Thmazing's Thutopia

2024-12-08

Teaching Primary kids the D&C (a svithe)

I was asked to run a teacher training for the Primary teachers today. This is the outline I prepared for our discussion.

When I was a kid, if you went to Church every Sunday, you got 96 hours of Primary every year.

Kids today get 48.

Two days a year instead of four.

And that impacts what we're able to accomplish in Primary.

The way I see it, Primary has two main purposes. The first is to teach kids about Jesus. Prepare them for baptism and other ordinances, explain the atonement, expound the doctrines. That's what the manual is about. This is important stuff. The most important.

But the other purpose is also important. The other purpose of Primary is to teach kids how to be Latter-day Saints. What it means to be part of this community. How to participate; how to throw in; how to mourn with those who mourn; how to show up and accept a calling; how to serve with our heart, might, mind, and strength—to know how it FEELS to be a Latter-day Saint.

There’s a story about the young Joseph F. Smith I think about a lot. Keep in mind, when he was a kid, his father and uncle were murdered by a mob, and his entire community had been driven across a continent. So he’d seen some stuff.

[ask someone to read]

Joseph F. Smith was 19 when he returned from his mission in Hawaii. As he traveled from California to his home in Utah, he was confronted one morning by a “wagonload of profane drunks … , shooting their guns, yelling wildly, and cursing the Mormons.” One of the drunks, “waving a pistol,” came toward him. Although Joseph “was terrified, he felt it would be unwise and useless to run … , and so he advanced toward the gunman as if he found nothing out of the ordinary in his conduct. ‘Are you a [bleeeep] Mormon?’ the stranger demanded. Mustering all the composure he could, Joseph answered evenly while looking the man straight in the eye, ‘Yes, siree; dyed in the wool; true blue, through and through.’ Almost stunned by this wholly unexpected response, the gunman stopped, dropped his hands to his sides, and, after looking incredulously at Joseph for a moment, said in a subdued tone, ‘Well, you are the [bleeeep] pleasantest man I ever met! Shake. I am glad to see a fellow stand for his convictions.’ So saying, he turned and walked away.”

While the idea of being a “true blue Mormon” has become an internet thing (with all that that implies), what would it look like, in your opinion, for our kids to be “dyed in the wool; true blue, through and through” by the time they enter adulthood?

[discuss]

I read something recently that said “the D&C is often neglected among the Saints as far as serious devotional study goes,” and I have to admit: I felt really accused by that. The D&C itself, the actual scripture, is mostly just a bunch of boring Thus sayeth the Lords. Which I know is a terrible thing to say, but in the Bible and the Book of Mormon and the Pearl of Great Price, the revelations are integrated into the stories. You see Jesus climb a mountain and then he gives us doctrine. You watch Alma travel from town to town, giving his variations on a theme, and different peoples react in different ways.

All that is left out of the Doctrine & Covenants. And I think it’s our job, as teachers, to add it back in.

It’s especially important this year because while last year Nephi and Abish and Moroni taught us how to be Christians, the people in this year’s stories will teach us how to be, specifically, Latter-day Saints.

And, as pointed out, we have half as much Primary to accomplish this task. So let’s tell the kids some stories! Emma cleaning the floorboards is just as important as God saying don’t smoking so you can run and not be weary. In fact, they are the same thing.

I have two main recommendations, but we don’t have a lot of time, so I hope they will work more as a place to start. There’s awesome stuff out there.

Both my recommendations come from the Church, which means you can access them for free online. They also both come in handydandy bo ok form which, I mean—who doesn’t like carrying a nice book around? Books are real. Kids see you with a book (he editorialized) they can see what it is. They see you with a phone, well, then Snapchat and Candy Crush look exactly the same as the scriptures, right?

THING NUMBER ONE: Revelations in Context

[summarize]

THING NUMBER TWO: Saints (all the volumes—not just the first)

Like Revelations in Context, the first volume of Saints covers much of what’s happening as the Church is being formed and the Doctrine and Covenants is being built.

But don’t sleep on the rest of the volumes! Just because something didn’t happen in New York or Ohio or Missouri or Illinois doesn’t mean it can’t teach a useful lesson. Here’s a story I read in volume three that I really love:

Elder Wells spoke German well, and Elder Pratt spoke fluent Spanish. But Elder Ballard spoke neither language and seemed overwhelmed by his new surroundings. Everything about Buenos Aires—the language, the warm December air, the stars in the southern sky—was unfamiliar to him.

The missionaries spent their first days in Argentina visiting with the German Saints…. [On] December 12, 1925, they baptized Anna [and] Jacob [Kullick] and the couple’s sixteen-year-old daughter, Herta….

Once the South American Mission was officially open, the missionaries and members worked together to share the gospel with their neighbors. Herta Kullick, who knew Spanish, sometimes shared the gospel with her Spanish-speaking friends at school….

In January 1926, Elder Wells returned home because of ill health, so Herta became responsible for helping Elder Ballard and Elder Pratt communicate with the German Saints. Elder Ballard would prepare a message for the Saints in English, Elder Pratt would translate it into Spanish, and Herta would translate the Spanish into German. It was a complicated—and sometimes very funny—process, but the missionaries were grateful for her help.

