August is upon us, and you know what that means–time to fill out your MoLit Brackit:
That’s right. For your local gambling pool or Church auxiliary, we’ve set up a fantasy tournament between sixteen works of Mormon Literature specifically chosen for their cage match potential. Fill out your bracket and post it on Facebook before August 12th and then vote by comment on the Mormon Lit Blitz Facebook group to help choose the winner of each day’s match until one Mormon novel or play emerges triumphant.
A quick preview of the first round: 12 August: Orson Scott Card’s Folk of the Fringe vs. Chris Heimerdinger’s Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites
It’s a tangle in time as an alternate future faces off against a time-traveled past. X factor is the venue, on the site of the Rice-Eccles Stadium, which is under a massive lake in both available timelines.
13 August: Dean Hughes’s Children of the Promise vs. Angela Hallstrom’s Bound on Earth
Nothing says family like cataclysmic conflict. Hallstrom and Hughes square off in tight alphabetical space over in this grudge match for the Great Mormon Family Story.
14 August: Jack Weyland’s Charly vs. Doug Thayer’s Hooligan
You would expect a hooligan like Thayer to make trouble, and you wouldn’t expect Charly to club a Depression-era boy into submission. But before you lay your bets on this match, you should know: word on the street is she fights dirty.
15 August: Levi Peterson’s The Backslider vs. Theric Jepson’s Byuck
Because let’s be honest: in the most recent cover, The Backslider’s Frank looks like he belongs in a rock opera. Or at least like he could use a severe beating with a lacrosse stick.
16 August: Doug Stewart’s Saturday’s Warrior vs. David Clark’s Death of a Disco Dancer
Warrior vs. Death in the 1970s. A fight to remember.
17 August: Nephi Anderson’s Added Upon vs. Luisa Perkins’s Dispirited
What happens outside of bodies stays outside of bodies. Or does it?
19 August: James Goldberg’s The Five Books of Jesus vs. Melissa Leilani Larson’s Martyrs’ Crossing
Professional friends but tournament foes, Goldberg and Larson pit apostles against saints. With Joan of Arc on the saints’ side.
20 August: Parley P. Pratt’s “A Dialogue Between Joseph Smith and the Devil” vs. Steven Peck’s A Short Stay in Hell
Both Pratt and Peck are known as prolific, multi-genre writers of their respective generations–and they’re willing to unleash hell and the devil on each other in this fight for advancement into the second round. Don’t miss it: or you may regret it for what will feel like forever. And ever. And ever…
21-27 August: Daily matches between advancing titles (TBD)
28 August: The championship face-off between the last two works standing
So…without further ado, let the trash-talking in the comments begin.
And please join us on Facebook every day of the week expect for Sundays from August 12-28 to cheer on your favorite title and thereby influence the outcome of each match.
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Oh man. I’m one Cinderella not likely to get to the ball.
Theric,
If people judge the books by their covers, I give you two-to-one odds over Dwight Yoakam. So don’t count yourself out just yet.
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I’ve decided to take this seriously (for a certain value of seriousness) and run a campaign. This is my opening salvo.
I’ve never been a fan of March Madness and always found bracket culture a little weird…but now I get it.
Also:
“What happens outside of bodies stays outside of bodies.”
Hilarious.
So what you’re saying is, “I used to find March Madness bracket culture weird until I realized it’s basically the same as watching Saturday’s Warrior take on Death of a Disco Dancer”?
Fun! I am honored to be among those who understand this. You rock, JG.
We few, we happy few…
You are a warped man. Warped, I say!
And now to place my bets…
You know, Jonathan, you may be one of the best-qualified people to lay odds on these matches. At a minimum, I’d love to see your bracket–but it’d be really great to get some numbers from you on who’s favored and how much.
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That’s a terrific idea, actually.
I just realized that both Folk of the Fringe and Tennis Shoes came out in 1989.
Is it possible that all those people tore down the Berlin Wall for a chance to buy these two books?
Holy cow. I was having a hella crappy day until just this minute.
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Some of these are really tough. I mean: Peck or Pratt? Yes to each for very different reasons. Hughes or Hallstrom? Well. Huh. I know which way *I* lean, but one could make strong arguments on either side.
I am honestly excited to see the reasons people come up with for some of these.
Exactly! Why are Peck and Pratt going against each other in the first round!
I’m hopelessly torn before I even start!
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I decided to be crass and not vote best but vote most likely to win. We’ll see if I can actually do so.
Theric: Link doesn’t go to an existing page…
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Facebook is the worst.
I’m thrown it on my blog: http://thmazing.blogspot.com/2013/08/mormon-lits-august-insanity-thmonth-of.html
So, um, for the technologically impaired among us (cough, cough), how does one fill out one’s own bracket? Does one recreate it?
(Because right now, I’m tempted to make one in pencil on a sheet of graph paper and then scan it.)
One way is to print the chart from the blog, then fill in the rest and scan it again.
If you are using a Windows-type computer, you should be able to right click on the chart itself, select Save image as . . . and save it as a jpg (picture) file.
Print that out, mark it up, and scan it.
Thanks, Larry!
If you don’t have a printer or scanner, you can save the image, open it in Paint, and insert text boxes for your picks.
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I have mine filled out now except the final winner.
I’m pretty uncertain on that one.
Where can we see your bracket, Theric?
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As soon as I make my final choice, I’ll put it up.
1st Match wraps up with a 7-1 victory by Folk of the Fringe over Tennis Shoes Among the Nephites. Tomorrow, people can comment on the Mormon Lit Blitz facebook page to vote between Children of the Promise and Bound on Earth.
Sorry I haven’t been voting. The ugly truth is, I’ve never signed up for Facebook. But I was going to, just so I could participate! And then I got to the place where you have to affirm that you not only agree to but have actually *read* their use policies, which (so far as I could tell) consist of multiple webpages, each with multiple scroll-down screens worth of information.
I persisted. For about a half-hour or 45 minutes. Then (not even halfway through the reading, by my estimate) I threw in the towel. I’d love to participate, and will watch with interest. I hope you’ll keep posting the results here. But for now, I just can’t justify the hassle.
Can you see the latest updates on the Facebook page without signing in? You wouldn’t be able to vote, but you may be able to watch in real time.
I’d love to do a post on this blog when we wrap up the first round. Is anyone scheduled next Wednesday?
The short version so far, by the way, is that Folk of the Fringe, Bound on Earth, Charly, and Byuck have advanced. Of the losing titles, The Backslider had the strongest support, but it was buried under a landslide of Byuck voters.
Yes, I can see the updates without signing in. Thanks!
I’d be fine with a first-round summary. As it happens, we have someone scheduled for Wednesday, but the person scheduled for Thursday was willing to delay a week, so Thursday is open. (The following week was looking light, so I was quite happy to have an excuse to move something there.)