A Good Writer Is Hard To Find

First off, you might notice that some posts are gone. I can't say why, but if you see me in person, feel free to ask. There's some legaleness involved to it.

Second, Flannery O'Connor died of lupus forty-seven years ago today.  I am amazed at how many Catholics are ignorant of her writing, yet most of my protestant students have ready anywhere between two to four of her short stories because they are so widely anthologized in state literature textbooks.

Flannery O'Connor was the type of Catholic woman I want to be. She was dedicated to Our Lord.  She contracted Lupus, and yet, in spite of the crippling disease, she still became a prolific writer. She attended Mass everyday.  She wrote everyday, even on Sundays.  She had a wicked sense of humor and was witty, witty, witty. She led a life of service, consecrated singleness, and used her talent to glorify God.

A short history: Mary Flannery O'Connor was born in Milledgville, Georgia.  As a child, she was featured in the newspaper for teaching a chicken to walk backwards.  She then grew up, moved off to college, and enrolled in a creative writing program. After obtaining her Bachelor's, she went on to earn her M.A. in Creative Writing from the Iowa Writer's Workshop, the premier creative writing school in the country at that time. After graduating from Iowa, she returned home to Milledgeville only to be struck with Lupus, the same disease that killed her father.  She corresponded back and forth with a lesbian atheist friend, wrote daily, attended mass daily, and raised peacocks until she died of lupus on this day forty-seven years ago.

And yet, her legacy lives on. But it is only because she dedicated herself to a higher cause. Flannery said that  "All human nature vigorously resists [the] Grace [of God] because Grace changes us, and the change is painful." And if you ever read her essays on writing, called Mystery and Manners, then you know that the above quote is more true in the context of her short stories.


Too often, my protestant students tell me that they and their teachers loved the story but don't quite get it. In truth, I had the same reaction early on.  In my academic career, I encountered her work at least 3-5 times, and though I always admired it, the meanings of the stories didn't click for me until I converted to Catholicism. 


She writes about protestants.  She writes about the South.  She writes about African-Americans. She writes about Caucasians. She writes about good people. She writes about bad people. She writes about the young. The old. She writes about you. And me. 


Flannery writes about a world where the supernatural is ever present. The consequences of sin are real and immediate. Characters fall from Grace. God intervenes and offers redemption.  Often times, her characters look a gift horse in the mouth and refused that Grace. And so they die.  And so do others in the story to answer for sin.


I do my best these days to present two to three interpretations of her work when I teach it. A non-religious interpretation, a Christian (i.e. protestant) interpretation, and a Catholic interpretation. I let my students pick which interpretation to write their papers on, and it always makes me smile that they always use the Catholic interpretation because "the story has the most meaning" through that lens.  It always makes me smile that students sometimes come and tell me that "the story makes sense now, Miss V. Our high school teacher never told us about the Catholic thing."


I hope one day, that the stories I write will please God.  However, if I my writing never makes it to that place where Miss O'Connor resides within canon, I will follow the old adage: those who cannot do, teach.


I can only hope and pray that some of my students are intrigued by the Catholic worldview by talking about Miss O'Connor's works and seek to find out more themselves. 


Miss O'Connor, I know that you are neither blessed nor a saint, but I believe you made it to purgatory or Heaven.  If you are in purgatory, I pray for your expedience to Heaven. If you are in Heaven, please ask Our Lord to bless my writing as He did yours. 


Lord, thank you for blessing Flannery O'Connor with the gift of writing.






V.