Oxford Publications and Other Books ( #AtoZChallenge )

 

Oxford Publications

     In previous posts I have offered several other Oxford Publications from my shelves.  They publish some very beautiful reference works that fill up a bookshelf very nicely.  I particularly like this Illustrated Oxford Dictionary.  It's a monster of a book that is quite lovely.  My edition is a hardback edition from 1998.  I believe I got this as part of an special introductory promo offer to a major book club.  I've gotten a lot of books as a result of those introductory promos.

Organizing

       If there is one thing I should probably read about it's organizing.  I've got plenty of books on the topic but they are unorganized scattered willy-nilly throughout the house. I particularly like the look of Organizing Plain & Simple by Donna Smallin.  I wonder what's inside?  I should look so maybe I can start getting more organized.  I need the advice.

Organized Crime: An Inside Guide to the World's Most Successful Industry by Paul Lunde

     

        Well, I may not be organized, but crime is.  I couldn't tell you where I got this book or why I got it, but I got it.  Leafing through it the content seems pretty interesting.  Probably a good reference if I were writing something about organized crime.

Joel & Victoria Osteen

     Several years ago my wife and I started watching Joel Osteen on television  He was easy to listen to though not always theologically precise.  I just liked his speaking style.  His books are also easy fare. I didn't read Victoria's book (though my wife did) but I'm sure it's more of the same.  Their books can be quite encouraging.  Become a Better You is one of the books on our shelves.

O-zone by Paul Theroux

      Haven't read this yet, but what a great book for 'O'.  This is a futuristic science fiction novel by the same author who gave us Mosquito Coast.  I have that movie on DVD and it's pretty good.  This book came out in 1985.  Not sure how or when I acquired it.  Now that I realize what the book is about I think I should move it up higher on my future read list.

       

       

Out of Control by Leslie Cockburn

       Only vaguely do I remember buying this book in Missoula MT sometime in 1987.  There's a bookmark from the bookstore inside the covers.  This political piece of journalism was being talked about on television a lot at the time and that's where I heard about the book.  Since I was living on the road at the I didn't buy too many books, but apparently I wanted this one enough to get the new hardcover release.  I might read this again, but now it would be more history than current affairs.  There's enough crazy stuff going on in our times that maybe I don't need to read the political intrigue of 40 years ago.

Omnivore by Piers Anthony

         In 1968 I bought this book from the Doubleday Science Fiction & Fantasy Book Club.   I'm sure that I read it at the time I got it, but that was over 50 years ago. Perhaps I'll read it again someday, but it's not high on my to-read list.  The book is still in decent condition considering all the moves it's made through the years.

On the Road by Jack Kerouac 

       Though I've been very aware of this book for most of my life, I did not read it until relatively recently--sometime in the past 10 years.  Finally, I purchased a copy of the book and set in reading it. Since it's a book mostly about road life it was definitely in my realm of interests.  This is the kind of book I might consider writing one day.  The book was written in my lifetime and takes place during the years right before I was born.  It's a bit of contemporary pop history which is something I really enjoy reading about.   Not the best book I've ever read, but well worth the read.

Outer Dark by Cormac McCarthy

        Did I say that Cormac McCarthy is one of my favorite authors?  I know I already mentioned him in my 'M' post, but this book is well worth getting a mention.  Published in 1968, this was his second novel.  It's dark, creepy, and a bit disturbing--all the best of a McCarthy novel.  If you like Faulknerish fiction then you might like this one.  The tale is a story of incest, mystery, and a journey of finding the secrets of a hidden truth.

Collected Works by Flannery O'Connor

        Cormac McCarthy might be one of my favorite authors, but Flannery O'Connor is even higher on that list.  My collection has several books by her with some duplication in stories.  I love her writing as well as her demented sense of humor and wacky story imagination.  I was first turned on to O'Connor by my creative writing professor Dr. Robert Drake at the University of Tennessee in Knoxville.  He was passionate about her work and filled me with that passion.  Her body of work is relatively small, but it is powerful.  If you have not read anything by Flannery O'Connor and you consider yourself a writer then you need to get something by her and delve into it.  Her short stories are her best work.   Be careful as you might be offended by her seeming racial insensitivity, but it reflects the times about which she writes and the types of characters she writes about.  I'd suggest starting off with a story like "A Good Man Is Hard to Find" or "Revelation" which are two of her more well-known stories.  They're all good though. If you treat yourself to reading something by O'Connor, I hope you'll come back to my blog to tell me what you think.

