This is a treasure. Not only do we get to hear O'Connor in the flesh, but we also hear her oral delivery of her own work. Take note of her comic timing and the frequent laughter from the listeners. Some of these jokes might be lost on a modern reader, particularly if they aren't from the South, and particularly for this story. In fact, certain details we would find to be vulgar or just pointless exposition were meant to be funny to the original audience (such as the fact that Mr. Teagarden bought Coca-Cola stock when it first came out). This is a rare treasure. Imagine getting the chance to overhear Shakespeare read Hamlet or St. Paul one of his own letters. Imagine how that would assist our understanding of the text.
Very true! Well written!!! Thank you for this ur absolutely right!! It means much more when the author is reading his or her work just as they had intended it to be heard
Agreed Hopefully this Robespeare'wokeness ' will be shoveled into the philistine sewer where it belongs . What a great writer O'Connor is . I can only imagine what she would have thought as well as Faulkner and Mitchell of the assault on the historical past of the previous generations of our past. There is no one today except 'Cromwells murderous crew '
Billy, this is one of my favorite short stories.However, I've never heard Flannery O'Conner read it.What a treat! I've always imagined the Coen brothers making the film. very Southern Gothic.
Mari Christian I always thought it would be cool to do a film of this with different casts---a black cast, then an Asian-American cast----just doing different cultural approaches to it. The ending was pretty messed up, even for the time it was written in. But, then, a lot of O'Connor's stories were crazy and messed-up like that, which is why they were so much fun to read,because they were funny,too.
Dark Star John Huston did a great version of "Wise Blood" with Brad Dourif, Harry Dean Stanton, and others. It was out of print, but it is available on Criterion. My favorite film.
I am now handicapped and in isolation with an autoimmune disease like S. F. O'Connor, though they have the medication to halt the progression of the disease, not cure it, so I am lucky - I was once a great artist now trying desperately to write because it's all I could do creatively - She is my hero - and Renoir. Without these examples of heroes I would have withered away I think and died - it's as if they conquered all that - transcended their ball and chain and create under great opposition to quality of life - She did write like a world traveler though in the cell of her small home - he did paint like a young man with a body like stone. I am a young man, mid-thirties, and this disease one day totally incompacitated me - I was once very in the world of outdoor extreme sports and adventure, I never spent a whole day at home ever and was mad with living fast - then ten years ago I became as renoir, knowing the solitude of S. Flannery O'Connor, I was in a depression for years about it, that is until I heard of them and their strength as if to laugh at their captors.......I decided to look at these two people as extraordinary, and to myself as extraordinary.....so here I am walking with the great warriors.
@@user-sb6wq5hm6v oh the Susan O'Connor thing, yeah. My life is still like hers and I'm alright. Doing art again. It's a slow process but hey it's great outside. Thanks for the kind words, I do not get very many and it is appreciated more than you know. Some people just need a word, ya know? Vancouver I used to be afraid of that big bridge under the lake It's leaking sometimes and stuff, scary.
The author was suffering from lupus, which schooled her in the precariousness of life, and was a devout Roman Catholic which made her aware of its preciousness. Thus the flat voice, the odd mix of darkness and radiance and the humor that comes as a weapon against our imperfect understanding and can lead us to that moment of grace.
This is an absolutely brilliant piece of literature with global themes representing the whims and flaws of human character. I have always loved it, but never as much as when hearing Miss O'Connor read it. The pleasure is reminiscent of the wonderful recording of Eudora Welty’s reading of her own classic short story, "Why I Live At The P.O.” "We've had an accident!" I'm laughing and filled with joy. "We've had a little spill.” Yes, we have. Celebrating life's few little pleasures. Thank you, Miss Flannery.
I read this for a class when I was in high school back in the 60's and I swore I'd never read it again, because it horrified and scared me so much. But I figured I could stand listening to it again if it was the author reading it, and I was glad I did. The crowd reactions really made it precious. Now, belatedly, I want to read all of Flannery O'Connor. We need to pay more attention to our American writers.
However, it is my contention, had she live long enough to see her 96th birthday today. I'm fairly sure she would have took pen to paper, and truly expose the hypocrisy and the evils of Catholicism as well as the failures of organize religions as a whole, ect, ect. Y'all have a blessed day now. 📖🙏🌅
@@Cavalier.440 I am so glad to see someone else who shares my exact thoughts on O'Connor versus Catholicism. It is my contention that she actually was aware of the terrible hypocrisy of her "church" but chose subconsciously to ignore it and instead expose the rottenness of Protestant folk religion as it existed in her time. I think her biggest intellectual failure was along these lines. In my opinion, I think she first became aware of the frailties of humanity when she looked at Catholicism but for some reason known only to her, she blinded herself to this knowledge and chose her southern culture to make her awful points. I believe her judgement was correct as far as she went......but nothing could make her admit that her pet fetish (Catholicism) was indeed just as flawed as was her surrounding culture.
@@uriahpeep1753 Much obliged for a well written articulate response to my opinion. As I'm watching The X-Files on comet TV, I can't help but think she could have been a contributing writer. As far as your opinion, I hope you are wrong and that maybe she found clarity when she met her maker. James Michael
It fills my heart with a gram of pride that I was born in the great state of Georgia. Listing to her voice was so soothing and cozy. It made me feel as if I was being told a story from my own grandmother.
