Marilyn Arnold
“Flannery O’Connor, a southern writer of no small reputation, was once asked how she saw her own work in relation to the writings of William Faulkner.1 She replied that no one wanted her horse and buggy stalled on the tracks the Dixie Limited was coming down. That describes my position today. If ever there was a Dixie Limited in the Latter-day Saint community, it is Hugh Nibley. And here I am, sitting on the tracks. But I don’t intend to stay here long—that I can promise.”
Part of our book chapter reprint series, this article originally appeared in Hugh Nibley Observed, edited by Jeffrey M. Bradshaw, Shirley S. Ricks, and Stephen T. Whitlock. For more information, go to https://interpreterfoundation.org/books/hugh-nibley-observed/.
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About the Interpreter Foundation Book Chapter Reprint Series
The purpose of this reprint series is to make individual chapters from books published by The Interpreter Foundation more accessible to readers. Although in some instances the formatting and pagination may have been changed, the content of this chapter, like others in this reprint series, is identical to what appeared in its original book publication. It has not been updated to incorporate research that has appeared subsequently nor to reflect the current practice of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to use the full name of the Church and to avoid terms such as “Mormon” and “LDS.”
I first encountered Hugh Nibley in about 1964 when he visited the Tacoma area with other BYU staff giving a sort of traveling Education Week. I didn’t know who he was but attended his class anyway. I quickly learned that to follow his teaching, it was a good idea to sit on the edge of my chair and turn my good ear toward him because by doing that I managed to catch some of what he had to say. I’ve been a fan ever since. Now I find I can slowly read Marilyn Arnold with the same interest as I had with Nibley. I am 89 years old and still able to sit on the edge of my chair and enjoy her WORDS.