Owen Fiddler by Marvin D Wilson

        Early in my blogging days I came across Marvin D Wilson's Old Silly Blog.  I'm not sure what happened to him, but maybe one of my readers can tell me.  The blog links that I have for him don't seem to work now.  I have two books by him on my shelves including the one shown.  You can read my Amazon review of this book here.   

     Anything in this list that catches your interest?   How organized do you tend to be?  Are you a fan of the literature of the American South?  

#IWSG: Mad About Movies

         Time for another meeting of the Insecure Writer's Support Group conducted by founder Alex J. Cavanaugh.   This is the time when writers everywhere can bitch and moan about life or do happy dances depending on what kind of spirits they're in.   And if your problem is being in the spirits too much then you're looking for the 12 Step group down the hall--please leave immediately so you don't drag us down into the depths of despair any more than we are now.



My Insecurity for Today

        For the past few posts I've been researching the topic of preferences and why we like what we like.  Last Friday I suggested that Flannery O'Connor's "Revelation" is the best short story ever written.   After that I posted my Battle of the Bands post with a discussion about what makes music good.  If you have not visited that post and voted I hope you will--I'd love to get your feedback.

         Both those posts stirred some interesting discussion and maybe bordered on ticking a few readers off.  After all I gave my warnings that I might be saying some outrageous things.   This post will be no exception.

         Today I'm going to go even further.  I'm a little concerned that I might irritate some readers in such a way that they might want to avoid me in the future.  Trust me--I'm doing this in the name of science or something like that.  Please don't get too mad at me.   So here I go...

Crappy Movies

         One of the worst movies of recent years is 2012's The Avengers.  The movie concept held promise and most people seemed to love it.   Why, why, why?   That was one of the dumbest movies I've seen.  I mean really now--a wormhole opens up to let some angry bunch of aliens through to attack Earth.  I like wormholes almost as much as Stephen Tremp, but this was a bit much.

         Then there was that stupid cast of superheroes.  Thor is a freaking idiot so I'm not even going to go there let alone go to Asgard.  I do kind of like Captain America and Iron Man, but why do these movies have to go so over the top with things.  The Hulk was one of my favorites when I was young, but now he's bigger, badder, stronger, and more annoying than ever.

         Part of the problem is the filmmakers are drunk on CGI.   I'm starting to get so sick of computer generated imagery.  I used to think it was really cool--and it is--but then the effects departments started going overboard with it.   Now one movie has to top everything that came before with bigger more elaborate computerized effects.  Pretty soon we won't need actors, which actually could be a good thing, but that's the subject of a future post in some far-off galaxy.

          Think about it.  How stupid was it to see the Hulk flying through the air almost like he was Superman?  Those scenes were so phony that they were laughable.  I know this is comic book stuff but I don't think it was intended to be outright comedy.   The Avengers was less of a movie than it was an overly long computer simulated amusement park ride.   Fifteen minutes of that crap would have been enough for me.

         I've lost interest in superhero movies and haven't seen any of the latest ones.  Let's face it--they've all gotten very similar.   Mega budgets with storylines to match--if you can call them storylines.  I've been going back to the simpler films and enjoying them much more.

Better Movies

         Give me more sedate thoughtful movies where actors act and screenwriters write stories with decent dialogue and thought-provoking plots.   I don't need no stinkin' CGI.  Well maybe small doses sometimes, but not the whole movie.  Let my car chases be done with real cars on real streets and have stuntmen doing more realistic stunts than flying through the air like Superman.

          Better movies that I enjoyed more than any of the recent CGI extravaganzas?   Nebraska was nice.  It was about an old man going somewhere and it was so quiet that you could have slept to it.  But the story kept me awake and it had kind of a nice message that was more down to earth than false gods on imaginary Asgard.

           A series that has its flaws but stimulated my thinking was Atlas Shrugged Parts 1 and 2.  Part 3 is supposed be in the theaters in September.  I'm not thrilled by breaking the film up like that, but I like the idea of mixing entertainment with a thoughtful message.   The film had CGI, but the effects did not drive the film, the story did.

          There are plenty of other decent films but I'll let you add your own choices in the comments.

Best Films

           I don't think any films of the past several years can be ranked among the best ever made.   So what are the best films ever?  There are so many, but I'll name a few.  I can't imagine that anyone would disagree with me, but you can try.