Totally riveting 37 minutes. Flannery is my favourite American writer & it was an appalling loss to all literature when tshe died so young. I am English but lived in the U.S. for a number of years. I had met a lovely lady in a bar in West Va. Four days later I proposed & were married in the same bar a few months after this. My wife, Mary, was a true GRITS & could display a bit of the Georgia twang when riled. One of her most used words was, discombobulated & I think of the great Flannery every time I hear it.
I love that old time Georgia accent. I used to think it only existed in movies like Tippy Hedrin's mother in Marnie. An accent northern actors did when playing Southerners. I was really glad to learn that it was a real accent. It's so musical and thick. You also get a different appreciation of the prose hearing it in this rhythm.
If you grew up hearing it like I did, you would know that those actors never got it right. They ranged from pretty decent to terrible. I myself, as well as other Georgians I have known, can barely tolerate hearing those fake southern accents.
She sounds like my parents parents. The grandmother was so much like my father's older sister. This story disturbed me deeply when I first read it, even as I was in awe of its brilliance.
Tennessee Waltz: “I remember the night & the Tennessee Waltz Now I know just how much I have lost Yes, I lost my little darlin' the night they were playing: The beautiful Tennessee Waltz” The grandmother’s favorite song. Foreshadowing.
One particular part I loved is the phrase about the pine tree needles with the sunshining through them; 'and the meanest of them sparkled'. While reading the story made me think of the large pine trees in the summertime with glinting sunlight shining throughout them down in the south. I was captured by the thought in that moment; I was there. The story was fine til what happened to them. I thought "Who could write such a terrible ending story." I always loved books; I think I will write one of my own soon. Literature is a wonderful experience.
That is where she gets to you......you get lulled with the beautiful imagery of her words.....and WHAM.......she gives it to you!!! That is why her stories are so memorable.
Thanks for the link to her reading. That story was meant to be read out loud by her! Her voice and accent sound just like my Granny, rest her soul. 🌟⭐️⭐️⭐️
American treasure that makes me proud to be from Georgia. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m getting old or because I’m Southern…but I fully admit I now have fears of things like my pet turning on the burners and asphyxiating themselves. Why does worry and frenzy arise in our later years and how does this play into our own demises? This story I have given to many friends outside the south and they always have that visceral kicked in the stomach reaction. My first serious boyfriend who was from FL and attended Georgia Tech lamented at the time, “why did you make me read this!?” LOL. What a genteel lady with an unpredictably gothic mind.
I have a few of F.O'C's books and love every story in them. I did have a heckofa time understanding her accent and had to actually slow the speed down. (You'd think it would be the other way around, as supposedly southern accents are slow and Northerners speak fast) I dropped it to 0.75 - I stumbled across this and it has made my day! There is something so very special hearing the author read their own works. I would love to hear Harper Lee read To Kill a Mockingbird.. I find it sad there are so many incredible older authors who are ignored and many who are looking for only the latest best sellers. RUclips has a huge selection of great audiobooks. I have recently listened to Arthur Meacham and Graham Greene. Such great writing. I believe books are still the very best entertainment your money can buy. I buy my books used (always) and pass as many on as I can. It is heartbreaking (to me) that it is hard to find anyone who still reads at all! I am amazed at how much time people spend "watching" TV vs reading. I fear we will lose great authors yet to be published and the old classics in exchange for more and more time and money spent on "programming." Thank you SO MUCH for sharing this fantastic reading by Flannery O'Connor. It was as if I had found buried treasure. Truly a gem to share!
Apparently, you’re not alone in struggling to understand her (she also had a BIG speech impediment as well as her thick southern accent). When she applied to the writer’s program in Iowa and met with the head of the program at that time, he couldn’t understand her at all, so much so that she had to write down/transcribe everything that she had said.
I studied her works in American Literature in college. She had a huge impact on my own writing career. Nice to hear her reading one of her most famous works in her own voice.
I would like to see a movie made of this. Billy Bob Thornton as The Misfit, Ryan Gosling as one of his sidekicks. Not sure about the rest of the cast, though... Ignorance of their true situation, until it is too late, is just one of the hallmarks of O'Connor's fiction. Inevitably, the ignorant believe that they know more than they do, until it is too late. Truly she was a literary genius, and one of the most interesting people of her time.
madsketcher On further reflection, and after seeing him act in the Talented Mr. Ripley and Rounders, among others, I would like to propose that John Malkovich might be able to play a perfectly malevolent but suitably ambigous Misfit. Christopher Walken, too, might be able to muster the right attitude for a good (bad) Misfit, though I lean in the direction of Malkovich. But if you want more of the bad boy sexy look, a la McConaughey, there would also be Jason Statham, a suitably suave amoral menacing individual, when he gets the right role. Not that McConaughey, too, couldn't tear this role up. If I were an actor, I'd give up most of my usual salary to be able to play this role. Perhaps Jack Nicholson, if he were still a bit younger, might also turn in a suitably subtle performance, although he tends to be at his best more when he is almost over the top, so perhaps he wouldn't be right. But I keep coming back to the idea that Malkovich could OWN that role...or if you want another less obvious suggestion, consider Viggo Mortenson, who has demonstrated a much greater range than the average movie-goer has seen. Makes me wish I were a producer/director just so I could try to make this happen.
a very curious reading of this fabulous story, but, it is hers, and she has every right to do so. give it to a so called professional and they would wring the emotion from it like a wet Hawaiian shirt, whereas this flat straight way I would take this version over Meryll Streeps or any other actress's reading.But I wonder if I would notknowing it was OConnor. In short, still perplexed. But what a great fabulous story. Was when I first read it, and it gets better year by year.
