A garrulous grandmother and a roaming bandit face off on a dirt road. A Bible salesman lures a one-legged philosopher into a barn. A traveling handyman teaches a deaf woman her first word on an old plantation.
Brbljiva baka i razbojnik lutalica se suočavaju na prašnjavom putu. Prodavac Biblije namamljuje filozofkinju s amputiranom nogom u ambar. Na staroj plantaži, putujući nadničar podučava gluvu ženu njenoj prvoj reči.
From her farm in rural Georgia, surrounded by a flock of pet birds, Flannery O’Connor scribbled tales of outcasts, intruders and misfits staged in the world she knew best: the American South. She published two novels, but is perhaps best known for her short stories, which explored small-town life with stinging language, offbeat humor, and delightfully unsavory scenarios.
Na svojoj farmi u ruralnoj Džordžiji, okružena jatom ptica ljubimaca, Flaneri O'Konor je ispisivala priče o otpadnicima, uljezima i neprilagođenima smeštene u svetu koji je najbolje poznavala: američkom Jugu. Objavila je dva romana, ali je verovatno najpoznatija po svojim kratkim pričama, koje su istraživale život u malom gradu prodornim jezikom, neobičnim humorom, kao i očaravajuće neprijatnim scenarijima.
In her spare time O’Connor drew cartoons, and her writing is also brimming with caricature. In her stories, a mother has a face “as broad and innocent as a cabbage,” a man has as much drive as a “floor mop,” and one woman’s body is shaped like “a funeral urn.”
U slobodno vreme, O'Konor je crtala karikature, a njeno pisanje je takođe ispunjeno karikaturom. U njenim pričama, majka ima lice „široko i nevino kao kupus“, čovek ima elana koliko i „krpa za brisanje poda“, a telo jedne žene je oblikovano kao „pogrebna urna“.
The names of her characters are equally sly. Take the story “The Life You Save May be Your Own,” where the one-handed drifter Tom Shiftlet wanders into the lives of an old woman named Lucynell Crater and her deaf and mute daughter.
Imena njenih likova su jednako promišljena. Uzmite priču: „Život koji spasiš možda bude tvoj“, gde lutalica bez ruke Tom Šiftlet [shifty - prevrtljiv] doluta u živote starice po imenu Lusinel Krejter i njene gluvoneme kćerke.
Though Mrs. Crater is self-assured, her isolated home is falling apart. At first, we may be suspicious of Shiftlet’s motives when he offers to help around the house, but O’Connor soon reveals the old woman to be just as scheming as her unexpected guest– and rattles the reader’s presumptions about who has the upper hand.
Iako je gđa Krejter samouverena, njen izolovani dom se raspada. U početku, možda smo sumnjičavi zbog Šiftletovih motiva kada se ponudi da im pomaže oko kuće, ali O'Konor uskoro razotkriva da je starica jednako prepredena kao i njen neočekivani gost, i izvrće čitaočeve pretpostavke o tome ko ima premoć.
For O’Connor, no subject was off limits. Though she was a devout Catholic, she wasn’t afraid to explore the possibility of pious thought and unpious behavior co-existing in the same person. In her novel The Violent Bear it Away, the main character grapples with the choice to become a man of God – but also sets fires and commits murder. The book opens with the reluctant prophet in a particularly compromising position: “Francis Marion Tarwater’s uncle had been dead for only half a day when the boy got too drunk to finish digging his grave.” This leaves a passerby to “drag the body from the breakfast table where it was still sitting and bury it […] with enough dirt on top to keep the dogs from digging it up.”
