Why a Database for Mormon Literature & Arts
The scriptures speak of those “kept from the truth because they know not where to find it” (D&C 123:12), and I believe as much can be said about Mormon works of literature and art as about LDS doctrine. Most people are very ignorant of what has been done. But unlike LDS doctrine, there is no canonized body of literary or artistic works that bear a divine imprint. How is it, then, that people get their ideas of the nature or quality of LDS artistic works? Well, I think they draw their conclusions based on what is visible to them commercially and what is discussed socially. So, for most Mormons, “Mormon literature” probably equates in their minds to the genres that have been most popular through LDS retailers in recent years: 1) historical fiction (Gerald Lund, Ron Carter, etc.); 2) Young Adult fiction (Jack Weyland, Dean Hughes, etc.), and 3) LDS Romance fiction (Anita Stansfield, Rachel Nunes, etc.). Each of these is an important genre deserving attention, but there is so much more! This is one reason we created the Mormon Literature & Creative Arts database years ago. We wanted there to be a place where, as much as possible, there could be a complete record of any and all works of literature by (or about) Latter-day Saints, and biographical information about their authors. This has been an ambitious project, compounded by the recent expansion of the database into film (and music in the coming year). However, because it is sponsored by BYU through its library and regularly updated and developed by librarians and faculty, it stands a good chance of living up to its aims.
I’ve devoted a lot of my own academic career to developing this database because I believe it serves many important purposes, not the least of which is coming to understand ourselves better as a people and culture, for the arts reflect and shape identity. I think the reason we cringe at many works of Mormon literature and art is that part of us knows or fears that these works really do reflect who we are, and who we are too frequently appears very shallow, worldly, sentimental, kitschy, derivative, or tasteless. These are things we need to know, so that we can improve. Stand on the shoulders of enough pygmies, and you can see a long ways.
But you know what? They are not all pygmies! It drives me crazy to hear people berating Mormon literature and film when their knowledge of it is so cursory. “The Singles Ward stank; therefore, all Mormon film stinks”–that kind of logic is, well, just stupid. I think we have to allow for that sort of armchair criticism, but among those who are educated I believe we have a responsibility to be more responsible about our judgments, especially when tools like this or other blogs or the meetings and publications of the Association for Mormon Letters, or the Mormon Literature & Creative Arts database can help us to cull the best from the worst.
That culling is not just something to do with the latest titles coming off of LDS presses. We can and should know our “literary genealogy,” as Ben so nicely phrased it. Has anyone every considered the fact that the discovery of the “Mormon Milton” may be in our past, not our future? In teaching Mormon Literature for many years, and now Mormon film, I remain perpetually delighted by discoveries of works that somehow have been passed over. For example, a recent graduate student thesis by Terrol Williams introduced me to Bayard Taylor’s nineteenth-century dramatic poem, The Prophet, and this opened up all kinds of interesting topics. And I haven’t even begun to discuss the wonderful LDS women’s literature from early periodicals that abounds (though I will in time…).
But we do need starting points, and that’s why those offering titles or lists do us all a service. We’re starting to do that within the Mormon Literature & Creative Arts database. Take a look at 60 Significant Mormon Biographies or 75 Significant Mormon Poets. Another working list of noteworthy LDS Young Adult writers can be found at the Mormon Studies Wiki (feel free to suggest additions). With selecting all of these, we’ve tried to take an intelligent approach, looking at what works have received attention from critics, which have been recognized through awards, and which have sustained popularity over time.
As Liz stated in our editorial vision, we hope to redeem the past works of our Mormon cultural heritage, and this begins, as actual genealogy does, with finding the names of our literary ancestors and seeing where they fit into the larger picture. A condemnation rested on the early church that the Lord said was to remain until saints remembered the first work of Mormon literature, the Book of Mormon, that had been given them (D&C 84:57). I’m not saying we are on the brink of hellfire for forgetting Nephi Anderson or Maurine Whipple. But I am saying that just as in the real Renaissance of the 15th-17th centuries, the Mormon Renaissance moves forward to a large degree as we look appreciatively at the past, and remember the gifts of our literary forbears.
And that’s why we work patiently at completing and perfecting the Mormon Literature & Creative Arts database.