During their meetings, the missionaries often presented slideshows using a projector they brought from the United States. Thinking her friends might take an interest, Herta invited them to attend the shows. Soon, nearly a hundred young people—most of them Spanish speakers—were appearing at the Saints’ rented meetinghouse, and the elders organized a Sunday school to teach them.

Parents of the youth, curious about what their children were learning, started meeting with the Saints as well. At one meeting, more than two hundred people crowded the meetinghouse to see slides about the Restoration and hear Elder Pratt teach in their native language.

(Incidentally, there are now 484 wards in Argentina.)

How could this story be used in Primary?

[discuss]

(Before we move on, let me mention that the Church historians have very strict rules in writing Saints. They can’t say a December rain was cold unless that have a letter or journal saying the December rain was actually cold. Also, it’s written at the same difficulty level as popular fiction—and honestly, it’s as fun to read—so really anyone—including kids in senior Primary—can read and enjoy it.)

Finally, surprise, THING NUMBER THREE.

Don’t forget, as you teach the restored gospel, that you yourself are a Latter-day Saint. Stories from your own life—including childhood—are relevant and useful and twice as interesting as stuff from a thousand years ago. What stories do you have about the Word of Wisdom or the Three Degrees of Glory or the sacrament that you can share? Because you do have them. They’re inside you. Somewhere.

The first Come, Follow Me lesson of 2025 suggests this question: What does the phrase “the heavens are open” mean to you?

For our last couple minutes, lets answer that question. And let’s generate some stories from each of our lives that we can share with the kids on our first week with the D&C.

As we head into that, let me just say that I love Church history—I love the men and women and children that started this journey we continue today. And I promise that as we bring their stories—and our stories—to the kids in our classes, they will feel the Spirit as they learn that being a Latter-day Saint is a really cool thing to be. In the name of Jesus Christ, amen.

[discuss]

---

previous svithe on thusbstack
previous svithe on thutopia

view the full uncropped version of “i will uphold thee” by elspeth c young

2024-12-07

Gimme a 1! Gimme a 2! Gimme a 3!

I'm with Roger Ebert. Just a work of art by what it is trying to be. Not against some other arbitrary standard unrelated to it's intentions.

With that in mind, Serial Killer gets an A-, Magic Pen a B, One Step Enough an A, Ether an A, and The Big Clock an A+. Even taking into account modern grade inflation, an excellent set of books!

119) The Serial Killer's Guide to San Francisco by Michelle Chouinard, finished November 22

Funny how a book can pop into your life at just the right moment. For the book, I mean. I found this advance copy in a little free library and was charmed by the title and brought it home. A couple days later, the book I was carrying around wasn't in the right spot as I was leaving this house and this fresh arrival was easy to grab and so I did. Plenty of books in its position never get opened.

I like a lot of stuff about this book. I enjoyed spending time with the protagonist who is my own age and seems like a good person to know. She runs crime-themed tours in San Francisco and is getting along. Unfortunately, a serial killer who has popped up who is mimicking the murders her grandfather committed fifty years prior. You know how it goes.

In related news, her daughter's tuition source has disappeared and so to make money she has no choice but to start a podcast about the murders and to try and solve them before they get placed upon her or her daughter. You know how it goes.

Anyway, it's fun to read. I didn't know who the current killer was. And I was wrong about who the actual, nongrandfather killer of fifty years ago was, even though I was convinced I knew from early on. Unfortunately, I was misremembering a crucial detail.

Pretty sure that misremembering was my fault, but I can't be sure. This advance copy is riddled with errors—more than I'd expect for a book this far along. And the some elements—most notably the podcast recording—are so awkward I can't help but wonder if they were added in a last-minute rewrite. And other parts—like the hacking—seem more like plot convenience than reality.

The contemporary mystery ended so near the end I was figuring the old-time mystery and the flashing-arrow romantic option would have to wait for the sequel. But no. They wrapped it all up in the last dozen pages.

I was entertained. This is pure candy-bar fiction but it has the occasional deeper pleasures of all good entertainment. If it's got peanuts, it's a Snickers. And it's a Snickers.

Don't love the cover though. I always felt like oppressive gender normers were out for me, carrying it around. And yeah, middle-aged single mom solving crimes as she makes a true-crime podcast could not be a more female-coded novel in 2024, but still. I read it. And, you know, I'm, like, super manly and stuff. So there.

probably three weeks

120) Magic Pen by Dylan Horrocks, finished November 23

I think it's worth starting by clearly stating this graphic novel ends somewhere true and meaningful and in a significant point worth making. A finale that perhaps justifies the path that took us here. Because the story quite intentionally creates a series of pornographic events in its exploration of desires, the morality of desire, and the intersection/relationship of fantasy and reality. Sometimes it dwells longer than necessary on sexy green ladies and sometimes it lingers too long in philosophical hokum. Fewer nipples and less blathering would not hurt this book a bit.

