{"id":27229,"date":"2015-10-17T11:55:33","date_gmt":"2015-10-17T17:55:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=27229"},"modified":"2015-10-17T11:55:33","modified_gmt":"2015-10-17T17:55:33","slug":"pretty-predictably-abcs-quantico-gets-the-mormons-all-wrong","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/10\/pretty-predictably-abcs-quantico-gets-the-mormons-all-wrong.html","title":{"rendered":"Pretty predictably, “ABC’s ‘Quantico’ gets the Mormons all wrong”"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"SLC<\/a>
The completely windowless Salt Lake Temple, Utah\u2019s premiere wedding reception venue!
(LDS.org; click to enlarge.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Quite\u00a0by chance, I actually caught a few minutes of the first episode of Quantico<\/em>, in re-run.\u00a0 I saw what happened to the Mormon character, though I\u00a0wasn\u2019t quite as irritated by it as advance notice had suggested that I, as a Mormon, might be. \u00a0(I mean, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s altogether impossible that a returned missionary could have some dark secret to hide and, eventually, trying to protect it and ridden by guilt, turn into a homicidal loon. \u00a0After all, as my Malevolent Stalker would point out, look at me<\/em>.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Of course, I wondered how he could have done all of those things on his mission without his companion noticing. \u00a0But non-Mormon writers rarely get the companion thing right. \u00a0Consider, for example, the opening moments of the smash Book of Mormon<\/em> musical, in which Elders Price and Cunningham are at the Missionary Training Center. \u00a0Elder Cunningham is hoping to be assigned to Orlando, Florida. \u00a0Instead, though, the two are paired as companions and sent from the MTC to Uganda<\/em>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The nuances\u00a0are just a bit off, wouldn\u2019t you say?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

But that\u2019s nothing compared with the sloppy research of some other writers. \u00a0I recall looking at one mystery novel several years ago \u2014 I never read it, and have long since forgotten both title and author \u2014 in which the heroine, looking at the Salt Lake Temple, was trying to figure out exactly why the building left her with such a creepy feeling. \u00a0And then it dawned on her: \u00a0It had no windows!<\/em> \u00a0It\u2019s like a solid block of granite!<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Speaking of the Salt Lake Temple, I missed the part in Quantico<\/em>, alas!, about the wedding reception held there. \u00a0That would have been very enjoyable. \u00a0I wish my wife and I had known about the possibility of reserving the temple for receptions back when we were planning our<\/em> wedding!<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Novelists and screenwriters rarely get the Mormons<\/a> right. \u00a0(Arthur Conan Doyle\u2019s 1887\u00a0A Study in Scarlet<\/em>, in which he introduces a detective named Sherlock Holmes, wasn\u2019t the first grossly inaccurate representation, and it certainly hasn\u2019t been the last.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

One of my favorites is a 1970 novel by \u201cHenry Sutton\u201d (David Slavitt), entitled Vector<\/em>. \u00a0I came across it on my mission in Switzerland, of all things. \u00a0It\u2019s been literally decades since I\u2019ve seen the thing \u2014 I really need to look at it again \u2014 but, as I recall, a virus has been mysteriously released upon a small town in the desert west of Salt Lake City (called \u201cTarsus,\u201d I think). \u00a0People are dying in droves, but there\u2019s a government cover-up. \u00a0The hero, a biologist from (natch!) outside Utah, is trying to find out what\u2019s going on. \u00a0Unfortunately, though, as his contacts\u00a0in Salt Lake explain to him, the people of Tarsus belong to a religious group called \u201cMormons.\u201d \u00a0And Mormons don\u2019t cotton to outsiders. \u00a0So that complicates the hero\u2019s task considerably.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another one from many, many years ago: \u00a0For reasons that I no longer remember, a friend and I had dinner with Peter Bart<\/a> just after his 1981 novel Thy Kingdom Come<\/em>\u00a0appeared. \u00a0He was genuinely puzzled as to why Mormons had, almost universally, panned his story. \u00a0I tried to explain that he got us wrong, time after time after time. \u00a0He just hadn\u2019t understood what it\u2019s like to be a Mormon. \u00a0For example, a crucial element of the plot (as I remember it nearly four decades later) revolves around an affair between the Church\u2019s General Relief Society President and the official spokesman for the First Presidency. \u00a0I recall telling Bart that his depiction was essentially impossible. \u00a0That those two Church officers could have an affair, of course, was conceivable, if unlikely \u2014 humans are flawed \u2014 but that they could simultaneously be (a) deeply devout, believing, orthodox, and utterly sincere members of the Church and (b) completely without any sense of guilt or remorse or hesitation about their extramarital liaison was, to me, unthinkable and wildly implausible. \u00a0And that was just one of many problems.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Oh well.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 Quite\u00a0by chance, I actually caught a few minutes of the first episode of Quantico, in re-run.