February 29th, 2008 at 3:31 pm
The Mormon Literature and Creative Arts database is already filled to a daunting level with authors and artists that could keep someone occupied for decades. It wouldn’t surprise me that as more information is uncovered that coveted place prophesied about as the Mormon Milton or Shakespeare will be secured by some passed over or forgotten writer of the past. I, however, like all other Mormon writers who have heard the this statement as a call to action, hope that I, too, may at least garner a paragraph or two in the pages of those books on those Mormon literary shelves that will one day reach the Heavens.
(The database is amazing by the way! Great job.)
February 29th, 2008 at 3:45 pm
I’m pleased that you’ve begun to create these lists as starting points, Gideon. I have a few ideas of my own of more ways we could use data from the database to create useful resources.
A major barrier, however, is tracking down the works listed in the database. That’s why I think of our (whoever we is) projects should be to index what’s online — for example, has anyone created an index yet of the poems and short stories that were published in Dialogue that are now available online?
And it would be great if we could also get more AML work online. In particular, the AML annuals. I know there’s a lot more criticism out there that I would both enjoy and find useful, but I can’t access it. I have the annuals that have been published since I first become a member (in 2000, I believe). But I think that’s only 3.
February 29th, 2008 at 5:43 pm
I agree with what William is saying: accessibility is a huge problem. I’ve been writing a few Mormon studies papers and basically the resources I find are horrible. Even the fact that Dialogue and Sunstone are available online isn’t very helpful because their search engines are terrible and the interfaces are unhelpful at best. (Why in the world don’t they give me a list of titles for my search? Page numbers are not a helpful way to browse!)
The BYU Studies indexes aren’t much better. To find an article by topic, I have to look it up in the subject index, which gives me a volume and issue number. Unfortunately, you can’t look up articles directly by volume and topic, only by author and title, so then I have to go to the table of contents to look up one of those, and then go to the author or title index to finally see if there’s an available PDF of the article.
Similar problems with AML’s interface. In fact, what Mormon studies really needs to progress is not more respect, but more tech people. Or more librarians. Or techy librarians. If each of these organizations (AML, Dialogue, Sunstone, and BYU Studies) could get a decent index up, it would make Mormon lit and scholarship so much more accessible.
(For anyone who’s interested, the most useful database I’ve found is the “Studies in Mormon history” database–fairly comprehensive, but no full texts.)
But back from that tangent . . . . I really like those lists of authors. Now just for a way to get people to read them, as Ben’s post says.
February 29th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
I hope I don’t make either William or Liz feel bad, but the Mormon Literature and Creative Arts database that Gideon wrote about has full-text links available for quite a few works. A search done in criticism will bring up tons of references and links to full-texts, Dialogue has volumes 1-39 cataloged and those wanting to find full texts not link in just yet will be able to find reference information for most entries.
In addition, for anyone wanting to find full-text articles with BYUS go to the LINKS link and scroll down to HBLL, this will connect you to the BYUS electronic collection, which has most BYUS articles in PDF format.
February 29th, 2008 at 9:36 pm
Candy:
I know about the criticism available on the Mormon Literature Web site and the links to the AML reviews. What else is linked?
And what about the Dialogue’s short stories and poetry?
And even so that still leaves us without the AML annuals, which are the most valuable for what I’m interested in.
BYU Studies and Dialogue only flirt with literary criticism. ;-)
I fully agree with Liz about the need for more tech people.
March 1st, 2008 at 12:38 am
William:
If you click on the genre link you can scroll down to criticism - there are over 1100 works listed under criticism. And yes there are full-text links to short stories and poetry for Dialogue. But BYUS and Dialogue aren’t even close to being the only journals attached to the database. It may be that I’ve been involved with both BYUS and the MLCA database for long enough to be familiar with them, but I really feel that people have been short changing these resources. These databases are not newly formed, nor do they hold a simple amount of information. Gideon Burton is very good about getting on top of technology and using it to gather, catalogue and promote scholarship and literature. Give the database a focused effort and you may be delightfully amazed at what you find.
March 1st, 2008 at 8:17 am
Thanks, Candy.
I haven’t been shortchanging the resource — I just didn’t know. I usually only look for stuff that I know exists and that’s mainly AML published work and novel. I’m not going to take the time to give something a focused effort unless I’m certain that that effort is going to pay off.