Magic Pen is also autofiction. It's protagonists speaks at a symposium Horrocks spoke at and writes an autobiographical comic with the same title as Horrocks's.

And, in the end, is it any good? Even if I like the conclusion and if it's visually exciting, is it good?

Well, perhaps I should answer that by noting that although the book occasionally seemed vaguely familiar—like maybe I'd read a couple excerpts before—I did not know until finishing the autofiction paragraph above and finally looking around that, ah, I've read it before. And clearly it made very, very little impression. It appears I like it more this second time, but still: Doesn't add up to much of a recommendation.

three or four days

121) One Step Enough by Carla Kelly, finished November 28

This is the sequel to Kelly's My Lovely Vigil Keeping (thutopia, thubstack) which I adored and whose sequel I purchased a few weeks after finishing the first book. I likely would have purchased it sooner except I had not known there was a sequel.

It's quite a different sort of novel. The first is a romance. And although the outer world's story is of a tragedy that is pending from page one, this is a romance, and so the inner story is one of love and of choosing the right man among more than one excellent choice.

This one is different. Our heroes are married. And struggling to overcome the tragedies that have defined their lives thus far. Not just the massive one at the end of My Lovely Vigil Keeping but also the loss of her father and his wife and cetera and cetera and cetera. They have a lot of pain to overcome.

(Which gets to the one Actual Historical Character whose [nonlocal] appearance I did not love. I mean—I didn't mind his existence, but let us either recognize him or not. You don't need to later get a character to say his full name [Sigmund Freud] for the bit to work.)

The book is filled with crises and redemptions as two adults learn how to be married to one another. It's not easy.

The supporting cast is marvelous. I felt like Della came down harder on her uncle in this book. Which isn't to say he didn't deserve it, but to say it felt out of place thematically. For most of the book, Della's personal growth is manifest in her ability to love others with less baggage. Not so her uncle.

A volume of loose ends are tied up in this book. Some more conveniently than others but all believably. This is the sort of book where, by the end, you love all the characters. And regardless of how they came into the story, you're happy to know them. It is a work of joy.

probably a little over a year

122) Ether: A Brief Theological Introduction by Rosalynde Frandsen Welch, finished November 29

I fear I grow weary of this series, but Rosalynde's book is another winner. And if I was too tired to gain all I could have, I yet gained much.

For instance:

• Reread Ether 12 understanding the word after (where the grammar allows it) in the same way as in the phrase "after the manner of happiness" and see what you discover.

• Perhaps scripture lives only through our continuous retranslation. That is what makes a scriptural tradition.

• Scripture becomes scripture only when it is read with "the Lord [as he gives its reader] grace, that they might have charity" and thus discover scripture—and the Lord therein.

• Moroni models for us how to imagine Christ's love beyond the boundaries were, in our fallen way, naturally feel.

• The brother of Jared's shock at the finger of the Lord may well have been at how . . . normal it was. How not-mighty-seeming.

• The coming of Christ is happening over and over, every time a willing soul opens themselves up.

One to go!

about a month

123) The Big Clock by Kenneth Fearing, finished December 7

I'd never heard of this book.

I heard of the (first) movie based on it a few weeks ago on YouTube, but in my failed search to find the movie, I discovered my library had the book. I checked it out, not expecting to actually read it.

But it was the most convenient book at a moment I needed a book so I decided to carry it with me, read the first couple chapters, see what I thought.

I ended up having time to read a quarter or a third of this slim volume and let me tell you: so glad I did.

I did find the movie for free today (and I intend to watch it) but I'm glad I didn't on my first pass because this is one of the most tightly wound works of literature I've ever read.

In short, a man in put in charge of a manhunt. But he knows something no one else knows: their unidentified target—is himself.

The machinery winds its trap and he does what he can to get closer and closer without stepping inside.

It's excellent.

It's also an early mystery to take on multiple points of view. And it's got plenty of subtext for your book group.

I loved it.

a couple weeks or more

===========================================================

2024 × 10 = Bette Davis being Bette Davis

001) Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke, finished January 1
002) The Complete Peanuts: 1977 – 1978 by Charles M. Schulz , finished January 6
003) The Sandman: The Kindly Ones by Neil Gaiman et al, finished January 10
004) Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke, finished January 17
005) Touched by Walter Mosley, finished January 19
006) Opposable Thumbs: How Siskel & Ebert Changed Movies Forever by Matt Singer, finished January 20
007) Evergreen Ape: The Story of Bigfoot by David Norman Lewis, finished January 24
008) What Falls Away by Karin Anderson, finished February 1
009) Peanuts Jubilee: My Life and Art with Charlie Brown and Others by Charles M. Schulz, finished February 3
010) Legends of Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke, finished February 3

