I don't think there's a need for any more books on faith & writing; O'Connor has wittily said it all. ( )

I don't think there's a need for any more books on faith & writing; O'Connor has wittily said it all. ( )

I don't think there's a need for any more books on faith & writing; O'Connor has wittily said it all. ( )

This is an excellent book about fiction, why (in one practitioner's opinion) to write it, read it, and value it. Flannery O'Connor has a matter-of-fact approach to big topics like the philosophy of art, and suffers neither fools nor mediocrity. This collection of her lectures and essays is so pithy that I was often moved to jot down quotes for later use. Some of these follow my review.

The last part of the volume, which concerns being a Catholic writer, writing the Catholic novel, et cetera, is of less use to a non-Catholic or non-Christian writer. However, some of the sections in the first part of the work where the author discusses how her religion supplies the Mystery for her art are useful to anyone, as it's worthwhile for any writer to consider whether and where he or she approaches a transcendent Mystery and how that should inform and enrich his or her work.

Quotes:
"Fiction begins where human knowledge begins -- with the senses -- and every fiction writer is bound by this fundamental aspect of his medium."

"Art is a word that immediately scares people off, as being a little too grand. But all I mean by art is writing something that is valuable in itself and that works in itself."

"It's always necessary to remember that the fiction writer is much less immediately concerned with grand ideas and bristling emotions than he is with putting list slippers on clerks." [example of the clerk from Mme. Bovary]

"There is no excuse for anyone to write fiction for public consumption unless he has been called to do so by the presence of a gift. It is the nature of fiction not to be good for much unless it is good in itself." ( )