What are you currently reading?

Started by Francisco Suárez, December 26, 2012, 09:48:56 PM

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Maximilian

Quote from: Revixit on July 11, 2014, 06:32:27 PM
Quote from: LouisIX on July 11, 2014, 02:36:53 PM
Flannery has some fantastic short stories, but one always has to be careful with her.  She was a great fan of Tielhard de Chardin.

We're supposed to judge whether short stories are good based on the author's reading of certain theologians?

Yes, when the author is being promoted because she is supposed to be a "Catholic" author. In that case it's a legitimate question whether or not she is really Catholic, or whether we are being sold a bill of goods.

Especially when so many people have the experience of reading her stories, finding them too grotesque for them to stomach and lacking the transcendental meaning which they were told to expect, but then they are told they have an obligation to like her because she is a Catholic.

The experience of reading a 20th-century "Catholic" author like Flannery O'Connor reminds me very much of the experience of reading 20th-century "Catholic" philosophers like Jacques Maritain and "Love and Responsibility." You are told that this stuff is awesome and that you are obliged to love it, even though your actual instincts as you read it find it revolting.

At first you try to convince yourself that it is really wonderful, like some gourmet food that makes you want to throw up even though other people try to convince you what a great delicacy it is, like monkey brains or something. Eventually you stop trying to fool yourself and simply admit that it makes you sick, you don't care whether it is "Catholic" or not.

Clare

Doesn't Dr David Allen White like her work?

Would Brits "get" her?
Motes 'n' Beams blog

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Habitual_Ritual

#437
Anti-Catholicism in America: The Last Acceptable Prejudice by Mark S. Massa S.J.


interesting book. It reads like a Ken Burns documentary so far. I was expecting something very dry, but history is rarely that.

Caveat - I am only a couple of chapters in, but amazon reviews indicate that the authors solutions may not the Catholic ones. I will update.

' People who despise Catholicism and appreciate a well written and well referenced book arguing that Catholicism itself is the root of its problems will enjoy this book. The author genuinely seems to want anti-Catholicism to end. However he considers the substance of Catholicism to blame and believes that the solution is Catholicism reinventing itself so that its structure and beliefs enable it to blend better with popular secular culture.'

" There exists now an enormous religious ignorance. In the times since the Council it is evident we have failed to pass on the content of the Faith."

(Pope Benedict XVI speaking in October 2002.)

Habitual_Ritual

There is another book on this subject, The New Anti-Catholicism: The Last Acceptable Prejudice, by Philip Jenkins, that is a better read by all accounts.
" There exists now an enormous religious ignorance. In the times since the Council it is evident we have failed to pass on the content of the Faith."

(Pope Benedict XVI speaking in October 2002.)

Older Salt

FOC is not a Catholic "theologian" through her works.

She is  just a great American writer who is Catholic.

The only Catholicism I see in her works is her hatred of Protestantism.

I really enjoy the "grotesqueries" she writes of as I enjoy Poe's morbidity.

Always have.
Stay away from the near occasion of sin

Unless one is deeply attached to the Blessed Virgin Mary, now in time, it impossible to attain salvation.

Michael Wilson

Quote from: Clare on July 12, 2014, 02:33:04 AM
Doesn't Dr David Allen White like her work?

Would Brits "get" her?
I don't 'get' her; and I'm not a Brit.  However you could try reading a couple of her short stories, and see if you like her.
"The World Must Conform to Our Lord and not He to it." Rev. Dennis Fahey CSSP

"My brothers, all of you, if you are condemned to see the triumph of evil, never applaud it. Never say to evil: you are good; to decadence: you are progess; to death: you are life. Sanctify yourselves in the times wherein God has placed you; bewail the evils and the disorders which God tolerates; oppose them with the energy of your works and your efforts, your life uncontaminated by error, free from being led astray, in such a way that having lived here below, united with the Spirit of the Lord, you will be admitted to be made but one with Him forever and ever: But he who is joined to the Lord is one in spirit." Cardinal Pie of Potiers

Older Salt

Quote from: Michael Wilson on July 12, 2014, 07:46:24 AM
Quote from: Clare on July 12, 2014, 02:33:04 AM
Doesn't Dr David Allen White like her work?

Would Brits "get" her?
I don't 'get' her; and I'm not a Brit.  However you could try reading a couple of her short stories, and see if you like her.
What is there to "get"?

She is a very talented writer who paints an amazingly accurate and humorous picture of life in the rural American South in the middle of last century.

What you see is what you get.
Stay away from the near occasion of sin

Unless one is deeply attached to the Blessed Virgin Mary, now in time, it impossible to attain salvation.