A few of my favorite things

011) Roaming by Jillian Tamaki and Mariko Tamaki, finished February 3
012) The Return of Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke, February 9
013) Things in the Basement by Ben Hatke, February 10
014) A Charlie Brown Religion: Exploring the Spiritual Life and Work of Charles M. Schulz by Stephen J. Lind, finished February 10
015) 1st Nephi: A Brief Theological Introduction by Joseph M. Spencer, finished February 10
016) Dendo by Brittany Long Olsen, finished February 11
017) The Ten Winners of the 2023 Whiting Awards, finished February 12
018) The Peanuts Papers: Writers and Cartoonists on Charlie Brown, Snoopy & the Gang, and the Meaning of Life edited by Andrew Blaune, finished February 17
019) Do Not Disturb Any Further by John Callahan, finished February 17
020) Mighty Jack by Ben Hatke, finished circa February 19
021) 2nd Nephi: A Brief Theological Introduction by Terryl Givens, February 24

Let's start with the untimely deaths

022) The Life and Death of King John by William Shakespeare, finished February 28
022) Mighty Jack and the Goblin King by Ben Hatke, finished February 29
023) Chronicle of a Death Foretold by Gabriel García Márquez, finished March 4
024) Millay by Edna St. Vincent Millay, finished March
025, 026) The Life and Death of King John by William Shakespeare, finished March 6, 8
027) Murder Book by Hilary Fitzgerald Campbell, finished March 11
028) A Canticle for Leibowitz by Walter M. Miller, Jr.
029) The Last Hero by Terry Pratchett and Paul Kidby, finished March 15
030) Karen's Roller Skates by Ann M. Martin and Katy Farina, finished March 18

Four comics could hardly be more different

031) The Sandman: The Wake by Neil Gaiman et al, finished March 18
032) The World of Edena by Mœbius, finished March 23
033) Three Rocks: The Story of Ernie Bushmiller, the Man Who Created Nancy by Bill Griffith, finished March 23
034) Mighty Jack and Zita the Spacegirl by Ben Hatke, finished March 23

Jacob says be nice and read comics

035) Jacob: A Brief Theological Introduction by Deidre Nicole Green, finished March 24
036) Starter Villain by John Scalzi, finished March 27
037) Mister Invincible: Local Hero by Pascal Jousselin, finished March 30
038) The Toon Treasury of Classic Children's Comics, edited by Art Spiegelman and Francoise Mouly, finished March 30
039) Harley Quinn: Breaking Glass by Mariko Tamaki and Steve Pugh, finished April 1
040) The Super Hero's Journey by Patrick McDonnell, finished April 5

Eleven books closer to death

041) The Stranger Beside Me: Updated Twentieth Anniversary Edition by Ann Rule, finished April 9
042) Huda F Are You? by Huda Fahmy, finished April 13
043) Enos, Jarom, Omni: a brief theological introduction by Sharon J. Harris, finished April 25
044) The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson, finished April 27
045,046,049) The Mysteries by Bill Watterson and John Kascht, finished April 29, 30; May 3
047) The Children's Bach by Helen Garner, finished April 30
048) No. 1 with a Bullet by Sehman/Corona/Hickman/Wands, finished May 2
050) Over Seventy by P. G. Wodehouse, finished May 7
051) The Happy Shop by Brittany Long Olsen, finished May 16
052) Shades of Fear, finished May 21
053) Love Poems in Quarantine by Sarah Ruhl, finished May 21

And a vibrator makes it five dozen.....

054) The English Understand Wool by Helen DeWitt, finished May 25
055) Mosiah: A Brief Theological Introduction by James E. Faulconer, finished May 26
056) Lives of the Monster Dogs by Kirstin Bakis
057) 100 Essays I Don't Have Time to Write: On Umbrellas and Sword Fights, Parades and Dogs, Fire Alarms, Children, and Theater by Sarah Ruhl, finished June 1
058) Our Malady: Lessons in Liberty from a Hospital Diary by Timothy Snyder, finished June 4
059) Dead Man's Cell Phone by Sarah Ruhl, finished June 6
060) The Next Room, or the vibrator play by Sarah Ruhl, finished June 8

And with Ursula, 69

061) The Robber Bridegroom by Eudora Welty, finished June 10
062) Blood of the Virgin by Sammy Harkham, finished June 11
063) Mulysses by Øyvind Torseter, finished June 11
064) Between the River and the Bridge by Craig Ferguson, finished June 12
065) Cranky Chicken by Katherine Battersby, finished June 12
066) Mile End Kids Stories by Isabelle Arsenault, finished June 12
067) Tiny Titans: Field Trippin' by author, finished June 14
068) Brief Theological Introductions: Alma 1–29 by Kylie Nielson Turley, finished June 16
069) Words Are My Matter: Writings on Life and Books by Ursula K. Le Guin, finished June 16

Numbers 70 through 75

070) Better Living Through Criticism: How to Think about Art, Pleasure, Beauty, and Truth by A. O. Scott, finished June 17
071) Alice, Let's Eat by Calvin Trillin, finished June 20
072) My Lovely Vigil Keeping by Carla Kelly, finished June 21
073) Dreamsnake by Vonda N. McIntyre, finished July 9
074) The Red House Mystery by A. A. Milne, finished July 11
075) Best. Movie. Year. Ever. How 1999 Blew Up the Big Screen by Brian Raftery, finished July 16

