Let's Go to the Carnival!

Firstly, I find it amusing and ironic that I get the opportunity to write my "Carnival Post" on the day campus hosted a carnival.
Which I didn't get to attend because I was studying in the library. (end rant)

This last section of literature we have gotten to read has been particularly challenging for my class. I find this interesting considering that all of this section of literature is pretty contemporary. It's our "era" [sort of].  But it's not a style of literature we're accustomed to studying. A theme I've discovered in the blogs of my peers that I find particularly striking is their understanding of the text through the Bible.  So in this Carnival Post, I will review a couple of example of ways in which my peers have been Biblically stimulated.

The following are pieces of my classmate's blogs I found particularly relevant to this theme.

On Mao II:
"Paul really likes to use the body of Christ metaphor in his letters. But that’s an excellent way to explain this. Each person is a part of the body that serves its own function. But the body as a whole depends on each function and each part is necessary. We are individuals serving one purpose and one group. But that does not take away the importance of each person’s individual talents. I resent the idea that “the future belongs to crowds;” partially because I am from Western society, which puts a premium on individuality, but also because God created me as a unique individual. I am important outside of the crowd as well as inside it."
(http://rjsunshine.wordpress.com/2013/05/09/mao-ii-part-3/comment-page-1/#comment-15)

On Lady Lazarus:
"Disciples of the world. If we cannot give up absolutely everything for Jesus... then we do not understand the gospel, nor have we tasted the sweetness of God's love in Jesus. Understand this: Christians die in order to live. I know I've written about this numerous times, but seriously... this is necessary to grasp."
(http://173john.blogspot.com/2013/04/dying-to-death.html?showComment=1368594912773#c987376836532106044)

The voices of my classmates speak loudly of the values of this campus. I am proud to be part of such conversations where we can find Jesus and his messages within every story, even the ones that challenge our beliefs and values. This is God's earth, after all. God's story. 

Good Country People

According to O'Conner's introduction, this was a tale typical of her.

• "A typical Flannery O'Connery story consists at its most vital level of people talking, clucking their endless reiterations of cliches about life, death, and the universe."
• "These completions are usually violent, occurring when the character--in many cases a woman--must confront an experience that she cannot handle by her old trustworthy language and habit-hardened responses."
• "And although the stories are filled with religious parodies and allusions, they do not try to inculcate a doctrine."

Lets talk about the irony of the ending now. I don't know how many people really liked Hulga all that much. She was a little bit of a B-Word. However, I dunno how I would have coped if I was in her shoes either. But you can't help but feel sorry for her when she's left in the second story of that barn, alone and legless and far from home. I don't even want to imagine her trying to crawl back to Mrs. Hopewell. I don't think that's what Flannery would be wanting us to think about anyway.

What I found most striking about this tale was all the discussions between characters about what makes people unique. Pointer seduced Hulga with the words "It's what makes you different. You ain't like anybody else." After he get's her leg away, he adds insult to injury before he leaves by basically saying she isn't special. Hell, he's gotten a glass eye from a lady before. What makes this encounter ironic are Mrs. Hopewell's typical statements: "Besides, we all have different ways of doing, it takes all kinds to make the world go 'round. That's life!"

My favorite part of the story was how Hulga thought she'd be enlightening the boy when all along it was the other way around.