William J. Hamblin: Documentarian

[_John Larsen]

"Did I mention that I was at Oxford? Hey Shirts, let them know that I am at Oxford."

[_Daniel Peterson]

"He's at Oxford. I'm so jealous. Oxford must be way cool. It makes me really mad that he's at Oxford and I'm in Dogpatch. I hate him. I'm gonna write a note calling him names. Maybe that'll make me feel better about my dead-end job. I hate Mormon apologists."

[_Chap]

"He's at Oxford. I'm so jealous. Oxford must be way cool. It makes me really mad that he's at Oxford and I'm in Dogpatch. I hate him. I'm gonna write a note calling him names. Maybe that'll make me feel better about my dead-end job."

No, that doesn't quite work.

As John Larsen implies, when someone makes an evident effort to let us know about their visit to another university, that is sometimes a sign that they fear that others may think their home university is a bit of an intellectual Dogpatch, and that their job is a bit dead-end, and they want to borrow a bit of prestige from the university they are visiting.

The fact that John Larsen makes this observation about Hamblin cannot reasonably be morphed into an allegation that Larsen himself is jealous of people who visit Oxford, or feels that his own job is dead-end.

And frankly, given that like all large universities Oxford is a very heterogeneous place, the merit of any claimed contact there would depend very much on who the contact was with, and what it was about. But be it noted that I am less interested in discussing Hamblin's career than in making an observation on the validity of DCP's rhetorical sleight-of -hand as attempted above.

[_Daniel Peterson]

DCP's rhetorical sleight-of -hand as attempted above.

Thus, it's insinuated that I'm disingenous. And Bill Hamblin has to be both boastful and insecure.

This is the very kind of thing that I find both fascinating and in need of an explanation. People who believe in and are inclined to defend Mormonism must be shown to be morally or psychologically defective. If religious hostility and/or envy are not among the explanations for this compulsion, I'd welcome alternative proposals.

For the record: I've known Bill Hamblin for very nearly thirty years now. He's about as secure in what he is and does, and as unconcerned with how others see him, as anybody I've ever met -- to the point, sometimes, of curmudgeonly incorrigibility. And (though I'm not at all surprised that the seemingly humorless Mister Scratch completely misses this) his capacity for irony, for sardonic comment, even for deliberate self-parody, is enormous. He's an original.

[_Chap]

Those who are fascinated by the question of how Hamblin spent last summer may follow this link:

http://www.utc.edu/Outreach/NEHHolyLand/index.php

It seems the thing was organised by the University of Tennessee Chattanooga, not by the University of Oxford, and took place at a venue four miles away from Oxford itself (at a 'A Recognized Independent Centre of the University of Oxford').

Hamblin seems to have been one of 25 scholars from various US colleges who applied to the National Endowment for the Humanities to be allowed to participate: kudos to him for getting selected by the NEH. One Oxford University Faculty member is listed as having taken part in the programme.

Not Dogpatch; not All Souls either.

Oh, and by the way I don't think DCP is disingenuous: he is an agile and skilled controversialist, who sometimes tries a trick that doesn't quite come off (as in the 'Larsen is jealous of Hamblin') move that I criticized above). Nothing wrong in an fan pointing that out, I hope.

[_Daniel Peterson]

I genuinely don't understand the need to try to denigrate Professor Hamblin's summer in Oxford, and I don't understand the apparent need to imagine that he was boasting about it.

He had a good time. I would like to have been there, too.

I myself have done two NEH summer seminars, one at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley and one at Princeton University. By the nature of the beast -- they're federally funded -- NEH summer seminars, if they're not altogether in the United States, have to be run out of the United States, not by foreign universities.

Participation in them comes via competitive application.

[_Mister Scratch]

For the record: I've known Bill Hamblin for very nearly thirty years now. He's about as secure in what he is and does, and as unconcerned with how others see him, as anybody I've ever met -- to the point, sometimes, of curmudgeonly incorrigibility. And (though I'm not at all surprised that the seemingly humorless Mister Scratch completely misses this) his capacity for irony, for sardonic comment, even for deliberate self-parody, is enormous. He's an original.

Can you identify the "self-parody" in either (or both) of the films? I'm interested to see what it is, exactly, that you think he's "parodying".

[_Mister Scratch]

One thing I can point out right away though, is that the "kitchen sink realism" here is brethren-approved to a "T". Clearly, when Dr. Peterson speaks about Mormon art maturing, and straining Mormon cultural boundaries, he isn't speaking of the documentary works of Shirts or Hamblin. These exericses in Mormon cinema are little more than catching "banal missionary goofiness" on camera.

I agree. Once again I am moved to ask: What would a controversial Mormon art look like? Is any TBM willing to answer?

[_The Nehor]

One thing I can point out right away though, is that the "kitchen sink realism" here is brethren-approved to a "T". Clearly, when Dr. Peterson speaks about Mormon art maturing, and straining Mormon cultural boundaries, he isn't speaking of the documentary works of Shirts or Hamblin. These exericses in Mormon cinema are little more than catching "banal missionary goofiness" on camera.

I agree. Once again I am moved to ask: What would a controversial Mormon art look like? Is any TBM willing to answer?

You imply you're a member, you tell us.

[_Mister Scratch]

I agree. Once again I am moved to ask: What would a controversial Mormon art look like? Is any TBM willing to answer?

You imply you're a member, you tell us.

I have never said I was "TBM." Your answer shows that you're incapable of imagining a "controversial Mormon art."

By the way: Why don't you bring back your old avatar? Are you embarrassed?