Dialogue, Volume 25, Number 2 - Dialogue – A Journal of Mormon ...

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80 DIALOGUE: A JOURNAL OF MORMON THOUGHT prolonged chemotherapy. Medical professionals advised her to terminate the pregnancy. Though both Church counsel and reason reassured her this was an acceptable way to save her own life, she furiously rejected such a course of action. Over several weeks she wept, consulted authorities, and prayed. Finally she had an experience in which she saw an image of herself interacting with her posterity and profoundly regretting the absence of one lost child. The image helped to clarify her path. She chose neither abortion nor chemotherapy; eight months later she gave birth to a large, healthy boy, her cancer in complete remission. I do not see this an anti-abortion story. Instead it affirms the reality of the Spirit, even and perhaps especially for women in anguish about their roles as mothers. Women, too, are heirs to the gifts of heaven; it is a woman's privilege to defy "reason," conventional wisdom, or male authority, and to hold fast to her inner sources of light. Stories like this one belong in the Ensign, in Relief Society manuals, at the General Conference pulpit —as do all the essays recounted here, and myriad others written in my classes and elsewhere, and those as yet unwritten. For the Latter-day Saint, writing personal essays like these yields the rewards of pleasure; an increased sense of a valid place in the community; the opportunity to participate in the "great story," either conservatively or radically; and the chance to heal, teach, and inspire. Personal essays make available the "little story" and empower readers and writers to live fuller, more productive lives. To overcome two obstacles to receiving these rewards —lack of time and lack of knowledge — LDS women (and men) can take classes, ask for or make for themselves protected time, and form writing and reading groups. They can make solitary commitments to write, read, and honor the personal writing of other women (and men). Writers can enter the essay contests offered by Exponent II and the Ensign, submit work to LDS and non-LDS publications, and require that more illustrative stories in Relief Society manuals be by and about women. But in order for that to happen, of course, the stories need to be discovered and written. Overcoming fear, the third obstacle to producing personal narrative, may take more concentrated effort. It helps to know that even professional writers feel fear when faced with the task of writing personal narrative. When Bulgarian linguist and psychoanalyst Julia Kristeva was asked to contribute a brief sketch to a book of women's autobiography, she protested that it is nearly impossible to write about one's own life accurately: "The disturbing abyss between 'what is said' and undecidable 'truth' prevents me from being a good witness," she said (1987, 219). But, in spite of her discomfort, ultimately she agreed.
Nichols: Women's Stories, Women's Lives 81 Latter-day Saint writers, perhaps especially women, might take her words about personal narrative as their creed: Should I shy away from it? I think of Canto III of Dante's Paradisio where the writer, having had visions, hurries to push them aside for fear of becoming a new Narcissus. But Beatrice shows him that such a denial would be ... a mistake [precisely] comparable to the narcissistic error. For if an immediate vision is possible and must be sought, then it is necessarily accompanied by visionary constructions that are imperfect . . . fragmentary, schematic. . . . Truth can only be partially spoken. And it is enough to begin. (1987, 220) BIBLIOGRAPHY Aptheker, Bettina. "Imagining Our Lives." Woman of Power 16 (Spring 1990): 32-35. Bly, Carol. The Passionate, Accurate Story. Minneapolis, Minnesota: Milkweed Editions, 1990. Brown, Nellie. No Place Like Home. DIALOGUE 25 (Spring 1992): 129-33. Eliot, T. S. "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock." In The Complete Poems and Plays 1909-1950. New York: Harcourt, Brace, & World, 1971. Goldberg, Natalie. Wild Mind: Living the Writer's Life. New York: Bantam Books, 1990. . Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within. Boston: Shambhala Publications, Inc., 1986. Kristeva, Julia. "My Memory's Hyperbole." In The Female Autograph, edited by Domna C. Stanton, 219-35. University of Chicago Press, 1987. Langellier, Kristin M. "Personal Narratives: Perspectives On Theory and Research." Text and Performance Quarterly 9, no. 4 (October 1989): 243-76. Prells, Riv-Ellen. "The Double Frame of Life History in the Work of Barbara Myerhoff." In Interpreting Women's Lives: Feminist Theory and Personal Narratives, edited by Personal Narratives Group, 241-58. Bloomingdale: Indiana University Press, 1989. Rico, Gabrielle Lusser. Writing the Natural Way: Using Right-Brain Techniques to Release Your Expressive Powers. Los Angeles: J. P. Tarcher, Inc., 1983.
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POETRY CONEY ISLAND HYMN: SHORE Gle
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LETTERS 5 skill. Artistic merit can
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LETTERS 7 "Adamic" and "Abrahamic."
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LETTERS 9 rah for the women of Utah
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LETTERS 11 enemies" —a very activ
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Glimmers and Glitches in Zion Brian
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FICTION Ziontales: An Excerpt Kevin
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The Lone and Only Tree Barnhurst: T
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Barnhurst: The Lone and Only Tree 1
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REVIEWS Reappraisal of a Classic Gr
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REVIEWS 167 not in a one-time role
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REVIEWS 169 a valuable survey of th
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REVIEWS 171 then goes on to catalog
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REVIEWS 173 words could be Terry's
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REVIEWS 175 close to my face. Strok
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INDEX Index to Volume 24, 1991 Auth
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E "East Meets West," Wilma Odell, 1
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INDEX 181 "The Moral Failures of Op
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INDEX 183 Rosenbaum, Karen, "For Me
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ABOUT THE ARTIST Brian T. Kershisni
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