Mattathias Reads The World
By Mattathias
Mattathias Reads The WorldJul 09, 2020
Mattathias Reads the Whole Megillah, an Special Musical Episode for International Women's Day
Welcome to MRtW's first-ever musical episode, a Monday evening mixtape specially prepared for your Women's History enjoyment. Megillat Esther (Esther's Scroll) is a bit like a good bar of extra-dark chocolate. And just in case you've never enjoyed it without a coating of sugary optimism and can-do-attitude, @jonahbaramittai and I have put together this composite album to help you set the right mood for each chapter as you read along.
Since Anchor only samples the music, If you want the full experience, in addition to your Bible (JPS translation recommended), get the full mixtape here on Spotify.
Mattathias and the ARCH-POETs: #Archtober2020 Reminiscences
Mattathias is joined by a band of weird and wonderful Mormon poets to share and celebrate their contributions to the ARCH-HIVE collective's 2020 Mormon Art Twitter challenge, #Archtober2020. The blessing of poetry to express what is just beyond reach, the useful vulnerability of sharing one's creations with a circle of friends, and the benefits of creating art alongside others who are drawn to the same sources of inspiration are all commented upon.
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Guests in this episode are:
Grace (https://twitter.com/sunnystarpoetry)
Madie (https://twitter.com/missmadiejean)
Joah (https://twitter.com/JoahFussell)
Elizabeth (https://www.elizabethpinborough.com/ and https://lovelybrains.substack.com/)
You can check out all of the fruits of #archtober here: https://twitter.com/search?q=%23archtober2020
Special Episode: A Breaking Public Health Update from Community Health Expert, Dr. Madison Beckstrand
Out of serious concern about the global spread of a terrifyingly destructive strain of a debilitating and often terminal disease, I've invited the foremost community health expert, Dr. Madison Beckstrand, DA* who helped raise the alarm about the epidemic last year, to share her guidance on how the syndrome currently is spreading through our communities, how an easy self-test she's developed could be transformative in catching this destructive disease early to minimize the damage, and the currently available treatments and therapies that can help patients regain quality of life, even though there is, as of yet, no fully recognized cure for the terrible condition the good doctor has dubbed "Main Character Syndrome".
If you find Dr. Beckstrand's counsel useful to you or to one of your loved ones or members of your community, please share it to raise awareness of these important diagnostic and treatment options, because as our expert says, it's never to late to take action against this dreadful plague. You may also find therapeutic benefit from Dr. Beckstrand's prior visit to us here at MRtW Studios: https://anchor.fm/mattathias/episodes/Mattathias-Reads-the-Lit-Blitz--Episode-4-Part-Heaven-by-Madi-Beckstrand-eghlaa
*Doctor of Awesome
MLK Jr. Day Special Episode: Black History TV Pitch Reel
Hello, listeners, and thank you for joining us for the first MRtW episode of 2021. For this special holiday episode, I'm joined here on the air by my good friend Mido so that we can discuss Martin Luther King's legacy, the contradiction of being both non-white and non-black in a race-driven country, and then we take a break from our regularly scheduled sobering reality to share quick pitches for 3 television dramas for a better world:
1. 40 Acres and a Mule: This alternate history drama features Territorial Governor Bass Reeves in an 1884 the United States offered freed slaves land... in the same fraught territory where indigenous nations already faced exile. And with restive ex-Confederate states resisting martial law, another bloody Presidential election looming, and white land speculators looking West once more, the citizens of Exodus Territory must decide whether what they seek is statehood... or independence.
2. BLM (Black Les Mis): an audacious multi-season intensive adaptation of the classic French novel which inspired one of America's favorite Broadway musicals, BLM will place Hugo's drama of police brutality, mass incarceration, unplanned parenthood, workplace sexual harassment, student activism, and persistent destructive wealth gaps among black Americans in and around Minneapolis from 1964 to 2020.
3. Back to Africa: Based on 100% true black American and transatlantic history, this smash biopic miniseries features Civil Rights legends John Lewis, Fannie Lou Hamer, Bob Moses, and many more as young SNCC activists immediately following 1964's Freedom Summer, as Harry Belafonte offers them a reprieve from America's racial nightmare with an all-expenses paid trip to meet their peers in the newly independent African nations of Senegal and Guinea. Revitalized by the experience, Lewis and others decide to continue the journey by traveling onwards to Ethiopia, Egypt, Kenya and more. Outside of American racial lines, they can for a time enjoy a new world where black is the default and whiteness truly a foreign concept.
We hope you enjoy these pitches, and look forward to seeing these shows greenlit, cast, produced, and released for streaming worldwide soon!
