Xmas Trees, Mood, and Scouting

Some random thoughts from comments I've recently made on other people's blogs:

I cannot abide our Christmas tree unless its lights are turned on. It is so dark and depressing without the lights on, and so very appealing when they are on. I'm usually the guy who goes around the house flipping off lights to save energy, but it's the opposite with the Xmas tree.

Literary Balm for the Gay Dilemma

The Association for Mormon Letters has a new blog, and I've been asked to contribute monthly. Here's my first post:

This is an essay about how I’ve personally grappled with the modern-day gay dilemma and how I’ve looked to literary self-expression as a form of soothing balm for what I believe is one of the most dangerous issues of our generation, with the potential of dividing our society as catastrophically as the slavery issue did back in the nineteenth century, if not more so. Fortunately, with the recent heartening victories against gay marriage in California, New York, and Maine, it doesn’t look like that will happen anytime soon, but the fight is far from over, obviously.

On Mormon Humor

The Salt Lake Tribune recently did an article on Mormon humor, in which I was quoted several times. Here's the complete e-mail Q&A I originally did with the journalist:

Do you think there's any unique Mormon humor or is it just general religious humor, with specific Mormon settings and language?

I think real adult Mormon humor has a fair amount of passive-aggressivity to it. The culture and the belief system are so rigid and so resistant to any kind of disruption of the smooth, conformist functioning of the hive. But sometimes a worker bee has just got to assert his individuality and signal that some aspects of Mormon culture seem fairly absurd to him, and humor can be a veiled, indirect way of doing that. I don't think most other religions create as much of a cultural pressure cooker as Mormonism does.

Why do you think Mormons favor the kids-say-the-darndest-things approach, rather than a more witty or ironic wit?

Mormon what-kids-say humor is much safer and more innocent than adult-level humor, with less chance of being impure or offending the Holy Spirit. Also, Mormons often tend to live vicariously through their children. And after all, Jesus said, "Become as a little child."

Is this generation of Mormons, raised on Stephen Colbert and Jon Stewart, more inclined to be edgy in their humor?

Yes, to a degree. But even in the younger generation, I don't think active Mormons with a worldly humor sensibility outnumber Mormons who maintain a more sweet, earnest, safe sense of humor. Mormons who cotton to edgy humor are probably the same kinds of "gray sheep" who drink decaf and watch R-rated movies.

How do Mormon humorists know where the line is between sweetly irreverent ala J. Golden Kimball and disrespectful?

That line is different for everyone. Working on the Sugar Beet, I thought we reined in stuff enough to keep it from being too irreverent, but lots of people didn't think we reined it in enough. Whew, good thing they didn't see the raw stuff we didn't publish! I don't know that many Mormon humorists are even pushing this line, tell you the truth. Mormons are just too efficient at freezing out things that challenge the culture too much, so why bother.

What has happened to the Sugar Beet? How did your Mormon Tabernacle Enquirer do?

The Sugar Beet lives on as a regular feature in Sunstone magazine. I don't think the Mormon Tabernacle Enquirer sold as many copies as our non-Mormon publisher hoped it would, but I suspected all along that that kind of satire was too edgy to go mainstream among Mormons. I had people tell me they didn't mind surreptitiously enjoying our brand of boundary-pushing humor for free online, but to actually support it by paying for it and keeping a physical copy in their home seemed to cross a line of conscience for them. It's a similar rationalization dynamic that probably happens with porn.

On Amazon, the top pairing for Mormon Tabernacle Enquirer is No Man Knows My History: The Life of Joseph Smith by Fawn M. Brodie, if that tells you anything. Still, Mormon Tabernacle Enquirer sold over 2,000 copies regionally, so we're currently working on volume two for release later in 2010, probably with alternative Mormon publisher Zarahemla Books this time.

Do you think there's a market for Mormon humor? If so, how do you reach it? If not, does that make you depressed?

I don't really think there's much of a market for Mormon humor, just like there's nearly no market for realistic or edgy Mormon literature in general. Mormons who like a risker adult sense of humor don't trust mainstream Mormon outlets to provide it, and Mormons who like safe humor--or don't see much of a need for humor at all--certainly don't seek out the edgy stuff that's available. And yes, that does make me personally depressed, because humor is an important outlet for me, and I think it helps certain kinds of personalities stay more connected with the culture, if we can gently mock it a little. I'd love to see the culture loosen up a little and not be so safe and conformist.

Lots of Buzz for NO GOING BACK

Jonathan Langford's novel NO GOING BACK, which I published through my Zarahemla Books enterprise, is getting lots of good coverage. Here are some recent highlights:

Doug Gibson at the Ogden [Utah] Standard-Examiner gives NO GOING BACK a great review. "The new Zarahemla Books offering has a premise that many haven’t contemplated before," Gibson writes. "It allows the reader to get inside the head of an active-in-the-church gay teenager who desperately wants to live the gospel and the law of chastity." Gibson concludes, "I wish this book was on the shelves at Deseret Book. A lot of us could benefit by reading it."

Read the full review here:
http://blogs.standard.net/2009/11/novel-puts-readers-into-the-shoes-of-a-gay-mormon-teen-who-wants-to-stay-worthy/

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Coming Down the Mountain continues its series of interviews with NO GOING BACK author Jonathan Langford.

