Books Jul 20, 2011 at 4:00 am

Ann Napolitano Takes A Good Hard Look at the Carnage

Doing violence in O’Connor’s name. Nicola Dove

Comments

1
"The pain the characters feel, if only fleetingly, is so extremely visceral that readers are forced to identify with it. If this type of death is even conceivable, one is compelled to believe that any amount of pain could befall them at any moment. O'Connor's readers are always consciously or subconsciously communing with their own afflictions."

I had to read this over several times, and I still don't get it. "Believing" something is happening and imagining something is happening is not the same thing. When you read a description of a hot day, you're not all like, "Man, I got to open up a window now I'm feeling so hot despite it being 40 degrees outside." If you do, you have problems. And then what is suggested by "their own afflictions?" The graphic violence in O'Connor (which really isn't graphic - if anything it's descriptively restrained) somehow compels us to contemplate our failures as, say, a parent or our phantom stomach ulcers or our inability to get passed that one level of angry birds? I'm guessing this is hyper-abstract art-speak that ultimately means nothing. But, I could be wrong as I'm not very smart.

Please wait...

Comments are closed.

Commenting on this item is available only to members of the site. You can sign in here or create an account here.


Add a comment
Preview

By posting this comment, you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.