\u00a0 I saw what happened to the Mormon character, though I\u00a0wasn\u2019t quite as irritated by it as advance notice had suggested that I, as a Mormon, might be. \u00a0(I mean, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s altogether impossible that a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-27229","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nPretty predictably, "ABC's 'Quantico' gets the Mormons all wrong"<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    Quite\u00a0by chance, I actually caught a few minutes of the first episode of Quantico, in re-run.\u00a0 I saw what happened to the Mormon character,\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/10\/pretty-predictably-abcs-quantico-gets-the-mormons-all-wrong.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Pretty predictably, "ABC's 'Quantico' gets the Mormons all wrong"\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"    Quite\u00a0by chance, I actually caught a few minutes of the first episode of Quantico, in re-run.\u00a0 I saw what happened to the Mormon character,\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/10\/pretty-predictably-abcs-quantico-gets-the-mormons-all-wrong.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sic et Non\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-10-17T17:55:33+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/files\/2015\/10\/salt-lake-808x480-SLTEMPLEKIOSK2-300x178.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Dan Peterson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/10\/pretty-predictably-abcs-quantico-gets-the-mormons-all-wrong.html\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/10\/pretty-predictably-abcs-quantico-gets-the-mormons-all-wrong.html\",\"name\":\"Pretty predictably, \\\"ABC's 'Quantico' gets the Mormons all wrong\\\"\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-10-17T17:55:33+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-10-17T17:55:33+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\"},\"description\":\"    Quite\u00a0by chance, I actually caught a few minutes of the first episode of Quantico, in re-run.\u00a0 I saw what happened to the Mormon character,\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/10\/pretty-predictably-abcs-quantico-gets-the-mormons-all-wrong.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/10\/pretty-predictably-abcs-quantico-gets-the-mormons-all-wrong.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/10\/pretty-predictably-abcs-quantico-gets-the-mormons-all-wrong.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Pretty predictably, “ABC’s ‘Quantico’ gets the Mormons all wrong”\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/\",\"name\":\"Sic et Non\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045\",\"name\":\"Dan Peterson\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dan Peterson\"},\"description\":\"\\\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\\\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Pretty predictably, \"ABC's 'Quantico' gets the Mormons all wrong\"","description":"    Quite\u00a0by chance, I actually caught a few minutes of the first episode of Quantico, in re-run.\u00a0 I saw what happened to the Mormon character,","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/10\/pretty-predictably-abcs-quantico-gets-the-mormons-all-wrong.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Pretty predictably, \"ABC's 'Quantico' gets the Mormons all wrong\"","og_description":"    Quite\u00a0by chance, I actually caught a few minutes of the first episode of Quantico, in re-run.\u00a0 I saw what happened to the Mormon character,","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/10\/pretty-predictably-abcs-quantico-gets-the-mormons-all-wrong.html","og_site_name":"Sic et Non","article_published_time":"2015-10-17T17:55:33+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/wp.production.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/files\/2015\/10\/salt-lake-808x480-SLTEMPLEKIOSK2-300x178.jpg"}],"author":"Dan Peterson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dan Peterson","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/10\/pretty-predictably-abcs-quantico-gets-the-mormons-all-wrong.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/10\/pretty-predictably-abcs-quantico-gets-the-mormons-all-wrong.html","name":"Pretty predictably, \"ABC's 'Quantico' gets the Mormons all wrong\"","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-10-17T17:55:33+00:00","dateModified":"2015-10-17T17:55:33+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045"},"description":"    Quite\u00a0by chance, I actually caught a few minutes of the first episode of Quantico, in re-run.\u00a0 I saw what happened to the Mormon character,","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/10\/pretty-predictably-abcs-quantico-gets-the-mormons-all-wrong.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/10\/pretty-predictably-abcs-quantico-gets-the-mormons-all-wrong.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2015\/10\/pretty-predictably-abcs-quantico-gets-the-mormons-all-wrong.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Pretty predictably, “ABC’s ‘Quantico’ gets the Mormons all wrong”"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/","name":"Sic et Non","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/77113e9b09701bd1599fa272c4f65045","name":"Dan Peterson","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/5ed1a72d26805e35a503e3167599df7c?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dan Peterson"},"description":"\"Life was very unsatisfying until I discovered Dan's blog, which gave me a reason to live.\" (gemli, 7 November 2019)","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/author\/danpeterson"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1019"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27229"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27229\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}