Comments on: Canonization of Image: An Illustration

By: Jami

Jami — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 16:02:30 +0000

Praying with hands raised is still fairly common in some churches. I asked a friend once about it and she said that her raised hand was a receptacle for the Holy Spirit. OK. Why not.

By: S. Taylor

S. Taylor — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 05:25:34 +0000

Ardis, thanks for this.

Re comment no. 6, concerning praying with upraised hands – a missionary companion in the mid 1960′s, Norman Potter, who was a little older than the rest of us, related to me that when he was younger, it was not uncommon for elderly men to pray in his downtown Salt Lake ward with one or two hands upraised. He believed that this practice had been passed down from teachings given by Parley P. Pratt (if memory serves).

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 21:08:50 +0000

/feigns ignorance of such a silly show, except what might — MIGHT — have been seen while flipping channels/

By: Hunter

Hunter — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 20:28:36 +0000

Re: “/wanders off deep in contemplation…/”

Ardis, have you been watching the sit-com Scrubs again? [laughing]

By: john f.

john f. — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 20:23:23 +0000

That is a good case in point — six months is very fast indeed.

By: Ray

Ray — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 19:53:30 +0000

Fascinating, Ardis – and kevinf’s example is interesting, as well.

When I was a teenager, a man in our ward who made his living as an artist asked me to pose for a picture he was doing of Joseph Smith, because “your profile looks almost exactly like his”. That is interesting to me looking back at it, since it was said so definitively – and I’m fairly certain he wasn’t in possession of an authentic image.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 19:51:44 +0000

Maybe if Susa had been writing for 14-year-old boys instead of girls, kevin’s version would have prevailed! I wonder how hard the adviser would have had to work in that case to “enforce a quiet and dignified spirit.” /wanders off deep in contemplation …/

By: kevinf

kevinf — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 18:56:38 +0000

No picture here of the basket of arms that Ammon cut of, nor any mention in the dialog in the other post. That’s the reason I remembered this story the first time I heard it in primary. There’s a great Dialogue article from some years back titled “Book of Mormon Stories my Teacher Never Told To Me” where this whole scene figures prominently. Especially the part where the Queen tells Ammon that while the other folks think the King is dead and beginning to stink, she replies “to me he stinketh not” or similar words. I always loved this story.

Recently, in one of the wards in our stake, they had a member of the ward talk to the primary kids, dressed as Joseph Smith, and he dressed just like the picture on the new PH/RS manual. He was a tall guy with blond hair and blue eyes, just like that picture.

By: Ardis E. Parshall

Ardis E. Parshall — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:33:58 +0000

It fascinates me that we can look at the same image and see different things depending on what interests us or what our background is. I never thought of the picture in connection with a study of ritual, but of course J. would pick up on that instantly.

bruce, do remember to tell us how that suggestion goes over, will you? (I think I can hear the thunk of lead balloons already — although if you didn’t show them the picture, and modernized the language, it might not be a half bad presentation for kids today, really.)

Hunter, I realize that a partial line like that isn’t much to go on, and I’m relieved you see support in the other elements of Susa’s choices. I think that whether or not Susa consciously considered that the JI illustrations were literally correct, she did on some level concede that those depictions were the way to go for her play. Going back to john f’s BCC post, we might not consciously believe that King Noah kept a spotted jaguar as a pet or to sic on troublesome courtiers or whatever, but the presence of that animal in the recent “heroes” print cements the character as Abinadi — it was the “way to go” in contemporary art choice, evidently.

By: Hunter

Hunter — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 17:26:50 +0000

At first blush, Susa Young Gate’s directive that the costuming needed to follow the pictures published in the Juvenile Instructor does not perforce mean that she felt that the JI’s interpretations were absolutely historically accurate or to be given any undue authority. Another interpretation is that her careful adherence to the JI illustrations merely reflects a preference for homegrown, in-house illustrators with likeminded respect for the Book of Mormon, as opposed to, say, using as models contemporary illustrations of Native Americans from non-Church media.

However, when coupled with the fact that SYG evidently took the presentation so seriously, and that she meant for it to be received in like manner, makes me think that she must have ascribed some authoritative status to the JI’s illustrations.

Such an interesting post, thanks.