Thank you so much! I am so glad it was useful to you. Flannery O’Connor was from such an oral culture that her stories really lend themselves to audio!

@@HannahsBooks I really enjoyed it. I took care of a retired American lit professor 4 years ago who had me read this story at his kitchen table. Last week, I wrote a creative non fiction piece about this patient and cherishing my time with him and learning what I learned from him. At the time I could not remember the name of the story he had me read, but I remembered that it was dark. Ill be damned if not a week later we are reading this story in my class.

It’s the same for me!

Same

Me too!!

Thank you very much! What a nice comment!

Agree. I have listened elsewhere. ♥️

Agreed!

Thank you so much! I’m glad you liked the reading. FO’C is one of my favorite short story writers!

Thank you very much! I am so glad you enjoyed it.

Thank you very much!

Yep, the one word I'd use to describe this story is: Pleasant.

Thank you so much!

I just visited her home in Milledgeville,GA, and loved it! This is one of my favorite stories

Oh how wonderful! I am very envious of your visit!

Oh how wonderful! I am very envious of your visit!

@@HaintblueRee wow, that’s great. When I get back south I’ll put it in my list. ❤️❤️

Southern gothic so frequently combines a certain amount of humor, something that looks like evil, and also great empathy. Just wild-and this might be her most brutal.

Thank you so much!

Thank you so much, Irving!

💜

Thank you! I’m so thrilled to hear that students enjoy these readings of such wonderful stories!

Thank you very much, Hayley!

Thank you so much, Dwight! She’s such a fantastic writer. A real favorite of mine.

Thank you so much, Kami!

Thank you so much!

Thank you so much! It is so lovely to see these very kind comments!

Thank you so much!

I haven’t read the King story. Thanks for the recommendation!

@@HannahsBooks Read very well nice voice, enjoyed listning!

@@ABloodyEyeFull Thank you!

Would be interested to hear your opinion of On Slide Inn Road, maybe you could do a reading if you like it!

@@ABloodyEyeFull I recently made a video about the two! Thank you so very much for letting me know about it!

Thank you! I hope the class goes well!

Thank you!

Excellent! F’OC grew up in a culture rooted in the oral tradition, so it seems perfect for a read-aloud!

Thank you so much! And welcome. I'll warn you that most of my videos are me talking about what I've just read rather than me reading stories aloud. But if you do subscribe, you can keep your eye out for any video filmed in front of the gray barn, which will always be story. (I think I am going to film a new Flannery O'Connor story during October, and I have a couple of other stories lined up, too--probably just one story a month.)

🤓Absolutely my pleasure.

I am so flattered! Thank you for letting me know your students are using it. What an honor. I was just thinking about making a few more story videos--perhaps one of Faulkner's "A Rose for Emily" or perhaps some Poe. Any recommendations? I had been thinking of these stories as performances for my booktube friends, but I definitely would be happy to record a few that you think might be useful for students. Any thoughts on stories that might be widely assigned?

@@HannahsBooks Not the same person as the original commenter, but my Eng102 class has used both this story and "A Rose for Emily". I would like to add one vote to that story for everyone who takes this class after me! I appreciate that you made this and with all the effort that you clearly put in!

@@brettb205 Wonderful! I am planning to record “Everything that Rises Must Converge” in early March but might try “A Rose for Emily shortly afterwards. Thank you so much for your encouragement.

I had to read this for college 7yrs ago, but til this day I’m still wondering what the heck we were supposed to learn from it.

You might check out my discussion video, linked to in the description box.

I am so glad it works for you! Thanks for telling me.

Sarah Flynn I too really love to read and reread O’Connor. She really seems to grow and change with me.

@@janettripper3132 Thank you so much!

Thank you!

Thank you so much! What a wonderful comment! I think the story has a lot of power despite its wildly disturbing plot!

It's a story of grace and hope despite its brutality.

@@AidanRKelly I didn’t see the hope and grace in my 20’s. Maybe I would now but I’m doubtful. Maybe I’ll reread.

