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Flannery O'Connor: A Good Man Is Hard To Find

Peder said:
She seems to be a brilliant writer. I'm not sure how much of her darkness or violence I can take.
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That has been my experience, too. I think I should like her better than I do. I prefer something by T. C. Boyle, instead.
 
oskylad said:
That has been my experience, too. I think I should like her better than I do. I prefer something by T. C. Boyle, instead.
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How are Flannery O' Connor's works related to T.C. Boyle's works? Or were you just stating a short story author preference?

When I was on a cruise, I spent some time reading a book they had in their library. It was Boyle's Tooth and Claw, a short story collection. It seemed like the bulk of the setting in his stories from that collection happened at a bar or tavern. I got the impression that Boyle himself spent a lot of time boozing in bars where he thought up his stories. Good writer, but jeeez...enough with the bars!
 
SeoulMan said:
How are Flannery O' Connor's works related to T.C. Boyle's works? Or were you just stating a short story author preference?
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I am no expert when it comes to comparing authors, but I find both O'Connor and Boyle have a sense of the absurd, with quirky characters and endings that keep you off balance.

Jim Shepherd, in his New York Times review of T.C. Boyle Stories said this:

Boyle is drawn to that ''look of the mad saint,'' to the obsessive, the mortifier of the flesh. He's like ''Flannery O'Connor with a television and no church,'' as Lorrie Moore once put it, and at first glance his landscapes -- full of comic ignorance, incipient violence and the continual oppressive sense of an unsparing judgment about to be rendered -- strongly resemble O'Connor's. But setting his energetic godlessness aside, Boyle's work seems more Calvinist than Catholic: most of the time, the question of who's among the elect and who's damned -- the latter stupendously outnumbering the former -- seems inexorably predetermined.
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http://www.nytimes.com/books/98/11/08/reviews/981108.08shepart.html
 
I don't think the grandmother was selfish... but she was very self absorbed. She is the center of her world, her son's world and her daughter in-law's. She was not the center of her grandchildren's world. I think O'Connor was telling us that the next generation will be entirely different from the one of their parents and especially grandparents. The grandchildren were certainly self absorbed, as well. The first time the grandmother acted in any real way was when she was trying desperately to relate to the Misfit and that was totally out of self preservation. The story shines a light on some of our very human weaknesses and reflects them back to us in a raw, disturbing fashion. She is truly a great writer. I am from the South and while I feel like I know those characters I bet folks from all over can see these characters in their world also.
 
The comments on this story are very interesting to me. When I read this in grad school we were all pretty much in agreement that the grandmother was being very selfish and that at the end, all she cared about was saving her own tail. So, now I'm wondering if the younger folks in the forum are the ones who agree she is being selfish and the older folks think her son is the one who is selfish and cold.

Very interesting! Anyone care to comment? I myself am 25 and I think the grandmother is being selfish.
 
impalpable said:
The comments on this story are very interesting to me. When I read this in grad school we were all pretty much in agreement that the grandmother was being very selfish and that at the end, all she cared about was saving her own tail. So, now I'm wondering if the younger folks in the forum are the ones who agree she is being selfish and the older folks think her son is the one who is selfish and cold.

Very interesting! Anyone care to comment? I myself am 25 and I think the grandmother is being selfish.
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I am 40 and think she was not. She was the only one that spoke, her daughter -in -law didn't say much. I think also it was a shock to what was going on, she could not fathom someone can be so cruel. Us, parents think we can change everything with praise and love but it's not that way.

I was not a perfect teenager:whistling: but the respect I have for my elders especially my mothers side of the family who cared for me and loved me growing up. I expect no less from my kids towards my family and personally if my kids talked like that about or to my mother(passed) or mother -in-law I would fly off the handle.

Maybe it has to do with age and another fact ,if you have kids.:)
 
Libra said:
I was not a perfect teenager:whistling: but the respect I have for my elders especially my mothers side of the family who cared for me and loved me growing up. I expect no less from my kids towards my family and personally if my kids talked like that about or to my mother(passed) or mother -in-law I would fly off the handle.

Maybe it has to do with age and another fact ,if you have kids.:)
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Oh I was not (nor am I now) ever disrespectful to my elders, especially family! I think at this point in my life when my mother keeps calling me saying I am always too busy to talk (even though I talk to her a few times a week) just makes me sympathize with the son a little :lol:

I think kids may be a factor in this as well. All I have are kitties and I'm sure if they started avoiding me I would be upset as well :lol:
 
impalpable said:
I think at this point in my life when my mother keeps calling me saying I am always too busy to talk (even though I talk to her a few times a week) just makes me sympathize with the son a little :lol:

I think kids may be a factor in this as well. All I have are kitties and I'm sure if they started avoiding me I would be upset as well :lol:
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Me and my husband tell our kids that we are planning to return all they have given us.Go live with them, eat their food, complain, expect them to change our diapers, roll our eyes like we know everything etc...:lol:
 
Libra said:
Me and my husband tell our kids that we are planning to return all they have given us.Go live with them, eat their food, complain, expect them to change our diapers, roll our eyes like we know everything etc...:lol:
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:lol: :lol: That's a great plan!
 
This is a great quote from The First Circle we read for BOM.


"We have only one life, so take everything life can give you except one thing, the birth of a child.For a child is an idol who sucks dry the juices of your being without any return for your sacrifices, not even ordinary gratitude."

Harsh and hillarious.:lol:
 
From the original thread:

SeoulMan said:
Anyone can start a short story thread in the short story sub-forum. Those of you who want to read Poe or Thoreau can start your own thread and see what happens. For me personally, I will start two threads per month, alternating between a classic short story and a modern one. The modern ones may be more difficult to get, but hey, there's always the library!

(I guess I can't speak for everyone but the library is easily accessible to me, but I know in some parts of the country (in the USA and GB), not everyone can get there without going out of their way.)
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I have some short stories from american authors that I never read, but I want to finish my current read before I go searching.
 
Weeelll, I am older (I hate to admitt that!) than you at any rate. I am 54 and I think granny was just being human. It is possible that one of the things Life teaches is that it is best to just give folks a break. We never really know what motivates folks. Experience has shown me that if you err on the side of optimism(ie. "something in her life brought her to this" as opposed to "she sure is selfish" you're more likely to be right on the side of optisim. Get out the violins, fellas... There you have it - from an "old" person.
 
I read short stories all the time because of my short attention span and my constant need for new stimulation. With that said, I will probably pick a short story that I've read before (and would like to read again) and found interesting or confusing. I picked "A Good Man is Hard to Find" because it was well-written and full of questions at the end when the family was confronted with the Misfit.

Selecting short stories is not a democratic process. Y'all can pick a short story and start a thread. And I can pick my own short stories and start my own thread. Then, see how those threads develop, or not develop.
 
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