Meandering Through the Writings of Others as a Practice of Lament: Wise Blood

“Forest Patio” DS

Here are the explorations for today:

O’Connor, Flannery. Wise Blood. 1952.

992 words

*** unflirtatious manner and shy taciturnity lit up by a mordant wit, and a bright, if slightly malicious smile *** effective conveyance of sense of reality *** In 1946, she wrote a story The Geranium, written for her thesis, to Accent Magazine – themes in her work, displacement, homelessness, homesickness *** read widely *** majored in sociology *** liked poet T.S. Eliot *** When I read Henry James, I feel like something is happening to me. That’s what I want for my readers. *** Good fiction must be experienced., to make you hear, see, feel. *** Even under the pressure of her situation her gifts flowered. *** It seemed like time went by so fast you couldn’t tell if you were young or old. *** I reckon you think you been redeemed, he repeated. She blushed. After a second, she said yes, life was an inspiration and then she said she was hungry. *** The steward placed him with three youngish women dressed like parrots. *** If you’ve been redeemed, he said, I wouldn’t want to be. *** Haze laughed. The porter jerked the ladder off suddenly with a wrench of her arm that sent the boy clutching at the blanket into the berth. *** His grandfather had been a circuit preacher, a waspish old man who had ridden over three counties with Jesus hidden in his head like a stinger. *** The boy didn’t need to hear it. There was already a deep black wordless conviction in him that the way to avoid Jesus was to avoid sin. *** He had a strong confidence in his power to resist evil. *** He at all times needed to study his soul and assure himself it was not there. *** When the arm finally let him go, he was pleased to think that he was still uncorrupted. *** No one observing him would know that he had no place to go. *** Make yourself at home, she said simply. *** The glaring lights from the store windows made his blue suit look purple. *** She had on a black dress and a black knitted cap . . . *** What the hell you think you doing? *** He ain’t been here but two days, I’ll look after him. *** This is one more hard place to make friends in. *** The blind man gave his edgy laugh, listen boy, he said, you can’t run away from Jesus. Jesus is a fact. *** Listen here I am a preacher myself and I preach the truth. *** People ain’t frankly here. You ain’t from here, but you ain’t friendly neither. *** You act like you got wiser blood than anybody else, he said, but you ain’t! I’m the one has it, not you, me. *** Since the night before was the first time he had slept with any woman, he had not been very successful with Mrs. Watts. *** Mrs. Watts’ grin was as curved and sharp as the blade of a sickle. *** I want to see him about this car, Haze said. *** He didn’t want anybody watching him because he hadn’t driven a car in four or five years. *** Look like ever day I lose fifteen good minutes standing here waiting for you. *** Then he knew that whatever was expected of him was only just the beginning. *** ethics of taking things out of context and changing the author’s meaning *** He noted the number of the house and a sign on it that said, Rooms for Rent. *** My church is the church without Christ, lady, he said. *** The fake blind man leaned forward and smiled. You still have a chance to save yourself if you repent, he said . . .  *** A bastard? He couldn’t see how a preacher who had blinded himself for Jesus could have a bastard. ***  It was hilly and shady and the country showed to advantage on either side. One side was dense with honeysuckle and the other was open and slanted down to a telescoped view of the city. *** What do I owe you? Nothing the man said with the same level look, not a thing. *** He had always been given to stealing but he had never saved before. At the same time, he began cleaning up his room. *** The fountain counter was pink and green marble linoleum and behind it there was a red-headed waitress in a lime-colored uniform and a pink apron. *** He abandoned the idea of seducing her and tried to protect himself. *** You better make it work if you want to eat after I’m gone! He was drunk but he meant it. *** If Haze had believed in praying, he would have prayed for a disciple . . . *** There were two men and a woman with a cat-faced baby sprawled over her shoulder. *** And when you talk about Jesus you need a little music, don’t you friends? *** It’s based on my own personal intirpitation of the Bible friends . . . *** I’m an artist type. If you want to get anywhere in religion you got to keep it sweet. *** No truth behind all truth, is what this church preach! *** He had darkened his face and hands with shoe polish so if he had been seen in the act he would have been taken for a colored person . . . *** His life was so full of so many happenings like that that it would seem he should have been more sensitive to his times of danger. *** Enoch’s humiliation was so sharp and panful that he turned around three times before he realized which direction he wanted to go in. *** Her first plan was to marry him and then have him committed to the state institution for the insane but gradually her plan had become to marry him and keep him. *** 

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