And that’s exactly why this blog is needed — to show what’s possible to do with the database.
Although, of course, I would have been happy to post any major milestones/changes on AMV. As I did here: http://www.motleyvision.org/?p=349
So I’m going to change my agreement with Liz: what the field needs is more librarians, techies, techie librarians, and marketing/PR types.
March 3rd, 2008 at 6:06 pm
Might I just say how pleased I am with the posts thus far on this site. How exciting to see so much thought and work going in to these issues on so many fronts (and how pleased I am that you’ve included a link to Toward an LDS Cinema. Thank you whoever was responsible).
I did want to add about this idea of lists: The concept of a ‘Mormon Milton or Shakespeare’ requires a recognition of who Milton was and why Shakespeare is important. I think that for the most part these notions are closed to the Mormon discussion as far as film goes. Before we (again, who knows who ‘we’ is?) start gathering lists or canons of LDS films, it might be beneficial to name a few ideals in film: Do Mormon filmmakers only know about Spielberg and Coppola? I would hope we are looking for a Mormon Mizoguchi rather than a Mormon De Mille.
I only suggest that for such a young, but important medium, our discussion of lists might benefit from a non-exclusively Mormon criteria.
Also, William mentioned on A Motley Vision the possibility of placing Mormon-made shorts on-line. If anyone knows how or when this starts up, please let me know. I’d be more than happy to help.
March 3rd, 2008 at 6:15 pm
Thanks, Trevor! And might I say you’re doing some pretty fine work yourself. I just read one of your posts for the first time–Dr. Burton assigned our Mormons and Film class to read your thoughts on the worldwide leadership training conference, and I was most impressed. I’m glad to see more and more people banding together to promote and critique Mormon art.
March 4th, 2008 at 3:57 pm
[…] try and rein the conversation in a bit by focusing on a specific piece (albeit well-known) from the Mormon Literature Database. Specifically, I want to look at Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, my reaction to it, and the […]
March 5th, 2008 at 3:42 am
Kathrine,
That’s nice to hear you read it, but its nicer to hear that Gideon assigned it to your class. I considered it a significant addition to our way of thinking about Church media and had hoped for it to generate more discussion. It hasn’t garnered any on my blog or the AML discussion board other than Gideon’s post, so it is very nice to know that it was at least read.
Thank you Gideon and Kathrine, both.
March 12th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
I also agree that the MCLA database is a tremendous advance — one that I personally use regularly and am greatful it exists. And I expect over time that it will become the primary tool for anyone researching Mormon literature.
But I don’t think that it is there yet. Despite the linking that is there, more can and should be done. And I know that the works listed are far from everything that should be listed!
Part of the problem is simply that those behind the project can’t do everything. For example, I personally suggested a handful of additional items over a year ago, and those items still have not been added to the database for some reason — I assume because my suggestions are simply too low priority for all the changes that are happening.
To get the MCLA database to where it should be, I believe that it needs to be opened up to outside collaboration in some way. Those of us that are outside the workings of the database need a way to not only make suggestions, but also earn the trust of those working on the project so that our contributions don’t need the same level of scrutiny that an anonymous contributor’s suggestions need.
Simpy put, the work is too vast to be handled by the small staff that is now making the changes. I’m not suggesting something as open as Wikipedia, but instead a mechanism that allows outside contributions without compromising the quality of its information.
March 12th, 2008 at 4:44 pm
I have to second this. The problem with the database is just that: it’s a database and must therefore be maintained by hand by a few people. It has a better system than the AML-Review archive–which is all by freehand; at least MLCA is searchable and automatically generated. But a wiki, now, that would be something. Of course, I think one reason why it isn’t is that Gideon wants it to maintain a scholarly reputation. However, the main functions of the database could easily be filled by a wiki, and such a format would probably produce a lot more information from the community.
March 12th, 2008 at 7:53 pm
I think the solution might be to go the other direction and pull information from the database (and link back to it) into a non-BYU affiliated wiki. Ideally it would be sponsored by the AML or even better a consortium that has involvement from the AML, BYU (individuals), UVSC, Mormons in the Humanities, Sunstone, Dialogue and the Bloggernacle.