Michael Wilson

Quote from: Older Salt on July 12, 2014, 07:53:17 AM
Quote from: Michael Wilson on July 12, 2014, 07:46:24 AM
Quote from: Clare on July 12, 2014, 02:33:04 AM
Doesn't Dr David Allen White like her work?

Would Brits "get" her?
I don't 'get' her; and I'm not a Brit.  However you could try reading a couple of her short stories, and see if you like her.
What is there to "get"?

She is a very talented writer who paints an amazingly accurate and humorous picture of life in the rural American South in the middle of last century.

What you see is what you get.
What I don't 'get' is the supposedly inherent Catholicism of her stories; if it is there, it is buried so deeply as to be imperceptible.  As Max pointed out; if I would read F.O'C.  Not as a Catholic writer but as a Southern regional writer;  I can see that she is a talented story teller; and she has a great ear for the authentic culture and dialect of the South.  But her stories are strange, and I simply don't enjoy reading them.
"The World Must Conform to Our Lord and not He to it." Rev. Dennis Fahey CSSP

"My brothers, all of you, if you are condemned to see the triumph of evil, never applaud it. Never say to evil: you are good; to decadence: you are progess; to death: you are life. Sanctify yourselves in the times wherein God has placed you; bewail the evils and the disorders which God tolerates; oppose them with the energy of your works and your efforts, your life uncontaminated by error, free from being led astray, in such a way that having lived here below, united with the Spirit of the Lord, you will be admitted to be made but one with Him forever and ever: But he who is joined to the Lord is one in spirit." Cardinal Pie of Potiers

Older Salt

Quote from: Michael Wilson on July 12, 2014, 10:41:53 AM
Quote from: Older Salt on July 12, 2014, 07:53:17 AM
Quote from: Michael Wilson on July 12, 2014, 07:46:24 AM
Quote from: Clare on July 12, 2014, 02:33:04 AM
Doesn't Dr David Allen White like her work?

Would Brits "get" her?
I don't 'get' her; and I'm not a Brit.  However you could try reading a couple of her short stories, and see if you like her.
What is there to "get"?

She is a very talented writer who paints an amazingly accurate and humorous picture of life in the rural American South in the middle of last century.

What you see is what you get.
What I don't 'get' is the supposedly inherent Catholicism of her stories; if it is there, it is buried so deeply as to be imperceptible.  As Max pointed out; if I would read F.O'C.  Not as a Catholic writer but as a Southern regional writer;  I can see that she is a talented story teller; and she has a great ear for the authentic culture and dialect of the South.  But her stories are strange, and I simply don't enjoy reading them.
I personally do not believe there is any covert or overt Catholicism intended by FOC in any of her work.

Accidentally it might be there.

Since I was a little boy I always enjoyed "strange " stories.

It is a refreshing break from the mundane.
Stay away from the near occasion of sin

Unless one is deeply attached to the Blessed Virgin Mary, now in time, it impossible to attain salvation.

Michael Wilson

O.S.
I understand that essentially its: "different strokes for different folks".   I can see how some people like F.O.C.  Because she is a good writer, and a Southern regional writer.  What I don't at all see, is those who want to advance Miss O'Connor as a writer of Catholic stories; or stories that have some inherent Catholic message that we are supposed to read and be either enlightened by or edified by.
"The World Must Conform to Our Lord and not He to it." Rev. Dennis Fahey CSSP

"My brothers, all of you, if you are condemned to see the triumph of evil, never applaud it. Never say to evil: you are good; to decadence: you are progess; to death: you are life. Sanctify yourselves in the times wherein God has placed you; bewail the evils and the disorders which God tolerates; oppose them with the energy of your works and your efforts, your life uncontaminated by error, free from being led astray, in such a way that having lived here below, united with the Spirit of the Lord, you will be admitted to be made but one with Him forever and ever: But he who is joined to the Lord is one in spirit." Cardinal Pie of Potiers

Older Salt

Quote from: Michael Wilson on July 12, 2014, 12:23:03 PM
O.S.
I understand that essentially its: "different strokes for different folks".   I can see how some people like F.O.C.  Because she is a good writer, and a Southern regional writer.  What I don't at all see, is those who want to advance Miss O'Connor as a writer of Catholic stories; or stories that have some inherent Catholic message that we are supposed to read and be either enlightened by or edified by.
Michael

I agree.  There is nothing especially Catholic about F.O.C's writing even though many say there is.

I see barely anything.

