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Times & Seasons Welcomes Jenny Webb

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We’re pleased to have Jenny Webb blogging with us during the next two weeks. With a poet’s nose for the trenchant detail, Jenny describes herself thus:

1. Origin: Bellevue, WA
2. Current Location: Sandy, UT
3. Family: 1 husband + 1 daughter (1 yr)
4. Education: MA, Comparative Literature (BYU)
5. Mission: Uruguay, Montevideo West
6. Politics: Advocate for Messianic kingship
7. Employment: Self (editor/typesetter)
8. Ward Choir: Yes
9. Last 3 DVDs: Star Trek (season 7), Broken Flowers, Arrested Development (season 2)
10. Salsa v. Ketchup: Salsa
11. Instruments: 2
12. Last game won: Mancala
13. Current Church organization: YW
14. Mac v. PC: Mac
15. Last 3 traditional textual encounters: New Literary History 37.2, Anatomy of a Typeface by Alexander Lawson, and Gilead by Marilynne Robinson

Welcome, Jenny!

15 comments for “Times & Seasons Welcomes Jenny Webb”

  1. Jenny,

    It’s a pleasure to find you here. I, like you, am looking forward with great anticipation to the day when we’ll all eat salsa, sing in the ward choir, watch the occassional R-rated movie, and talk about Marilynne Robinson books together in the Messianic Kingdom.

    But until then, we’ll just have to eat salsa, sign in the ward choir, watch the occasional R-rated movie, and talk about Marilynne Robinson books wherever we are . . . And I’ll read your posts to make up whatever difference there is between the two.

    My best,
    Adam

  2. Just make sure you get dinner on the table tonight before commenting on that feminist allegiance thread. ;)

    Love,
    Your Husband

    (To all: I take the blame for that star trek season 7 thing.)

  4. Good to see another Mac user here! And yes, I’m posting this from my work laptop in case Frank is looking through the logs to confirm my Macness…

  6. Hi, Jenny!

    I’d love to hear your thoughts on Marilynne Robinson. I read Gilead and Housekeeping this summer and was completely blown away (a literary term of art) with Robinson’s evocative prose and her interpretation of foundational Christian themes such as the nature of love and redemption. Housekeeping is now probably one of my favorite books. Look forward to your posts!

  8. Adam—I should have known you were around …
    Nick—very funny. It’s now your turn to mop the kitchen.
    Jim and Kaimi—thank you for your welcoming words!
    random John—someday the world will realize what they’re missing (possibly hastening the aforementioned Messianic Kingdom?)
    ECS and Gina—Marilynne’s words soothe my ear and heart—I’m glad to find others who enjoy her as well. Perhaps you are right, a Housekeeping conversation could be fun!

  10. I tried to like Gilead. I really did. But I just couldn’t get into it. Can one of you tell me what I did wrong?

  11. Jenny

    I\’m thrilled about having a fellow BYU Comparative Literature graduate on T&S. Hands down the best major (out of many great ones) at BYU.

  12. #10 Try listening to the audio version while driving across the northern Great Plains alone for several days, on your way to attend to a mission that can’t be accomplished, while wondering how old is too old to walk out of one life and into another. . .

    It worked for me.

  13. DKL: close (as in some of those numbers do appear in mine) but no. In fact, a close reading of my fifteen facts will lead you to 801 rather than the apparently requisite 209, 613, or 915. Oddly enough, though, Roger is my father’s name, so maybe he’s closer than I thought …

    Julie: I don’t think you did anything wrong. There’s not much to “get into” in Gilead (the novel is less plot driven than Housekeeping, which is not the fastest book on the shelf itself). It took me months to read Gilead even though I had eagerly anticipated its release and even bought it in hardcover, full price, from an actual physical bookstore. It took Robinson over twenty years to write: it might need a slow read to make it palatable. That said, I did find myself returning to the book more and more the farther I went—not for the story per se, but for the imagery. I think about it often as I place the sacrament bread into my daughter’s upturned mouth. The reviews may make you feel like you have to like it, but not everyone does. Personally, given what I know about you from reading your posts and comments, I think you might enjoy her book of essays more. They’re engagingly anachronistic.

    Michael: it’s always fun to find another comp. lit. “survivor” in the bloggernacle. There are days I miss the crowded table and postered walls of 3010 … and the seasons on the tree outside the window …

  15. The fact she watches Arrested Development and uses a Mac just helped me realize she’s the best contributor ever.

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