Flannery O'Connor was a visionary.
Her protagonists were all narcissists, pseudo-intellectuals, self-proclaimed prophets and do-gooders, immature progressives "rebelling" against their conservative upbringing.
Her irony and slight humor pointed out all the flaws in her characters, because it was essentially their own self-important actions that brought about all the chaos.
In this one story, "Everything That Rises Must Converge," this guy Julian wants to teach his old-South-values mother a "lesson" by going out of his way to strike up intellectual conversations with black people on the bus (despite the fact that they usually get annoyed by this--honestly, the kid has no sense of privacy). His mother gets punched in the face by this one black woman who she accidentally insults, and instead of consoling his mother, Julian drives the stake even further into her chest by calling her a "child" and telling her, basically, that she needs to get with it.
But O'Connor isn't saying that the old-South values were any better than the progressive ones. She wasn't being racist. She was just pointing out the arrogance of the youth, the holier-than-thou bull shit attitude Julian had.
The elitism, the pseudo-intellectual I-know-better-than-you thing, it's all so antiquated. That's the same sort of thing we see in Congress today. At the Ivy League schools. The kids that think that they're so edgy and cool, with their liberalism, their progressive values. They're no different than Julian. They think they know better, but who're they to say.
At the end of the story, his mother dies. Not because she was punched, but because her son wouldn't give it a rest. By "teaching his mother a lesson," he killed her. I guess in order to accept his new friends, he had to sacrifice his family.
God, I love this intellectual procrastination.
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Curse ye, swine!
My mom is in Mexico.
In the midst of a "swine flu" pandemic.
Yikes! That's no good.
My stepdad won two tickets to anywhere in the world, and they went to Mexico. In the middle of a swine flu pandemic.
It's not like they could have forseen the crisis. They set this whole thing up awhile ago.
But, oh! What irony!
As a future English major, I kind of appreciate the situation. As much as it might kill me to do so.
In the midst of a "swine flu" pandemic.
Yikes! That's no good.
My stepdad won two tickets to anywhere in the world, and they went to Mexico. In the middle of a swine flu pandemic.
It's not like they could have forseen the crisis. They set this whole thing up awhile ago.
But, oh! What irony!
As a future English major, I kind of appreciate the situation. As much as it might kill me to do so.
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Autonomy, but not the Buzzcocks
The Fountainhead is a classic movie, and if you haven't seen it, well, bah humbug!
It's a masterpiece, and Ayn Rand, the novel's author, adapted the screenplay herself--and by doing so, she lives up to the novel/movie's ultimate theme.
Autonomy is so belittled by "society" these days, whatever that means, and I really feel that Fountainhead represents what we have gotten so far away from. Its protagonist, Howard Roark, is an innovative, fiercely unique, uncompromisingly independent architect. He allows the school board to kick him out of college because he refuses to conform to the antiquated standards they went by. He went broke, he lost everything, all but his integrity, and in the end, no one could break him. He rose to success by his own standards and became one of the greatest architects of his time.
All of this without anyone's help or input, without anyone else's ideas or money, without compromising--ever.
But since Britney Spears is a more likely candidate for role model-ship these days than Howard Roark, I weep for the grandchildren of the greatest generation. The people I have to go to school with.
They're more interested in Gossip Girl than in anything substantiative (although, admittedly, it's a favorite of mine). The closest they'll get to a book is Twilight (yes, even Harry Potter, my first true love, is frowned upon now). And they've been surrounded by the news of impending (ahem, unfolding) economic doom, which was supposedly orchestrated by idiot-in-chief Bush and perpetuated by big-business goons.
Not that they watch the news or anything.
But still. What are the plebes supposed to believe? That the housing policies in the Clinton administration had anything to do with the mortgage crisis? That Barney Frank's "regulations" on AIG and other big financial companies actually forced the companies to take on low mortgage loans and sink the markets? That bailing the banks out is a good thing, that it is legal, that it will work, that it sets a good example for companies in the future, for you and me?
No, the government has been irresponsible, and while we're still expected to do the right thing (and still get arrested for cheating the IRS), Uncle Sam gets to bail out banks that failed (by their own fault and by the governments, not by the tax payers' faults, though they carry the burden). Tim Geitner is a tax cheat, and were he not the "only man capable of running the IRS in America," he would be in jail. By the way, he was one of those oversight guys before Obama annointed him. I wonder how that went...
It's time to follow the example of Howard Roark. To be autonomous. To hold ourselves accountable for our own actions, and to expect others to be accountable for theirs, too.
It's time for members of Congress to stop playing politics. To stop catering to public opinion and to do their jobs. What happened to integrity? To autonomy? To decency?
