/lit/ - Literature

>>14186039
I've been told that /lit/ is a Flannery O'Connor board (her being Catholic and writing dark stories about outcasts full wicked humor might have something to do with it).

>>13716260

Flannery. <3

A good team is hard to find.

Anyone else read her?

Understanding her nuance and position is very hard for me in a lot of her stories, probably because of her foreign and complicated life (devout Roman Catholic, ill from a young age, Southern). Does anyone else have this problem?

For example, I'm not sure exactly what I'm supposed to get out of "A Good Man is Hard to Find". The grandmother seems to have good intentions but, when it comes down to it, is a very asinine and selfish character, isn't she? Are her actions genuine or is she just trying to escape certain death, even in the face of the death of her loved ones? I understand that the appeal of the Old South for Southerners like the grandmother (hence what may be easily perceived as self-absorption), but is it really more nuanced than this or is it simply self-absorption?

All this said, I've found the stories of hers that are much more straight-forward to interpret ("A Temple of the Holy Ghost", "The Life You Save May Be Your Own") to be profoundly moving and beautiful. Religious imagery and allusion on her magnitude is practically unheard of in the 20th century, and the characters are painfully realistic. Landscape and settings desolate. There's a ton of depth in stories only 10 or 20 pages long. Next to Faulkner and Melville she's among the best American authors I've ever read, and there's nothing much like her.

>>11942891
Flannery is Waifu.

Sure. You know what they always say, a good team is hard to find.

>>11597879
Of course, hands down.

>>11424079
This. Flannery is best girl.

A good /lit/ waifu is hard to find.

Yeah, I hear a good team is hard to find.

>>11315256
Kek.

>>11299249
Here, have another Flannery.

>>11287158
Flannery is best girl.

>>11280017
Umm excuse me?

>>11102901
Wrong.

What's the equivalent of "start with the Greeks" for short stories? I mean, what is a list of the essential short stories or collections of short stories that one should start with? I realized that ever since I started reading a lot 3 years ago I've mostly read novels, but want to read more short stories now. (Some of the things I've read that you don't need to mention: Kafka's shorts, Dubliners, Borges', Hemingway's, Vonnegut's). I also know pic related is supposed to be good.

>>10134022
women think they have to prove something instead of just writing from the heart, i don't have respect for someone who wants to demonstrate how she can be as good as a man

there are a lot of good female authors though, pic related is on my top 5 of the best short story writers of all time

Flannery O'Connor of course

BEST GIRL

>>9919638
The best of them.