Artefact Fiction
Violence and the Recovery of Reality in O'Connor's Prose
For many, an encounter with Flannery O’Connor’s fiction leaves an impression of shocked weirdness. Characters who seem both odd and strangely familiar embroil themselves in lies, seductions, and violence. The violence especially tends to leave the reader wondering “What just happened?” There’s a sense of disorientation, a ringing in the ears, so-to-speak, as O’Connor’s “shout” awakens something that is often difficult to put one’s finger on. One needs a calibrated lens to help see the “depth on depth” of meaning inherent in her stories. No One Was Paying Any Attention to the Sky: Flannery O’Connor and Modernity by Damian Ference serves such a purpose.
