Bold Essaying

"Go big or go home!"

That's something to shout from the bleachers, isn't it? It's energizing, that command to perform, to dare to achieve, to reach high, to make something happen. Yes! Go big or go home!

But doing so with one's writing -- well, that's harder, and especially if one has been conditioned through culture and belief to be kind, edifying, and orthodox. How do you "go big or go home" when you really don't wish to offend?

Worrying about offending, or worrying about whether what one says is polite, or politically correct, or orthodox -- these can be very deadening to good essays in the making. Such safeguarding can keep us from the thinking and feeling that good writing can bring about as we venture onto the page.

I'm trying to help my students feel enfranchised, empowered by writing. I want them to reach for an authentic voice, for authentic experience, for authentic adventuring by way of nouns and verbs and all the rest. Let us not be too timid about things, too careful (especially within a conservative faith and culture). Let us be boldly essaying.

Assignment: My Literary Annotations of the Book of Mormon

I'm asking my students to analyze the Book of Mormon as literature. For Wednesday, 9/16/19, I'd like each student to annotate the five pages he/she has selected, and then to take a photo of and post the image of one or more pages of that annotation, as I model below.

In preparation, they may wish to review my Primer on Formal Literary Analysis, but the goal is to demonstrate that they can do more than identify themes, or look at the book purely in personal religious ways.

Along with the image or images of their annotations, they should include a capsule explanation or reflection on their experience in doing this annotation, and they should respond to one another's posts, reviewing the other students' approaches to annotation and interpretation.

See my model post below:

"By My Own Hand": Journaling my Christian Life

Some of my personal journals
next to my father's biography.

My father titled his biography By My Own Hand, echoing Nephi's phrase from the Book of Mormon. The two of us spent many long hours going over drafts of his chapters, giving us many occasions to discuss his long and interesting life. I'll never forget how he came to terms with some pretty tough stuff (a failed first marriage, disappointments in business, betrayal by a partner, etc.) while composing his life story. He recorded so many kind thoughts about others, plus small triumphs and regular joys. His life writing made me proud to be his son.

Dad achieved an honesty, an authenticity, about his life by reflecting upon it and committing it to words. That drive to know the truth, and at the same time to be humble about one's own complicated thoughts and choices -- this is something that characterizes religious seekers, not just authors. It could refer to Joseph Smith, or St. Augustine, or my father -- or me.

By my own hand I write with a fountain pen in journal after journal, at times just chronicling the events of my life and family, and at times sounding the depths of what I believe, facing feelings, or talking to God, or reaching for answers. I really can't divide my religious faith and devotion from the literacy that has been ingrained in me. Journal writing connects me to family, to God, and to my most real self.

Journal writing is integral to the reflective and covenant life to which I am committed to as a Christian. Such personal writing has been for me both joyful and painful, creative and cringe-worthy -- a way of collecting myself and of shedding or shaping thoughts. It is a way to honor the people I love, to preserve the powerful insights I've received, and it is both a refuge and an adventurous mode of repentance.

Essay Assignment: My Literary and Religious Life

Purpose
The purpose of this assignment is to familiarize my students with blogging, allow them to introduce themselves, and to reflect on how literature and literacy are part of their identities -- particularly as connected to their religious life.

Instructions

• Create and post a miniature personal essay of 300 words or less through which you introduce yourself to others by telling a brief story illustrating some aspect of your own literary experience and its relationship to your faith. (Personal literary experience can include anything that has to do with writing or reading, and need not be connected to religious services, scripture, or LDS-oriented literature or events.) Do not exceed 300 words. Use Word Counter or a similar tool to check.
• Title your post. 
• Include a photo of yourself or a photo that fits the theme of your post. Do not post a general picture; use one of your own or take a new one.
• Use these labels: "posted by Gideon Burton" [insert your own name, of course] and "my literary and religious life" as well as any others that seem appropriate. (If you have trouble finding or using labels, skip it for now.)
• Read and comment on several other students' posts (at least three) 

Examples and Prompts
Read my example post on this blog, "'By My Own Hand': Journaling My Christian Life," or a previous one, "Safe Among the Indians," or look at any of these examples from past students: "Discovering God in Narnia" by Natalie Cherie; "this poetry is sexy" by Danielle Amanda; "My Lifelong Sing-a-Long" by Allyson J; or "The Public Sin that Changed Who I Am" by Tori Fawson.