1.   Fellini's Roma
2.   Fellini's 8 1/2
3.  Fellini's Ginger and Fred
4   Just about any movie by Federico Fellini
5.  Citizen Kane
6.  Singin' in the Rain
7.  Wizard of Oz
8.   Kiss Me Deadly
9.    Apocalypse Now
10.  The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

         All better than The Avengers.

         I doubt whether I'll have any disagreement on this so I'll ask why you think my choices are among the best films ever made?   If in the unlikely case that you disagree with me then what do you think are some of the best films ever made?   If you happened to actually have liked The Avengers please tell us why.  

          

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• Flannery O'Connor's Everything That Rises Must Converge
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The Greatest Short Story Ever Written?

Everything That Rises Must Converge (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

           

            My next few posts are partially intended for information gathering for an upcoming series on the topic of why we have certain preferences.   Questions will be asked with which I hope you will assist me by providing your answers.    I will also be making some statements that to me are true to some extent, but some of you may find so outlandish and provocative that my opinions may annoy or even anger you.  On the other hand some of you might agree with my claims.   Please keep this caveat in mind and be willing to offer your own opinions.

"All my stories are about the action of grace on a character who is not very willing to support it, but most people think of these stories as hard, hopeless and brutal."—Flannery O'Connor

The Set-up

          Recently I accompanied my wife to the doctor and for once I brought along a book to read since I had a feeling we'd be there for a while.  Flannery O'Connor's short story Revelation had been on my mind in recent days prior to going with my wife so I figured that would be the ideal opportunity to go back and reread this story by one of my favorite authors.

          If you've been reading Tossing It Out for any length of time you might recall my mentioning Flannery O'Connor since she is one of my favorite writers.  In fact you can find two complete posts here and here.
Revelation is available at a number of places on the internet if you'd like to read it.   One particularly easy to read version can be found here.

          After rereading the story Revelation, I am convinced that this is the best short story ever written based on the short stories I have read.   A general consensus of readers and critics might suggest that O'Connor's story A Good Man Is Hard to Find is her greatest story.    That story is certainly among the greatest ever written, but I maintain the Revelation edges out Good Man ever so slightly.

The Story

          The short story Revelation comes from Flannery O'Connor's collection Everything That Rises Must Converge.   O'Connor was a Catholic author from Georgia who wrote in the often dark tradition of Southern Literature.   Her stories typically have to do with characters who are facing a spiritual crisis but are often not aware of the nature of that crisis.  Flannery O'Connor died at age 39 leaving behind a relatively small, but substantially powerful and influential body of work.

         There are basically two scenes to Revelation.   The first takes place in a doctor's office waiting room and the second is after the main character goes home to reflect on the events that transpired in the waiting room and the revelation that comes to her as she thinks on those events.  The main character of this story is introduced in the story's opening line:

The Doctor’s waiting room, which was very small, was almost full when the Turpins entered and Mrs. Turpin, who was very large, made it look even smaller by her presence.

       To me this is one of the best opening lines ever written for a short story.   The scene is immediately set as we meet this woman who is who is not merely physically imposing, but who has a "presence" that will become more apparent as the story goes on.

        In the first few pages we become intimate with a cast of characters who are vastly different from each other yet mundane examples of the typical types of people one might meet in the town where the doctor's office is located.   A combination of simple but keen observations of the characters' appearances and mannerisms along with realistic clever dialogue puts the reader right there in the waiting room.

        An example is the following exchange which comes after Mrs.Turpin and another lady discuss their admiration of a clock in the waiting room:

The woman with the snuff-stained lips turned around in her chair and looked up at the clock. Then she turned back and appeared to look a little to the side of Mrs. Turpin. There was a cast in one of her eyes.

"You want to know where you can get you one of them there clocks?" she asked in a loud voice.

"No , I already have a nice clock," Mrs. Turpin said. Once somebody like her got a leg in the conversation, she would be all over it.

"You can get you one with green stamps," the woman said. "That's most likely where he got his'n. Save you up enough, you can get you most anythang. I got me some joo’ry.”

Ought to have got you a wash rag and some soap, Mrs. Turpin thought.

