Cahokia and Deseret: One Projection of an Alternate Mormon Nation

As Michael Collings noted in his classic article on depictions of Latter-day Saints in speculative fiction, one of the science fiction common uses of the Church is as a governmental structure in post-apocalyptic fiction. Once the world has been destroyed, governments fall and alternate structures take its place. When the western United States is mentioned, that usually means a casual mention of the Church maintaining order. (Orson Scott Card did a take of this trope from an LDS perspective in Folk of the Fringe.)

What Collings didn’t note was that the same idea carries over into many books in the alternate history genre. Alternate history is an interesting part of the speculative fiction universe in that these books don’t necessarily contain the same reality-breaking tropes typical of science fiction or fantasy: no aliens, robots, or magic. (Though some do: shoutout to Lee Allred’s Clockwork Deseret universe.) Instead, they speculate by changing a key moment in history and projecting possible societal changes forward. This creates a world that feels speculative, even though it may be entirely realistic (or to be more precise, mimetic). Alternate history novels often focus on a different ending to some key moment in history like the Civil War (eg Bring the Jubilee) or WWII (eg The Man in the High Castle). if America is part of the setting, there’s often a throwaway reference to some kind of state or territory called Deseret out in the west.

This brings us to Cahokia Jazz by Francis Spufford, which won this year’s Sidewise Award for Alternate History. My friend Paul Williams who studies alternate history novels brought this one to my attention. He pointed out that the author is a religious guy (he’s also written a book of Christian apologetics, titled ironically Unapologetic) and that this novel had a small but significant portrayal of an alternate Deseret.

Since the audiobook was currently available through my library, I picked it up and blasted through it fairly quickly. The general premise of the book is that the initial colonizers of the Americas brought over a less virulent strain of smallpox, immunizing many of the indigenous people. The result is a lot more native peoples live through the early colonization era. They form an alliance with the Jesuits, who help them find an acceptable way to syncretize Catholicism with indigenous religions. They travel north and rehabilitate the abandoned native metropolis of Cahokia into a territory largely governed and inhabited by indigenous people (referred to by the unified name of Takata) that eventually join the union as a free state during the Civil War.

From an LDS perspective, we could see this conjecture as similar to the project of the Book of Mormon, which casts the native peoples of America as ancient Christians. There’s a long history of people looking for evidence of Book of Mormon geography to syncretize various drawings and legends with the narrative. Spufford has caught some flack for his syncretism as drawing away from authentic indigenous speculative fiction. Granted that I have no skin in the game, but Spufford’s supposition seems like a reasonable one from a historical perspective. It would hardly be the first time in history that Christianity blended in local religious practices to make itself more successful. I’m thinking about all those Catholic Saints who seem to have been syncretized with local pagan deities, like Brigit/Brigid in Ireland.

Let’s set that aside. Since my wheelhouse is portrayals of Mormons, let’s look at what amounts to a fairly fleshed-out (yet still background) description of the alternate history of the Latter-day Saints. Deseret, Brigham Young, and other Mormon items crop up in the book less than a dozen times, but the pieces still paint an interesting picture:

  • Apparently, there’s still a restoration of some kind. Joseph Smith doesn’t get a mention, but Brigham Young apparently leads the saints to the west, so Joseph’s presence is implied. However, the reaction to the restoration is modulated by the increased Catholic presence in America. It seems to be more of a “we’ll deal with those heretics later,” rather than “these religious ideas are dangerous now.” It’s the kind of long-term, centuries-rather-than-decades thinking that I’ve come to associate with a Catholic approach.
  • Polygamy makes it all the way to the 1920s. The story’s present-day newspapers contain headlines about polygamy as a sticking point for the negotiations for Deseret to enter the union.
  • There’s a Mormon temple that looks like a “pink wedding cake” in the heart of the midwestern city where the story is set. I’m guessing this is based on the Community of Christ temple in Independence, but it’s not really clear. Yet somehow the main body of Latter-day Saints still ended up in the west. I guess with the presence of Cahokia, Nauvoo wouldn’t have been as much of a frontier as it was in our timeline. But why go to Nauvoo? The book is silent on this; it only indicates that the Takata thought their safety was benefitted by separating the white people into warring groups, and thus they aided the Mormons on their journey westward. Presumably, Cahokia’s presence as an independent country also helped them establish Deseret as an independent state. Cahokia decides to join the union in the civil war because they are starting to being outnumbered, while it appears Deseret is still considering, right up to the story’s present.
  • Brigham Young seems to be much more friendly to natives. There’s a prominent scene in the “palace” of the now-symbolic monarch of Cahokia, which showcases a painting of a native council negotiating with business tycoons over the location of cross-continental railroad lines, and Brigham Young gets a seat at the table. This leads me to . . .
  • Questionable understanding of LDS sartorial choices. In this painting, Brigham Young is pictured in a prophetic robe embroidered with lightning. (Yes, we have robes, but not those kind, and they presumably wouldn’t have been worn to a political negotiation.) But this could be forgiven as the painting is explicitly historiography; the book draws attention to how the painting inaccurately dolls up each of the native representatives in maximum costume, when the real negotiation was much rougher. But prophetic robes as a Mormon ethnic costume? I suppose it’s better than pioneer garb.

Anyway, I highly recommend Cahokia Jazz all on its own, even if you aren’t interested in the Mormon references. It’s got a compelling detective plot and some interesting things to say about a multi-ethnic Christianity, and there may or may not be some magic going on in the end. Definitely worth your time.