Comics soup and rice

076) I Survived the Attacks of September 11, 2001 by Lauren Tarshis and Corey Egbert (et al), finished July 16
077) Skull Cat and the Curious Castle by Norman Shurtliff, finished July 18
078) Epileptic by David B., finished July 19
079) Amethyst: Princess of Gemworld by Shannon and Dean Hale, and Asiah Fulmore; finished July 30
080) Fadeaway by E. B. Vickers, finished August 2
081) You're Dad by Liz Climo, finished August 4
082) Meanwhile...A Comic Shop Anthology, finished August 5

Lobsters are vermin you eat

084) Lobster Is the Best Medicine by Liz Climo, finished August 7
085) Lunar New Year Love Story by Gene Luen Yang and Leuyen Pham, finished August 12
086) Alma 30–63: A Brief Theological Introduction by Mark A. Wrathall, finished August 18
087) The Pearl by John Steinbeck, August 20
088) The Woman in the Woods and Other North American Stories, finished August 20
089) Our Lady of Darkness by Fritz Leiber, finished August 23
090) Radiant Vermin by Philip Ridley

Six books closer to the end of all things.

091) After the Blast by Zoe Kazan, finished August 30
092) The Nether by Jennifer Haley, finished August 31
093) Mr Burns, a post-electric play by Anne Washburn, finished August 31
094) The Voynich Manuscript ed. by Raymond Clemens, finished September 4
095) Brass Sun by Ian Edgington and I. N. J. Culbard, finished September 5
096) Termush by Sven Holm, finished September 7

Ally Condie kills it (+2 more)

097) The Unwedding by Ally Condie, finished September 13
098) Enola Holmes: The Case of the Missing Marquess by Nancy Springer, finished September 18
099) Helaman: A Brief Theological Introduction by Kimberly Matheson Berkey, finished September 21

The end of one century and the beginning of another

100) Motor Girl: Real Life by Terry Moore, finished October 2
101) The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare, finished October 5

The If-Dagwood-Was-Mormon Sandwich

102) 3rd, 4th Nephi: A Brief Theological Introduction by Daniel Becerra, finished October 6
103) My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix, finished October 10
104) The Moviegoer by Walker Percy, finished October 11
105) Bed-Knob and Broomstick by Mary Norton, finished October 12
106) Psycho II by Robert Bloch, finished October 17
107) Osamu Tezuka's Original Astro Boy: 3 by Osamu Tezuka, finished October 19
108, 109, 110) The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare, finished October 22, 22, 23
111) Here by Richard McGuire, finished October 23
112) Sequential Drawings: The New Yorker Series by Richard McGuire, finished October 25
113) Mormon: A Brief Theological Introduction by Adam S. Miller, finished October 26

Would you rather live on the Moon or in Rome?

114) Frankissstein by Jeanette Winterson, finished November 4
115) Motor Girl: No Man Left Behind by Terry Moore, finished November 4
116) Life on the Moon by Robert Grossman, finished November 10
117) The Griff by Christopher Moore and Ian Corson with Jennyson Rosero
118) Cato by Joseph Addison, finished November 16

2024-11-30

November? More like Yesvember!

.

I look over this list and I am pleased with what I see: Variety. New, old. Classic, crap. Sad, happy. Big, small.

Thank goodness for art.

.

HOME
Hulu

Over the Garden Wall (2014)

Probably the best it-was-all-a-dream ever made.

(Perhaps because that's not what it is at all?)

ELSEWHERE
our dvd

Won't You Be My Neighbor? (2018)

Ward Family Home Evening.

Spend some quality time with a quality person.

HOME
our dvd

Dave (1993)

Instead of watching election-night returns, we decided to watch a charming (and slightly naive) fantasy about, sure, a conspiracy theory come to life. But it's hopeful. And it believes in America.

Tomorrow we can discover is Americans also believe in America.

(Also, aren't you so glad Kevin Klein got this job and not Robin Williams?)

HOME
Tubi

Dancer in the Dark (2000)

If this movie were forty minutes shorter, I probably would have watched it twenty years ago. I wonder what I would have thought of it then?

Now, I guess I appreciate it as an experiment, but I can't say I liked it. And since Lars Von Trier is a tool, that's okay.

Apparently it wasn't, but it looks like it was shot on video.

I didn't hate it or love it to the extreme some critics did/do, but I do tend to agree with the one who said "if it had been made by an American and shot in a more conventional manner" it would not have been as well regarded.

Why is it that so many artistic movements are powered by a******s?

Anyway, I knew it was going to be sad but I had no idea that it was shaped like a proper tragedy whose slides into musical did not prevent slides into mawkish melodrama.

But that's just my opinion.

UPDATE: apparently is was shot on video (sort of)

HOME
Disney+

Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)

James Gunn is good at this stuff. And with just a little over two weeks left on our Hulu/Disney+ subscription, I definitely needed to catch up on the Guardians before we lost access. And it was great.