Chivalry may be dead, but integrity will never be. Believe something, not because you want others to know that you believe it, not because it's popular, not because you have to, but BECAUSE YOU CAN. We are free-thinking, free-acting, independent beings. We were not created to cater to the whims of others but to serve ourselves and to serve God.
If you're not acting out of your own self-interest, what good can possibly come of that?
It's a masterpiece, and Ayn Rand, the novel's author, adapted the screenplay herself--and by doing so, she lives up to the novel/movie's ultimate theme.
Autonomy is so belittled by "society" these days, whatever that means, and I really feel that Fountainhead represents what we have gotten so far away from. Its protagonist, Howard Roark, is an innovative, fiercely unique, uncompromisingly independent architect. He allows the school board to kick him out of college because he refuses to conform to the antiquated standards they went by. He went broke, he lost everything, all but his integrity, and in the end, no one could break him. He rose to success by his own standards and became one of the greatest architects of his time.
All of this without anyone's help or input, without anyone else's ideas or money, without compromising--ever.
But since Britney Spears is a more likely candidate for role model-ship these days than Howard Roark, I weep for the grandchildren of the greatest generation. The people I have to go to school with.
They're more interested in Gossip Girl than in anything substantiative (although, admittedly, it's a favorite of mine). The closest they'll get to a book is Twilight (yes, even Harry Potter, my first true love, is frowned upon now). And they've been surrounded by the news of impending (ahem, unfolding) economic doom, which was supposedly orchestrated by idiot-in-chief Bush and perpetuated by big-business goons.
Not that they watch the news or anything.
But still. What are the plebes supposed to believe? That the housing policies in the Clinton administration had anything to do with the mortgage crisis? That Barney Frank's "regulations" on AIG and other big financial companies actually forced the companies to take on low mortgage loans and sink the markets? That bailing the banks out is a good thing, that it is legal, that it will work, that it sets a good example for companies in the future, for you and me?
No, the government has been irresponsible, and while we're still expected to do the right thing (and still get arrested for cheating the IRS), Uncle Sam gets to bail out banks that failed (by their own fault and by the governments, not by the tax payers' faults, though they carry the burden). Tim Geitner is a tax cheat, and were he not the "only man capable of running the IRS in America," he would be in jail. By the way, he was one of those oversight guys before Obama annointed him. I wonder how that went...
It's time to follow the example of Howard Roark. To be autonomous. To hold ourselves accountable for our own actions, and to expect others to be accountable for theirs, too.
It's time for members of Congress to stop playing politics. To stop catering to public opinion and to do their jobs. What happened to integrity? To autonomy? To decency?
Chivalry may be dead, but integrity will never be. Believe something, not because you want others to know that you believe it, not because it's popular, not because you have to, but BECAUSE YOU CAN. We are free-thinking, free-acting, independent beings. We were not created to cater to the whims of others but to serve ourselves and to serve God.
If you're not acting out of your own self-interest, what good can possibly come of that?
what this is all about
greetings fellow inhabitants of the earth. aliens not welcome.
so my friend kellie has one of these, and i thought it was compelling, so it compelled me to get one. i have one now.
sometimes i write in lowercase, but I'm actually the kind of person who prefers to start her sentences with a capital letter. Especially the proper nouns. God, it kills me when people don't capitalize things like George Washington and Paris and stuff like that.
But I digress. i'm not exclusively uppercase. It's just a preference.
Now that we've got that settled.
I notice that at the bottom of this window there is a little box for me to put in tags and such. And I quote: "Labels fot this post: e.g. scooters, vacation, fall."
Yes, that would be the logical order.
But I decided to get a blog because I don't really have any outlets for honesty in my life. I could get a diary, but admittedly, I'm a product of the digital age. My brain moves more quickly than I can write it all out on paper.
They say that the pen is mightier than the sword, but I ask you: have you seen my fingertips?
so my friend kellie has one of these, and i thought it was compelling, so it compelled me to get one. i have one now.
sometimes i write in lowercase, but I'm actually the kind of person who prefers to start her sentences with a capital letter. Especially the proper nouns. God, it kills me when people don't capitalize things like George Washington and Paris and stuff like that.
But I digress. i'm not exclusively uppercase. It's just a preference.
Now that we've got that settled.
I notice that at the bottom of this window there is a little box for me to put in tags and such. And I quote: "Labels fot this post: e.g. scooters, vacation, fall."
Yes, that would be the logical order.
But I decided to get a blog because I don't really have any outlets for honesty in my life. I could get a diary, but admittedly, I'm a product of the digital age. My brain moves more quickly than I can write it all out on paper.
They say that the pen is mightier than the sword, but I ask you: have you seen my fingertips?
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