Seeing Things: Technologies of Vision and the Making of Mormonism by Mason Kamana Allred (review)

Abstract

Reviewed by: Seeing Things: Technologies of Vision and the Making of Mormonism by Mason Kamana Allred Benjamin E. Park Seeing Things: Technologies of Vision and the Making of Mormonism. By Mason Kamana Allred. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2023. Pp. 254. Notes, bibliography, index.) Mormonism has been, as summarized in Mason Allred's useful conclusion, "fashioned by looking at stuff to see things" (185). Starting with [End Page 231] Joseph Smith, the faith's founder, believers in this diverse and evolving tradition have adapted to new media, which in turn has shaped the religion and its sense of the divine. Steeped in theoretical literature but often grounded in digestible case studies, Seeing Things is a remarkable contribution to the histories of media, post-secular religion, and Mormon studies. Allred begins his analysis with Smith's use of seer stones and the resulting revelatory texts. The Book of Mormon, which the book provocatively places within the gothic genre, commenced a tradition of creating works that both utilized print resources while also prompting supernatural repetition. Members embraced this collapse between material and spirit in order to utilize a series of media meant to connect the mundane and divine. But such modalities had the potential to produce chaos. Allred's second chapter examines how two sets of panoramic paintings, one by Philo Dibble in Nauvoo and another by C. C. A. Christensen in Utah, promoted unity and centralization. This shared imagery was necessary to correlate authority in a quickly growing faith. Then, by the late-nineteenth century, Mormons turned to developing media like typewriters and photography to explore the boundaries of their faith's patriarchy and gender roles, the subject of the third chapter. The second half of the book centers on themes of cultural assimilation as the Mormon faith moved from the margins of American society to the mainstream. Faced with the threat of anti-Mormon films becoming embedded within the new genre of cinema—what Allred calls "Mormonsploitation" films—Latter-day Saints were forced to use the new medium to present a narrative rooted in their past while still appealing to the world at large. This included playing with innovative tools like double exposure in order to incorporate angels and ghosts. Then, in the fifth chapter, the book turns to the advent of microphotography as the mechanism through which Saints could preserve their cherished, and sacred, records. These new methods were especially crucial in their newfound obsession: genealogy work. And finally, the book closes with a chapter on the rise of television, and particularly the notion of "standards": for consumer appetite, for cultural morality, and, importantly, for White patriotism. Television enabled the church to present a wholesome, if whitewashed, image designed to unify an increasingly global church. Portions of Allred's analysis are more convincing than others. In chapter 3, for instance, his engagement with photography of the image of the "feminine" is more grounded in lived religion than his innovative reading of Susa Young Gates's use of the typewriter, a mechanism Allred likens to spiritualist seances by acting as a medium for divine, if collaborative, transmission. Further, Seeing Things is always more persuasive when examining the physical connections of media, like how panoramic paintings depicted a particular message, than when moving to the next step: that metaphors [End Page 232] enabled by these new technologies shaped Latter-day Saint conceptions of the sacred. Sometimes metaphors are just metaphors. Historians will find much to love in Seeing Things, even if the frequent digressions into media theory can be, at times, alienating to those unfamiliar with the literature. Mason Allred has produced an impressive demonstration of how religion, culture, and media have intersected in dynamic and revealing ways across the evolution of one of America's most significant societal forces. Benjamin E. Park Sam Houston State University Copyright © 2022 The Texas State Historical Association