Monday, April 5, 2010

Addendum to "Am I Sick If I Like Stuff Like This?"

This is an addendum to my post, "Am I Sick If I Like Stuff Like This?"

I think Godawa is doing exactly what Flannery O'Connor does in her fiction.  She writes,
"The novelist with Christian concerns will find in modern life distortions which are repugnant to him, and his problem will be to make these appear as distortions to an audience which is used to seeing them as natural; and he may well be forced to take ever more violent means to get his vision across to this hostile audience.... [Y]ou have to make your vision apparent by shock -- to the hard of hearing you shout, and for the almost-blind you draw large and startling figures."
[qtd. in Flannery O'Connor & the Christ-Haunted South]

7 comments:

Joshua Butcher said...

This is analogous to the way in which God attempts to get the attention of the Israelites--both in terms of how the law is expressed (The Decalogue categorizing its principles in terms of the highest offense) and in terms of the prophets' rebukes.

John said...

@ Joshua: I agree. BTW, have you read any of O'Connor? I think you would enjoy her stuff in light of this quote. I'd recommend starting with her short story, "Revelation."

celiselott said...

I am going to have to read this. Flannery O'Connor is probably my all time favorite author.

Miss y'all!

John said...

@ Courtney: If you like O'Connor, check out Ralph Wood's book. He's a prof at Baylor. I'd like to take his class on O'Connor.

Which is your favorite story? My favorite short stories are "Revelation" and "Parker's Back."

celiselott said...

Probably "Everything that Rises Must Converge". It's just such a great picture into our hypocrisy and really convicting. I also love "The Life you Save Might Be Your Own" and "Good Country People". I will definitely look Wood's book. We studied a lot of O'Connor in my creative writing classes.

John said...

@ Courtney, I haven't read, "Good Country People," but another friend told me that this is one of his favorites. I'll have to check it out next.

On a side note, my son, Justin, just read "Revelation." I may have another budding fan of O'Connor!

celiselott said...

As it should be!! I think I'm going to ask for the complete works for my birthday, otherwise I'm going to buy it off Amazon! Glad Justin's getting into it!