Za O'Konor nijedna tema nije bila van domašaja. Iako je bila predana katolkinja, nije se plašila da istražuje mogućnost da pobožno razmišljanje i nepobožno ponašanje koegzistiraju u istoj osobi. U njenom romanu „Nasilni pobeđuju“, glavni lik je rastrzan izborom da postane božji čovek, ali i podmeće požare i vrši ubistva. Knjiga počinje oklevajućim prorokom u izuzetno kompromitujućem položaju: „Ujak Frensisa Meriona Tarvotera je tek pola dana bio mrtav kada se dečak toliko napio da nije mogao da dovrši kopanje groba.“ Zbog toga je povereno prolazniku „da odvuče telo sa stola za doručkovanje na kom je i dalje stajalo, i da ga zakopa [...] sa dovoljno zemlje odozgo kako ga psi ne bi otkopali.“
Though her own politics are still debated, O’Connor’s fiction could also be attuned to the racism of the South. In “Everything that Rises Must Converge,” she depicts a son raging at his mother’s bigotry. But the story reveals that he has his own blind spots and suggests that simply recognizing evil doesn’t exempt his character from scrutiny.
Iako se o njenim političkim stavovima i dalje raspravlja, O'Konorina fikcija bi takođe mogla da bude u skladu sa južnjačkim rasizmom. U „Sve što raste mora se sastati“, prikazuje sina koji besni zbog majčine netrpeljivosti. Međutim, priča otkriva da i on ima sopstvene zablude i nagoveštava kako puko prepoznavanje zla ne oslobađa njegov karakter preispitivanja.
Even as O’Connor probes the most unsavory aspects of humanity, she leaves the door to redemption open a crack. In “A Good Man is Hard to Find,” she redeems an insufferable grandmother for forgiving a hardened criminal, even as he closes in on her family. Though we might balk at the price the woman pays for this redemption, we’re forced to confront the nuance in moments we might otherwise consider purely violent or evil.
Čak i dok O'Konor ispituje najneprijatnije aspekte ljudskosti, ostavlja otvorena vrata za iskupljenje. U priči „Dobrog čoveka je teško naći“, iskupljuje nepodnošljivu baku zato što oprašta okorelom kriminalcu, čak i kad se ustremi na njenu porodicu. Iako možemo da negodujemo zbog cene koju žena plaća za ovo iskupljenje, prinuđeni smo da se suočimo sa iznijansiranošću trenutaka koje bismo inače posmatrali krajnje nasilnim ili zlim.
O’Connor’s mastery of the grotesque and her explorations of the insularity and superstition of the South led her to be classified as a Southern Gothic writer. But her work pushed beyond the purely ridiculous and frightening characteristics associated with the genre to reveal the variety and nuance of human character. She knew some of this variety was uncomfortable, and that her stories could be an acquired taste – but she took pleasure in challenging her readers.
O'Konorino vladanje groteskom i njena istraživanja uskogrudosti i sujeverja Juga svrstali su je u pisce južnjačke gotike. Međutim, njena dela su prevazilazila puki apsurd i zastrašujuće karakteristike u vezi s tim žanrom kako bi razotkrila raznolikost i iznijansiranost ljudskog karaktera. Znala je da je ponešto od ove raznolikosti neprijatno i da njene priče nisu za svakoga, ali je pronašla užitak u izazivanju čitalaca.
O’Connor died of lupus at the age of 39, after the disease had mostly confined her to her farm in Georgia for twelve years. During those years, she penned much of her most imaginative work. Her ability to flit between revulsion and revelation continues to draw readers to her endlessly surprising fictional worlds. As her character Tom Shiftlet notes, the body is “like a house: it don’t go anywhere, but the spirit, lady, is like an automobile: always on the move.”
O'Konor je umrla od lupusa sa 39 godina, nakon što ju je bolest uglavnom vezala za farmu u Džordžiji tokom 12 godina. Tokom tih godina, napisala je većinu svojih najmaštovitijih dela. Njena sposobnost poskakivanja između odvratnosti i otkrovenja i dalje privlači čitaoce njenim beskrajno iznenađujućim fiktivnim svetovima. Kako njen lik Tom Šiftlet primećuje, telo je „kao kuća: ne ide nikuda, ali je duh, gospođo, kao automobil: stalno u pokretu.“