obscure fandom discourse no one wants #27
While watching “Murder Among the Mormons” I heard about the ”Salamander” letter for the first time. It was created, sold and it’s contents released in 1984.
I had to go check a few dates and it turns out that Orson Scott Card published “Unaccompanied Sonata and Other Stories” in 1981. It contains “The Porcelain Salamander”. A fairy-tale style story about a magical salamander that lifts a curse off a princess.
Card is a devout Mormon. (part of why he went off the homophobic cliff and I no longer buy his writing) He’d also been published in both Mormon things AND was making a name for himself in Science fiction circles with a number of short stories in big-name magazines like Analog, during this time period.
It seems very likely to me that Mark Hofmann, a Mormon-passing, closet atheist and book dealer would have had a good chance of reading that short story. Also, he is a person who is also very likely to have some sort of empathy disorder, so I can see how it would have spoken to him personally.
The conclusion of all this is that I believe the whole bit of him replacing the angel with a white salamander in the forged letter was both a tribute to Card’s story and a huge flare, indicating that it was a fake. I am also shocked that I can find absolutely ZERO indication that anyone has ever put this together! (and I am also deeply curious how Card reacted to the letter during the period where it was believed to be genuine, considering that a good chunk of the church was apparently freaking out about it.)
I am not a Mormon and this is all speculation.
