A Motley Vision
Jun-2026
In 2008 when William Morris invited me to write a guest post or two for A Motley Vision, I was incredibly flattered. I admired the work AMV was doing and was delighted to participate. By 2009 I was an official writer and I wrote 206 posts over the almost ten years I spent crafting essays for AMV.
Some of these posts are silly, some of them are deliberately provocative, and some of them consist of the best critical writing of my career.
I hope you can tell them apart.
(This list also available alphabetically.)
Note: William had to port the database at one point which introduced a lot of formatting / image / link / etc errors. You’ll just have to image how much greater these once were when perfect.
2017
Claire Åkebrand’s What Was Left of the Stars
Paragraphs on three very different things
Mormons as Normal People: a brief look at the Mormon elements in Anthony Holden’s Precious Rascals
2016
Reading The Devil Is Due in Dreary as a Mormon text
Mormon Easter Eggs and Mormon Veins of Gold in Pariah Missouri
Theric at San Diego Comic-Con International
“The Split House” by Annie Poon
We Came to Earth to Fail: the deluxe Studio C fireside recap
There and back again—then onward ever onward: a chat with Dendo’s Brittany Long Olsen
“Sometimes in the arena you look really stupid”: a report from the Studio C fireside
Revisiting The Reluctant Blogger
Come now, and let us be wrong together, saith the critic
Newish stuff from Van Sciver and Hales
2015
His Right Hand (the conflicted review)
Bob Rees on the Book of Mormon (as literature)
A brief look at Heaven Knows Why!
Guest Post on Creation by Sam Barrett
The Lowell Cats by Adam Koford
Mormon Scholars in the Humanities
Can anyone be as invisible as Linda Wallheim?
Millstone City of Brick and Shadow
A brief spoilery post on The Bishop’s Wife as ghost story
Paying for [another’s] plagiarism
City of Brick and Shadow by Tim Wirkus
The Bishop’s Wife Reader’s Guide
2014
Reengaging with Harrison’s first forty-to-sixty by comparison to Wirkus’s first forty-to-sixty
Some misorganized thunks on the marketing of The Bishop’s Wife
Gender in The Bishop’s Wife (divorced of context)
The Bishop’s Wife: the actual review
Fires of the Mind as “Mormon Tragedy”
Return of the Green Monk (also: Inktober!)
A note on Mormon cosmology in Shannon Hale’s Dangerous
Just how dangerous is Shannon Hale? (part two)
Just how dangerous is Shannon Hale?
Responsible Mormons -vs- The Antithesis of Art (being responsibility)
Theric (and Monsters & Mormons) at SLC Comic Con Fan X
Of two minds regarding Smurthwaite’s Road to Bountiful
Three posts on The House at Rose Creek by Jenny Proctor
Science fiction “invested” in Mormonism: FIVE FICTIONS
Miltons & Shakespeares: a new direction
In which Theric takes [minor] issue with a review in the Deseret News
Love Letters of the Angels of Death by Jennifer Quist your marriage . . . your death . . . you
Back in the doll’s house, one woman said, while another but smiled and shook her head.
The Reluctant Blogger: a novel with deep, structural flaws
A review of The Garden of Enid (so far)
2013
THE MORMONS, An illustrated history of
On becoming the George Clooney of Mormon Lit
Mormonism and the Arts at the Berkeley Institute: Fiction (sf/f)
Mormonism and the Arts at the Berkeley Institute: Fiction (lit)
Mormonism and the Arts at the Berkeley Institute: Poetry
Mormonism and the Arts at the Berkeley Institute
The Parable of the Coors Can (I’ll let you make your own comparisons to the Mormon arts)
Fannie Flagg’s Heavenly Mother
“. . . the universe is fundamentally absurd, but need not remain so.”
The Uncorrelated Jesus of James Goldberg
Stephen Carter scares the kiddies
Theric interviews Courtney part three: the secret of immortality, etc.
Theric interviews Courtney part two: know when to say when, etc.
Theric interviews Courtney part one: powerful women, etc.
Presidents Day bon mots, MormonArts-style
Bright Angels & Familiars: “Woman Talking to a Cow” by Pauline Mortensen
2012
A Time of Transitions for Segullah
Haun’s Mill: Away: An Intereview and new entry in the couple-creators series!
Sharing the new crop of Book of Mormon comics with my kids: From the Dust
Sharing the new crop of Book of Mormon comics with my kids: iPlates
What questions should we be asking ourselves?
An open letter to the Whitney Awards Committee
Mormons in the Media, 1830-2012
Casey Jex Smith is up to something.
