Comments on: Inside the mind of the Book of Mormon’s first antagonist — A review of Mette Harrison’s The Book of Laman

By: slickrickistheman

slickrickistheman — Mon, 11 Dec 2017 20:20:42 +0000

1 Nephi 16:7….Zoram takes the eldest daughter of Ishmael a wife.

By: Jerry Schmidt

Jerry Schmidt — Wed, 25 Oct 2017 23:34:29 +0000

Nice review. Based on the excerpts provided, the wannabe storyteller in my head disagrees with the preacher in my head. But despite that, I’m intrigued, and I’ll admit I already identify with Laman, sigh. And I’m the oldest in my birth family, too.

By: David Evans

David Evans — Tue, 24 Oct 2017 19:03:14 +0000

Thanks, Nunya. I thought I’d sworn off Brother Card (after Pastwatch, which I couldn’t stand), but who knows, maybe I’ll try him again.
Nah, maybe I’ll just read a book about patrilineal tribalism and the Deuterononimic reformers!

By: Nunya Bidniss

Nunya Bidniss — Tue, 24 Oct 2017 17:58:07 +0000

In his “Homecoming” series, Orson Scott Card did a decent job of framing an interpretation of why Laman might be portrayed as he is. You have to flex your creativity muscle to take his SciFi version of the story *back* to the ancient setting.

However, once I learned about the Deuterononimic reformers and learned more about patrilineal tribalism, Laman is certainly explainable as written in the BoM.

By: Marc

Marc — Mon, 23 Oct 2017 04:45:03 +0000

Great review. I haven’t read it yet, but have plans to in the coming months.

By: David Evans

David Evans — Sun, 22 Oct 2017 19:22:07 +0000

James, I’m totally with you on the Zoram interpretation, and I wonder why we don’t give it more attention. I feel like we discuss Nephi killing Laban extensively but not Zoram’s “invitation” at all.

By: James Olsen

James Olsen — Sun, 22 Oct 2017 03:06:42 +0000

I remember first reading a comic on my mission called The Book of Laman (or maybe Lemuel?). Comically snotty, arrogant oaf that acted like the stereotypical punk older brother. But creative. In my last careful reading of Nephi (detailed in my Reading Nephi series), I found Laman (or at least the Laman of my mind) a very compelling figure.

And I don’t think there’s any way to give an analysis of Zoram’s joining the brothers that doesn’t manifest coercion. Even if they all felt as nice and friendly as could be in their heart of hearts—they couldn’t allow Zoram to give them away, and Zoram was in a radically disempowered position.