It's subtle but definitely there. The story shows how God works in the darkest places, even drawing good from horrible atrocities. And often times we have to be shaken to our core, to hit rock bottom, to have a gun pointed at us or even to point the gun, to be open to real change ("she would of been a good woman if it had been somebody there to shoot her every minute of her life"). O'Connor loves to showcase moments of initial conversion/grace/redemption in the lives of broken and wicked individuals. These moments are not often full 180's, or complete arcs. It's highly extraordinary for somebody to change entirely from sinner to saint in one moment, so O'Connor doesn't seem so interested in that. IMO the crux of the redemption of both the Misfit and the grandmother revolves around the grandmother's last words/gesture. I don't want to rob you of the fun of illuminating the story's meaning, though, so I'll leave it at that.

@@AidanRKelly oh man you’ve just given me an excellent reason to listen to it narrated. I am a solid believer in God, redemption and grace but at 19-20 I so totally missed that in the story. I’m going to listen tonight! Thank you!

Thank you. Yes, she is not exactly an uplifting writer! When you are in the mood, try our Flannery O'Connor's short story "Everything that Rises Must Converge." I have a reading of it on my channel, and there are lots of free copies of it online otherwise, too. Really an interesting story--but really not any more uplifting...

🤓Thank you!

Thanks. I thought my own southern accent was probably quite enough!

@@HannahsBooks Spot on! You can really notice the oral tradition of the American South in her writing, going back to, and culminating in, Mark Twain, whose texts (even his non-fiction) almost seem to beg to be performed.

There's a recording of Flannery herself reading it live here on KZfaq. It's so good. You get a taste of her humor and personality.

@iamamaniaint I love hearing her read her stories-and I love the recordings of Eudora Welty reading her own stories, too. I hope an audio engineer will clean up the audio slightly to make them even more enjoyable!

@@HannahsBooks I somehow understand her writing so much more just from hearing her read it aloud. It was truly moving. Thanks for the Eudora Welty suggestion! I've only read a few of hers, so I have a lot to look forward to.

Thank you so much!

Ooh, great idea! Thanks!

Aww… thank you so much!

Thank you very much. Yes, I practice and practice so I have the words under my tongue, but I have my computer available with the words showing in big letters as I read, for all the moments when I forget what comes next!

🤗

Thank you very much. It is a powerful story and FoC used the word deliberately, but it is really, really hard to hear.

Thank you so much! Flannery O'Connor is such an interesting writer!

Thank you so much! FO’C is such an interesting writer!

It is a bit confounding, isn't it? I do have a video analyzing it, but there are still so much to think about!

😎

It is a surprise, isn’t it? O’Connor often has these transformative moments at the ends of her stories-but few are as intense as this one!

Yep. I think Flannery O'Connor tries to open her eyes a bit right at the very end!

@@HannahsBooks there is hope for us all

An amazing story, isn’t it?

Your reading is exactly how this story should be read. Thank you!!@@HannahsBooks

@@janetmario Thank you very much, Janet! That is very kind of you. I have a couple of other audio-book style readings on this channel if you’re interested.

Oh yes!! You had me at the first line. I've subscribed. @@HannahsBooks

@@janetmario Welcome! I’ll warn you that most of what I do here is to talk about books I’ve been reading. I will totally understand if the channel as a whole is not what you are looking for!

You mean the author’s perspective? I agree with you!

@@HannahsBooks yes Flannery. I remember a short story of a Black man looking over a fence at a bull and she talking with. I see her as someone we might now call a mystic as she saw deeper

Thank you so much, Edd. Hearing the words aloud in today's world feels so different than reading them within context. I very much appreciate your words. I felt quite uneasy about how I should handle it, and am thrilled that this approach worked for you.

@@HannahsBooks you are welcome x and yes it worked wonderfully 😘

Thank you so much, Jellyfish! I’ve never been called a slay queen before!

You're hilarious, don't Google picaninny.

I hear you. I thought about the issue a lot, and have had some interesting conversations along the lines you are talking about with some of the other commenters below. Thanks for sharing your input.