Duck Beach coming soon . . . at least to New York
The New Yorker: getting warmer
A high-school English teacher reviews How to Analyze the Works of Stephenie Meyer
Unpleasant afterlives: New fiction from Peck and Perkins
Three new singles from hot Mormon bands. What sort of world do we live in?
The love and hate of The Giant Joshua
Campfire Carols from Jiminy Finn and the Moneydiggers
Eric Freeze: Dominant Traits (review & interview)
Bright Angels & Familiars: “Windows on the Sea” by Linda Sillitoe
Bright Angels & Familiars: “I Am Buzz Gaulter, Left-Hander” by Darrell Spencer
Bright Angels & Familiars: “The Christianizing of Coburn Heights” by Levi S. Peterson
Bright Angels & Familiars: “Born of the Water” by Wayne Jorgensen
Bright Angels & Familiars: “Hit the Frolicking, Rippling Brooks” by Karen Rosenbaum
Peculiar Pages at Sunstone West
On Robert Goble’s Across a Harvested Field
The Death of a Disco Dancer (there’s a double meaning in that)
Bright Angels & Familiars: “Sayso or Sense” by Eileen Gibbons Kump
New short fiction from Jack Harrell and Johnny Townsend
Bright Angels & Familiars: “The People Who Were Not There” by Lewis Horne
Bright Angels & Familiars: “The Week-end” by Donald R. Marshall
I teach literature! I should know better!
2011
Analyzing the Book of Mormon with Grant Hardy for fun and profit
Bright Angels & Familiars: “Opening Day” by Doug Thayer
Bright Angels & Familiars: “They Did Go Forth” by Maureen Whipple
Bright Angels & Familiars: “Where Nothing Is Long Ago” by Virginia Sorensen
The Nephite Conspiracy: Mormon elements in James Rollins’s The Devil Colony
It’s fun to see the Mormons at the zoo
Free Comic Book Day 2011 (starring Floyd Gottfredson)
Let’s take a trip to Duck Beach
Questions of the Heart: Gay Mormons and the Search for Identity
Couple-Creators: Ben and Barbara Abbott
Dreams for the Future: Neon Trees in 2025
Monsters & Mormons: a fourth round of admits
Dan Wells & Serial Killers & Thematically Related Stuff
2010
The BYU MFA: An interview with Stephen B Tuttle of the new creative-writing program (part two)
The BYU MFA: An interview with Stephen B Tuttle of the new creative-writing program
Weekend (Re)Visitor: Arnold Friberg
Brady Udall’s Paranoia: Is there a culture war between Mormons going on?
Couple-Creators: Annie and Kah Leong Poon
Mormons and Monsters: Musing upon one point of editing
Why my not liking “Blood Work” means you should buy Dispensation
A brief interview with Melissa Leilani Larson just before closing weekend
Angela Hallstrom and the Art of Short-Story Arrangement
Couple-Creators: Casey Jex Smith / Amanda Michelle Smith
Couple-Creators: Howard and Sandra Tayler
Couple-Creators: Shannon and Dean Hale
Latter-day Saint, Latter-day Lovecraft: an interview with W.H. Pugmire
Bryan Mark Taylor: “…when I feel the Spirit I sit down and paint.”
2009
The Best of Mormonism 2009: An interview with its editor
Angela Hallstrom and the Art of Short-Story Arrangement
Looping through the Mormon Arts, from me to me
Preparing for Black Friday with Brandon Dayton
Elna Baker: A Serious Interview
Stucki’s Hands and the Masculine Identity: a review of Todd Robert Petersen’s Rift
Damage Control (and 15 other responses to Elna Baker)
“Crap, I’m apologizing for my Mormonism again. Sorry.”
Theric’s Comix Survey, Revisited
Those LDS Ladies of Indie Publishing
Too sacred for public consumption -or- Disgusting the prophet’s wife
Selling the Bug-Eyed Blue-Eyed Jesus (that’s just wrong)
Couple-Creators: Mike and Laura Allred
Couple-Creators: Brad and Debra Teare
Ric Estrada: Grounded in reality
Angela Hallstrom and the Art of Short-Story Arrangement
Ric Estrada: The beginnings of MORMON comics
Ric Estrada: Call me the “Trailblazer”
The Hero’s Journey of the Mormon Arts
2008
Theric guest post: “Mormons might well be the new Catholics!”
A Survey of Mormon Comix by Theric Jepson
Guest post: Theric Jepson on “The Sin of Saint Onan”