Not perfect, sure. I think the first Guardians film is still the best capsule expression of the aesthetic, but this one finds new depths and provides a satisfactory conclusion to the trilogy. Even if a couple things barely make sense (I'm looking at you, suddenly capable magical whistler).

After all, making sense isn't the point of a movie like this. The emotional and character beats need to work. Everything else is gravy. And this movie's macguffin is pure character and emotion. And everything else followed from there.

WHICH IS TO SAY, although I seem incapable of just admitting it, I had a wonderful time watching this movie. There.

HOME
Hulu

Anatomy of a Fall (2023)

I get why people liked it but not why they liked it so much.

I am curious where people land on her guilt. I appreciated the films insistence on ambiguity, but I felt she must have been innocent, even though numerous details lent themselves guiltward. Until, that is, the final bit of the trial, which, one imagines, sealed her innocence for the jury. But, to me, made it at last seem more likely that she was not.

The kid was terrific, incidentally.

ELSEWHERE
Prime Video

Minority Report (2002)

Fascinating how some parts of this movie still seem wildly futuristic (the freeway system), some seem right around the corner (personalized ads), and some seem like a past future we left long ago (computer memory).

Still: great movie. Everyone is fully, fully entertained.

ELSEWHERE
Prime Video

Strawberry Mansion (2021)

This was every bit as gloriously weird as I'd hoped but, much more importantly, it spurred fantastic classroom conversation. So many excellent observations and hypotheses. So much interesting speculation. Sure, not everyone liked it equally but liking a classroom movie is much less important than having something to say. And, sure, this is currently a more successfully conversative class than the Minority Report class, but while everyone loved Minority Report, it was nearly imposible to get a conversation going. Which is wild to me, but, if you're unused to the closereading of film, a movie you already know how to digest doesn't force you to suddenly become a closereader.

Anyway, from the opening sound design and first lines of dialogue, it was obvious this was from the makers of Sylvio (he even made a cameo in a closing crowd scene; though I suspect that actor wore a mask or two more over the course of the film).

Anyway, it's about a dream auditor and it's nonstop strange. Sad to have missed it in theaters but, well, 'twas the era.

ELSEWHERE
Hoopla

Alphaville (1965)

Okay. I wasn't expecting Star Wars or anything, but this is a strange movie. Speaking of Lucas, I'd say weirder than THX-1138. And I'd say it's a safe bet that Lucas was influenced by Alphaville. And Kubrik. And Nolan. And a host of others. Even though this is a science-fiction movie with almost nothing that "futurey" about its appearance, it has clearly passed its DNA out like Ghenghis Khan. I mean. Not in the same manner. Just the quantity. Moving on.

The sound design is bizarre and unpleasant. The editing is just weird. One fight scene was more like La Jetee with a punchline. Followed by a carchase that, although much shorter, not unworthy of comparison to Bullitt.

It's clearly pulling from the great (and still reasonably fresh) English-language dystopias of Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-four, but it's not up to the same thing. What is it up do? No idea. This is not a once-and-understood sort of movie. So the real question is do I keep offering it to students as an option? I've been offering it maybe five years and this is the first time it was chosen. Not a huge hit. But intellectually stimulating—at least for some. We'll see how the writing turns out.

HOME
Disney+

The Emperor's New Groove (2000)

A few years ago I read an oral history of The Emperor's New Groove (I believe it was the earlier version of this) and decided I would have to actually see it. That all the people who like it may well be right. Since then, we've had a subscription or three to Disney+ and now, finally, three days before it expires this time, I finally put it on. Everyone joined me and we all loved it. It's hilarious. And fun. And the right length. And it still has an emotional thruline that actually functions in a human way. Pretty neat!

HOME
Disney+

Jim Gaffigan: The Skinny (2024)

I can't help but wonder if I could enjoy these jokes even half as much if I didn't know he was Christian or if I didn't know he loved his kids.

HOME
Hulu

Ava (2020)

Clearly this was meant to be Jessica Chastain's Bourne. And with a cast like her and Common and John Malkovitch and Geena Davis and Colin Ferrell—people, sure, appear in stinkers and the unremarkable but whom one is apt to see as an excellent sign of potential excellence, hopes might be high. But this is not good.

It wants to be. Ohhhhh, how it wants to be! It's got all sorts of serious ideas in there (parent/child, addiction in at least three stripes, crime, commerce, you name it), but it doesn't really know what to do with them. The plot turns feel Lifetimey, the dialogue is AI-level, the fights look oh so choreographed, the pacing and editing are dry and soulless. There's just nothing here.

I was listening to Tom Hanks talk recently and he was going on about how no one ever tries to make a mediocre move. No one really even thinks they are making one. But then the film exists and . . . usually, they're not masterpieces. I'm sure everyone signed on to this movie thinking alcoholic female action hero! This is going to be awesome!

So it goes.

ELSEWHERE
my parents' dvd

Top Dog (1995)

I never anticipated watchhing this movie but I was pulling dvds off my parents' shelves and I happened to notice that this one was written by Ron Swanson! Yeah, apparently, before he got into city government he made an effort at breaking into Hollywood. And kinda fun as it is, I have to say, he made the right choice leaving town.

