I don't think LDS readers will be able to find "Monsters and Mormons" (Peculiar Pages) at Deseret Book or Seagull Book. However, those interested can buy this pleasingly thick anthology of Mormon horror and fantasy online. The book is usually more than $20 but various download versions are much cheaper.
It's a great book with fantastic reads. Bishops battling demons, live wives meeting dead wives, aliens rescuing missionaries, vampires, and of course George A. Romero-type zombies ... and a lot more, find their way into Mormon-themed plots. Mormon scholar Terryl Givens offers a preface, where he reminds readers that Mormonism was the grist for 19th century pulp stories and kitschy conspiracies.
An enjoyable introduction by co-editor Theric Jepson recounts his grandfather's "Deseret Book," a metal box with holes and leather straps mysteriously discovered in the southern Utah desert long ago.
As mentioned, there are dozens of tales, poems, essays -- even a graphic short story - in Monsters and Mormons, all worth reading late into the night. I've picked two stories to mention in this review. "Baptisms for the Dead," by C. Douglas Birkhead, is not among the top offerings but its subject, Mormon missionaries continue to proselytize even after flesh-eating zombies overrun the world, is a nod to the zombie chic in literature which seems to have overrun vampires of late. Senior companion Elder Gardner, with the less than enthusiastic assistance of junior companion Elder Hansen, spends days hunting for zombies to kill and then conducts modified "battlefield baptisms" to make sure the damned get to the Celestial Kingdom. What I like best about Birkhead's tale is that the missionary routine, with the senior companion in charge, survives an apocalypse. Elder Hansen may think Elder Gardner has been driven crazy by the living dead, but the priesthood authority still rules the day.
Gardner's words of encouragement could be repeated by any elder today, given the subtext of saving rotted souls the missionaries are taught. "Have faith, Elder Hansen. I'm convinced that we were left behind to do God's work, to release these souls through the destruction of their corrupted bodies and to give them a path to salvation through baptism."
More depth is found in D. Michael Martindale's short story, "Bokev Momen." Science fiction, it involves a family space patrol from the Tetzl race, which encounters a dead carriage full of deceased Murdzaks, a despised race shunned from interstellar diplomatic groups. Interestingly, the carriages are organic, live creatures and the space travelers fit comfortably within the carriage bodies.
The Tetzl group, which includes a husband, a primewife and a thirdwife -- polygamy is practiced in Tetzl -- discovers a live captive on the Murdzak carriage. Once the rescuers find his clothes, he shirt bears a nametag with writing on it and a red or violet strip knotted at the throat.
The captive's name, as best as the Tetzls can understand is "Al-da-kirsh-tan-sin" who lives on a no-contact planet, Raviza Kirkil 752116 that "Al-da" calls "Irf." Before the friendly aliens drop him off near his home of "Jojah," the rescued man from "Irf" shares a book with his rescuers that he calls "Bokev Momen." A picture on the cover stuns the Tetzl rescuers for its similarity to "The Anointed" on their planet. From the story, "Eteaki stared at the spot of color his finger had formed. The homeland of the Anointed. This planet, that location. That tiny point in the universe. She jiggled her head in denial. No, it couldn't be possible."
"Bokev Momen" provides metaphors and analogies for many Latter-day Saint teachings and concepts, mild and controversial. They include polygamy, patriarchal authority, multiple worlds, Nephites versus Lamanites, rigid doctrinal practices, good versus evil, salvation, skepticism, discrimination, the intentional mystery that is inherent in spiritual belief, and of course the belief in an anointed savior, which "Al-da-kirsh-tan-sin" calls "Jyez-iz-kirast."
Several years ago, Martindale wrote an excellent Mormon-themed novel, "Brother Brigham," for Zarahemla Books.
It'd be fun to see "Bokev Momen" produced as a short film.
Some more enjoyable tales include "Other Duties," by Nathan Shumate, where in usually quiet Clinton, Utah, one bishop is tasked with removing a Gadianton robber-turned demons from a member's barn. And in "The Living Wife," by Emily Milner, wife number 3 of a farmer in early post-Manifesto Utah, discovers that she can't escape the comments and criticism from her new husband's first two wives, who still reside at the home, albeit as ghosts.
Gibson is the Standard-Examiner's opinion editor. He can be reached at dgibson@standard.net. A version of this column was published here .
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