Although given what I've read about this book, Jessica Hooten Wilson ought to get some kind of credit here, as she assembled and arranged this book from scraps. More than an editor, but less than a co-writer.
It weighs in at 191 pages, so it could be a six days or less project. But I'm still simultaneously working my way through Opera as Hypermedium, so that will probably put it to a 9 day thing. Of course, we are talking about Brand New, Never Before Seen Flannery O, and that's a very exciting thing.
Okay. Enough talk. Let's read.
Day 1 (DDRD 2,346) April 3, 2024
Read to page 37. And it was a very busy day Joe set up for a three day stay at a prospective supported living facility. Could have read more, but my head was too jangly after leaving Joe. Sigh.
There's a note on page 12, and since I'm the kind of guy who reads notes, I flipped to the back of the book to have a look. In said note there was a reference to Revelation and Convergence: Flannery O'Connor and the Catholic Intellectual Tradition by Mark Bosco SJ, and of course that went straight up my alley and I went In Search Of. Couldn't find a copy for less than $25, but guess what?
https://archive.org/details/revelationconver0000unse
That's what Ahm talkin' 'bout.
I also came across a FO' documentary on hoopla which looks interesting:
This is what always happens when I read--especially with non-fiction--one thing leads to another, usw. Which is why I own too many books...and why I'll never "catch up." Unless, of course, there IS a 👼💢Rock 'n' Roll Heaven💢👼.
Day 2 (DDRD 2,347) April 4, 2024
Read to page 80. But I'll probably have another helping after I get to some dad duties. Meanwhile....
I'm "supposed" to be reading Dostoevsky's Demons right now. That was the next...and penultimate...in my Complete Novels of Dostoyevsky project.) I guess FO' knows that.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/farrow
Hmm. Check this out:
"... I hope we cringe to see the N-word on the page (even the elided version, as we have chosen to present it) and refuse to read it aloud." (78)
Read to page 102. So that's a 65 page day. Not too shabby. And I'm enjoying it, for sure, but it is kind of strange. JH Wilson has taken a bunch of disconnected, unorganized fragments and jigsaw-puzzled them into the semblance of a novel. So you'll get a chapter by FO', then a page or two or three from JHW which attempts to put the piece into context. JHW's writing is too much for me sometimes: a bit heavy-handed, tending towards the purple end of the prose spectrum, and more than a dash of hubris and effrontery. So, for instance, in one of the FO' sections, JHW inserts a paragraph of her own, tagging it with a note which says it was needed for clarity. Hmpf.
And that quote from page 78? I am no fan of the word "nigger." I have never used the word with reference to a Black person. But scooping it out of Flannery O'Connor's writing is not okay. It smacks of White liberal heavy-handedness. (The kind that tells non-White people what they ought to feel, what they ought to be called, etc.) And worse, referring to it as "the N-word" is just bullshit. (As Louie C.K. once said, "You're just making me say it.") If you want to put a disclaimer in front of the work, fine. If you want to put a back rectangle in place of the word, fine. But none of this namby pamby shit, you know?
Are we not men?
Day 3 (DDRD 2,348) April 5, 2024
Read to page 158. 56 pages. And leaving a mere 25 pages. So of course I'm thinking about finishing it off. However...
Here's the thing:
"He's spoiled that n---- to death," she said. He's not worth shooting." (112)
JHW, on her own recognizance (and in defiance of what FO' had written) has sliced the offensive word, leaving just enough of it to force the reader to say it, but has left the much more offensive sentence which states that a Black man's life isn't worth the expense of a bullet. Which is more offensive bathe racist word or the idea that a Black man's life is worthless? That, to me, is what's wrong with liberals. They see the tree, but not the forest...which is on fire. And beyond that: FO' isn't using the word to demean Black people. She's using it to show the ignorance of people who use that word. And I think it's obvious that JHW understands that, which makes you wonder why she felt the need to count the times the word was used (I can't remember what it was, but she really did give an exact number, somewhere in the neighborhood of 150 as I recall) and then scrape 83% of it away, leaving just enough of the abortion on the table for us to see. Seems like it's more about her showing how morally upright SHE is. More morally upright than FO', you'd think, since JHW would NEVER stoop to using such a terrible word. (And her s---- probably doesn't s----, either.)
Ahem.
I've enjoyed FO's writing in this "book" and tolerated JHW's up to thus point, but it bothered out for me on page 149. It was heading that way when JHW included an unpublished scrap from The Violent Bear It Away because she thought it helped to explain Walter's change / conversion in Wht Do the Heather Rage? ...how's THAT for presumptuous???... but nothing tops this:
Yep. She decided to put an ending to Flannery O'Conner's unfinished novel. I suppose she thought that entitling it "A Presumptuous Attempt to End the Nivek" would mitigate the presumotion...the audacity...the effrontery...the brazenness...the disresPECTfulness...of pretending to speaking in O'Connor as voice. Fuckun' hell. Take back any nice things I've previously said about this Wilson woman. Fuck her, man. Just fuck her.
Day 4 (DDRD 2,349) April 6, 2024
Read to page 191 = The End.
(1) Leviathan 63 days, 729 pages
(2) Stalingrad 27 days, 982 pages
(3) Life and Fate 26 days, 880 pages
(4) The Second World War 34 + 32 + 40 + 43 + 31 + 32 days = 212 days, 4,379 pages
(5) Baron Wenckheim's Homecoming 10 days, 572 pages
(6) The Great Bridge 25 days, 636 pages
(7) The Path Between the Seas 29 days, 698 pages
(8) Blake: Prophet Against Empire, 23 days, 523 pages
(9) Jerusalem 61 days, 1,266 pages
(10) Voice of the Fire 9 days, 320 pages
(11) The Fountainhead 15 days, 720 pages
(13) The Pacific Trilogy: The Conquering Tide 28 days, 656 pages
(14) The Pacific Trilogy: Twilight of the Gods 31 days, 944 pages
(16) Toward Jazz 18 days, 224 pages
(17) The Worlds of Jazz 13 days, 279 pages
(18) To Be or Not...to Bop 14 days, 571 pages
(19) Kind of Blue 4 days, 224 pages
(20) Kind of Blue: Miles Davis and his Masterpiece: 5 days, 256 pages
(21) Miles: The Autobiography 16 days, 445 pages
(21) A Love Supreme: The Story of John Coltrane's Signature Album: 8 days, 287 pages
(22) Ascension: John Coltrane and His Quest 8 days, 304 pages
(23) Living With Music: Ralph Ellison's Jazz Writings 11 days 325 pages
(25) Oliver Twist 16 days, 542 pages
(26) Nicholas Nickleby 27 days, 1,045 pages
(27) The Old Curiosity Shop 22 days, 753 pages
(28) Barnaby Rudge 24 days, 866 pages
(30) Martin Chuzzlewit 32 days, 1,045 pages
(31) American Notes 10 days, 324 pages
(32) Pictures From Italy 7 days, 211 pages
(33) Christmas Stories Volume I 10 days, 456 pages
(34) Christmas Stories Volume II 15 days, 472 pages
(1) Miscellaneous Papers Volume II 28 days (don't count, while reading BH), 494 pages
(2) Bleak House 37 days, 1,098 pages
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