I'm not one to court controversy, so you won't see me posting a link to last night's episode of the HBO series "Big Love" here. I don't even get HBO. For a reason. And that's not it.
I know all about the series, though, and have seen snippets of it here and there during the time it's aired on Home Box Office. More importantly, I know the subject matter, since Mormonism and polygamy are two parts of my richly diverse heritage.
What I want to talk about is not whether HBO or any other media outlet should air or depict religious rltuals that are considered sacred by their adherents (television and film have been doing that for years).
I want to talk about anachronisms.
For heaven's sake, people, if you're going to depict a particular cultural group, get it right. It's not enough to get it 85% right, or 94% right. Get it right.
Teapots.
The burning question on my mind, and everyone else's, this morning, at least anyone who's halfway savvy about Mormon culture, is what on earth was in Ellen Burstyn's teapot?
I can't think of one time in my entire life that I've ever gone into an LDS home and had a Mormon mother pour anything from a teapot into little porcelain teacups.
Never.
Unless of course you count my Great-Grandma Elsie, who was a convert from England transplanted as a young girl to the sagebrush of Wyoming, and who late into life still liked her tea in the afternoon.
Other than that, no. It's a non-starter. Mormons don't drink tea or coffee. Postum went out a couple of generations ago, with my great-aunts.
The only hot drink you'll find in fashion in LDS homes, worldwide, is hot chocolate. Cocoa. Due to a particular variable interpretation of Doctrine and Covenants 89, the Word of Wisdom.
I can't think of one time, ever, I've seen it served in porcelain teacups as though someone were coming over for sewing club, or bridge, to chat with the girls. It would be served in steaming mugs with marshmallows and lots of calories. Not in teacups.
So that's my beef, HBO, and everyone else out there plying craft. You want to depict a cultural subgroup? Get it right.
Ellen Burstyn wouldn't have had a tea set. Except for show.
4 comments:
Depending upon the generation, my neighbor in Utah was a very high ranking Mormon and we weren't even allowed to eat chocolate bars let alone drink hot cocoa. The tea, on the other hand, was herbal and yes, we had the tea sets :D
We thought it strange that we weren't allowed to drink Coca-Cola, even though the LDS church owns great amounts of stock in the company, couldn't eat chocolate, or have anything that even touched caffeine. But alas, times may be changing ...
Fascinating, Susan. We had Coke and chocolate in abundance, but at the time I was at BYU (1970's), we'd have been kicked out for Honors Code violation for drinking herbal tea (I know, because I had friends and dorm mates who checked on this). Clearly, there are some cultural differences even within Mormonism. If there are LDS homes that had tea sets, and poured tea, I wasn't in them.
the tea set totally jumped out at me too. it was very distracting to me during that scene. and i don't even have any mormon connection!
Closing the gap on that last fifteen percent or so seems very difficult for Hollywood and Broadway. I couldn't imagine any young Utah-Mormon woman's having a given name like "Harper," at least from the generation depicted, as Tony Kushner called his main female character in the otherwise admirable "Angels in America."
Did anyone think Meryl Streep nailed a typical Mormon matron in her portrayal of Hannah Pitt in HBO's "Angels"? I didn't. Her high-collared dresses and dropping her G's (prayin', singin') were glaring in their forced authenticity.
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