Here are some prompts to get you thinking about your little essay. One thing to keep in mind with these is what kind of picture you might use to accompany the essay:

• Journal writing / reading
  How has this shaped your spiritual life? (Even when not writing about religious activities or explicitly about Mormon belief)? Has re-reading your own journal, or reading the journal of a relative, been a reflective and spiritual occasion for you? Have you felt a sense of identity with others who are not you but somehow like you?
• Letters
  As you've composed letters or email messages, or as you have received these, how has this been part of your religious or spiritual life? (Again, even if not directly associated with something like letters to/from missionaries, though that's okay)
• Poetry / Creative Writing
  Such writing need not have anything to do with your religious or spiritual life, but it can. Has this been the case with you -- either in reading poetry or composing it?
• Lyrics
  Do you write lyrics, memorize lyrics, share lyrics? Of course the texts written for hymns are a kind of lyrical poetry, but a lot of people are immersed in contemporary music (whether religious or LDS or not) and attach a lot of personal and emotional significance to such lyrics. Has this been the case with you?
• Reading history (personal, family, or church history; history in general; historical fiction).
  History can be pretty dry stuff and far away from your beliefs or spiritual feelings. But sometimes we connect powerfully with the past by way of a written history (or even historical fiction). Has this been the case for you?
• Plays
  In viewing, acting in, or even writing plays, have you felt connected to others (in the audience, in the cast, or even to the characters portrayed in the play)? Ever been involved in a church-sponsored dramatic activity?
• Social Media
  We don't think of this modern form of communication as literature, and much of it is superficial (or isn't even text-based). But if you've been involved in sharing your beliefs, even in very informal ways among your close online connections, this is a kind of literary experience with your religion. If you blog, have you blogged about your religion?

Re-Christening "Mormon Literature"

What happens to Mormon literature when the Mormon church no longer wishes to be called by that name, or even to be known as the "LDS church"?  The short answer: this literary tradition must be re-christened.

Re-christening "Mormon Literature"

Although christening is not a ritual observed within this faith, "re-christening" is a term very apt for the purpose -- precisely because the main intent of the church president's efforts to change how we and others speak about our religion is meant to refocus on Christ. 

I am creating this blog to help effect the re-christening of the Mormon/LDS literary tradition, and am inviting students in my course on "Literature of the Latter-day Saints" at Brigham Young University to use this blog as a way of exploring what it means to reframe "Mormon" or "LDS literature" consistent with the larger effort announced by the church president. What do we call it? How do our labels affect how that literature is created or critiqued? How does identity matter, whether considering the past or the present? What's in a name?

Reconsidering literary history and renaming or revising literary periods or canons is routine within literary studies. So, despite some potent ambiguities and not a little confusion instilled by this effort to refer appropriately to this church, I see it as an opportunity to reconsider and revitalize that literary tradition formerly known as "Mormon literature" or "LDS literature." And I already have a proposed name for it.

"LDS Christian" in lieu of "Mormon" or "LDS"

As I write (in September, 2019), just one year has passed since President Nelson's announcement about not referring to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by one of its nicknames (see this Salt Lake Tribune podcast discussing progress in the renaming effort to date). And so far, the church has done some rebranding of its websites, and even renamed the Mormon Tabernacle Choir. Church members, as well as journalists and scholars, are struggling. Referring to the full name of the church is awkward (a reason for the nicknames and acronyms emerging in the first place). "I'm a Mormon" is four syllables. "I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is 16 syllables-- four times as long. 

Then there is the adjective problem. We use adjectives to describe nouns, and we turn nouns into adjectives to do this trick. For example, we know about the Olympics. "Olympics" is a noun, it labels a thing (an event). It is a simple thing to take that noun and use it as an adjective, a word that describes a different noun: "olympic athlete" or "olympic competition" are examples. This is basic English at work. 

And the nicknames "Mormon" and "LDS" -- which  have very handily served as efficient (short) names or nouns -- have functioned very well for all these years as adjectives: "The Mormon Tabernacle Choir" or "LDS art." Adjectives are where using the full name of the church just isn't practical. Sure, instead of "Mormon literature," you can attempt to say "Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints literature," but that sounds very forced.

The workaround is to use an adjectival prepositional phrase. So, instead of "Mormon scripture," for example, one can say, "scripture of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." Similarly, one can say, instead of Mormon literature, "literature of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" or perhaps more accurately "literature of the members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" -- only that raises even more problems (of accuracy). People won't use a long description instead of a brief adjective. And there hasn't been a good adjective set forth.

I propose we used the label "LDS Christian" in place of "Mormon" or "LDS." This is short, can be used adjectivally ("LDS Christian thought" or "LDS Christian art"), and it keeps Christ central while not sacrificing the specific version of Christianity that sets apart adherents to and affiliates of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

What is "LDS Christian" literature?

Ah, there's the rub. Exploring the issues that can answer that question is precisely the purpose of this blog. I will be asking my students to join me in reconsidering literary identity vis-a-vis these complicated labels: "Mormon" "LDS" and my proposed moniker, "LDS Christian." What or who will be included / excluded from the literary canon if we adopt "LDS Christian"? How would this new name cause us to reconsider the forms or functions of literature? Let's think it through...