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ben_smitty's review against another edition
4.0
An excellent collection of O'Connor's remarks on what incarnational writing looks like, which is the portrayal of God's mysteries through concrete means (like writing or nature). While O'Connor does not give specific writing advice, she discusses that the goal of the Catholic writer should be to reveal the world as it truly is by getting the reader to stare at it long enough to recognize the uncanny.
A section that I found surprisingly helpful is her comparison of sentimentality with pornography and violence; all three of these things exploit feelings because they force the readers to feel for feeling's sake, which is ultimately empty. A good writer, however, will cause feelings to erupt in the reader as a byproduct of stunning him with truth.
A section that I found surprisingly helpful is her comparison of sentimentality with pornography and violence; all three of these things exploit feelings because they force the readers to feel for feeling's sake, which is ultimately empty. A good writer, however, will cause feelings to erupt in the reader as a byproduct of stunning him with truth.
kateraed's review against another edition
3.0
Although there are some great gems and much can be extrapolated to other contexts, for the most part it's specific to Catholic writers in the South. And really redundant; a couple essays could have been entirely removed because they were stated within other essays.
elijahcuba's review against another edition
5.0
The poet is traditionally a blind man, but the Christian poet, and storyteller as well, is like the blind man whom Christ touched, who looked then and saw men as if they were trees, but walking. This is the beginning of a vision, and it is an invitation to deeper and stranger visions that we shall have to learn to accept if we want to realize a truly Christian literature.
A fascinating collection of essays on my favorite convergence of subjects, religion and art. For me, O'Connor has the striking similarity to C.S. Lewis in how she somehow digs into me and reveals what I believe, illustrating it in fabulous prose. That is another way to say I feel overwhelmed and almost more mystified than when I started.
It's a must-read for writers, and readers (O'Connor gripes about both). I will definitely be reading it again to digest and process just exactly what she was saying. Even though so much of it was repetitive, like beating me over the head with a wooden tome, I couldn't seem to wrap my mind around the mysteries she was presenting.
O'Connor is also witty as heck.
A fascinating collection of essays on my favorite convergence of subjects, religion and art. For me, O'Connor has the striking similarity to C.S. Lewis in how she somehow digs into me and reveals what I believe, illustrating it in fabulous prose. That is another way to say I feel overwhelmed and almost more mystified than when I started.
It's a must-read for writers, and readers (O'Connor gripes about both). I will definitely be reading it again to digest and process just exactly what she was saying. Even though so much of it was repetitive, like beating me over the head with a wooden tome, I couldn't seem to wrap my mind around the mysteries she was presenting.
O'Connor is also witty as heck.
dwlejcjvg's review against another edition
5.0
What I loved most about this book is not so much what it has to say about writing, but how easily the lines are blurred between thinking about writing and living.
nickyp's review against another edition
5.0
Great to chew on, especially her essays on the short story and the novelist having to make her own meaning in an age that does not value truth. Also, that take-no-prisoners voice! The section on Catholicism sailed over my head, but I have a greater appreciation for the Southern aspects of her work and others’. And the first essay, on her life with peacocks, was again a gem.
radioactve_piano's review against another edition
3.0
I love Flannery O'Connor's fiction, so when I discovered I still hadn't read this book six years after I bought it for a class as "supplementary material", I got excited.
Turns out I should have only been partly excited. O'Connor is predictably opinionated about all the topics within this book. For the most part, that wasn't a problem for me. I like her no-false-modesty stance on why she wrote ("because I'm good at it"); I like her annoyance at the idea that writing can be taught ("if it's not natural, coming from some place you tap into but have no control over, then it's not worth reading"); hell, I even liked her strong ideas about the difference between a "Southerner" and anyone else.
I just could not stand the religious parts. At all. It was as if she forgot all of her "rules" for others when religion came up; every essay or speech that touched on this topic was pretty much full of the stereotypical Catholic rhetoric that makes non-Catholics want to spit.
Turns out I should have only been partly excited. O'Connor is predictably opinionated about all the topics within this book. For the most part, that wasn't a problem for me. I like her no-false-modesty stance on why she wrote ("because I'm good at it"); I like her annoyance at the idea that writing can be taught ("if it's not natural, coming from some place you tap into but have no control over, then it's not worth reading"); hell, I even liked her strong ideas about the difference between a "Southerner" and anyone else.
I just could not stand the religious parts. At all. It was as if she forgot all of her "rules" for others when religion came up; every essay or speech that touched on this topic was pretty much full of the stereotypical Catholic rhetoric that makes non-Catholics want to spit.
dh981's review against another edition
3.0
Difficult to understand at first, but still worth reading. Flannery O'Connor is brilliant and everyone who consider themselves a reader needs to read her works!
mcribsy13's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
funny
inspiring
reflective
slow-paced
4.25
spacejamz's review against another edition
5.0
If I hadn't discovered Anglicanism, this might have led me to converting to Catholicism. Here I found confirmed so many things I had been learning through her fiction, and through the processes of making and taking in art.