Talking Flannery
March 20, 2009The Maximum Amount Of Seriousness Admits The Maximum Amount Of Comedy
Drama usually bases itself on the bedrock of original sin, whether the writer thinks in theological terms or not. Then, too, any character in a serious novel is supposed to carry a burden of meaning larger than himself. The novelist doesn’t write about people in a vacuum; he writes about people in a world where something is obviously lacking, where there is the general mystery of incompleteness and the particular tragedy of our own times to be demonstrated, and the novelist tries to give you, within the form of the book, a total experience of human nature at any time.
For this reason, the greatest dramas naturally involve the salvation or loss of the soul. Where there is no belief in the soul, there is very little drama. The Christian novelist is distinguished from his pagan colleagues by recognizing sin as sin. According to his heritage, he sees it not as a sickness or an accident of the environment, but as a responsible choice of offense against God which involves his eternal future. Either one is serious about salvation or one is not. And it is well to realize that the maximum amount of seriousness admits the maximum amount of comedy.
Only if we are secure in our beliefs can we see the comical side of the universe. One reason a great deal of our contemporary fictions is humorless is because so many of these writers are relativists and have to be continually justifying the actions of their characters on a sliding scale of values.” Flannery O’Connor
Posted on Mar 19, 2009 10:12 PM PDT
Galadriel says:
Wow! That’s an awesome quote from Flannery. I particular like the part about humor. “And it is well to realize that the maximum amount of seriousness admits the maximum amount of comedy. Only if we are secure in our beliefs can we see the comical side of the universe.”
I remember laughing myself silly the first time I read “The Violent Bear It a Way.” I guess some people wouldn’t find it funny. What this means is that they didn’t get it. I consider it one of the greatest novels ever written, along with Nobokov’s “Lolita” and Faulkner’s “As I Lay Dying” and many others. I’m sure a lot of people wouldn’t agree with me, but everybody’s entitled to there own opinion. I’m not a literary critic. Just a person who’s read a lot of books and loves literature.
I’m getting ready to read “The Violent Bear It a Way” again. I would love to discuss it with you. Maybe you could shed some light on parts I don’t understand. I don’t really understand the title. I know it’s from a Bible verse: ” The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it a way”. I feel like subconsciously, beyond words, I understand it, but I don’t understand it intellectually, if you know what I mean. When I start reading the book again which should be very soon, I will post again.
Your post, in reply to an earlier post on Mar 20, 2009 6:34 AM PDT
Derek Jeter says:
Hi Galadriel:
You’re right, the title is taken from a verse of the Douay Bible: “From the days of John the Baptist until now, the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent bear it away.” Matthew 11:12. “From the days of John the Baptist until now” means from Adam until God’s revelation in Jesus Christ.
The most accepted meaning (Wikipedia) is that violence constantly attacks God and heaven, and that only those violent with the love of God can absorb it or bear it away. O’Connor shows this when Tarwater drowns Bishop: He commits a violent act, but the “accidental” baptism is an equally powerful act of violent love for God which bears the previous wrong away. It’s a little too paradoxical for me. I have trouble with the phrase “violent with the love of God.”
Another possible meaning (more agreeable with me) is that when God’s grace comes into contact with an errant life, a form of violent revelation occurs where falsehood and heresy is burnt off and the individual then sees reality with startling clarity. Those who undergo this spiritual violence take “the kingdom of God” with them as they go through the world.
I like this second one because it seems God’s providence is acting within us and forcing us to react to the violence. We can become inured to violence and it is only when we see it with a fresh mind or the mind of Christ (the Greek metanoia(repent) = understanding “the kingdom of God”) that we truly apprehend its meaning. It becomes a method of God’s instruction to his creatures.
The Wikipedia piece here.
