{"id":819,"date":"2008-03-15T01:39:22","date_gmt":"2008-03-15T05:39:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/s265039441.onlinehome.us\/philpaine\/?p=819"},"modified":"2018-08-14T17:20:02","modified_gmt":"2018-08-14T21:20:02","slug":"15755-%c2%a0-flannery-o%e2%80%99connor-wise-blood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/?p=819","title":{"rendered":"15755. (Flannery O\u2019Connor) Wise Blood"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"08-03-15<\/a>This is a mas\u00adter\u00adpiece of Amer\u00adi\u00adcan lit\u00ader\u00ada\u00adture that will present dif\u00adfi\u00adcul\u00adties for a Cana\u00addian read\u00ader. This was Flan\u00adnery O\u2019Connor\u2019s first nov\u00adel, writ\u00adten in 1949. O\u2019Connor (1925\u20131964) was a native of cen\u00adtral Geor\u00adgia, and the old seg\u00adre\u00adgated Amer\u00adi\u00adcan South that she writes about more than con\u00adfirms the adage that \u201cthe past is a for\u00adeign coun\u00adtry.\u201d The world of Wise Blood<\/em> is clos\u00ader to anoth\u00ader plan\u00adet than a mere for\u00adeign coun\u00adtry. Wide\u00adly regard\u00aded as the heir to William Faulkn\u00ader, lit\u00ader\u00adary con\u00adven\u00adtion has placed O\u2019Connor in the annoy\u00adingly patron\u00adiz\u00ading aca\u00add\u00ade\u00admic com\u00adpart\u00adments of \u201cSouth\u00adern Goth\u00adic\u201d and \u201cRegion\u00adal Fic\u00adtion\u201d. (If you write in New York, of course, that isn\u2019t \u201cregion\u00adal\u201d). <\/span>Much is made of the \u201cgrotesque\u201d ele\u00adments in her fic\u00adtion. But she was not much pleased with that kind of peg-board\u00ading. \u201cAny\u00adthing that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by the north\u00adern read\u00ader, unless it is grotesque, in which case it is going to be called real\u00adis\u00adtic,\u201d she once remarked.<\/span><\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor was a Catholic, some\u00adthing which is pret\u00adty nor\u00admal here in Cana\u00adda, where it doesn\u2019t involve much in the way of meta\u00adphys\u00adi\u00adcal or psy\u00adcho\u00adlog\u00adi\u00adcal com\u00adplex\u00adity. But in Geor\u00adgia, it makes one an out\u00adsider, and philoso\u00adpher. O\u2019Connor was fas\u00adci\u00adnated by faith, apos\u00adtasy, sin and redemp\u00adtion, and in the reli\u00adgiously super\u00adcharged world of the South, and espe\u00adcially the region where the Moun\u00adtain cul\u00adture inter\u00adacts with the Deep South, there was plen\u00adty of mate\u00adr\u00adial to chew on. Wise Blood<\/em> tells the tale of Hazel Mote, trau\u00adma\u00adtized son of a preach\u00ader who hates reli\u00adgious faith, but finds him\u00adself involved in every kind of reli\u00adgious expe\u00adri\u00adence. He is a vir\u00adtual cat\u00ada\u00adlog of here\u00adsies and bizarre reli\u00adgious prac\u00adtices, while he tries to avoid belief. He is sur\u00adrounded by an assort\u00adment of odd char\u00adac\u00adters, each one dri\u00adven by some equal\u00adly pecu\u00adliar belief. One char\u00adac\u00adter ends up wor\u00adship\u00ading a mum\u00admy in a muse\u00adum. It all does seem grotesque, a kind of sur\u00adre\u00adal\u00adis\u00adtic fan\u00adtasy. But the irony is that noth\u00ading hap\u00adpens in the book, and no char\u00adac\u00adter is rep\u00adre\u00adsented, that has not exist\u00aded in real life.<\/span><\/p>\n

That is the real pow\u00ader of the book. Every\u00adthing in it is relent\u00adlessly faith\u00adful to real\u00adity. It\u2019s writ\u00adten with incred\u00adi\u00adble con\u00adtrol, pre\u00adci\u00adsion and econ\u00adomy (it is real\u00adly a novel\u00adla, rather than a nov\u00adel). Not a word is wast\u00aded, not a word is wrong, not a word is out of place. Dialect and idi\u00adolect are ren\u00addered with absolute per\u00adfec\u00adtion. Some\u00adtimes a sin\u00adgle, short sen\u00adtence will cre\u00adate a crys\u00adtal clear visu\u00adal image in the reader\u2019s head. The prose sings,<\/span><\/p>\n

I could not come from a more dif\u00adfer\u00adent cul\u00adtural back\u00adground, and my inter\u00adests and pre\u00adoc\u00adcu\u00adpa\u00adtions could not be more dif\u00adfer\u00adent than O\u2019Connor\u2019s, but this book still held me in com\u00adplete absorp\u00adtion. What must it do for some\u00adone for whom it\u2019s clos\u00ader to the bone? I would love to sit down and talk over this book with my old friend William Brei\u00add\u00ading, who must sure\u00adly have read it. William? Send me your thoughts on this one.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a mas\u00adter\u00adpiece of Amer\u00adi\u00adcan lit\u00ader\u00ada\u00adture that will present dif\u00adfi\u00adcul\u00adties for a Cana\u00addian read\u00ader. This was Flan\u00adnery O\u2019Connor\u2019s first nov\u00adel, writ\u00adten in 1949. O\u2019Connor (1925\u20131964) was a native of cen\u00adtral Geor\u00adgia, and the old seg\u00adre\u00adgated Amer\u00adi\u00adcan South that she \u2026<\/p>\n

Read more \u00bb<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"wp_typography_post_enhancements_disabled":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[946,16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-819","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-b-reading","category-bs-reading-2008"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=819"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8642,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/819\/revisions\/8642"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=819"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=819"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.philpaine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=819"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}