First, if you have any interest whatsoever in speculative fiction, you should read James Tiptree, Jr.: The Double Life of Alice B. Sheldon. An excellent, informative, entertaining and long overdue biography. Highly recommended.
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Second, if Flannery O'Connor were alive today, I'd camp out on her front porch, sidestepping the peacocks, telling her how wonderful she is each time she opened the door. I've been chipping away at several of her stories from The Complete Stories. O'Connor read lots of Joyce, Kafka and Faulkner and that conglomeration of influences shows up in many of her stories. Many of the stories are humorous, disturbing, horrific, strange, violent, absurd and nihilistic - often all in the same story. She had the uncanny ability to capture small-town Southerners and yet bring out universal concepts, moral judgments and the possibility of redemption from them, and the supernatural, all without stooping to preachiness.
O'Connor was a Roman Catholic, but denominations are never clear from her stories, at least not to me. What amazes me is that so few Christians have read (or have even heard of) O'Connor. These are amazing stories. Start with her most famous, "A Good Man is Hard to Find," which is itself very easy to find: it's been anthologized just about everywhere.
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On the writing front, 600 words tonight on an almost-finished short story.
Now Playing = The Complete Columbia Stanley Brothers
5 comments:
From my experience -- as someone who attended Christian schools for more than a decade -- if a book, movie, or piece of art is embraced by the "secular left," then it's scorned by the church. Not to bring politics into the matter, but it's kind of impossible not to.
O'Connor, without doubt, is one of the canonical writers of the 20th century and her work is frequently taught in today's colleges. From the perspective of the Christian church, today's colleges = liberal sensibilities. Hence: There's not much chance she'll ever be wholeheartedly embraced by the wider western Christian church.
(Disclamer: When I say "Christian church," I'm referring to the fervently right-wing churches that dominate today's political and cultural landscape. Since I'm currently without a church, I can only speak about what I know: the unrelentingly, fire-and-brimstone "love" of the Evangelical church I attended for 17 years of my life. I am aware that they're a lot of positive, progressive Christian churches out there -- they may be much more willing to embrace O'Connor's work.)
(Err...sorry, Andy, to dominate your blog with this.)
No problem, Kelly! And I quite agree. Many of the churches I've seen would throw O'Connor out the door at the first instance of sex or violence. (Nevermind that the Bible is filled with both.) I'm very fortunate to now be part of a church that is open to viewpoints (including those in the arts) that may not be in line with their own.
Sadly, many Christians read/listen to/watch nothing but Christian books/music/movies, most of which (I have found anyway) just aren't very good. What many don't seem to understand is that people have been given tremendous gifts in these areas. Why not celebrate those gifts?
Andy: I'm happy that you've found a church that is so accepting of the arts and that you're comfortable with. I always find it ironic when any "spiritually minded" institution, be it the Christian church or otherwise, closes its mind to works of art that increase spirituality. One of the blocades to my own dire church attendance is the lack of spirituality I feel during a Sunday service (Cindy has the same problem). Is it blasphemous to feel closer to God when reading a beautiful story by Flannery O'Connor, one that seems so in tune with the human condition, than when attending a worship service?
(I'm interested in talking to you more, via email, about the church you're attending.)
Is it blasphemous to feel closer to God when reading a beautiful story by Flannery O'Connor, one that seems so in tune with the human condition, than when attending a worship service?
No way. One of the Christian church's greatest failings since its very beginning has been an attempt to monopolize spirituality in its observances, rites and words. I think Buddha has it right: everything, even the mundane, can be a conduit to your deity of choice. Look at The Last Supper: it starts as a meal, a real one, not a metaphorical one. Then Jesus talks a bit. No choirs or lectionary, just wine, bread and a hymn. (And no offering, either!)
...the Christian church's greatest failings since its very beginning has been an attempt to monopolize spirituality in its observances, rites and words.
John: I agree. And, because of this, they end up creating contrived and phony spiritual experiences that, in effect, chase people out of the pews.
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