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242 Chapter 5 ECHOES OF CULTURE The issue of truth is central to how personal revelation narratives are evaluated , interpreted, and performed. In the spirit of emic analysis, this book has approached personal experience narratives according to the values of the people who share them. Whether or not a story is true, therefore, has figured heavily in this analysis. Yet folklorists have typically shied away from questions about objective assessments of truth. One reason is that in this postmodern world, the idea of objective truth has been rightly questioned into oblivion. Another, more significant reason is that the question of whether or not a story is historically and factually accurate fails to account for the bulk of what the performance of a story tells us about the people who shared it and the culture in which it is embedded. In his many studies of Mormon folklore, William A. Wilson has frequently argued that folk narratives serve as “a mirror for culture, a reflector of what members of the group consider to be most important. Thus the stories we Latter-day Saints tell provide valuable insights into our hopes, fears, dreams, and anxieties” (1989:97). That mirror is not exact. Wilson points out that mirrors only reflect what is placed in front of them, and scholarly interest in legends has meant that quotidian stories of the human capacity for love, generosity, charity, and kindness have gone unnoticed (1989:107–9). That mirror can also distort, as Ruth Benedict famously pointed out in her study of Zuni mythology. Polygamy is rife throughout Zuni folktales but nonexistent in daily life. Benedict argues these stories function as compensatory daydreams, “a Zuni fantasy of the same order as raising the dead or travelling with seven-league boots in other bodies of lore” (1935:xvi). Stories can serve as expressions of fear as much as fantasy. Further, distortion can appear in personal experience stories, not just in myths, folktales , and legends. A particular theme or experience may emerge in the narrative Echoes of Culture 243 tradition in disproportionate frequency to daily life. The hundreds of stories about narrowly avoided car accidents do not mean that Latter-day Saints are worse drivers or more prone to vehicular mishap than any other group; instead, they reveal widespread concerns about driving on US roads today and common fears about dangers that cannot be eradicated solely through one’s own actions. The themes that emerge in the narrative tradition of personal revelation, therefore, reflect lived experience as well as personal interests. Experience dictates the “data” one can draw upon to narrate, while personal choice guides which of those experiences one chooses to share. Both reflect the hand of God as well as of men and women. Revelatory experiences reflect God’s concerns for people’s well-being as well as people’s own concerns in what they choose to pray about. The decision to share a particular experience also reflects the hand of both God and humans, as many people decide to share their spiritual experiences only if they feel prompted by the Spirit to do so. Analyzing the themes in personal revelation narratives, therefore, can reveal both the intent of God in heaven and the concerns of people on Earth. For LDS members, the former is of greater interest. For the more modest scope of this book, it is the latter that takes center stage. The analysis of themes that follows is based almost entirely on oral narratives of personal revelation. I have, however, considered written versions where appropriate, particularly as the majority of written narratives existed or exist concurrently as part of the oral tradition (the major exception being diary entries; a discussion of the written tradition follows in chapter 6). Central to this analysis are the 441 narratives entered into an Excel spreadsheet and coded according to a list of criteria including themes, motifs, and types (see the introduction for a discussion of this process and the appendix for charts reflecting this data). Accordingly, I have been able to provide a rough but fairly accurate assessment of the most dominant themes and patterns in the shared tradition of personal revelation narratives. While the focus of this chapter is on themes that dominate personal revelation, there are occasions when a particular set of occurrences appear so frequently, in such a similar pattern, that a recognizable tale type can be identified . Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson helped develop and popularize the concept of the tale type through the publication...

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