Jonathan discusses the novel itself here:
http://karenjonesgowen.blogspot.com/2009/11/interview-with-jonathan-langford-novel.html

And he discusses his experience with Zarahemla Books here:
http://karenjonesgowen.blogspot.com/2009/11/publisher-zarahemla-books.html

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At North Star, "a place of community for Latter-day Saints dealing with issues surrounding homosexual attraction who desire to live in harmony with the teachings of Jesus Christ and the doctrines and values of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," Jonathan wrote a personal article about NO GOING BACK:
http://northstarlds.org/voices_full_2009-11.php

And North Star director Ty Mansfield said of the novel:

LDS writer Jonathan Langford has authored a masterful fictional narrative in
No Going Back. “Fiction has tools for getting inside the minds of characters,” he
explained, “showing them in a more complete context while exploring the
variations and possibilities of human experience.” The novel gives readers a
window into the inner workings of the heart and mind of an LDS teen who struggles
to reconcile his faith and his sexual feelings in a modern culture that’s
vastly different than the one most of us grew up in. As I wrote in an endorsement
of the book, it “brings to life through narrative what I imagine will be the
struggle of many youth growing up in today’s evolving culture around gay issues.
Parents, friends, priesthood leaders, and peers are all a critical part of how we
negotiate our sense of self-identity and life choices, and this story is
masterful in how it brings to life all the tensions associated with
that process.”

While the book doesn't always paint a picture around this issue as we hope
it would be, as an ideal, the story resonated with me as a markedly realistic and
candid portrayal of the potential conflicts our next generation of LDS youth will
face, particularly those growing up in communities where Latter-day Saints or
other conservative faith groups are a minority—a rapidly growing proportion of
Church membership. The more we as a community fully acknowledge that potential
reality, the better we'll be equipped to meet our youth where they are and offer
them the resource we hope might help them along a gospel-centered path.

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Here's an AML-List review of NO GOING BACK by Vickie Cleverley Speek:

I remember playing tag and other games with the neighborhood kids when I was growing up. We would call each other "faggots" and "fairies" not knowing what the words meant. We just knew the words were an insult and meant something we didn't want to be.

As a teenager, a gay student was intimidated into leaving school. Charles wore cowboy boots and a pin on his shirt pocket that said "Davy Crockett." He carried a briefcase to carry his books to class. Boys would kick the briefcase down the hall, then trip Charles as he scrambled to get it. Girls would snicker behind their hands and turn away. "Fag!" they whispered as he walked by. Charles ate lunch alone. He walked to class alone. He had no friends.

Charles was in my seminary class. One day he wasn't there. "I hope you guys are proud of yourselves," our seminary teacher said, "You drove Charles out of school. He won't be back. Of all the people in this school, you, as members of the Church, should have known better."

"By the way," he added. "That pin he wore — Davy Crockett is Charles' real name. He is a direct descendent of Davy Crockett and very proud of it." I was devastated. Although I had never personally done anything to hurt Charles, I never did anything to stop it, either. Forty years later, I am still ashamed.

And now, I know how Charles felt. Jonathan Langford, in his book "No Going Back," has basically recreated the experience I had at Idaho Falls High School. The setting has been modernized to western Oregon in 2003, but the conflict is the same — a gay teenager attempting to walk the narrow conduit between his sexuality and his religious desires.

Paul Ficklin, the main character, is well liked at school, plays soccer and video games, enjoys camping with the Boy Scouts and is active in his ward of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. At fifteen-years old, the age of sexual awakening, Paul has a secret he fears to tell anyone — he's gay. Eventually, Paul works up the courage to tell his best friend, Chad Mortenson. At first repelled by Paul's revelation, Chad realizes his friend is the same person he has always been. Paul also finds support with his mother and the bishop of his ward, Chad's father.

Without revealing himself as homosexual, Paul becomes involved at school with a Gay Straight Alliance (GSA) group, where he finds friends and acceptance. But all that changes when an anti-gay-marriage amendment is proposed for the state's constitution and Paul finds himself torn between his sexual identity and his religion. When asked by GSA members to fight against the amendment, Paul declines, revealing that he supports his church, that he feels homosexuality is wrong, and that he intends to live his life not acting on his sexual feelings.

Accidently outed by a vindictive acquaintance, Paul's world becomes unbearable as friends suddenly become enemies, and his name becomes associated with the word "faggot." He nearly suffers a mental collapse when an award, long worked for and desired, is denied because of his homosexuality.

The characters in this book are very real, with human frailties and characteristics — some good, some bad. Not all the members of the ward are supportive. As a matter of fact, while some of the ward youth are understanding, others become his worst tormenters. Chad Mortenson, Paul's best friend, is my hero. I wish I had his kind of courage when I was 16 years old.

If there is a flaw in this book, it's Langford's use of given names from a generation older than the one he is writing about. Paul, Chad, Dale and Janice went to school with me in the 1960s, not with my son in 2003. The book would have been better had he used more modern names like Matt, Michael, Heather and Melissa.

"No Going Back" is an important story. The conflict between Paul's sexuality and his religious desires cannot easily be solved. Chances are he will not be able to cross the bridge successfully between the secular and religious worlds. Will he fall, or jump off the slippery slopes into the deep dark water of despair, as have so many gay LDS men and women?

I highly recommend this book.

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Finally, on his own blog, Jonathan questions "What Keeps Readers Away." Here's the link to an interesting, frank author expression about the struggles of reaching an audience:
http://www.langfordwriter.com/blog/?p=55

More info about NO GOING BACK:
http://www.zarahemlabooks.com/product.sc?productId=26&categoryId=1
http://www.amazon.com/No-Going-Back-Jonathan-Langford/dp/0978797191