Introduction¹

In this thesis I explore one of Mormon literature’s most important pioneers. You are unlikely to have heard of her, however, because sadly her reputation within the LDS community has largely fallen off likely because she was suspected of being a lesbian, a no no in Mormondom. Also unfortunate is that interest in her work among American literary critics has somewhat waned since its peak in the late ‘90s. Still, there continues to be a steady stream of dissertations, theses, and papers discussing her work. Despite her star setting somewhat in the West, she still has a large following in other parts of the world. For example, in China a major retranslation of some of her best work was just released this week in Beijing. She has an impressive following among a group of scholars in Ethiopia, where central aspects of her work seem to speak to the Ethiopian Orthodox mind with more affinity than in many other places around the world. Her largest academic following, however, is found in Russia, where Trillim spent a significant amount of time.

Trillim was born in 1936 in Burley Idaho, the daughter of Heber LeRoy Trillim, a potato farmer, and Margaret (Maggie) Kimball Trillim, a former librarian from Boston. In high school, her English teacher entered some of her work in a state writing contest. When she won first place, many realized that she had significant talent. Her experimental style quickly earned her accolades and a scholarship to Radcliffe College. After graduating she erupted onto the literary scene with her first book, the slim Cattle Memories. Her second book, A Slouch in the Shoulders of Deity, shook the literary world to its core, or at least those who were paying attention. It challenged previously held assumptions about what constituted literature and the ways it should be read. Her work’s unusual style and challenging form have been often imitated but seldom equaled. Her final efforts in mastering the controversial style in which she wrote, i.e., constructing fictional works as strange lists, reached its peak after a yearlong study in what was then the Soviet Union.

It might be prudent at this point to give a lomtick of her writing, to ground you a bit in her style and in order to cast into relief some of the events that structured her later life. A chapter from her book, Breathless Triangles, is short enough to be included in its entirety.

Chapter 21. Wherein Pettiness is Laundered.

Objects: Cloud, figurine, lighter fluid, rat, helmet, paper cup, Post Office, translator, icterids, stories, fifteenth century, flat, municipality, lecture, blouse, angleworm, refugee, comet, quilt, holiday, porch, finger, saw, trout, penny, haystack, guitar, loom, shadow, rain, laundry bin, caterpillar, piston, soil, hen, nematode, steeple, mountain pass, Nancy, muskrat, ankle, Romanian, perfume, vessel, avenue, moat, pedestrian, brandy, suggestion, fairies, swamp, flax, soup, pocket watch, yam, baby powder, lentil, music box, plus sign, braid, wishing well, door knocker, toy soldier, dirt clod.

Action: flee, escape, canter, coalesce, inform, delete, bicker, saunter, deliberate, slouch, press, prostrate, hurdle, wander, peddle, fixate, blast, stare, destroy, argue, bless, forsake, delineate, hope, sit, flip, seek, slip, orchestrate, belittle, bounce, stomp, flicker.

Attribute: green, bright, overt, spritely, comely, glowing, dark, heavy, sanguine, overt, lazy, gray, gifted, mysterious, great, eager, obedient, quaint, clumsy, melodic, panicky, steep, obnoxious, high, witty, hollow, victorious, glamorous, purple.

In the manner of: swift, careful, vigorous, doubtful, loud, eager, calm, glee, fond, just, acidic, quirky, playful, shrill, late.

As you can see this is not easy literature. Early attempts to understand it revolved around creating standard English texts using the words provided. These efforts were especially popular in French circles² but it was vigorously argued by most scholars that this was not her intent and the text was to be taken as given—not reconstructed or folded into a more interpretable work. This reading was largely settled upon as a result of a debate between scholars at Edinburgh and Chicago. While both groups noticed that neither conjunctions nor articles were provided, each came to very different conclusions as to what that meant. The Edinburgh school prevailed with some stunning work by Susan Levant and Malinda Gregson, who showed that textual reconstructions were never Trillim’s intent.³

Current trends have viewed her work as possibility generating literature—trends especially apparent in the copious writings of Ethiopian Orthodox theological seminaries and theology schools. The Reverend Hierodeacon Rellime Amada has been offering some especially compelling interpretations. He holds that Trillim should be taken as is, that the addition or withdrawal of a single word changes the possibility of the text and therefore its entire meaning. To reclaim the given possible, one must open oneself to how what can be constructed rests in the given; to the grace embedded in the text, and how that grace then operates in a person’s life. Grace is said to thus release the virtual hidden into the actual. To wish for another word, or to redact what has been put forward, is to limit the possibility of the text. Only in the ‘what is given’ is the offered potential of the text opened and the meaning allowed to unfold. Amada believes she was writing a kind of redemption in which the ‘saving’ comes from embracing both the strange format and the words offered.

Trillim moved to Moab, Utah and the nearby La Sal Mountains in the late 1970s with her dear friend Babs Lake. It was there that she did some of her most important work. However, she felt slighted by her people, who never came to see her writing as worthy of being labeled ‘Mormon literature.’ In a letter to her sister she wrote:

“It makes me sad when I think about the way I was treated by some of the faculty. At my last reading they snorted and jeered. One even rudely remarked ‘Poppycock’ and walked out of the lecture hall. I don’t think they want to remember me as Mormon or claim me as one of their own.”

I believe this might have been at Brigham Young University. It is clear she was right. If you search for her work in the Mormon Literature Database she does not appear and her books, now largely out of print, cannot be found in any library in Utah. However, she remained true to the faith (as she understood it) her entire life and claimed to be a Mormon wherever she went. However, her take on Mormonism was unorthodox to say the least.

Toward the end of her life, her work took a strange turn. First the section ‘In the manner of’ disappeared, then the ‘Attribute’ section got shorter and shorter until it too vanished. Her work became stark—cold lists of nouns that took a darker cast. Words like ‘chain,’ ‘pit,’ and ‘abyss’ are representative. Most of the light playfulness she was known for disappeared, and a seriousness and intensity enveloped her work. Her books now came out more slowly, sometimes with years between volumes. Her last work can be repeated here in its entirety. It was called Hammered Pliers and it consisted of a single chapter:

Chapter 1: The framing dissolves in strong acid.

Objects: Moonlight.

She died shortly after its publication. I found a copy of this slim volume in a small English used bookshop on Jomo Kenyatta Avenue in Addis Ababa. Strangely the title page was inscribed: “To my friend David O./ The bravest man I know.”

I would like to think that perhaps this was once owned by David O. McKay, ninth President of the Mormon Church (1951–1970), and I am tempted to imagine that he found her work as intriguing as I do. I hope that the Mormon scholars in the humanities will revive the reputation of this astonishing woman of Mormon letters whose name and work deserve to come out of obscurity.