Anybody who doesn't understand the "Queen for a day" reference...back in the 1950's, there was a TV show called "Queen for a day"!!! The contestants were 3 women on each show. Each would tell about their tragic lives. Then the studio audience would VOTE for their favorite. The winner would get a tiara and scepter. They would sit her on a "throne" and she would win a washer/dryer or a dinette set. This is how women had to be TREATED to get ANYTHING back then!!!
"A good man is hard to find. Everything is getting terrible..." Laugh at that nowadays. If Flannery O'Connor read this story today, the audience would be nothing but silent. Sign of the times.
Y'all, I reckon the complexity of O'Connor's works is havin the whereall to read between the lines. It must be vexin, for the so-called, book smart people. Sometimes.., y'all gota think twice. Or the very least havin spiritual faith before you even read her works. Some of the critics of her time and some today, just don't get it. When you have the spirit of the Lord in you, the clarity is overwhelming. 📖🙏
Just read the comments. Anyone can analyze any writing as many times as they want, and, most likely, there will be many changes in the analysis; as many opinions as there are seconds spent thinking about it.
Have you even read any other Flannery O'Connor work besides "A Good Man is Hard to Find"? If so you'd know that one of the central elements of her works is that the people who are quick to judge and label people based on little information are the real trash! Besides of course they are laughing...it's funny, Flannery's work is BLACK COMEDY, you're supposed to laugh and feel unsettled at the same time
I know her bio reads that she lived in Georgia nearly her whole life but why does she sound like she spent a lot of time in Tidewater Virginia or the South Carolina lowcountry?
1:31 can someone explain to me why the audience is laughing so hard when she says that "they never have been to east teneesee" i really don't understand why it's funny
it astounds me that anyone, even southerners and irish catholics could find anything of value in the writing of flannery o'connor. had she not been sick with lupus and lived much longer she might have matured into a writer. it's like trying to find easter eggs in an easter egg hunt when somebody forgot to hide some eggs..
For me Flannerys stories illustrate the tension and suspicion inherent in solitary lives lived in company with, but not in genuine communion with, other solitary lives. Every character in A Good Man is a narcissist.
Hey, she was of my favorite authors back in the day, even if some of her stories were racist as hell. I like most of her short stories, including this one---always liked the ironic title (well, most of her stories had these ironic titles, come to think of it..) The main reason I liked her work was because her weird, dark sense of humor was very similar to mine---plus she was a gifted writer---her stories were like the writing equivalent of turning straw into gold--that's what I would compare it to.
I think you could make the case that her stories were racially insensitive, but I'm pretty convinced there was slightly more to her treatment of race than that. Look at her wording in this story, the little black boy who can't afford the same as the white family: If I could paint, I'd paint that picture. This is a woman trapped in the visual, who wears social commentary as a fashion statement, and doesn't actually want it to change. If she had the power to change things, she'd still 'paint that picture.' God I love O'Connor.
Not racist at all! in fact it is a story that shines the light upon the aggression and the horror of racism. How can you call it racist? That would only be racist if it said at the end or through out the story that it was good ……….or the right thing to do…….understand>? I hate when people classify something as racist, when it is in fact exactly the opposite! Try looking at another story she wrote…….about an old white man from the country forced to go live in Atlanta big city with the colored people! It shows the ignorance and also his forced reality when the neighbor from the apartment across the way…..yells at him ……read that one…...
nah she was racist haha but nice deflection attempt. read the shit that actually came out her mouth about people of color "read that one" she was born in 25' and white you think she went against the grain like that? all while trying to sell her writing? use your noodle and actually see what she said outside of the writing and not vomit out what you think
"The children have been to Florida before. They should see different parts of the world and be broader. They have never seen East Tennessee." It's funny because there's not much to see in East Tennessee that's culturally different from either Georgia or Florida. It's even regarded as a "hillbilly dumping ground" according to the children. Seeing East Tennessee is hardly seeing anything in comparison to the rest of the world.
I'm going to read this to a college class, and I'm not sure what I'll do when I get to that word. But Flannery O'Connor uses it to characterize the person who says it.
This is exactly how the culture of her time and place thought and acted. It seems quaint to us in 2021 but her time and place was literally another world. That is one reason why her stories are so memorable......they seem fantastic to us......but, trust me, she was "telling it like it was". This was the very era of the KKK and that is not a good part of our history.
+Tin Man She was a very devout Christian. I don't want to try to translate the meaning of this story, as everybody has their own reactions. But O'Connor believed that the grace of God could reach into the life of any of us at any time, and in this story it is into the life of this petty, annoying, narrow-minded grandmother (whom the author obviously adores). Many of her stories are about a person being violently shocked into an epiphany. In this one, in the moment before she dies she recognizes the humanity in even a vicious killer, just as a true Christian might see Christ in the face of a wicked sinner. And perhaps, the writer suggests, although the words are in the mouth this evil character, that she (and any of us) might be a good person if we realized that every moment could be our last! That at each moment our immortal souls are at stake. I think that's the kind of person who wrote this story.
