Thursday, February 08, 2007

A Great Writer Is Hard To Find


Flannery O'Connor and Anna Nicole Smith were both 39 when they died. This is the first time in the history of the world these two women have ever been mentioned in the same breath.

One of my favorite lines in any work of fiction comes in the third last paragraph of O'Connor's short story "A Good Man Is Hard to Find." Outside the context of the story, it's hard to fully appreciate, but the line comes shortly after the old woman in the story gets three bullets pumped into her chest by an escaped convict referred to as The Misfit.

"She would of been a good woman," The Misfit said, "if it had been somebody
there to shoot her every minute of her life."

Think about this for a bit.

The best thing I've read about Anna Nicole Smith in the last day contains only three words (which forms merely a headline) and a single vivid image. Here it is over on Andrew Sullivan's blog.

A vivid image? An economy of language? Reminds me of a southern Catholic writer who never saw 40.

Flannery O'Connor fans should not miss
this travel story in Sunday's New York
Times. Here it is.


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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Shame on TCOJ for comparing one of the greatest writers ever to come out of 'merica to the insipid cultural barnacle,Anna Nicole
And yet, Bravos to TCOJ for comparing my favorite on a long list of female, southern-gothic writers to a tortured, fragile, totally f#*!ked-up fellow human.

"Judge not lest ye be judged." May they both rest in peace.

Anonymous said...

Jesus, you sound like a preacher, Bobby M.