I watched The Merchant of Venice a few weeks ago, the one with Al Pacino (Shylock) and Jeremy Irons (Bassanio). It’s really an outstanding film. I just wish it didn’t have period prostitutes in it so I could show it to my class.

I had forgotten just how tautly Shakespeare draws the tensions in that play. We have on one hand a Jew who has lived under persecution his entire life. So when he gets the chance to even the score a little (lending money to Bassonio and possibly getting a pound of his flesh out of the deal), he’s happy to do so. But then his daughter runs away from him (admittedly, he was a despot) with a Christian, no less, and trades a family heirloom for a monkey. This sends Shylock over the edge, and rightly so. His rage is completely justified.

On the other hand we have a man who has participated with the rest of Christian Venice in persecuting Shylock and his kind. He takes out the loan, despite its strange terms, to help a friend win a wife. However, Bassonio’s ships are all lost at sea, and he can’t pay Shylock back.

When the court is held, the judges beg for mercy on Bassonio’s behalf, but Shylock demands justice according to the terms of the contract which Bassonio had voluntarily signed. Antonio offers to pay Shylock back three times over, but he won’t accept it.

This is where things go crazy, and where Shakespeare’s genius resides. Read the rest

After more than seven years in his position, Sunstone’s editor, Dan Wotherspoon, has decided the time is right to pursue other opportunities—which he will do following the conclusion of the 2008 Sunstone Symposium (to be held 6-9 August).

Sunstone has benefited tremendously from Dan’s  vision and direction, and we wish him well as he begins to pursue the next phase of his career along with new writing and publishing endeavors. There will certainly be interest in his plans, and Dan will be outlining these in the coming magazine and in other forums.

As part of the transition, the Sunstone Board of Trustees has elected to restructure the staff positions to better facilitate its desire to increase the frequency of Sunstone magazine production along with continual expansion of the annual Symposium and regional symposia.

We are seeking candidates for two positions: Director of Publications and Editor, and Director of Symposia and Outreach. These positions will report to the Sunstone Board of Trustees and will be expected to work and coordinate closely with each other. The job descriptions/qualifications are listed after the jump:

Read the rest

At a recent SXSW (read: geek conference), blogger Heather B. Armstrong, was awarded a lifetime achievement award and her blog, dooce.com, was recently named in the top 5 of most influential blogs by The Guardian.

So, why should you care?

Because Heather is a SAHM living in Salt Lake City, a BYU grad, a post-Mormon. Her website is followed by tens of thousands of readers each day, which makes her one of the most-widely read LDS writers.

For me, reading dooce is a guilty pleasure. She’s crass and completely self-absorbed. But I have to admit that I just love her that way.

Zenaida regularly contributes to the Exponent II blog. Her bio may be found here.

I am awash in ambivalence. I attended my first Sunstone Symposium on Saturday. I anticipated the symposium with both excitement and reservation. I had friends who shared my excitement and friends who intensified my reservation. The Symposium was pitched to me with enthusiasm and ardor, but the validity and source of the magazine and the symposium were also questioned by those who had never heard of it before I had. So, I showed up as early as I could for the first session to see what it was all about.

I was open. I listened. All day. Read the rest

The week between Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem and his triumphant resurrection from the dead is the most significant week in human history. Beginning with the early church, Christians celebrated the events of this week and for two millenia they have been the focus of annual celebrations of what has been called the Passion of our Lord, Jesus Christ. Beginning with Palm Sunday and moving through Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Holy Saturday, Christians throughout the world mark the last great events in Christ’s life. All of these holy days lead us to the great drama of Easter Sunday when the angel rolled back the stone from the tomb and said to his disciples, ‘He is not here, for he is risen.”

Latter-day Saints celebrate the last of these holy days, but not the others, and yet there is no doctrinal reason why we cannot join with other Christians in offering our devotions throughout this week. This presentation offers an historical overview of Holy Week and presents the case that Latter-day Saints, especially with the Church’s new emphasis on being the Church of Jesus Christ, should join with other Christians in making this an annual holy festival.

From the 2001 Salt Lake Sunstone Symposium, August 10, 2001

Paper: Robert A. Rees
Respondent: Kathleen Flake

 

 Why Mormons Should Celebrate Holy Week: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

By Helen Whitney

From genesis to completion, the creation of The Mormons did not happen in six days; more like three-and-a-half long years. As Lou Reed sings, “Between thought and expression lies a lifetime.” Or as T. S. Eliot puts it, “Between the idea and the reality . . . falls the shadow.”

Well, The Mormons didn’t take a lifetime, but at moments it did seem to be a lifetime. One filled with a lot of shadow, but also with pain and pleasure, with the sublime and the ridiculous, with beauty and boredom, with horrific anxiety and bursts of confidence. (To be honest, this is true in the making of all documentaries.) Read the rest

Ever since I joined the Association for Mormon Letters email list the main author that has been held forth as a model for good Mormon writing is Chaim Potok. We like him because he managed to take an insular, idiosyncratic community (Hasidic Judaism) and craft novels that can speak to a wide audience.

A few days ago I ran across a book that provides another compelling model, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie. I’ve read a number of Alexie’s books before, so I knew I was in for some good writing, but I was amazed this time around at how elegantly he dealt with the subject we value Potok for, namely how a person (especially a young person) deals with the tension between the community he/she was raised in, and the larger world.

The story is about a Spokane Indian boy named Junior who, on the advice of a teacher, decides to leave the reservation school and pursue his education in a nearby town. He believes it’s the only way he’ll escape the fate of pretty much everyone he knows: alcoholism and an early death.

The book is filled with cartoons. One shows a boy standing next to directional signposts. The one that points behind him reads, “Rez: Home.” The boy is considering the direction of the other signpost, the one that reads “Hope???” Read the rest

UPDATE: The final program for Sunstone SymposiumWest is now available. This symposium is co-sponsored by the Claremont Graduate University School of Religion and the Claremont Mormon Studies Student Association.

–> SUNSTONE SYMPOSIUMWEST - Final PDF <–

14–15 MARCH 2008
CLAREMONT, CALIFORNIA

Read the rest

Friends,

Thank you so much for the terrific response to our call for short essays on Mormonism and politics. We’ve received more than thirty reflections, and we look forward to creating a great section out of these responses in the coming magazine issue.

I’m writing now to ask for anecdotes, experiences, and observations about President Hinckley. Read the rest