liz_marcs | Re: Big Love...Seriously?!?

Not writing any spoilers about tonight's episode, but I will say it was fantastic. I laughed my ass off in some parts, and cried in others.

But it really was the Mormon Griswalds re-trace Mormon history. Really.

Just one thing, though.

The Hill Cumorah Pageant...seriously?!? I mean, seriously seriously?

I know a certain someone on my FList had described this once in a LJ entry, but I thought she was exaggerating just a little bit for comic effect. Sort of in that same way you'll see Catholics and ex-Catholics exaggerating stories involving nuns just a little bit comic effect.

But...really...she may have been underplaying the whole thing.

*Googles*

Holy cats! Here's the Web site for it.

*boggles*

Ummm, look. I know I'm U-U to the bone, and everyone has a right to their beliefs and yadda yadda yadda.

But....seriously?!?

I'm...giggling like a loon.

If that cast gets any whiter...y'know, you'd think there'd at least be some Italian-American Mormons running around, right? Use the old Hollywood trick of having Americans whose last name ends in a vowel play First Nations character.

Because right now I'm seeing blue-eyed white dudes in...can I call that "red face"?...at a major, religiously based pageant.

I...*waves hands*...I can't even...

Jesus. Wept.

*continues to boggle*

ETA: Trivia point learned from the Web site...Orson Scott Card wrote the script for the Hill Cumorah Pageant.

Ummmm, isn't that kind of like letting Ron Moore write a musical based on the bible? As in...probably not the best idea ever.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Well, I don't know if Ron Moore is a devout Catholic, hee.

I seem to recall him mentioning that he's an ex-Catholic in one of the podcasts...or maybe it was an interview.

So, yeah, not a perfect match, but I couldn't think of too many practicing Catholics who are science fiction writers.

I think Ron Moore is actually Mormon. BSG is riddled with Mormon references if you know what to look for.

But, yeah, for Card to write a Mormon thing isn't that far off, because he's a member of that religion.

No. It's Glen Larson, creator of the original series, who's Mormon. I seem to recall in one of Moore's podcasts him talking about some of the carryovers from the original series because they couldn't be entirely stripped out.

Moore isn't Mormon.

I stand corrected, then. I knew someone was, because, yeah, BSG is heavily influenced.

Heeee! Yeah. It wasn't until I was a lot older that I knew Mormonism was represented in the original series.

I seem to recall in the pre-2003 fandom we used to make a game of "spot the Mormonism" in the 1978 series.

Unless I'm really mistaken, the pageant has been going on for at least 50 years, which is a bit before Card's time. He may have written the latest version, but it's been chugging along every year. Somehow when I was up there I never got over to see it in person, but I've seen little preview and outtake films and still shots all my life -- and yes, it is the palest portrayal that could be imagined of anything going on on this continent before the 1400s. (Or the 1100s, for that matter.)

Yeah, I should've written that Card wrote the latest iteration of the stage version.

And dear God those are the whitest people I've ever seen.

Well, considering they usually do it out in bright sunshine, by the time the pageant has been going a little while there's a *lot* of sunburn...

Seems right up his alley to me - he *is* mormon, and his whole Alvin Maker series is littered with Mormon references and he has written other books about the mormon church.

I know...I know...

But it took me aback to see his name associated with it.

From what I've heard of it, the festival is 1000% less LOLtastic than that webpage. Not that it's very hard to be less LOLstastic than that webpage.

Plus, that region of New York is rather lacking in any heritage from anywhere but Northern Europe and scattered populations of Native Americans. It's like Mardi Gras in New Orleans - lots of people go, but most of the people running the show are from New Orleans.

You'd think that something that's this big of a deal to Mormons would draw from a fairly deep pool of talent, even if they aren't believers strictly speaking.

If nothing else, the actors could be a little less...white...in some instances. Because at it stands it looks...*waves hands*...

Horrifying. Honestly.

Palmyra is 97% white. The rest of the region is also heavily white, with the exception of Native Americans who are likely not Mormon. Any people who are less white would have to take off the busiest seasons in the acting business, and if they were going to take off work they'd either be doing missionary work or they'd head for Salt Lake City. So in a region full of white people, they're going to get lots of white actors or it's not gonna get done.

In religious plays in the US, I rarely see actors who are actually the races the characters are. I think the only time I saw an actor play Jesus who may have actually had the same skin-tone was in the hyper-realistic "Passion of the Christ"

And they're dressing up like Native Americans and saying "Pretend we are Native Americans! Look at us receive Jesus!" and not dressing up like Indians and saying "Look at us! We Red Men are stupid and comical!"

Plus a good chunk of the protesters that show up at the pagent are worse than any of the performers, with their tendency to play chicken with the "peaceful vs violent" line.

*snerk* Alas, I have no access to that on TV. So I'm merely mocking the Oscars. : )

I grew up not far from Palmyra, and while I'm certainly not above mocking the Hill Cumorah pageant, I don't see anything particularly odd in the fact that everyone in it is pale, glowing white. I mean, even though it's a huge production, it's a still a religious pageant, not Broadway. When my church puts on a Christmas pageant (which we often do, despite being extremely groovy UUs), having a physically authentic appearance is not even on the list of casting concerns. And Mormons are generally darned pale people. So it seems pretty natural to me that everyone in the pageant looks stereotypically Mormon.

You should have warned for the OMG TRIUMPHAL MUZAK, ma'am. *frowns*

Re: Big Love...Seriously?!?

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject