Audience Participation Friday: Wizard of Oz
I was at the Waffle House the other day with Father Thomas McKenzie (you may know him from the One Minute Review). Thomas had recently read The Wizard of Oz–something […]
The Return of the Wilderking
There is a moment in Chapter 4 of The Bark of the Bog Owl that makes me cringe a little bit. Aidan and Dobro have gotten mixed up with a panther, […]
On Ash Wednesday
It’s Ash Wednesday. Yesterday my friend Father Thomas, an Anglican priest, burned the palm fronds from last year’s Palm Sunday to make the ashes to rub on people’s foreheads today. “Remember that you are dust,” he will say to them, “and to dust you shall return.”
I didn’t grow up observing Ash Wednesday or Lent, but I have to say, at this age it helps to be reminded that I am dust and returning to dust. It’s not just a help, but a comfort. This world is forever demanding that we take it as seriously as it takes itself, and it tempts us to take ourselves too seriously too. Ash Wednesday says, “No, no, no, dear sinner. You’re just dust, living in a world that’s just dust, and you and the world both are returning to dust. And you are dear to God nevertheless.”
Flannery O’Connor Summer Reading Club–“Everything that Rises”
I’m terribly sorry about my absence right in the middle of the Summer Reading Club. I hope to circle back around to the stories we missed–“Greenleaf,” “A View of the […]
Flannery O’Connor Summer Reading Club, Week 7: “Good Country People”
I’m at the beach this week, so I’ll keep this short and rely on you, dear reader, to do the heavy lifting–which you often do anyway. The irony in “Good […]
Flannery O’Connor Summer Reading Club, Week 6: “The Artificial N——“
lawnjockey Happy Wednesday, FOC summer reading clubbers, and forgive my tardiness in posting this week. I haven’t relished the thought of having the “n-word” prominently displayed on my blog for […]
Discussion Question: The End of the Carnival
What do you make of the fact that the local preachers band together to shut down the carnival at the end of “A Temple of the Holy Ghost”? It seems […]
Flannery O’Connor Summer Reading Club, Week 5: “A Temple of the Holy Ghost”
For those who view Flannery O’Connor’s fiction as a freak show, “A Temple of the Holy Ghost” would appear to be Exhibit A. Its most memorable scene describes a hermaphrodite […]
The Misfit’s Hat, Mr. Shiftlet’s Car, and Symbolism in O’Connor’s Fiction
Earlier this week, Madeleine asked the following question: Did FO write these stories with all sorts of symbols and hidden meanings like a rich treasure hunt waiting for persistent readers, […]
Flannery O’Connor Summer Reading Club, Week 4–“The Displaced Person”
In the summer of 1953, Flannery O’Connor’s mother Regina hired a new farm laborer named Matysiak. He and his family moved into one of the houses at Andalusia, the O’Connor’s […]
Flannery O’Connor on Freelance Protestantism
I hope you have had a chance to read through the discussion on “The River” over the last couple of days. It has been extremely insightful and lively–and also courteous, […]