power of your spiritual insight and moral strength you will be able to
exert a correcting influence over your brothers and sisters in the flesh, and
especially over those of your kin." To me this is echoing the Home
Literature theme of didacticism in literature.
There definitely is morals in "Added Upon," and Anderson clearly cites them out. I recognized how each chapter was headed with a scripture verse, but I didn't realize just how much of the first part was quoted (or at least grounded) in scripture. That definitely would resonate with Whitney's comments.
ReplyDeleteYeah, there was a lot of grounding in scripture. I thought it did a lot of good to the story, but in some ways it complicates it just a little. Like, where is the line between a story written by man mingled with scripture, you know? I guess it's good to trust your readers to be discerning, but it also does open up room for confusion and I wonder if that was ever addressed or considered by Whitney.
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