I wonder if O'Connor ever found herself disgusted having such appeal to liberal elistists. These same psuedos she entertains with cheaps shots at rural culture and heritage. But point of fact, East Tennesse, specifically the Great Smoky Mnts, is the number one natural tourist attraction in the country. Three times more people visit there than they do the Grand Canyon.
I never thought of her stories as humorous; it's almost as if the audience is missing the art of her story with cheap laughter. I love her accent but wish her flow was more animated and less monotonous.
In college a group of friends one night after a few beers took turns reading her stories aloud. We couldnt stop laughing to Everything that Rises Must Converge.
There’s a lot of humor in her stories. I don’t know if any of them are outright “comedies,” but I feel like it’d be difficult not to laugh at something like the opening sentences of A Late Encounter with The Enemy.
A pretty toneless rendition from an author who was going through the motions as if she couldn't wait to get to the end. Were they short of recording tape and she had a deadline elsewhere to meet? A shocking story with important changes of pace and colour that was made to sound like someone reading out the contents of the telephone book.
Reading for an audience and, remember, she was not an actress or a ‘spoken word professional’. Authors aren’t always the best readers of their own work, but F O’C draws out the comedy, which some would fail to see. Id say she does an excellent job here.
No accent is weird, I could make the case that your accent is weird. Plus, her accent is associated with the underclasses, she's under no obligation to slow down for middle-class readers that are too self focused to come to terms with other dialects.
@@FreekinEkin2 I don't think this is an underclass accent at all. All the people I've known who have similar accents were actually upper middle class socio-economically. My high school English teacher from Georgia spoke somewhat like this, although not quite so strongly.
Dear Gabriel......I am your mean, evil English teacher and......now I know what you think of my horrible assignments.......I will pinch you badly in class.......bye for now......
This makes me want to cry because she sounds just like my grandma, who was also from Georgia
This is a treasure. Not only do we get to hear O'Connor in the flesh, but we also hear her oral delivery of her own work. Take note of her comic timing and the frequent laughter from the listeners. Some of these jokes might be lost on a modern reader, particularly if they aren't from the South, and particularly for this story. In fact, certain details we would find to be vulgar or just pointless exposition were meant to be funny to the original audience (such as the fact that Mr. Teagarden bought Coca-Cola stock when it first came out). This is a rare treasure. Imagine getting the chance to overhear Shakespeare read Hamlet or St. Paul one of his own letters. Imagine how that would assist our understanding of the text.
Very true! Well written!!! Thank you for this ur absolutely right!! It means much more when the author is reading his or her work just as they had intended it to be heard
Agreed
Hopefully this Robespeare'wokeness ' will be shoveled into the philistine sewer where it belongs . What a great writer O'Connor is . I can only imagine what she would have thought as well as Faulkner and Mitchell of the assault on the historical past of the previous generations of our past. There is no one today except 'Cromwells murderous crew '
Would've loved the chance to hear Paul or Saul of Tarsus. For some questions for him, why he lied so much...
It is amazing to hear her voice and southern accent reading this story. It lends a whole different tone to the story.
I have a notion to second that emotion !
This recording is a national treasure. Flannery O'Conner was a great reader of her own work. The laughter here is explosive. Amazing stuff.
Billy, this is one of my favorite short stories.However, I've never heard Flannery O'Conner read it.What a treat! I've always imagined the Coen brothers making the film. very Southern Gothic.
Mari Christian
I always thought it would be cool to do a film of this with different casts---a black cast, then an Asian-American cast----just doing different cultural approaches to it. The ending was pretty messed up, even for the time it was written in. But, then, a lot of O'Connor's stories were crazy and messed-up like that, which is why they were so much fun to read,because they were funny,too.
Dark Star John Huston did a great version of "Wise Blood" with Brad Dourif, Harry Dean Stanton, and others. It was out of print, but it is available on Criterion. My favorite film.
@KunstKrieg KinoPix Studios: Thank you so much. I've made a note of the film.
I am now handicapped and in isolation with an autoimmune disease like S. F. O'Connor, though they have the medication to halt the progression of the disease, not cure it, so I am lucky - I was once a great artist now trying desperately to write because it's all I could do creatively - She is my hero - and Renoir. Without these examples of heroes I would have withered away I think and died - it's as if they conquered all that - transcended their ball and chain and create under great opposition to quality of life - She did write like a world traveler though in the cell of her small home - he did paint like a young man with a body like stone. I am a young man, mid-thirties, and this disease one day totally incompacitated me - I was once very in the world of outdoor extreme sports and adventure, I never spent a whole day at home ever and was mad with living fast - then ten years ago I became as renoir, knowing the solitude of S. Flannery O'Connor, I was in a depression for years about it, that is until I heard of them and their strength as if to laugh at their captors.......I decided to look at these two people as extraordinary, and to myself as extraordinary.....so here I am walking with the great warriors.
Be well my friend...hugs from Vancouver Island Canada
@@user-sb6wq5hm6v hey thanks what happened
@@user-sb6wq5hm6v oh the Susan O'Connor thing, yeah. My life is still like hers and I'm alright. Doing art again. It's a slow process but hey it's great outside. Thanks for the kind words, I do not get very many and it is appreciated more than you know. Some people just need a word, ya know? Vancouver I used to be afraid of that big bridge under the lake
It's leaking sometimes and stuff, scary.