Woof.

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Prime Video

Jimmy Vestvood: Amerikan Hero (2016)

Son #3 found this via an Instagram click and asked that we watch it which is about the most proactive they ever get regarding stuff we do together so watch it we did.

I know Maz Jobrani entirely through his appearances on Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! so I can't really say how typical this is of his fare, but it was a fun movie. Lots of solid jokes. A little more prescient than one might like and also weirdly dated. Pre- and post-Trump is going to prove a major marker in American culture.

Anyway, it's a dumb wish-fulfillment comedy of the sort where the dumb guy gets everything he wants and also does not. His cousin's hot thought and I think he did finally figure that out. So that's something.

It is intersting that although their stories take place decades apart and they come from wildly different parts of Asia, Jimmy Vestvood and Sami Malik have such similar wardrobes.

THEATER
Cinemark Century Hilltop 16

Moana 2 (2024)

Moana 2 commits many typical sins of sequels; sins I, as a child of the 80s, am well aquainted with. Moana 2, for instance, decides to tell the same story as the original by adding a lot more characters without providing anyone sufficient motivation for this new adventure. From plot logic to character development, the movie is subpar.

HOWEVER, the animation is so beautiful and the story's movement is so activing and the sound is so enwrapping (even noting the mid songs and the music cues out of 80s television) that it's entirely possible to enjoy every minute. I imagine it will be a huge hit and most people won't even notice that it's, ah, kinda bad.

I mean—I had fun. You can too!

(although, ugh, did they really have to set up #3??)

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YouTube

Christmas in July (1940)

Not the greatest Preston Sturges film but it's a delightful confection and at 67 minutes you can watch it twice in the time of some more recent comedy that sucks. So why the heck not?

I haven't fallen for an actress this hard in a long time. She was great from go, but when she cried for joy she turned into sommething special. She was huge, once, but this is the first movie of hers I've seen.

We'll all be forgotten someday.

Anyway, this is a COMEDY. It's the tailend of the Depression and a feller's tricked into believing he's won a huge radio contest. There are lots of small but wonderful gags and fabulous character acting, but over it all hangs this question: what happens when the balloon pops?

The rich run our lives. And, incidentally, we again have the sort of wealth disaprity that led to the Depression.

Oh: and this is a COMEDY. We laughed a lot. Try not to think about the world outside the film and you'll be fine.

A sexy poem for your weekend

I just had a friend email me a compliment me for a poem that just appeared in Dialogue (the "image of pioneer homesteaders brought forward to the present intimacy of our bedroom is so powerful and beautiful and inspiring") and I haven't posted anything in the LDS Eros series recently, so I thought I'ld pitch it to you here.

2024-11-16

Would you rather live on the Moon or in Rome?

Fair warning: two books here I really didn't like. One I liked quite a lot. And two were charming looks at the past, one from the past. The real question, as always, is currently unanswered:

What will still matter a year, a decade, a generation from now?

114) Frankissstein by Jeanette Winterson, finished November 4

So let's start by saying this book is no good and is further evidence that the people considering the Booker Prize are not broadly read. I have a lot of complaints about Frankissstein but one is that this is clearly a book written by someone with very little experience in science fiction writing science fiction for people with very little experience in science fiction. Large swaths of this book are just people stitching together fun facts the author found on Wikipedia or some pop-science magazine.

In a way, this is less novel and more jigsaw puzzle. She found a bunch of cool puzzles and just found a way to assemble them. Which is cool and all until you look close and notice the pieces don't quite fit together.

I did love the first twenty pages which star Mary Shelley. The other Mary Shelley portions were okay. The 2019 sections were mostly not great though there were moments they rose to the level of fine. Then there were the Bedlam sections which bled into the Mary Shelley portions.

I think I see what she was going for but it never quite worked. Again, it looks like a picture but the pieces don't quite fit together.

And the title is a dumb pun which . . . I guess is about all the sex in the book? I genuinely don't know why it's called Frankissstein.

Another way to think about this book is an older person learned lots of neat things about sexbots and AI and bioengeneering and whatnot and thought no one else has ever heard of these things because she has never heard of them and so she built a book around them. But the book is largely characters saying things to each other they would never need to say because they are experts in their field and already know it. The Ron Lord characters sometimes works as a comic figure and so do some of the other broad stereotypes, but only occasionally. This is a book written for people as ignorant as the author. No one else is falling for it.

Sigh.

Anyway, I don't really regret reading it. I was curious if it would find an interesting destination. It didn't. But I'm glad to know it.