What I Read: July 2024

Can you tell they’ve been playing Hogwarts Legacy?

I’m writing this on the first day of school for my kids, which is about par for the course for summer as a mom of four. Of course, we had the Fourth of July and Pioneer Day here in Utah. We got to experience the negative side of the weeklong fireworks binge our neighborhood goes on since we were babysitting my in-laws’ dog, who is afraid of fireworks (unlike our dog). I’ll just say that he likes to sleep in my kid’s beds and we had to wash a lot of sheets.

July was also a social month, getting together with many friends and family members both local and out of town. I started teaching my oldest child to drive, which went better than expected but was still an absolutely disorienting experience. I finally finished building the Harry Potter reading room under the stairs that I’ve been thinking about for year (see pictures below!). My kids spent some time at FSY and various other camps, which let me complete some of the academic work I set for myself this summer. Speaking of which . . .

This month was the 2024 Association for Mormon Letters conference focusing on the theme of children’s and young adult literature. I was part of an amazing panel of presenters all talking about speculative YA books by Latter-day Saint authors. Emma Tueller Stone presented on the idea of soul mates, and Kjerste Christensen talked about the prevalence of fairy tale retellings among LDS authors. You can watch the whole panel on YouTube, or skip to this timestamp to watch my presentation on the influence of the idea of the premortal existence on LDS YA dystopias.

The biggest surprise of the conference was Pop Culture on the Apricot Tree winning the podcast award! As I said last month, there were so many good podcasts nominated, so I was shocked when we were informed that we were the winners. You can catch the award citation and our acceptance speeches here, and in case you missed it, I posted a celebratory list of our best episodes.

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On Mormon Rock Star Status, Brandon Sanderson, and Orson Scott Card

What does it mean to be a Latter-day Saint rock star?

This week, an acquaintance I met at ICFA emailed me a question:

As a Mormon fantasy scholar, what do you think of Brandon Sanderson? I mean, love him and I’m teaching The Emperor’s Soul in my fantasy fiction class next year, but as a local boy made good, I’m just kinda curious about whether he has, like … Elvis Presley status within LDS circles.

Gotta love the B-Money persona

Obviously, this was a very dangerous question thing to do and resulted in me typing a three-paragraph email instead of making breakfast for my kids. But this question has been rolling around in my head for a few days now, so I figured I would try to put my thoughts together into a more cohesive format for your perusal.

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Where to Start with Pop Culture on the Apricot Tree

Pop Culture on the Apricot Tree won the 2023 Association for Mormon Letters Podcast Award! Check out our favorite episodes, and watch for new episodes resuming in August.

Last week, Pop Culture on the Apricot Tree was awarded the Association for Mormon Letters Podcast Award for 2023! You can hear the announcement as part of the livestreamed awards ceremony or read the citation on Facebook. Obviously, I’m really excited and deeply honored by the recognition from the Mormon literature community.

We’ve been a bit off the radar because Carl broke his knee and also moved his family to Utah, but this award has given us some steam to get back on the horse. Look for more new episodes to come starting in the second half of August. In fact, if you’re in the Provo area on August 9th, we’re going to be attending the BYU library’s screening of 2001: A Space Odyssey and recording a short episode about it. We’d love to say hello and get your thoughts on the film!

In recognition of the award, I thought I would put together a post with some of our best episodes as a place to get started with the podcast. I meant to get this up right after the awards, but summer happens. Anyway, we highly recommend each of these episodes. You don’t have to watch the film before listening to the episode, as long as you don’t mind spoilers. In fact, I think it could be useful to listen to the episode first as a way of enhancing your watching experience.

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What I Read: May & June 2024

Summer has begun! Although I love being back in school (I’m one of those weirdos), there’s definitely something to be said for summer. I’ve had a lot more control over what research I want to work on, though never enough time with kids at home. In May, I also got to participate in a workshop of youth print culture at the Church History Library, which opened up my eyes to a lot of interesting resources from past eras. I love this “Bookish Corner for Bookish Girls” column from an early Church magazine and the title of this musical made me laugh.

At the end of May and into June, we went on an extended family trip to Disneyland, which was fun and exhausting. Then I made a quick turnaround to attend the Mormon History Association conference the next weekend. I’m still not sure whether this will get a separate summary post, but I am pleased to report there were at least three panels relevant to speculative fiction, which was an improvement from the last time I attended. My panel was nice and full and people asked very thoughtful questions. I came away from MHA with at least two new research projects to complete, so I consider that a win.

at MHA in Kirtland

On the writing front, “Through the Wardrobe,” my piece for Wayfare Magazine on the Chronicles of Narnia and the LDS temple experience, is now available for free on their Substack. I’ve been getting a lot of great reactions to it, which makes me really happy since I worried it was too esoteric for anyone else to be interested in. I’ve also finished my paper on YA dystopias written by LDS authors, which I’ll be presenting next weekend at the AML Conference. I’m really excited about all of the other panels and presentations. The whole conference will stream live on the AML YouTube channel, so come learn about the history of Mormon writing for children and young adults.

Due to my co-host breaking his knee and moving to Utah, Pop Culture on the Apricot Tree has been on a bit of a hiatus, but we did release an episode on Dune at the end of May. Also, just last week, the Association for Mormon Letters announced we were a finalist for this year’s podcast award. The other finalists are also amazing, so I don’t know if we stand much chance of winning, but it’s an honor to be listed with them.

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