物語のユーモラスな始まり方、突然の事故、そして悲劇に向かって加速する。小説の朗読がこんなに素晴らしいものだとは。
The author was suffering from lupus, which schooled her in the precariousness of life, and was a devout Roman Catholic which made her aware of its preciousness. Thus the flat voice, the odd mix of darkness and radiance and the humor that comes as a weapon against our imperfect understanding and can lead us to that moment of grace.
This is an absolutely brilliant piece of literature with global themes representing the whims and flaws of human character. I have always loved it, but never as much as when hearing Miss O'Connor read it. The pleasure is reminiscent of the wonderful recording of Eudora Welty’s reading of her own classic short story, "Why I Live At The P.O.”
"We've had an accident!" I'm laughing and filled with joy. "We've had a little spill.” Yes, we have.
Celebrating life's few little pleasures. Thank you, Miss Flannery.
I read this for a class when I was in high school back in the 60's and I swore I'd never read it again, because it horrified and scared me so much. But I figured I could stand listening to it again if it was the author reading it, and I was glad I did. The crowd reactions really made it precious. Now, belatedly, I want to read all of Flannery O'Connor. We need to pay more attention to our American writers.
Well said and well put. Thank you for sharing.
However, it is my contention, had she live long enough to see her 96th birthday today. I'm fairly sure she would have took pen to paper, and truly expose the hypocrisy and the evils of Catholicism as well as the failures of organize religions as a whole, ect, ect. Y'all have a blessed day now. 📖🙏🌅
Thanks for your personal comment, I also think more people should pay attention to her - from north up in Quebec.
@@Cavalier.440 I am so glad to see someone else who shares my exact thoughts on O'Connor versus Catholicism. It is my contention that she actually was aware of the terrible hypocrisy of her "church" but chose subconsciously to ignore it and instead expose the rottenness of Protestant folk religion as it existed in her time. I think her biggest intellectual failure was along these lines. In my opinion, I think she first became aware of the frailties of humanity when she looked at Catholicism but for some reason known only to her, she blinded herself to this knowledge and chose her southern culture to make her awful points. I believe her judgement was correct as far as she went......but nothing could make her admit that her pet fetish (Catholicism) was indeed just as flawed as was her surrounding culture.
@@uriahpeep1753
Much obliged for a well written articulate response to my opinion. As I'm watching The X-Files on comet TV, I can't help but think she could have been a contributing writer. As far as your opinion, I hope you are wrong and that maybe she found clarity when she met her maker.
James Michael
It fills my heart with a gram of pride that I was born in the great state of Georgia. Listing to her voice was so soothing and cozy. It made me feel as if I was being told a story from my own grandmother.
Totally riveting 37 minutes. Flannery is my favourite American writer & it was an appalling loss to all literature when tshe died so young. I am English but lived in the U.S. for a number of years. I had met a lovely lady in a bar in West Va. Four days later I proposed & were married in the same bar a few months after this. My wife, Mary, was a true GRITS & could display a bit of the Georgia twang when riled. One of her most used words was, discombobulated & I think of the great Flannery every time I hear it.
She sounded exactly like I imagined she would! I love her accent.
I love that old time Georgia accent. I used to think it only existed in movies like Tippy Hedrin's mother in Marnie. An accent northern actors did when playing Southerners. I was really glad to learn that it was a real accent. It's so musical and thick. You also get a different appreciation of the prose hearing it in this rhythm.
This accent is still alive and well in some pockets of Georgia. Especially with some older people. My aunt could be her twin they sound so similar.
If you grew up hearing it like I did, you would know that those actors never got it right. They ranged from pretty decent to terrible. I myself, as well as other Georgians I have known, can barely tolerate hearing those fake southern accents.
It still is a real accent, you should hear me,
This Story is powerful and outstanding! I read this book in school and I enjoyed this story.
She sounds like my parents parents. The grandmother was so much like my father's older sister.
This story disturbed me deeply when I first read it, even as I was in awe of its brilliance.
Tennessee Waltz:
“I remember the night & the Tennessee Waltz
Now I know just how much I have lost
Yes, I lost my little darlin' the night they were playing: The beautiful Tennessee Waltz”
The grandmother’s favorite song. Foreshadowing.
Thanks. Maybe the best short story writer who ever put pen to page.
One particular part I loved is the phrase about the pine tree needles with the sunshining through them; 'and the meanest of them sparkled'. While reading the story made me think of the large pine trees in the summertime with glinting sunlight shining throughout them down in the south. I was captured by the thought in that moment; I was there. The story was fine til what happened to them. I thought "Who could write such a terrible ending story." I always loved books; I think I will write one of my own soon. Literature is a wonderful experience.
That is where she gets to you......you get lulled with the beautiful imagery of her words.....and WHAM.......she gives it to you!!! That is why her stories are so memorable.
From now on, I'm going to hear this story in her voice when I read it.
What a voice. I’ve been reading the Complete Stories for a few weeks. I am transfixed by these crazy tales.
Thanks for the link to her reading. That story was meant to be read out loud by her! Her voice and accent sound just like my Granny, rest her soul.
🌟⭐️⭐️⭐️
What a brilliant writer.
i cant believe I spent $250+ on my course textbook when the stories on the syllabus are all on RUclips or .PDFs for free!
Same, it should be criminal... it reminds me of extortion
I was JUST thinking this. I'm pissed that I bought the book but I've barely used it bc I read the stories online anyway.
