>Malebranche was right: we are not our own light. We are not

She's a pseudo intellectual who thinks she's better than everyone. The ironic thing is she's using that quote against her mother, but it could be used against her as well since she is trying to find meaning through her own intelligence by embracing nothingness and failing

>>9597295
Is she really a pseud though? I'd call her more like a failed intellectual. And can someone explain the praise O'Connor gets? She's OK, but pretty much all her stories follow the same "intrusion of grace" formula

>>9597326
I really like O'Connor, but I get your point and could see somebody not liking her. I would say she's pseudo because she believes herself smart and that she can trick the Bible salesman, only to be tricked by someone seemingly simple

>>9597326
>"intrusion of grace"
what's this mean?

>>9597555
The actual quote from O'Connor is that her work is about "the action of grace." So generally you have an ignorant, small-minded, bigoted or conceited character who experiences divine grace in some form, but generally whether the character accepts or recognizes this is left ambiguous.


>>9597377
You're probably right. I thought the depiction of Hulga was sort of mitigated by her being crippled (like O'Connor) in the sense that her physical impotence reflects the impotence of man, all men, without God. It all seems pretty explicitly autobiographical and even though Flannery is famously self-effacing (read her letters) it's obvious she thought of herself as an intellectual.

I do like O'Connor but I think she often makes things too easy. However "Revelation" and "The River" are great stories

>>9597659
So this intrusion would be Hulga being duped by the Bible Salesmen, when she thought she was so smart and clever?

>>9597674
Yes, being left helpless in the barnloft.

>>9597295
>I can see through to the nothing
Never mind, you were right, she is a pseud.

>>9597777
she's a total psued, and it's hilarious!
nice get btw

>>9597788
If you're the same poster, do you find O'Connor consistently funny? I am the complaining anon, and part of my issue with O'Connor is that her humor is always hyped but I rarely find her all that funny. Whereas someone like Faulkner or Toole I find uproarious. Basically I'd like a short appreciative essay on O'Connor, to encourage me to keep reading her

>To her own mother she had said--without warming, without excuse, standing up in the middle of a meal with her face purple and her mouth half full--"Woman! do you ever look inside? Do you ever look inside and see what you are not? God!"

Yikes.

>>9597788
However apropos of pseuds what do you think of the guy from "Everything That Rises Must Converge" or "The Enduring Chill"?

>>9597295

She sounds like a nihilist

>>9598102
>>9598119
Not the same fella. I've only read "Good Country People", so I can't say.

>>9598179
She basically is but masquerades as a Heideggerian.