People like to think that since she went to Mass very often and was big into Thomism, included "Jesus" in a lot of her work and stayed single her whole life she must be some sort of monastic Catholic writing recluse.

I just think she was a spectacular writer of tongue in cheek black humour.
Stay away from the near occasion of sin

Unless one is deeply attached to the Blessed Virgin Mary, now in time, it impossible to attain salvation.

Revixit

#446
Quote from: Older Salt on July 12, 2014, 01:15:40 PM
Quote from: Michael Wilson on July 12, 2014, 12:23:03 PM
O.S.
I understand that essentially its: "different strokes for different folks".   I can see how some people like F.O.C.  Because she is a good writer, and a Southern regional writer.  What I don't at all see, is those who want to advance Miss O'Connor as a writer of Catholic stories; or stories that have some inherent Catholic message that we are supposed to read and be either enlightened by or edified by.
Michael

I agree.  There is nothing especially Catholic about F.O.C's writing even though many say there is.

I see barely anything.

People like to think that since she went to Mass very often and was big into Thomism, included "Jesus" in a lot of her work and stayed single her whole life she must be some sort of monastic Catholic writing recluse.

I just think she was a spectacular writer of tongue in cheek black humour.


She might have married if she hadn't developed lupus, specifically systemic lupus erythematosus.  I don't think medical science had yet discovered prednisone as treatment for lupus, rheumatoid arthritis and other autoimmune diseases when Flannery was living.  Lupus is what caused her early death, probably from kidney failure.  Lupus can affect every system in the body and it usually hits young women, sometimes at puberty.  Oddly, her father also died of lupus.  It doesn't usually "run" in a family like that.  The life expectancy for people after a lupus diagnosis was not long in the 1950s, about two years, I think.  How she was able to write on a manual typewriter puzzles me.  I guess her hands weren't too badly affected by lupus.

By the way, she and her mother kept peacocks on their farm and those beautiful birds make awful noises.  They lived near Milledgeville, where the Georgia state insane asylum was at the time.  Peacocks and psychotics probably influenced Flannery.
Most Sacred Heart of Jesus, Have Mercy On Us

Bernadette

My priest went on a retreat to the monastery where Flannery O'Connor's peacocks went to live after her death. He and his fellow retreatants were woken up the middle of the night by their bloodcurdling shrieks.  :lol:
My Lord and my God.

Lydia Purpuraria

Quote from: Bernadette on July 12, 2014, 07:41:48 PM
My priest went on a retreat to the monastery where Flannery O'Connor's peacocks went to live after her death. He and his fellow retreatants were woken up the middle of the night by their bloodcurdling shrieks.  :lol:

LOL -- what are the chances!?

Michael Wilson

Quote from: Older Salt on July 12, 2014, 12:14:01 PM
Quote from: Michael Wilson on July 12, 2014, 10:41:53 AM
Quote from: Older Salt on July 12, 2014, 07:53:17 AM
Quote from: Michael Wilson on July 12, 2014, 07:46:24 AM
Quote from: Clare on July 12, 2014, 02:33:04 AM
Doesn't Dr David Allen White like her work?

Would Brits "get" her?
I don't 'get' her; and I'm not a Brit.  However you could try reading a couple of her short stories, and see if you like her.
What is there to "get"?

She is a very talented writer who paints an amazingly accurate and humorous picture of life in the rural American South in the middle of last century.

What you see is what you get.
What I don't 'get' is the supposedly inherent Catholicism of her stories; if it is there, it is buried so deeply as to be imperceptible.  As Max pointed out; if I would read F.O'C.  Not as a Catholic writer but as a Southern regional writer;  I can see that she is a talented story teller; and she has a great ear for the authentic culture and dialect of the South.  But her stories are strange, and I simply don't enjoy reading them.
I personally do not believe there is any covert or overt Catholicism intended by FOC in any of her work.

Accidentally it might be there.

Since I was a little boy I always enjoyed "strange " stories.

It is a refreshing break from the mundane.
O.S.  That is great; I'm glad you enjoy her writings.
"The World Must Conform to Our Lord and not He to it." Rev. Dennis Fahey CSSP

"My brothers, all of you, if you are condemned to see the triumph of evil, never applaud it. Never say to evil: you are good; to decadence: you are progess; to death: you are life. Sanctify yourselves in the times wherein God has placed you; bewail the evils and the disorders which God tolerates; oppose them with the energy of your works and your efforts, your life uncontaminated by error, free from being led astray, in such a way that having lived here below, united with the Spirit of the Lord, you will be admitted to be made but one with Him forever and ever: But he who is joined to the Lord is one in spirit." Cardinal Pie of Potiers