It feels more authentic to the author read these kinds of stories because they know how they’re supposed to sound
Mike Blitz What kind of textbook? English textbooks are usually super cheap for precisely this reason.
At college --British Literature book. $30 for one used. $250 is extreme indeed.
genius. so very beautiful and so chilling and hard.
Indubitably !
American treasure that makes me proud to be from Georgia. I’m not sure if it’s because I’m getting old or because I’m Southern…but I fully admit I now have fears of things like my pet turning on the burners and asphyxiating themselves. Why does worry and frenzy arise in our later years and how does this play into our own demises? This story I have given to many friends outside the south and they always have that visceral kicked in the stomach reaction. My first serious boyfriend who was from FL and attended Georgia Tech lamented at the time, “why did you make me read this!?” LOL. What a genteel lady with an unpredictably gothic mind.
oh my Lord hearing this woman reading this story I've read so many times is just amazing! where are the great writers of her like now????
tx898 not many people choose writing as a medium anymore
Gone with the wind. Lol
I think maybe some decent writers were on The X-Files. 🤔
I have a few of F.O'C's books and love every story in them. I did have a heckofa time understanding her accent and had to actually slow the speed down. (You'd think it would be the other way around, as supposedly southern accents are slow and Northerners speak fast) I dropped it to 0.75 - I stumbled across this and it has made my day! There is something so very special hearing the author read their own works. I would love to hear Harper Lee read To Kill a Mockingbird.. I find it sad there are so many incredible older authors who are ignored and many who are looking for only the latest best sellers. RUclips has a huge selection of great audiobooks. I have recently listened to Arthur Meacham and Graham Greene. Such great writing. I believe books are still the very best entertainment your money can buy. I buy my books used (always) and pass as many on as I can. It is heartbreaking (to me) that it is hard to find anyone who still reads at all! I am amazed at how much time people spend "watching" TV vs reading. I fear we will lose great authors yet to be published and the old classics in exchange for more and more time and money spent on "programming." Thank you SO MUCH for sharing this fantastic reading by Flannery O'Connor. It was as if I had found buried treasure. Truly a gem to share!
Apparently, you’re not alone in struggling to understand her (she also had a BIG speech impediment as well as her thick southern accent). When she applied to the writer’s program in Iowa and met with the head of the program at that time, he couldn’t understand her at all, so much so that she had to write down/transcribe everything that she had said.
I studied her works in American Literature in college. She had a huge impact on my own writing career. Nice to hear her reading one of her most famous works in her own voice.
Great writer, awesome accent.
I totally agree !
@@jubalcalif9100 As a southerner from Alabama, I don't appreciate the accent so much as her brilliant writing.
Oh this is so cool!!!
This shows where her philosophy and psychology goes it gives a more accurate aesthetic.
This is the BEST!!! I love Flannery O'Connor. Simply put, this is pure joy.
I love that I can listen to this. O'Connor is my favorite writer.
I was listening to it and the laughter came out of nowhere I am a 19 year old boy and I have never been as scared as I am now
I would like to see a movie made of this. Billy Bob Thornton as The Misfit, Ryan Gosling as one of his sidekicks. Not sure about the rest of the cast, though...
Ignorance of their true situation, until it is too late, is just one of the hallmarks of O'Connor's fiction. Inevitably, the ignorant believe that they know more than they do, until it is too late. Truly she was a literary genius, and one of the most interesting people of her time.
There is a film adaptation of this, its called "Black Hearts Bleed Red". However, I haven't seen it so i can't say if its a good film or not.
I could only picture Matthew Mcconaughey as the misfit. And not because he was shirtless.
madsketcher
On further reflection, and after seeing him act in the Talented Mr. Ripley and Rounders, among others, I would like to propose that John Malkovich might be able to play a perfectly malevolent but suitably ambigous Misfit.
Christopher Walken, too, might be able to muster the right attitude for a good (bad) Misfit, though I lean in the direction of Malkovich.
But if you want more of the bad boy sexy look, a la McConaughey, there would also be Jason Statham, a suitably suave amoral menacing individual, when he gets the right role. Not that McConaughey, too, couldn't tear this role up.
If I were an actor, I'd give up most of my usual salary to be able to play this role. Perhaps Jack Nicholson, if he were still a bit younger, might also turn in a suitably subtle performance, although he tends to be at his best more when he is almost over the top, so perhaps he wouldn't be right.
But I keep coming back to the idea that Malkovich could OWN that role...or if you want another less obvious suggestion, consider Viggo Mortenson, who has demonstrated a much greater range than the average movie-goer has seen.
Makes me wish I were a producer/director just so I could try to make this happen.
beth grant could play the grandmother. she's a pro at playing hateful old ladies.
How about Kathy Bates as G’ma? She may have too strong a personality though.
"She would have been a good woman if someone had been there to shoot her every minute of her life."
Brilliant
Shootemup movie?
U shoulda bin there
Just incredible and amazing
Great for sure I have read all her work.. I think.. Just bear it Away
"You wouldn't shoot a lady, would you?" -- The Grandmother.
"I would hate to have to." -- The Misfit.
