A Diverse Mission: Diverse Literature

In Nephi Anderson’s Added Upon we come to know the characters in many different settings; but we are passed from character to character quickly—before we become too attached to them. This distance between the reader and the characters is unique for a novel, but the purpose is clear. The message and meaning of Added Upon is not to necessarily have us connect to the characters, but it is (possibly) to see their journeying through the different stages of the Plan of Salvation, and to try to understand that “[our] adversity and [our] afflictions shall be but a small moment” as well. (D&C 121:7)

Nephi Anderson’s Added Upon was published ten years after Orson Whitney’s “Home Literature” speech/article was given. And I believe that Anderson incorporated and followed a few of Whitney’s calls’ to action. In the middle of Whitney’s address he issues a call, bold, and triumphant. “Ye are an example to the world: follow not after them!” I believe the doctrine and the story line, so closely following all that we know of the Plan of Salvation in Added Upon, was to show the world what he (Anderson) believes. He was shining his light unto the world by writing because he believed he knew “how and what to write.”

Now his style which is unique to most novels, could push away some readers, but also, because of its uniqueness, Added Upon can draw in many more readers, who may or may not have more questions following reading. I think Anderson exemplified Whitney’s statement well—“Our mission is diverse from all others; our literature must also be.” Perhaps this was the driving force that influenced Anderson to focus ever so briefly on the characters. It might have been his attempt to be different…in order to fulfill a part of his mission.

-Lizzy S.