"This is where O'Connor scandalizes people. God redeems the moment, so violence doesn't become nihilism the way it would maybe in a Tarantino film. In her world, God is there."

Flannery O'Connor is an American novelist, essayist, and short-story writer known for her sardonic Southern Gothic style with grotesque characters and violent scenes. Our guest today, Jessica Hooten Wilson, is a Flannery O'Connor expert and is currently preparing O'Connor's unfinished novel Why Do the Heathen Rage? for publication. Dr. Hooten Wilson shares her intimate knowledge of O'Connor, her writing, and the Gospel message that emerges from the pages of her dark and twisted stories.

Show Notes

0:00—Podcast intro
2:34—Excerpt from Jessica Hooten Wilson on "A Temple of the Holy Ghost" (from her lecture at The Table Conference, September 2017, "Resilience: Growing Stronger Through Struggle")—"Dear Lord, I want to be a saint, because that is the vocation in which you know everything... but I will never be a saint, because I'm a born liar, and I'm slothful, and sass my mother and I'm ugly to almost everybody. Now I can't be a saint, but I might be a martyr if they kill me quick."
5:14—Introduction: Jessica Hooten Wilson
6:14—Begin interview, Flannery O'Connor's writing
9:12—Jessica Hooten Wilson's biography in terms of Flannery O'Connor
11:07—Flannery O'Connor's focus on the "dark" realities in the world
15:00—How Flannery O'Connor portrays the Gospel
16:24—Literary use of violence and suffering
20:00—Redemptive suffering
22:50—Intermission
24:05—Jessica Hooten Wilson's favorite Flannery O'Connor character, Mrs. Greenleaf
26:41—Discussion of Mrs. Greenleaf's "prayer healings" and her famous line, "Jesus, Jesus! Stab me in the heart!"
34:45—What it means to be "Christ-haunted"
35:33—Audio recording of Flannery O'Connor on the South being "Christ-haunted" (from "Flannery O'Connor Reads 'Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction' (c. 1960)"
43:47—Flannery O'Connor's battle with Lupus: "I'm sick of being sick." and "I can with one eye squinted, take it as a blessing." "If suffering is a grace, then perhaps it could be prayed for."
45:09—Further discussion on O'Connor's own suffering and how it shaped her writing and thinking
49:58—End interview
50:20—Audio recording of Flannery O'Connor reading excerpt from "A Good Man is Hard to Find", credits

Quotes from Jessica Hooten Wilson

"This is where O'Connor scandalizes people. God redeems the moment, so violence doesn't become nihilism the way it would maybe in a Tarantino film. In her world God is there. You're able to then accept grace instead and allow God to redeem violence for another purpose. That scandalizes people because violence in itself is awful, ugly, and disturbing."
"She's not praying to withstand cauldrons of boiling pitch or arenas of lion. It's a different kind of suffering that she's praying about, one that would actually be a conduit for grace."
"For O’Connor, if you’re a Christian, you should be suffering in some way. If you’re not suffering in some way, then maybe you’re not following Christ as closely as you wish you were."

Credits

The Table is sponsored by generous grants from the John Templeton Foundation, Templeton Religion Trust, and The Blankemeyer Foundation
Theme music by The Brilliance
Production and engineering by The Narrativo Group
Edited and mixed by TJ Hester
Production Assistance by Laura Crane
Visit Jessica Hooten Wilson's website
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