Liz Busby - Liz Busby | Writer

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.

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, I 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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Priesthood of the Planet of the Apes

Kingdom as a fantasy novel, Biblical allusions, and religion as a universal need

Poster for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes — Does this poster scream YA fantasy trilogy, or is it just me?

My husband and I spent the last few weeks catching up on the rebooted Planet of the Apes franchise so that we could go see Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes for date night. I admit that after binge-watching Dawn, Rise, and War, I was worried about what I was going to get with Kingdom. Dawn starts out as an old-fashioned science fiction tale, where man’s hubris in controlling nature leads to his downfall. Rise follows the plot beats of a post-apocalyptic tragedy in the vein of The Walking Dead, where no one can be trusted, and everything eventually goes as bad as it is possible for it to go. Glimmers of hope appear, but they are just as quickly snatched away. With War, the story gets even more depressing. It’s a combination of a war film with a revenge tale, but without any of the enjoyment of cleverness that makes revenge so fun. The overall tone is one of desperation, and the only possible solution to the protagonists’ problems is the complete annihilation of humanity. With the trailers for Kingdom seeming to hint at humanity having become the cattle predicted by War, I worried I had just signed myself up to sit through another depression-fest.

Imagine my surprise when the first scenes of Kingdom followed a completely different story pattern: that of the YA fantasy novel.

**spoilers for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes throughout**

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