October 29, 2018 Every day we see people who are busy distorting their talents in order to enhance their popularity or to make money that they could do without. We can safely say that this, if done consciously, is reprehensible. But even oftener, I think, we see people distorting their talents in the name of God for reasons that they think are good—to reform or to teach or to lead people to the Church. And it is much less easy to say that this is reprehensible. None of us is able to judge such people themselves, but we must, for the sake of truth, judge the products they make. We must say whether this or that novel truthfully portrays the aspect of reality that it sets out to portray. The novelist who deliberately misuses his talent for some good purpose may be committing no sin, but he is certainly committing a grave inconsistency, for he is trying to reflect God with what amounts to a practical untruth.

O’Connor believed that a fiction writer trying to extend his or her own natural limits, or the limits of a story, makes for bad fiction. She thought the purpose of a Christian novel, for example, is not to super-naturalize but to reflect things as they are. True aspects of Christianity, she believed, are present in the natural and therefore can be reflected as such. It is not the author’s job to explicitly convert readers, to moralize or to “play God.” To do so might even be un-Christian. To O’Connor, a successful novelist who wishes to portray Christian themes should be able to do so without needing to stretch and dramatize the plot to the point of obvious excess.

November 1, 2018
When we look at a good deal of serious modern fiction, and particularly Southern fiction, we find this quality about it that is generally described, in a pejorative sense, as grotesque. Of course, I have found that anything that comes out of the South is going to be called grotesque by the Northern reader, unless it is grotesque, in which case it is going to be called realistic.

Flannery O’Connor compels readers to reflect on what it means to be grotesque. In her mind, many of us have become desensitized to the grotesque, which we in turn interpret as normal. But when readers do not adequately push themselves to interpret newly uncovered literary ground, the fiction they read can come off as strange and grotesque.

November 20, 2018
In the last 20 years, the colleges have been emphasizing creative writing to such an extent that you almost feel that any idiot with a nickel's worth of talent can emerge from a writing class able to write a competent story. In fact, so many people can now write competent stories that the short story as a medium is in danger of dying of competence. We want competence, but competence by itself is deadly. What is needed is the vision to go with it, and you do not get this from a writing class.

Though she herself studied at the University of Iowa’s Writers’ Workshop, O’Connor was not afraid to criticize aspects of how writing was taught. And, while not totally dismissing the value of writing programs, she was also not afraid to criticize writers who came out of such programs. To her, learning how to master a particular technique was not enough to make a great writer.

December 2, 2018
The best American writing has always been regional … But to be regional in the best sense you have to see beyond the region. For example, the Fugitives at Vanderbilt in the '20s felt that the South they knew was passing away and they wanted to get it down before it went, but they had a larger vision than just the South. They were against what they saw coming, against the social planner, fellow traveller spirit that came along in the next 10 years. They looked to the past and future to make a judgement in their own times.

Flannery O’Connor, who was born and died in Georgia, often wrote about themes related to the South. She admired the “Fugitive” poets, a group of writers linked to the Vanderbilt literary magazine in the 1920s. Here, she credits these writers with keeping their image of the South alive.

After exploring Flannery O'Connor's "blog," what are some of the major themes you see being addressed. Make a list of the important issues, and determine what Flannery's opinion on them is.
(PLEASE HURRY I WILL GIVE BRAINLIEST)