Jesus, Stab Me in the Heart!: Jessica Hooten Wilson on the Gospel According to Flannery O'Connor

The Table Audio w/ Evan Rosa

"This is where O'Connor scandalizes people. God redeems the moment, so violence doesn't become nihilism the way it would maybe in a Tarantino film. In her world, God is there."

Flannery O'Connor is an American novelist, essayist, and short-story writer known for her sardonic Southern Gothic style with grotesque characters and violent scenes. Our guest today, Jessica Hooten Wilson, is a Flannery O'Connor expert and is currently preparing O'Connor's unfinished novel Why Do the Heathen Rage? for publication. Dr. Hooten Wilson shares her intimate knowledge of O'Connor, her writing, and the Gospel message that emerges from the pages of her dark and twisted stories.

Show Notes

• 0:00—Podcast intro
• 2:34—Excerpt from Jessica Hooten Wilson on "A Temple of the Holy Ghost" (from her lecture at The Table Conference, September 2017, "Resilience: Growing Stronger Through Struggle")—"Dear Lord, I want to be a saint, because that is the vocation in which you know everything... but I will never be a saint, because I'm a born liar, and I'm slothful, and sass my mother and I'm ugly to almost everybody. Now I can't be a saint, but I might be a martyr if they kill me quick."
• 5:14—Introduction: Jessica Hooten Wilson
• 6:14—Begin interview, Flannery O'Connor's writing
• 9:12—Jessica Hooten Wilson's biography in terms of Flannery O'Connor
• 11:07—Flannery O'Connor's focus on the "dark" realities in the world
• 15:00—How Flannery O'Connor portrays the Gospel
• 16:24—Literary use of violence and suffering
• 20:00—Redemptive suffering
• 22:50—Intermission
• 24:05—Jessica Hooten Wilson's favorite Flannery O'Connor character, Mrs. Greenleaf
• 26:41—Discussion of Mrs. Greenleaf's "prayer healings" and her famous line, "Jesus, Jesus! Stab me in the heart!"
• 34:45—What it means to be "Christ-haunted"
• 35:33—Audio recording of Flannery O'Connor on the South being "Christ-haunted" (from "Flannery O'Connor Reads 'Some Aspects of the Grotesque in Southern Fiction' (c. 1960)"
• 43:47—Flannery O'Connor's battle with Lupus: "I'm sick of being sick." and "I can with one eye squinted, take it as a blessing." "If suffering is a grace, then perhaps it could be prayed for."
• 45:09—Further discussion on O'Connor's own suffering and how it shaped her writing and thinking
• 49:58—End interview
• 50:20—Audio recording of Flannery O'Connor reading excerpt from "A Good Man is Hard to Find", credits

Quotes from Jessica Hooten Wilson

• "This is where O'Connor scandalizes people. God redeems the moment, so violence doesn't become nihilism the way it would maybe in a Tarantino film. In her world God is there. You're able to then accept grace instead and allow God to redeem violence for another purpose. That scandalizes people because violence in itself is awful, ugly, and disturbing."
• "She's not praying to withstand cauldrons of boiling pitch or arenas of lion. It's a different kind of suffering that she's praying about, one that would actually be a conduit for grace."
• "For O’Connor, if you’re a Christian, you should be suffering in some way. If you’re not suffering in some way, then maybe you’re not following Christ as closely as you wish you were."

Credits

• The Table is sponsored by generous grants from the John Templeton Foundation, Templeton Religion Trust, and The Blankemeyer Foundation
• Theme music by The Brilliance
• Production and engineering by The Narrativo Group
• Edited and mixed by TJ Hester
• Production Assistance by Laura Crane
• Visit Jessica Hooten Wilson's website
• Evan Rosa on Twitter
• CCT on Twitter