Miss O'Connor spins pure Comedy gold!
thanks for your remarks, you put it very well. One of the best stories ever written
thanks so much for this. i've loved ol' Tarwater for 50 years.
that really is a treasure
Thanks for this, I didn't feel like reading it today. ^^;
Absolutely brilliant
Love that accent
a very curious reading of this fabulous story, but, it is hers, and she has every right to do so. give it to a so called professional and they would wring the emotion from it like a wet Hawaiian shirt, whereas this flat straight way I would take this version over Meryll Streeps or any other actress's reading.But I wonder if I would notknowing it was OConnor. In short, still perplexed. But what a great fabulous story. Was when I first read it, and it gets better year by year.
Flannery didn't 'flinch' at Life when she wrote...she just laid it all out there daring you to disbelieve its random (yet "Guided") absurdity
What a hidden gem!
Wow!
Incredible
Amazing.
FLANNERY4EVER
Anybody who doesn't understand the "Queen for a day" reference...back in the 1950's, there was a TV show called "Queen for a day"!!! The contestants were 3 women on each show. Each would tell about their tragic lives. Then the studio audience would VOTE for their favorite. The winner would get a tiara and scepter. They would sit her on a "throne" and she would win a washer/dryer or a dinette set. This is how women had to be TREATED to get ANYTHING back then!!!
"A good man is hard to find. Everything is getting terrible..." Laugh at that nowadays. If Flannery O'Connor read this story today, the audience would be nothing but silent. Sign of the times.
teddy toto what specifically do you mean by that
Sweet hell this got real fucked up real fast
Y'all, I reckon the complexity of O'Connor's works is havin the
whereall to read between the lines.
It must be vexin, for the so-called, book smart people. Sometimes.., y'all gota think twice. Or the very least havin spiritual faith before you even read her works. Some of the critics of her time and some today, just don't get it. When you have the spirit of the Lord in you, the clarity is overwhelming. 📖🙏
♡
What an incredible story. If you'd like to hear a male narration of this story - please check out the one on my channel
Just read the comments. Anyone can analyze any writing as many times as they want, and, most likely, there will be many changes in the analysis; as many opinions as there are seconds spent thinking about it.
I rank her right behind Hemingway
She's better than Hemingway.
Better, I think.
She’s better. By much.
@@rhatley Slow your roll man.
she sounds like max cady.
The humorous beginning really does not prepare you for the ending.
wow thats a fuck'd up ending!!
here cause i didnt want to read this for homework
me too! Lol
Jill S. Schneiderman What a shame
Jill S. Schneiderman same
lol me rn
@@StudioSerious1 no its long and boring
You related to Manley?
Pizza
Have you even read any other Flannery O'Connor work besides "A Good Man is Hard to Find"? If so you'd know that one of the central elements of her works is that the people who are quick to judge and label people based on little information are the real trash! Besides of course they are laughing...it's funny, Flannery's work is BLACK COMEDY, you're supposed to laugh and feel unsettled at the same time
The genre of her writing has been called Southern Gothic. She is a master of it.
I know her bio reads that she lived in Georgia nearly her whole life but why does she sound like she spent a lot of time in Tidewater Virginia or the South Carolina lowcountry?
Because some areas of Georgia have this accent, too.
Also you can still hear this accent in Montgomery, Alabama and parts South of there.
This is a coastal southern accent that at least used to be heard from tidewater Virginia down to Florida.
She was born in Savannah, Georgia and moved to middle Georgia in adulthood.
Плохая запись - одно мученье.
john wesly is like enoch stop here! stop here!
1:31 can someone explain to me why the audience is laughing so hard when she says that "they never have been to east teneesee" i really don't understand why it's funny
The Grandmother sees herself as worldly-wise, but to her "being broad" means visiting east Tennessee.
East Tennessee touches Georgia. The grandmother is suggesting they'll see "other parts of the world," but they're literally side by side.
Exactly. Eastern Tennessee is 90 miles from Atlanta, with little difference "culturally," so hardly broadening their worldview.
it astounds me that anyone, even southerners and irish catholics could find anything of value in the writing of flannery o'connor. had she not been sick with lupus and lived much longer
she might have matured into a writer. it's like trying to find easter eggs in an easter egg hunt when somebody forgot to hide some eggs..
For me Flannerys stories illustrate the tension and suspicion inherent in solitary lives lived in company with, but not in genuine communion with, other solitary lives. Every character in A Good Man is a narcissist.
Hey, she was of my favorite authors back in the day, even if some of her stories were racist as hell. I like most of her short stories, including this one---always liked the ironic title (well, most of her stories had these ironic titles, come to think of it..) The main reason I liked her work was because her weird, dark sense of humor was very similar to mine---plus she was a gifted writer---her stories were like the writing equivalent of turning straw into gold--that's what I would compare it to.
I think you could make the case that her stories were racially insensitive, but I'm pretty convinced there was slightly more to her treatment of race than that. Look at her wording in this story, the little black boy who can't afford the same as the white family: If I could paint, I'd paint that picture. This is a woman trapped in the visual, who wears social commentary as a fashion statement, and doesn't actually want it to change. If she had the power to change things, she'd still 'paint that picture.'
God I love O'Connor.
Not racist at all! in fact it is a story that shines the light upon the aggression and the horror of racism. How can you call it racist? That would only be racist if it said at the end or through out the story that it was good ……….or the right thing to do…….understand>? I hate when people classify something as racist, when it is in fact exactly the opposite!
Try looking at another story she wrote…….about an old white man from the country forced to go live in Atlanta big city with the colored people! It shows the ignorance and also his forced reality when the neighbor from the apartment across the way…..yells at him ……read that one…...
