A new month, a new book.  This is the official discussion thread for October.

I have a problem this month.  Despite my best efforts (short of laying out the $$$ for the hard cover), I haven't been able to lay hands on a copy.  I'd like to see if someone other than would be willing to take the lead on discussing it.  I'll continue to push my inter-library loan request.

For information on the book club, including lists of the books and links to discussion threads, see the Book Club entry in the Scrapbook. 

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Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.

Phillip K. Dick

I will be glad to offer some thoughts.

First, Joseph Smith was the main force behind polygamy in Mormonism. If you read only authorized Church history you can come away with the thought that Brigham Young started the ball rolling. Smith started it all. Young as a disciple of Smith lived it with gusto but Smith was the author.

I found Comptons book to be thourough and mostly unbiased. I think he was fair in his reportage and find it interesting that he remains devoted to the church. I was personally stunned while reading this book. The obvious illicit affar with Fanny Alger, and the way Smith practiced polygamy I found abusive and selfish. He seemed to me to be interested in one thing only.What was best for him. Any notion that this was a good man was shattered as I turned the pages.  

I did find also the devotion of Eliza R. Snow to be a bit fanatical.  I developed in my mind a new image of this woman. As an active Mormon I viewed her as devoted and inspired. After reading this book I came to view her as a religious zealot and fanatic. I think she would have eventually landed in some fanatical order other than Mormonism if there had been one available. 

This was one of the books that ended my testimony of Mormonism. To me Smith became not a man with feet of clay, but a usurious sexual misfit, feeding his megolamaniacal personality with constant conquest of the women around him. He was a sick man surrounded by sycophants and religious zealots that enabled him to carry on his lifestyle. He met the  end someone like him usually does. A violent death carried out by very angry people.

ft

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It is one’s willingness to become uncomfortable and face the fear that what we might uncover could rock the foundations of our world that will allow us to escape the bonds of Mormonism.

INTROSPECT

I sold my copy, otherwise I'd loan it to you. 

I read ISL a good 7 years ago.  It was a pivotal book to me.  While reading it, I felt like I was getting a real, contextual glimpse into the practice of polygamy by Joseph Smith.  All the secret meetings, and the subservision, and the deceit perpetrated by Joseph was a real eye-opener to me, and I felt myself feeling more and more empathy towards Emma as each new wife was introduced.

I love how the book broke down each wife and told her own story.  It personalized them for me.  I recall reading the section on Zina Huntington Jacobs Smith Young.  And reading it again, in absolute shock and horror.  And then bringing in my (then) TBM husband and insisting he read that chapter.  I told him "this guy is an active mormon, this is not anti-mormon material."  He read it, and said "if this is how it happened, that is disturbing."

I love the fact Compton did this book.  It is a story that, when you have finished reading it, permanently changes the way you view Joseph Smith.    The lack of integrity in HOW he practiced polygamy was very character-diminishing.  Even as I was studying it within context (and Compton does an excellent job of providing ancillary material to illuminate context), I could not shake the level of disgust I felt for the plight of these women who were being coerced/coaxed into decisions with the threat/promise of exaltation for themselves and their families as the bottom line.

Big green hugs,

Froggie