“Revelation”
As many of you know, Flannery O’Connor is not only the greatest theologian of the 20th century, she is also one to whose writings I return regularly. In particular, I read the story “Revelation” to my class each time I teach on Revelation in an attempt to demystify the world-inverting message of apocalyptic literature.
This time around I noticed something I hadn’t before: how a theme or two from Job works its way in. At one point, Ms. Turpin, who has been given a startling revelation from God in the form of a book thrown at her head, is described as defending herself against it in these words:
Occasionally she raised her fist and made a small stabbing motion over her chest as if she was defending her innocence to invisible guests wh were like the comforters of Job, reasonable-seeming but wrong.
Ok, so that part is obvious enough. We’re immediately told that her protuberance is turning a greenish blue. Hmmm…
Perhaps because I have so recently watched A Serious Man, the following Joban allusion jumped out at me for the first time, at the end of the next scene:
The dark protuberance over her eye looked like a miniature tornado cloud which might any moment sweep across the horizon of her brow.
She then marches off, as to battle–a fight with God over her revelation. And from her own mouth will come the words of God’s self-defense, such as it is. She will provide her own answer when her question echoes back to her from the heavenly-earthy throne.
Dr. Kirk,
I was reading this post the same time I read yours and thought it might be interesting to get your thoughts on this read of O’Connor.
I tried to post a comment but it has disappeared if it is awaiting moderation disregard this.
Thanks for letting me know. For some reason it was in the spam folder.
I have spent many moments contemplating ugly Mary Grace
Outstanding. Might I ask, with what result? And are you contemplating her ugliness per se, or simply the character Mary Grace who happens to be ugly?
The story was discussed in a class I took, and the professor mentioned an exchange of letters between O’Conner and a friend wherein O’Conner essentially admits that she made Mary Grace ugly because she loved the character. I’ve been trying to figure out exactly what that means ever since.