+Dark Star Many of her stories were *about* racism, not racist in and of themselves. That is a crucial distinction.
nah she was racist haha but nice deflection attempt. read the shit that actually came out her mouth about people of color "read that one" she was born in 25' and white you think she went against the grain like that? all while trying to sell her writing? use your noodle and actually see what she said outside of the writing and not vomit out what you think
So she was racist because she was white? That sounds pretty racist. So sick of ignorant liberal Americans talking shit.
Why are they laughing? Am I missing on a joke?
"The children have been to Florida before. They should see different parts of the world and be broader. They have never seen East Tennessee." It's funny because there's not much to see in East Tennessee that's culturally different from either Georgia or Florida. It's even regarded as a "hillbilly dumping ground" according to the children. Seeing East Tennessee is hardly seeing anything in comparison to the rest of the world.
Danenhauer Blalock Oh I see, thanks for explaining it.
Is no one gonna mention how casually they used the n-word in this piece of literature??
Literature be like that sometimes
I'm going to read this to a college class, and I'm not sure what I'll do when I get to that word. But Flannery O'Connor uses it to characterize the person who says it.
@@mgrimes1367 Exactly. The characters phrasing.
This is exactly how the culture of her time and place thought and acted. It seems quaint to us in 2021 but her time and place was literally another world. That is one reason why her stories are so memorable......they seem fantastic to us......but, trust me, she was "telling it like it was". This was the very era of the KKK and that is not a good part of our history.
@@uriahpeep1753 Thank you for how eloquently your comment was written. It is such a fresh breath of air not to see an ignorant comment on RUclips.
Hello i like pizza
I think it's laugh track.
I can barely understand what she's saying. That American accent is as thick as a tree trunk.
That's a very specific East Georgia accent. The U.S. has many, many accents.
Honey chile! That 'thar accent is pure Georgian.......!
What kind of deeply disturbed person would write a story like this? Seriously.
+Tin Man She is no more disturbed than Quentin Tarantino. Both brilliant, both timeless. In other words, they will both be remembered throughout time.
It's a matter of taste. I guess I like dark and disturbed as much as I like other genres.
+Tin Man She was a very devout Christian. I don't want to try to translate the meaning of this story, as everybody has their own reactions. But O'Connor believed that the grace of God could reach into the life of any of us at any time, and in this story it is into the life of this petty, annoying, narrow-minded grandmother (whom the author obviously adores). Many of her stories are about a person being violently shocked into an epiphany. In this one, in the moment before she dies she recognizes the humanity in even a vicious killer, just as a true Christian might see Christ in the face of a wicked sinner. And perhaps, the writer suggests, although the words are in the mouth this evil character, that she (and any of us) might be a good person if we realized that every moment could be our last! That at each moment our immortal souls are at stake. I think that's the kind of person who wrote this story.
Dig deeper. She was probably one of the least disturbed human beings in history.
@@jsbrules "Many of her stories are about a person being violently shocked into an epiphany"-exactly!
I wonder if O'Connor ever found herself disgusted having such appeal to liberal elistists. These same psuedos she entertains with cheaps shots at rural culture and heritage.
But point of fact, East Tennesse, specifically the Great Smoky Mnts, is the number one natural tourist attraction in the country. Three times more people visit there than they do the Grand Canyon.
I never thought of her stories as humorous; it's almost as if the audience is missing the art of her story with cheap laughter. I love her accent but wish her flow was more animated and less monotonous.
She's one of the funnies authors I've ever read. She's constantly poking protetantism and cheap racism of the south, the petty evil in her characters.
Fat Alberto I believe I have injured an organ.
In college a group of friends one night after a few beers took turns reading her stories aloud. We couldnt stop laughing to Everything that Rises Must Converge.
There’s a lot of humor in her stories. I don’t know if any of them are outright “comedies,” but I feel like it’d be difficult not to laugh at something like the opening sentences of A Late Encounter with The Enemy.
No, the humour is inherent to the story.
A pretty toneless rendition from an author who was going through the motions as if she couldn't wait to get to the end. Were they short of recording tape and she had a deadline elsewhere to meet? A shocking story with important changes of pace and colour that was made to sound like someone reading out the contents of the telephone book.
Wow. That takes some brass ones.
To each his own, Mike Moran...
Totally disagree!!
Reading for an audience and, remember, she was not an actress or a ‘spoken word professional’. Authors aren’t always the best readers of their own work, but F O’C draws out the comedy, which some would fail to see. Id say she does an excellent job here.
Her accent is so weird! This lady should have spoken more slowly !!!
She was from Georgia. Of course she going to have an accent that's "weird." She was a Southerner.
No accent is weird, I could make the case that your accent is weird. Plus, her accent is associated with the underclasses, she's under no obligation to slow down for middle-class readers that are too self focused to come to terms with other dialects.
@@FreekinEkin2 I don't think this is an underclass accent at all. All the people I've known who have similar accents were actually upper middle class socio-economically. My high school English teacher from Georgia spoke somewhat like this, although not quite so strongly.
God this was horribly boring I hate english homework that involves Theese tyoes of stories
Gabriel Ramos my god you sound so dumb
Dear Gabriel......I am your mean, evil English teacher and......now I know what you think of my horrible assignments.......I will pinch you badly in class.......bye for now......
Shame.
I'll leave you guys with that!
Pizza