Posted on 03/25/2025 7:27:10 AM PDT by Borges
She died before she was 40, leaving behind a body of blazingly original short fiction set in America’s segregated south. But her reputation has been tarnished by accusations of racism.
Amonth before she died aged 39, on 3 August 1964, of complications from the autoimmune disease lupus, the American writer Flannery O’Connor wrote from her home in Milledgeville, Georgia to a regular correspondent, the academic and nun Sister Mariella Gable: “The wolf, I’m afraid, is inside tearing up the place.”
The “wolf” that O’Connor refers to is her illness, the name of which derives from the Latin. The disease can be mild, but in its worst form it is systemic, causing not only inflammation, chronic fatigue, muscle weakness and skin rashes, but also permanent tissue damage. In her last years, O’Connor could only move around by means of crutches, tending to her beloved pet peacocks. “I can write for one hour a day, and my, my, do I like my one hour. I eat it up like it was filet mignon.”
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
I’ve not heard of her before this article.
I’ll be reading for about this writer.
The story of her living with severe and chronic health problems may be interesting. Each life has it’s own inadvertent ‘guard rails’ and ‘speed bumps’ to navigate.
She was a nasty old atheist.
She was a devout Catholic.
Oops, sorry, I was thinking of someone else.
You must have her confused with somebody else. Flannery O’Connor was known as a devout Catholic.
Yes, sorry. Too many atheists to keep track of these days>
Not to belittle her work or originality by stereotyping her, O’Connor was part of the Southern Gothic School, sometimes referred to as “The day the hogs ate Willie”. The picaresque characters in Mark Twain’s writing were certainly an inspiration for the Southern Gothics, but they dragged them into much a darker place in order to explore the contradictions of the post-bellum Southern culture.
I’ve not read her work, but I understand it is very highly regarded in many Christian circles, always with some comment about it being unusual in some fashion.
Lol! “The Day the Hogs ate Willie”.
That’s the kind of story I want to hear read out loud, where the reader could pace the floor while speaking, maybe bang his fist down on a wooden desk for emphasis in certain parts of the conclusion.
“A Good Man is Hard to Find,” “Good Country People,” and “The Lame Shall Enter First” are great short stories, especially the first. Flannery was a great shock short story writer.
Boy do you have that wrong.
No. She was a Teilhardian.
Have you read “The Habit of Being”? It kind of summarizes her philosophy, which changes with the familiarization of her religious education. Anyone who searches for the truth will find very troubling teachings along the way. His or her ability to discard the apparent errors and glean the kernels of truth that are buried in every work. Her short stories of “Everything that Rises Must Converge” is an excellent summary of her work, and is certainly true. If a philosophy stands the test of time, it eventually will rise to a central conclusion.
Her biggest driver was the way she learned to deal with her terminal illnesses. Many of us on this forum have terminal illnesses that we have dealt with. Many former FR’s have left us for the World to Come. How you deal with impending death is extremely important. Some succomb to it in a most debilitating way. Some, Like O’Connor, learn to live with their impending demise, and even prosper spiritually because of it. It reminds one of the Stanley Kubrick classic movie “Dr. Strangelove: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb”. So, when trying to sort out one’s feelings on their mortality and pending death, you should embrace, learn from it, and learn to control your fears. This is what Madam O’Connor preached in her works. So we should face death as a positive experience and learn from it. You cannot defeat an enemy before learning what it is - passing from this world to the next, and part of life itself.
This sounds like an inspiring philosophy, where one learns to live (mostly) in the undeniable present, vs being trapped, wrapped in the ambers of nostalgia, or constantly grasping for a Neverland that is unlikely to ever exist.
You should read her work if you want to. It's not a group discussion.
Dumb question.
“A Good Man is Hard to Find,” is my favorite of hers.
Bkmrk
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