        This passage had me laughing out loud in the doctor's waiting room I was in while I read the story.  It was one of many passages that had me laughing.   It's a funny story in places, but it's also sad and even disturbing.   The characters show racism, bigotry, and self-centeredness and yet they are just regular people who mostly mean well and believe that they are right in thinking the way they do.   The story illustrates the conflicts and misunderstandings between classes and cultures.  Mrs. Turpin's "revelation" at the end of the story might be life-changing for her or only a momentary enlightenment.  For me her vision and realization was moving and memorable.  

        I think that a short story need not have much in the way of action--in fact too much action in a short story is cluttered and confusing.   The short story should focus on one very special idea and, through the characters and the plotline, convey this idea to the reader.   A good short story should have a "moral" (though not necessarily stated as in a fable), teach a lesson, or clarify some specific idea.   By necessity due to its length, the story should be limited in scope from the standpoint of time depicted, geographical range, and number of characters who are specifically introduced.

         The best short stories deal with common events illuminated by an uncommon light then processed back into the reader's mind leaving a lasting impression due to emotion or a thought that lingers long after the story has been read.   A short story of value must engage and entertain for the duration of the reading while at the same time giving the reader something to take away to ponder in interim after reading and have the indelible stamp of the story lodged firmly in the memory.

          Revelation effectively fills all of these criteria.   The writing is basic, simple, and accessible to even readers of relatively low reading skills, and yet the images and ideas are presented with an elementary elegance that spurs imagination.   There is no stumbling over complicated wording or pedantic phrasing.  This is modern writing for readers who have little patience for reading with a dictionary by their sides or stalling to grasp what the author is saying.  O'Connor says what she is going to say with forthrightness.  She delivers complexity with simplicity.  This is truly breathtaking writing.

         I cannot think of any other stories other than others by O'Connor that approach the greatness of Revelation.   Certainly I have a very limited reading experience when put up against all of the stories ever written, but I'll go out on a limb to say that Revelation is the greatest short story ever written.  It's certainly one of my favorites.

My Questions For You

1)    If you have read this story, do you think it is the best short story ever written?
2)    What do think is the best short story ever written?   Why?
3)    What is your favorite short story?   Why?
4)    For you what is it that makes a short story good?   What makes for a great story?

If you happen to read Revelation for the first time as a result of my essay, please let me know your reactions to it.

Related articles

• The Making Of Flannery O'Connor
• A Divine Comedy: Satire and Salvation in Flannery O'Connor's "A Good Man Is Hard to Find"
• Before Flannery O'Connor Wrote, She Talked to God
• Flannery O'Connor and the Habit of Art

#IWSG: Liking Out of the Mainstream

          Wouldn't you know that my first Tossing Out Post of 2013 would be about insecurity!   Will thirteen be an unlucky year?  It's not something I'm counting on so let's hope not.  But since it's first Wednesday of the month, insecurity is the topic du jour.

Me--the Different Drummer Marcher

           A somewhat tepid response to my recent review of Veronika Carnaby's Bohemia was still another reminder that my tastes in literature are a bit out of the mainstream.  My stats for that post indicate that several hundred hits were recorded, but less than twenty visitors took the time to comment and the response from over half of those who commented was something to the effect of "this is not a genre that interests me".

          The scary part of this is that not only Carnaby's book is in a genre that I prefer to read, but this genre is closer to what I tend to write.  Perhaps her style is not necessarily the style I write, but the tenor of my style is similar.  This is probably why I feel such an affinity for Carnaby's book.

          Likewise for Flannery O'Connor--I sometimes tend to approach what she tried to do, not by imitating her style, but taking a similar thematic bent.  Who else is reading O'Connor just for personal entertainment or whatever you might call it?   When I mention Flannery O'Connor most people haven't even heard of her let alone read her work.   She's mostly for the scrutiny of college literature classes.

Don't Get Me Wrong

          I don't want anyone to come to the conclusion that I'm trying to rank myself with the likes of O'Connor.   And I'm expressing my admiration for Carnaby's new novel, not saying I want to write something like it.  I want to tell my stories in my own voice.  If I publish something that I like because of what I'm saying in the story and the way that I'm saying it, will I find the readers?

           Insecurity, yes, the demon of self-doubt is apparently diverting my attention.  I've got all of these projects started in one way or another, but I keep finding excuses not to finish any of them.  Is it due to my genre of choice?   If I am trying to write with more of a literary leaning, but not adept enough to pull it off, will I have lost audiences on all sides?