@@HannahsBooks you are welcome Hannah ,I like your voice and the way you read but young people need to know that racist and sexist language was used by many best selling authors ,shocking as that is it should not be hidden ot "whitewashed".

Well you know there’s a racial slur there it doesn’t need to be mentioned.

It wouldn't be available here if it had been included.

Someone reminded me of this line very recently-a line I had not thought about in years!

It is a heartbreaking story--especially seeing her start to make the connection right at the very end...

Ha! I just “muted” the light when I was editing. So sorry for the spookiness.

I have such mixed feelings about this issue. I guess I would prefer for young people to be exposed to the story knowing what the author really wrote (and why) rather than having it replaced without their knowledge. I intended this reading for both “grown-up intelligent people” (as you say) and young readers first encountering FO’C.

Ha! I understand that you are offering a critique-and your approach is brilliant. Thank you.

Thank you for your support.

I agree with you up to a point. It felt very important to me not to just secretly excise the word from the text of the story (which is what many books and audios do). Yet I felt that if the word were said, young readers would almost certainly not read the story or listen to the audio. And yes, I agree that my choice interrupts the flow. I wish I had come up with a better solution. Thanks for your comment.

Part of what makes the word so offensive is the fact that people like the grandmother said it offhandedly. I doubt Flannery O’Connor put it in there without thought.

Thank you for your comment. I hear you about censorship! But the word I replaced was not “negro”-as you quote in your comment. The word I visibly cut would keep this incredible story from being read. If I had chosen to replace it here instead with a choice like negro, as you do, I feel I would be enacting censorship so intensely that people would not even know that I had made the change.

«Oh look at the cute little pickaninny!" she said and pointed to a Negro child standing in the door of a shack». This is the sentence. You said «[…] pointed to a child […]». It is not relevant which word is censored, but the act itself. No one has the authority to correct/suppress/change a word used by a great writer who lived in a different historical period. Readers must make an effort to understand the historical period and why she used that word. Removing it only does serious damage to the culture. And for what? To attract more listeners? More likes? We must learn to be more cultured, to understand the nuances of words, and to understand why an author has used them (this is crucial for a better understanding of history). So, with regard to Shakespeare, for example The Merchant of Venice, which is about a bad Jew (politically incorrect to include such a character), what should we do? Censor the word Jew? Or throw out the poem so that even the most conservative Jews can read it? To repeat, editing an author's original text is censorship, according to the dictionary: 'the suppression or prohibition of any parts of books, films, news, etc. that are considered obscene, politically unacceptable, or a threat to security'. And censorship is the stuff of bad times.

I completely agree with your view on the matter. Art is about taking a subjective view on things. There is an immense difference between saying that a word is offensive to personally finding a word offensive. Things worsen when one will take “personal” liberty in modifying one’s words in order to accommodate their personal feelings. Imagine taking a painting by a famous artist and modifying it just because we don’t agree with a particular aspect. Furthermore, it’s all about context… everything appears logical and homogeneous within its context, after all, we possess the freedom of not having to look or listen to something if we find it offensive, but dare no one instruct others how to talk, express or think!

Thank you. We disagree about this issue, I’m afraid. For me, not speaking a word aloud (esp the “n-word” in this story) is quite different from removing the word from formal publication. I fully agree with you that we need to appreciate why authors (and their different specific characters) use particular language. I disagree, however, that inflammatory language spoken aloud in a presentation mostly for high schoolers and college students-who are just starting to learn about the historicity of both language and ideology, and who are also learning about the difference between a prejudiced character and a prejudiced author-would help them learn those lessons. Learning to appreciate the story with the full knowledge that the usage is there seems to me to be a way to introduce this very way of thinking. I understand that you would make other choices.

@@HannahsBooks the problem kicks in when one uses such a word, and is racist.

@@moomoo3031 When I first read it, I was appalled. The more I learned about it, the more I began to love it. You might check out the analysis video linked to in the description box to see if it might change your mind!

I have not heard anyone say that in so long! Thanks for the chuckle.