I watched the movie Wildcat which you spoke about. I thought it had interesting insights. I thought using Flannery as a character in her stories was way of saying that her story writing was part of her purgatorial process toward God. As if living through those stories was a way of breaking down her own idolatries. The stories are not about somebody else or not entirely, but actually about her own faults. So she’s telling on herself, not complaining about modernity. I also thought that even if she wasn’t actually in love with Robert Lowell, as the movie sort of indicates she probably did yearn for romantic love. So all of these things I was fine with. I just wasn’t 100% sure that it all turned into a really good movie. I’m going to rewatch it, but I’m not 100% sure about that.
Thank you for reading! Yes on all counts. The film implies that Flannery had feelings for Cal Lowell and was a bit crestfallen upon reading of his engagement. But I take all of this with one eye squinted (as Flannery would say)--a means by which the story is told. These moments are very much like those in A Complete Unknown, where some of the Dylan events are fabricated or elided. Wildcat may not be a truly great film, but I'm overjoyed that everyone saw it through. It's far better than I imagined it would be.
When I was at Andalusia, I had a long conversation with one of the producers, who told me they were originally going to make The Violent Bear It Away, but they couldn't get the script to align with the book as much as they wanted. That project is on hold. I said it was too bad that Philip Seymour Hoffman was gone--he always struck me as a perfect Rayber.
I'm not sure if you saw it, but I did a post on Wildcat when it was first released in which I talk about what it gets right and what it doesn't. Thanks again.
Thank you for sharing this essay. As a writer from Georgia, graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill, I was brought up on Flannery O'Connor. She remains, along with William Faulkner and the more recent genius, Daniel Woodrell, one of my favorite writers, whose sentences I return to again and again, to learn how to write. I hit the article's link to The New Yorker essay, expecting to read something appalling, but I wasn't moved one way or the other. Perhaps it's worse to be called a racist than a chauvinist, and that's why we can shake a finger at Henry Miller, or Philip Roth, or Hemingway, or well, most male writers but don't feel the need to take their names off walls (as if any writer cared about a name on a wall.) Martin Luther King was the most important person in the history of the Untied States. He also beat his wife. Lately, I've been reading the stories Flannery O'Connor wrote for her graduate thesis at Iowa. I'm floored by her talent -- if anything is awry in the Nyer article, it's the lack of recognition for her genius. Anyway, in these early stories, she does not shy away from racism; that's primarily her topic. In at least one of them, she does inhabit the mind of a black character, despite her later claims. I guess I don't much care what my favorite fiction writers think about things (I love Hemingway and Nabokov) -- I just try not to read their biographies. In writing fiction, there's an alchemy at work -- maybe it's grace given to the drunk, the bigot, the racist. O'Connor would probably say that if you can do anything else, you should.
Yes an absolute treat: corrections needed for ‘or batman’, ‘age of the cross’ and ‘as stood’. Thanks I enjoyed it a lot. Ive heard a negative review of Wildcat (‘she did not hate her mother’) but now I plan to watch.
Thank you so much for the corrections! All fixed. As you know, sometimes we check and double-check and then they still appear. Wildcat is definitely worth a watch; I did a post on that, as well, so I'd be interested to hear what you think. (And she never comes across as hating her mother--more like she sometimes rolls her eyes at her, a crime for which many of us have stood guilty.)
Thank you so much! If you admire O’Connor and her work, it’s definitely worth the trip. Something I forgot to add that you don’t have to wait in line for anything. It’s not a high stakes vacation.
I watched the movie Wildcat which you spoke about. I thought it had interesting insights. I thought using Flannery as a character in her stories was way of saying that her story writing was part of her purgatorial process toward God. As if living through those stories was a way of breaking down her own idolatries. The stories are not about somebody else or not entirely, but actually about her own faults. So she’s telling on herself, not complaining about modernity. I also thought that even if she wasn’t actually in love with Robert Lowell, as the movie sort of indicates she probably did yearn for romantic love. So all of these things I was fine with. I just wasn’t 100% sure that it all turned into a really good movie. I’m going to rewatch it, but I’m not 100% sure about that.
No, I don’t think I saw that post. I agree that its good enough!
It’s in the archives if you’re interested, LOL. Thanks!
Thank you for reading! Yes on all counts. The film implies that Flannery had feelings for Cal Lowell and was a bit crestfallen upon reading of his engagement. But I take all of this with one eye squinted (as Flannery would say)--a means by which the story is told. These moments are very much like those in A Complete Unknown, where some of the Dylan events are fabricated or elided. Wildcat may not be a truly great film, but I'm overjoyed that everyone saw it through. It's far better than I imagined it would be.
When I was at Andalusia, I had a long conversation with one of the producers, who told me they were originally going to make The Violent Bear It Away, but they couldn't get the script to align with the book as much as they wanted. That project is on hold. I said it was too bad that Philip Seymour Hoffman was gone--he always struck me as a perfect Rayber.
I'm not sure if you saw it, but I did a post on Wildcat when it was first released in which I talk about what it gets right and what it doesn't. Thanks again.
Is it in the archives for the movie blog or a Pages and frames?
It’s on the Pages and Frames site. 👍
Thank you for sharing this essay. As a writer from Georgia, graduate of UNC-Chapel Hill, I was brought up on Flannery O'Connor. She remains, along with William Faulkner and the more recent genius, Daniel Woodrell, one of my favorite writers, whose sentences I return to again and again, to learn how to write. I hit the article's link to The New Yorker essay, expecting to read something appalling, but I wasn't moved one way or the other. Perhaps it's worse to be called a racist than a chauvinist, and that's why we can shake a finger at Henry Miller, or Philip Roth, or Hemingway, or well, most male writers but don't feel the need to take their names off walls (as if any writer cared about a name on a wall.) Martin Luther King was the most important person in the history of the Untied States. He also beat his wife. Lately, I've been reading the stories Flannery O'Connor wrote for her graduate thesis at Iowa. I'm floored by her talent -- if anything is awry in the Nyer article, it's the lack of recognition for her genius. Anyway, in these early stories, she does not shy away from racism; that's primarily her topic. In at least one of them, she does inhabit the mind of a black character, despite her later claims. I guess I don't much care what my favorite fiction writers think about things (I love Hemingway and Nabokov) -- I just try not to read their biographies. In writing fiction, there's an alchemy at work -- maybe it's grace given to the drunk, the bigot, the racist. O'Connor would probably say that if you can do anything else, you should.
Thank you for reading it!
Yes an absolute treat: corrections needed for ‘or batman’, ‘age of the cross’ and ‘as stood’. Thanks I enjoyed it a lot. Ive heard a negative review of Wildcat (‘she did not hate her mother’) but now I plan to watch.
Thank you so much for the corrections! All fixed. As you know, sometimes we check and double-check and then they still appear. Wildcat is definitely worth a watch; I did a post on that, as well, so I'd be interested to hear what you think. (And she never comes across as hating her mother--more like she sometimes rolls her eyes at her, a crime for which many of us have stood guilty.)
This article is an absolute treat, thank you so much for writing it — makes me want to go there myself!
Thank you so much! If you admire O’Connor and her work, it’s definitely worth the trip. Something I forgot to add that you don’t have to wait in line for anything. It’s not a high stakes vacation.