           "Just do it already", some of you are saying.   I know, I know.  Perhaps I need to reassess my genre interest.  But no, I'm not sure that's a good idea.   I know what I like, what I want to read, what I want to write.   I just don't want to waste my time.

             Perhaps I should go with the philosophy that anything finished with an honest effort and a belief in what one has done is never a waste of time.

            Yeah, I like that.  But it still doesn't totally eliminate my insecurity.

             In my next post I'll be talking about reading outside of ones genre or comfort zone.  Then on the post after that I'm going to examine the concept of taste or why we like what we like.  In this post I'll also be giving my thoughts on the 2012 film Marvel's The Avengers (yes, I finally saw it on DVD).

              Do you write in a genre that you feel is not overly popular?   Would you compromise your personal  preferences to write in a style or with a theme that would be more popular to more people?   When you've written something that you've felt was exceptional but was met with a lackluster response what have you done about it?  

 First Wednesday of the month means another edition of Alex J Cavanaugh's Insecure Writers Support Group.   You can discover more participants here.

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Who Would You Like To Write Like?

Image via Wikipedia

         By now many of you have run a writing sample through the website I Write Like.   My first sample that I put through of my writing was declared to be like the writing of Chuck Palahniuk.  I was impressed even though at the time I had no idea who he was and had to look him up.  The next sample I ran through said that I write like Dan Brown.   Cool!  Looked like I had the potential of writing a best selling novel.

          Then I started experimenting.  I put in a passage from Huckleberry Finn.  The writing program quickly spat out Mark Twain.  Too easy I thought, so I submitted a passage from a modern translation of the Book of Jonah out of the Bible.  The response was Daniel Defoe.  Hmmm--Well there is some similarity between the stories of Robinson Crusoe and Jonah--kind of, in a way.

           Curious, I tried a passage from the Book of Ezekiel.   The comparison was to Kurt Vonnegut.  Now, I suppose some of Vonnegut's fans think of him as a writing god, but this comparison was going a bit far.  Since I was on a roll I tried one more, this time another sample from the Bible came back as sounding like Anne Rice.  Okay, that did it.  The program was not always accurate.
     
             The I Write Like program was developed by Russian software developer Dmitry Chestnykh.  He fed about 50 famous writers into a data base and created a program that would analyze writing and compare the sample to one of those writers.  It's a fun little diversion that is more like a technological parlor trick than any reliable system of writing analysis.  Cool?  Yes.  Reliable?  It has its limits.   A lot of us seem to write like the same writers according to this website.


             Personally, I would like to have an amazingly distinctive style that is readily identifiable as me.  But I know I don't.  I have a voice, but it is a casual modern voice that is not unlike a lot of writers that I read.  That's okay with me because I prefer to write in the style that I enjoy reading.  


            If I were asked, "Who would you like to write like?", then I would probably mention someone like Flannery O'Connor, William Faulkner, or even Stephen King.   They all have writing qualities that I find admirable.   But also they are all different.   Maybe a bit of each combined into a mishmash of me might be nice.


           Who would you like to write like?   Have you submitted any of your writing samples to I Write Like?  What did that program say about you?


           I think you will enjoy the Tossing It Out guest spot on Wednesday when Nicole from The Madlab Post makes a return visit with a blogging inspiration comparison to writers in the movies.  How about I tease you with "Johnny Depp" for starters?  Be sure to stop in this Wednesday to find out more.
            
            
       

Related articles

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Sparkfest! Part 3

            Today I offer my final topic for Sparkfest!.  Follow the link to find entries from other participants.

Is there a book or author that changed your world view?

            I was enthralled by science fiction in my earlier reading days.  I still recall in third grade having read a Robert Heinlein novel, the name which eludes me now, which sparked my imagination about the possibilities of literature.  The sci fi adventures of Tom Swift were a steady diet of reading that I consumed, along with the mysteries of the Hardy Boys.  

            Later, when I was in junior high school and had money of my own to spend, I joined the Doubleday Dollar Book Club and began reading a wider range of literature.  Taking advantage of the special introductory offers, I soon had memberships in the Science Fiction and the Mystery Book Clubs as well.  I was now buying books on a monthly basis and my library was expanding at a rapid pace.  

            Then, there were the books and other literature that we had to read for school.  The standard English curriculum usually provides a decent overview of literature that is considered great or essential reading for a college bound student.  I read, or at least gained an awareness of many of these works of literature.  Compared to other students where I attended school I think I was probably pretty well-read.