Memory and Mourning: Ardis Parshall's "Who We Lost" Pandemic Record
In preparation for All Souls Day, I met with LDS historian Ardis Parshall to discuss her "Who We Lost" project gathering the names of all the Latter-day Saint deaths to the Flu of 1918-1920. We discuss the role of memory and mourning in connecting us to one another and forming individual identity and resilience in the face of trauma, and how looking at history can help us navigate the tumultuous present and more fully love one another.
If you are not already familiar with Ardis' extensive work on LDS history and culture, do yourself the favor of exploring the archives of her groundbreaking church history blog, Keepapitchinin: http://www.keepapitchinin.org/
Or follow her on Twitter: https://twitter.com/Keepapitchinin
Or examine the "Century of Black Mormons" project: https://exhibits.lib.utah.edu/s/century-of-black-mormons/page/welcome
Mattathias Reads "Grace Like Water" by Merrijane Rice, illustrated by Nathan Rice: A Launch Day Special Episode
SPECIAL BOOK LAUNCH EPISODE! Merrijane Rice, past MRtW guest and widely acclaimed "Queen of the Lit Blitz" celebrates the launch of her second book, "Grace Like Water" with a reading of seven poems from the collection. We are also joined by her son Nathan, who illustrated the book, and who provides insight into the collaborative process of finding the right visual image to match with his mother's textual ones. Merrijane's words take us through the whole span of the New Testament, from the moment that "wise men" from the East contemplated their star charts, all the way through to the Final Judgement envisioned by John, imprisoned on the isle of Patmos. You won't want to miss this.
BUY THE BOOK (and its predecessor "Messages on the Water" which also deserves a spot on your bookshelves) HERE: amazon.com/author/merrijane
Follow Merrijane online here: https://www.facebook.com/poetinzion
Mattathias Reads the Lit Blitz! Episode 9: "Family Tree" by Merrijane Rice
The much-lauded "Queen of the Lit Blitz" Merrijane Rice joins me to discuss her 2020 Lit Blitz piece, "Family Tree". We discuss the differing benefits of poetry and prose, the similarity of small and large scale family drama and heartache, which leads us to imagine some of the challenges of Heavenly Parenting. I also get the inside scoop on Merrijane's amusement and satisfaction at her hard-earned MoLit stardom, and her advice for hopeful imitators and jealous rivals.
She also TEASES her UPCOMING BOOK at the end of the episode. You heard it here! (Maybe even first, though I'd of had a better chance of this if I posted right after recording.)
" The Bottoms of the Mountains" or, yet another Reading of the Book of Jonah
( For the rest of you, may I recommend a Beach Boys album?)
Records From the Vault: Radio Free Shemlon
A very generous listener found the following recording in a vault, on a solid gold LP. I was able to play the record back and transfer it to digital format, and was very interested to find on it a broadcast from long, long ago with some startling resonances for our present moment.
The record sleeve had a number of strange engavings on it, which my household Reformed Egyptian expert kindly translated for me:
"RADIO FREE SHEMLON: A MESSAGE FROM A LOYAL SERVANT OF THE LAST TRUE KING TO ALL THE UNIFIED LANDS OF LAMAN, CONSERNING THAT USURPER AMALACKIAH WHO HAS STOLEN OUR LANDS AND HEARTS AS HIS FOREFATHER NEPHI STOLE THE RECORDS OF GOLD, COMPASS OF BRASS, AND BLADE OF STEEL FROM OUR FATHERS.
MAY THOSE WITH EARS, HEAR. MAY THOSE WITH EYES, SEE. MAY THOSE WITH HEARTS OPEN THEM TO GIVE PLACE TO MY WORDS; AND MAY ALL WHO SEE THE DANGER OF THESE DAYS PUT THEIR SHOULDERS TO THE WHEEL BESIDE ME!"
We here at MTRW were astounded by what we heard. We're very grateful to be able to share this strange artifact with you now, and hope many will learn something from those who recorded it in days gone by. We believe the lessons of those ancient times may also be of use in our own days.
Mattathias Reads the Lit Blitz! Episode 8: “Portal Friends” by Annaliese Lemmon
Annaliese Lemmon joins me virtually at MRtW Studios to share and discuss her Lit Blitz short story "Portal Friends", (https://lit.mormonartist.net/2020/06/portal-friends-by-annaliese-lemmon/) which explores (and in certain ways, I would argue, improves upon) C. S. Lewis' Narnia through the eyes of an 11-year old LDS girl adjusting to being part of the Young Women's class. We talk about the complex shift from childhood to adolescence, the advantages of Mormon-Muslim friendship, and the nature of some of the portals we can walk through to find our true selves.