The only thing I regret is the book I didn't read instead. Whatever it may have been.

under a month

115) Motor Girl: No Man Left Behind by Terry Moore, finished November 4

Terry Moore can tell a long story, but he can also tell a short story. This is just two slim volumes (me on #one) and in that space he covers the Iraq war and its complications—both in the field and once back home—mental illness, aliens, government conspiracies. It's funny and it's touching, sexy and sad. Characters look different ways and act different ways. They're all individuals. And the whole thing works as a coherent piece. He's a marvel.

saturday and monday

116) Life on the Moon by Robert Grossman, finished November 10

This is the legendary illustrator's posthumously published (because he died) book on the Great Moon Hoax—although it plays a bit like a hoax itself. Although the final act gets too ludicrous to accept, throughout, famous names like Goodyear and Poe and Audubon and Howe keep popping up and the educated person estimates the math and thinks to themselves, "maaaaaaybe?," but must keep going. (Luckily, Grossman wrote a little explanatory afterword to preempt the need for hundreds of hours on Wikipedia.)

The book's about 400 pages long, with a single captioned illustration on each page.

It's a swift and fun read that never stops being exciting and strange.

two days

117) The Griff by Christopher Moore and Ian Corson with Jennyson Rosero

First, the most positive thing I have to say about this book is that it offers something innovative to how an alien invasion may take place.

The book was originally a screenplay and this shows. The way it cuts between locations feels more Michael Bay than Alan Moore and the clever dialogue seems designed to get bemused laughter from a theater audience, not a solo reader.

The plot is pretty pork and beans. The story tries to make some interesting points about identity but, to return to pigs, is hamfisted about it.

But the worst thing about this book is the character design. The illustrator may be a woman but she's been well socialized into the male gaze. The absurd shapes of the female characters are always on contorted display. And the cartoonishness is emphasized by the characters' static costume. Sexy-goth torn tights, for example, do not survive two months of being chased by dragons.

OH WAIT. I WAS WRONG. JENNYSON IS A DUDE. STILL. MY COMPLAINTS HOLD.

five days

118) Cato by Joseph Addison, finished November 16

After reading an excellent article comparing Washington to Trump (guess who comes off better) and learning about Addison's Cato which was beloved by the Founders—frequently performed and quoted—I decided that I wanted to share this article with next semester's sophomores. But what if we read the play as well? Time to preview it.

First, it's not that long. Just a hundred pages. And so, so much easier to read than Shakespeare, even though he's closer to Shakespeare than we are to him. Partially that's because English had settled down pretty much by then but also because Addison wasn't writing for a Renaissance audience that saw occasional confusion as a net positive. And, I might be wrong here, but I think by this time plays weren't being played to both penny-payers and hifalutins simultaneously, which, again, I'm guessing here, may mean that plays could be more middlebrow rather than having some things clever enough to allow the educated to feel superior than the dick-joke–desirers on the ground. In other words, by not splitting its attentions, it speaks more clearly to a modern audience.

I think.

It doesn't get performed much these days. But a nice revival in Washington of a play about lovers of liberty standing up to blowhards and tyrants might have a place. Perhaps it could be performed in Founders-era costumes. Or perhaps a new play about Washington striving to reach the same thematic goals.

Anyway. It feels very much of now.

I last taught Shakespeare's Julius Caesar right after the 2016 election (guess why) and it felt very apropos. I'll have to consider if I'm brave enough to do two old plays with sophomores. But it's an intriguing idea. And Addison will feel much easier after doing Shakespeare.

I could just do it with AP but then I wouldn't feel like I could include The Atlantic article or Addison's essays or historians on what Rome was like. So I think sophomores it is.

Watch this space in 2025 to see how things turn out.

two hours a week apart

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2024 × 10 = Bette Davis being Bette Davis

A few of my favorite things

Let's start with the untimely deaths

Four comics could hardly be more different

Jacob says be nice and read comics

Eleven books closer to death

And a vibrator makes it five dozen.....

Ally Condie kills it (+2 more)

The end of one century and the beginning of another

100) Motor Girl: Real Life by Terry Moore, finished October 2
101) The Winter's Tale by William Shakespeare, finished October 5

The If-Dagwood-Was-Mormon Sandwich

2024-11-13

Phew.
or, Julie's first print review

I got a whole stack of the new Dialogue in the mail today thanks to my poem in its pages.

You’ll like the poem. It’s sexy.

ANYWAY, I was flipping to the table of contents to admire myself in print (a natural impulse) but I landed in the toc’s list of reviews first and it was a long list! So I read that first. And what was the very last one, but a review of . . .Just Julie’s Fine.

Ever since Alison Maeser Brimley’s story “The Pew” appeared eight years ago, she’s been an artist to watch and so her opinion on Julie . . . would hold weight. I mean, if I were reading her review, it could well make or break my desire to read a book.

And let’s be honest: I wrote a book with so many landmines that the odds of me screwing it up or angering people were always high.

So it is with perhaps more relief than joy that I share with you that Alison gave Julie a positive review!

Phew!

Anyway, see what she has to say then pick up a copy or ask your library to do it for you.

(If you need even more convincing, Julie J. Nichols wrote the very first review of Julie and it’s also pretty persuasive. You’ll know this Julie from her genuinely hilarious review of Byuck.)

2024-12-08

2024-12-07

2024-11-30

2024-11-23

2024-11-16

2024-11-13