          After I started taking literature classes in college, my world view changed dramatically as far as literature.  My introduction to Southern Literature opened my eyes to a different way of writing and thinking than what I had previously been reading.   Now I listed my favorite authors as being Mark Twain, William Faulkner, and Cormac McCarthy among others.   I could relate to many of the things about which they wrote.

         When I was attending the University of Tennessee at Knoxville in the early 1970s, my creative writing professor Robert Drake introduced me to the author who would have the biggest affect on my world view and the way I wrote.  The author was Flannery O'Connor.  She had an accessible style that made her works easy to read, but her themes and stories were unique, almost like a Southern Gothic version of the Twilight Zone writing that had influenced me so much when I was younger.  O'Connor had written the types of things that were similar to what I had begun to write at that time.  I began to see that there was a place for literature that dealt with Christian issues without being overtly Christian literature.

          I like reading a good message, but I don't want it to be in my face.  A good story with a Christian theme can be told without the author preaching it.  O'Connor's stories are usually about people who are not especially good and sometimes pure rotten, but she raises questions that make the reader think.  I can read her stories repeatedly and always see a profundity in her message--a message which is not always immediately evident.  O'Connor entertained me with her stories, but provided me with mental nourishment which gave my mind something to chew on after the story had passed.

         Flannery O'Connor's writing made me realize that substantive religious writing didn't have to be a glowing feel-good story from Sunday school class.   Nor did writing stories with religious themes require scaring the reader with hell-fire preaching.  Sometimes a story can merely cause a reader to contemplate ideas that have universal application and to realize that many of us may have similar questions that may not always have the easiest answers.  Fiction should entertain, but it should also enrich us in some way.   Flannery O'Connor showed me that good fiction should have hidden layers and subtleties that make the stories stick with us long after we've read them.

         Are you a fan of Southern Literature?   Do you think fiction should contain a message that stimulates thinking?   Do you prefer a story that is obvious or one with underlying messages?    What was your journey as a reader like?

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Everything That Rises Must Converge

           On Monday (6/13/11) I discussed the American author of Southern Literature Flannery O'Connor.  I was not surprised, but a bit disappointed in the number of commenters who had not read anything by her.   It is my hope that more of you will make a genuine effort to seek out her work and at least read a story or two.

           Writers of fiction are encouraged to not just write, but to also read, read, read.  They should not just read in their own genre or only current fiction, but they should also get at least an overview of the literary classics that have influenced today's literature and other arts.  We can learn much through what other authors have done with the craft of writing.

           Reading Flannery O'Connor is like a master class on how to write well. Her mastery of dialogue, description, and developing theme will leave you nodding in appreciation if not awestruck with the wonder of her genius.  Her stories are uniquely absurd, surreal, and at times may make you shudder with horror.

          The era of which O'Connor writes is one of change when the ways of the Old South were falling to the Civil Rights Movement and modernist thinking.  Many of her influences come from the Bible and a number of philosophers.  The stories she has written are like none you may have ever read before and may haunt you and make you think long after you have read them.  

           As I read the Brad Gooch biography Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor I wanted to reread her stories since I had not read them for nearly thirty years.  I was distressed when I could not find my copy of   Flannery O'Connor: Collected Works.   Then, when my neighborhood Borders store was closing I found the short story collection Everything That Rises Must Converge on sale for a very inexpensive clearance price.  I grabbed it and my follow up read to the biography was in place.

           Flannery O'Connor's Everything That Rises Must Converge is her second and final collection of short stories which was published in 1965, a year after her death.  The book is a collection of nine stories, each one meticulously crafted into a masterful work of literature. The stories are bizarre and frightfully freaky in some cases.  Some are like Stephen King on literary steroids while others approach religious mysticism in a down South setting.

            The stories deal with issues of race and racism, class distinctions, and generational conflict.  A few of the stories fall into the realm of nightmarish Southern Gothic literature with endings that may make the reader cringe in horror. Other stories raise questions of social consciousness or religious doctrine.  However there is a beauty in the writing that makes a reader want to savor the words and envision the images portrayed.  The characters in the stories have been described as grotesque, and yet they are like people you may know or see in Walmart.  This is an amazing cast of characters that you will not soon forget.  These are stories that will haunt you.