We also talk about her history with the Lit Blitz, beginning with an unpublished submission in 2013 and then as a recurring finalist from 2014 through 2017 and, of course, in 2020; her non-LDS fantasy fiction, including several pieces available online; and her own reading preferences, including the works of Brandon Sanderson, Mary Robinette Kowal, and Shannon Hale, among others. We end with her praise for Merrijane Rice and Jared Forsyth's Lit Blitz pieces, and a teaser for Annaliese's forthcoming Lit-Blitz-adjacent story, tentatively titled "The Gift to be Healed".
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Links:
http://annaliese-lemmon.byethost8.com/ (Annaliese notes that she's currently in the middle of changing servers. Until annalieselemmon.com points to the new server, there will be some broken links on the site.)
Twitter: @AnnalieseLemmon
Past Lit Blitz Finalist pieces:
2014: https://lit.mormonartist.net/2014/06/curelom-riders/
2015: https://lit.mormonartist.net/2015/05/disability-death-or-other-circumstance-by-annaliese-lemmon/
2016: https://lit.mormonartist.net/2016/05/the-gift-of-tongues-by-annaliese-lemmon/
2017: https://lit.mormonartist.net/2017/06/daughters-of-ishmael-by-annaliese-lemmon/
Other stories by Annaliese:
"Tattered Flower" published at The Arcanist: https://thearcanist.io/tattered-flower/
"The Legacy Left Behind" published at Flash Fiction Press: http://www.theflashfictionpress.org/2016/12/04/the-legacy-left-behind/
Other pieces we mentioned:
"September the First Day of School" by Howard Nemerov https://allpoetry.com/September,-The-First-Day-Of-School
"This is Not My Adventure" by Karlo Yeager Rodriguez: https://uncannymagazine.com/article/this-is-not-my-adventure/
"So Much Cooking" by Naomi Kritzer: http://clarkesworldmagazine.com/kritzer_11_15/
Mapping a Guerrilla Mormonism, with Conor Hilton
I sit down virtually with The Conor Hilton (https://twitter.com/TheConorHilton (I grew up near tOSU, and learned by experience the value of a definite article!)) to discuss his claim to a guerrilla Mormonism. We discuss historical guerrilla precedents, including my namesakes and his, and then delve into what shapes his aesthetic militancy and radical pacifism, and where he's found Light, Knowledge, and a Sure Foundation in the teachings of the Prophets and Witnesses. We talk about the self-appointed gatekeepers and border agents who make scrappiness and agitation vital virtues for disciples who don't always know which pronunciation of Shibboleth to use when they hit a checkpoint, and we hope and imagine together that Better World where such things are Done Away.
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More from Conor on (Re)Claiming Mormonism:
http://conorhilton.com/faith/61/
https://www.arch-hive.net/post/the-promise-of-mormonism
Buy Books from Cece, the brilliant and noble one to whom Conor is hella married: https://bookshop.org/shop/cecereads
An images (with words on it) that may be of interest given our discussion:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ammon_Hennacy#/media/File:Jesus_wanted_poster.jpg
Mattathias Reads the Lit Blitz! Episode 7: “In the Locker Room at the Temple” by Darlene Young
I meet digitally with mormon poet Darlene Young to discuss The Association for Mormon Letters, our affection for Utah as native Utahns, road tripping to Berkeley, and her poem “In the Locker Room at the Temple" with all that that entails. We talk about finding Mormon literary communities, the power of having an audience to write for, and Darlene's ongoing effort to get the pulse of Lit Blitz readership.
We spend a while early in the episode reminiscing about the Berkeley Road Trip. If you don't want to hear cryptic hints about a road trip where we solved all the world's problems, skip to 19:20 in the episode to hear Darlene read her poem. If you want to rain on our parade and tell us, like Aaron to Ammon, not to get carried away to boasting, first off, follow President Uchtdorf's advice to parade stormclouds everywhere and Stop It! Secondly, know that this podcast is a boasting-safe zone for shy, reserved people who need to be prompted a little to blow their own trumpets, kazoos, or shofars loudly, ad maiorem Dei gloriam, of course.
And by golly, Darlene can make a beautiful song on that celestial instrument of hers! Listen to her play, and celebrate the joyful noise!
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If you'd like to read Darlene's truly excellent collection, find it here: https://bookshop.org/books/homespun-and-angel-feathers/9781948218177
To read more about it, see http://associationmormonletters.org/blog/2020/05/2019-aml-award-winners/
"No Toil Nor Labor Fear": A Pioneer Day Special Episode
Jared Forsyth joins me again to discuss the Mormon pioneer legacy, some of the ways we tell the story that cheapen their experience and set impossible expectations for us as we go through our own vale of tears, and some of the ways each of us has learned to honor them better and let their lived experience nourish and direct us. We reflect on Primary songs, Sunday school, Trek experiences, and end with the powerful pioneer anthem "Let Us Go" by the Mother of Mormon poetry, Eliza R. Snow.
