From her book of occasional prose, Mystery and Manners. An essay entitled “The Grotesque in Southern Fiction.”
And what [the reader/listener/congregant] needs, of course, is to be lifted up. There is something in us, as storytellers and as listeners to stories, that demands the redemptive act, that demands that what falls at least be offered the chance to be restored. The reader of today looks for this motion, and rightly so, but what he has forgotten is the cost of it. His sense of evil is diluted and lacking altogether, and so he has forgotten the price of restoration. When he reads a novel, he wants either his senses tormented or his spirits raised. He wants to be transported, instantly, either to mock damnation or a mock innocence.
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3 responses to “Flannery O’Connor on the Storyteller, the Cost, and the Listener”
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“The Turkey” is the most complete picture of the Christian life as a constant rediscovery of personal failure that I have ever read. And it’s funny as hell too…but only to the completely defeated.
Beautifully put. Much to think about here. Thanks for sharing.