           The story that is my favorite is called "Revelation".   Most of the narrative takes place in the waiting room of a crowded doctor's office.  The banter that ensues here is comically realistic in it's context, yet sad in the true content of what is being said as the group of people discuss the class rankings in society.  The final revelation of the main character left me with chills and wide eyes as a most amazing vision is described.  The vision has not yet left my memory and will be with me for a long time.  You have to read it to believe it.

         In the interest of keeping this commentary short I won't give any examples in the form of quotes, but many of O'Connor's stories can be found on-line (see links below).  If you are wary of purchasing your own copy of her books, you may wish to sample them first.  Then, if you like what you see, I encourage you to get your own personal copies of her books for your library.  If you are affected like I have been, you will want to read these stories many times.  There is much to be learned from her writing style and much to contemplate in the stories themselves.

           If you do read any of O'Connor's stories, please let me know what you thought--I'd love to hear some opinions.   If you have already read her work, what is your favorite story?


Here are some links to a few stories that can be found on-line:

A Good Man Is Hard To Find (text)

A Good Man Is Hard To Find  (audio as read by the author)

Revelation




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Flannery O'Connor: The Writer's Writer

                            Flannery O'Connor: 
 One of America's Greatest Fiction Writers
         
             This week I'm paying tribute to Flannery O'Connor.   It's not her birthday or any special anniversary, but recently I finished a biography of this author.  The book was part of my Holiday reading list during my Christmas vacation this past December.  I started reading this book last September (2010) and finally finished it in May.  It was not a book I read straight through, but one that I kept going back to between other books I've been reading.

             If you're not familiar with Flannery O'Connor's work, I highly recommend that you check out her short stories.  Some call her America's greatest Catholic author, while others rank her among the top figures of Southern Literature.  Though her work most often deals with religious themes and typically takes place in the South, the stories are often bizarre, horrific, and even ludicrous.  This literature goes beyond any restriction of denomination or region and is truly universal in theme.  She is a must-read for any student of American Literature or anyone who appreciates writing of the highest caliber.

         
 My Commentary on Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor by Brad Gooch

Flannery:
 A Life of Flannery  O'Connor

             This is not an exciting book in the sense of action and adventure, but it is a very interesting story of a woman's journey to discovering her talent as a writer and becoming one of the most critically acclaimed American authors of the mid-twentieth century.  The story begins with Flannery's childhood in Savannah, Georgia and later continues to her Milledgeville, Georgia home with which she is most often associated.  Brad Gooch portrays this early life in vivid detail and effectively captures Southern life at this time.

           We follow Flannery through her college days during which she aspires to become a cartoonist, but through encouragement from those who recognize her writing talent she is accepted into the Iowa Writer's Workshop where she develops associations with literary notables who assist her on her road to publication.  As her reputation flourishes in the writing community, she lives a life of modest literary fame and high acclaim from many.  Her struggle with the disease of lupus brings her life to an early end in 1964 when she is only 39 years of age.

           Brad Gooch has done a commendably thorough job of researching O'Connor's life through letters, newspaper and magazine articles, and interviews with those who knew her.   The detail at times is nearly overwhelming, but all the better to bring us close to the author.  Of particular interest to those who are authors or who have aspirations of one day being published is O'Connor's writing journey and what influenced her stories.

            Flannery O'Connor may not be a household name, but her work has exerted a wide influence on modern literature.  One can find great similarities to O'Connor in the work of authors such as Cormac McCarthy.  The Flannery O'Connor Award for Short Fiction is given yearly by the University of Georgia Press.  Over the past fifty years hundreds of articles and dissertations have appeared discussing her work.  Since her death her stature as a literary giant has continued to grow.  Flannery: A Life of Flannery O'Connor provides an in depth look at who this author is and where she came from.

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Here's a video tribute to Flannery O'Connor made by a young lady by the name of Lauren Cater:

              On Wednesday I will be giving some of my thoughts on Flannery O'Connor's short story collection Everything That Rises Must Converge.  I hope you will return for that.  You can find some of Flannery O'Connor's stories online.   Or better yet, purchase one or all of her books--they are well worth having in your library collection.

              Have you read any of Flannery O'Connor's works?   What's your opinion?

              If anyone is having withdrawals from the A to Z Challenge and is looking for another Challenge that will be a bit lighter than the April Challenge, my niece Stephanie from What's So Random is inviting everyone to join her in  a short Challenge that will begin this Wednesday.   You can read about it here and let Stephanie know you heard it at Tossing It Out.


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