Mattathias Reads the Lit Blitz! Episode 6: “Three Generations of Sonder” by Chanel Earl
In this episode, I am delighted to have another repeated Lit Blitz follower and submitter Chanel Earl join me to read and discuss her short story "Three Generations of Sonder" (https://lit.mormonartist.net/2020/06/three-generations-of-sonder-by-chanel-earl/) which was one of the twelve published pieces in the 2020 Mormon Lit Blitz. We explore some of the story's beautiful and haunting images, and how they help us as readers experience sonder for ourselves-- the realization that we are not the center of the universe, that every person who has ever lived, who lives now, or who will live in the future experiences a measure of joy and pain which are equally beyond our comprehension.
Also, we talk about the incredible gift of strawberry jam.
Those are the two most important takeaways from this episode, my friends.
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Here is the promised link for "Behold": https://www.arch-hive.net/post/behold
And Chanel closed the episode by reading one of her past Lit Blitz submissions "I Dreamed That We Were Sister Wives": https://inscape.byu.edu/2020/05/04/i-dreamed-that-we-were-sister-wives/
Mattathias Reads the Lit Blitz! Episode 5: “Orpheus Sings to Mary and Martha” by Emily Harris Adams
In which I sit down (remotely) with Lit Blitz veteran and canonized Latter-day Saint poet Emily Harris Adams to read and discuss her 2020 Lit Blitz piece, "“Orpheus Sings to Mary and Martha” (https://lit.mormonartist.net/2020/06/orpheus-sings-to-mary-and-martha-by-emily-harris-adams/).
We discuss grief, love, happy endings, and the importance of being willing to wait for the right moment, and experience the sorrow that is the needed prerequisite to the finest forms of joy. I try to recite Emily's brilliant poem "Second Coming" from memory, and fail confidently. (For the full correct text, see https://lit.mormonartist.net/2012/02/day-four-emily-harris-adams/). Emily shares her experiences with the Lit Blitz community and praises several fellow finalists from over the years. Then she reveals the secrets of her spectacular success! Listen to the end for all the deets.
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To see all of Emily's past Lit Blitz pieces, see https://lit.mormonartist.net/?s=emily+harris
To follow Emily on Facebook, go to https://www.facebook.com/EmilyHarrisAdams
Mattathias Reads the Lit Blitz! Episode 4: "Part Heaven" by Madi Beckstrand
I have the honor of interviewing the Judge's Choice Winner of the 2020 Mormon Lit Blitz, Madi Beckstrand. She reads us her poem "Part Heaven" (https://lit.mormonartist.net/2020/06/part-heaven-by-madison-beckstrand/) and then we discuss embodied divinity in the particular form of black hair in America, which has suffered long under the oppressive yoke of externally imposed but horrifically internalized white standards of beauty. We also talk about how adoption gave her two families that she loves, what she dubs "main character syndrome" and the ways in which it can interfere in our ability to relate to others, and just how hard it can be to recognize how good one's own work is.
There's a lot more too. This is a really really good episode, y'all. Give it a listen.
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To read Madi's full award citation and bio, go here and scroll down (or take the time to read about Cesar as well, you won't regret it): https://lit.mormonartist.net/2020/06/2020-mormon-lit-blitz-winners-audience-choice-and-judges-choice/
Mattathias Reads the Lit Blitz! Episode 3: "Airplanes that Crashed" by Jared Forsyth
Jared joins us to read his Lit Blitz Piece "Airplanes that Crashed: A Book of Mormon Coloring Book" (https://lit.mormonartist.net/2020/06/airplanes-that-crashed-a-book-of-mormon-coloring-book-by-jared-forsyth/). He also shares thoughts on how the picture book is the perfect form for Nephi-style plainness of speech, references Kylie Nielsen Turley's thoughts from the Maxwell Institute Podcast on how sobering it ought to be to say that the Book of Mormon is true and really happened (https://mi.byu.edu/mip-bti-turley/) and describes how he balances his many creative endeavors, and shares exclusive sneak previews for his upcoming coloring book "Prophets of the Restoration as Described by Their Pets"
Mattathias' Travel Guide to the Afterlife! Pt. 1: Hades and Valhalla
Mattathias Reads the Lit Blitz! Episode 2: Selina Forsyth's "Resurrection by Easter 2020"
Dear Listeners, when Selina is acknowledged as the Eliza R. Snow of the Church's Third Century, remember that you heard her here first!
Mattathias Reads the Lit Blitz! Episode 1: Final Report (with special guest James Goldberg)
"Doest thou well to be angry?" Mattathias Reads the Book of Jonah
Episode 1: "After This Manner Therefore Pray Ye"