The River by Flannery O’Connor – another look at this short story is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-river-by-flannery-oconnor.html - 10 out of 10

 

The River by Flannery O’Connor – another look at this short story is at https://realini.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-river-by-flannery-oconnor.html

 

10 out of 10

 

Flannery O’Connor is a glorious writer, one of my favorites, when I started reading her magnum opera, eleven years ago, the tales were so overwhelming that I read about the life of the author, how she had peacocks on her southern property, and how religious she was, an aspect we see in the themes of her narratives

 

Indeed, The River is a faith tale, we have a four- or five-year-old named Harry, albeit he chose to say his name is Bevel, because he knew that the healing priest’s name, which is Bevel, the boy is taken to the River to find salvation, only what happens is not so exhilarating – spoiler alert, it looks like I will tell you the end

Flannery O’Connor is one of those luminaries that make me thing again about my atheism – if she was so religious, and she was such a magnificent thinker and human, then why should I keep this skepticism, mocking the Noah and other biblical stories, instead of trying to get an epiphany, redemption or something…

 

One paragraph from the bible is retold by Louis CK https://realini.blogspot.com/2018/03/louis-ck-oh-my-god-by-louis-ck.html with immense humor, it refers to the fig tree, Jesus walks by it, and wants some of those fruit (I hope they are not vegetables, exposing my ignorance) only the tree does not provide, there are no figs

Furious Jesus Christ then curses the poor tree, and Louis CK is both right, and funny when he talks about this biblical piece of nonsense, which is incriminating the holy man, I mean why on earth would you take on a plant, surely there would be interpretations, explanations, even if this is not one of the best knows parables

 

CS Lewis is another believer, and one of the most convincing thinkers https://realini.blogspot.com/2023/09/surprised-by-joy-shape-of-my-early-life.html Surprised by Joy is one of the best arguments, a convincing plead for converting, I would consider switching camps after reading this

The professor – by the way, Magister Ludi Kinglsey Amis writes in his spectacular Memoirs that Lewis was a wonderful teacher, and Tolkien a poor one – comments on Jesus Christ along the lines of ‘you either believe he was the son of good, or else he was one of the greatest crooks’, albeit he had not met Trump…

 

Bevel is taken to The River, only he does not end up absolved, redeemed – actually, I am getting ahead of myself, he might just be all that – he somehow takes this silly mind of mine to…Prizzi’s Honor, where Charlie Partana aka Jack Nicholson has a line at one point ‘if Mazie was so fucking smart, how come he is so fucking dead’

 

That is what the poor boy will be, dead, for he drowns in The River, and I am tempted to ask Flannery O’Connor, who must be in Paradise (the name of a character, working at the gas station, skeptical, and amusing, when he tells the healer about Harry’s mother and her hangover) and if I ever arrive there, I would like to meet her

Movies with Heaven, angels have been made, among them the quintessential It’s A Wonderful Life, but I am thinking of one where we get to have fun with O’Connor, Kennedy, Churchill, Kingsley Amis and a good many others

 

The boy he just finds his way to Eden, for as he drowns 'for an instant he was overcome with surprise; then, since he was moving quickly and knew that he was getting somewhere, all his fury and his fear left him.' Ergo that could be the light at the end of the tunnel, the promise of the lie eternal, heaven and all that

Nathaniel Branden is the ultimate expert on Self Esteem, he wrote the fundamental The Six Pillars of Self Esteem – one very interesting idea is that you should start your day telling your naked self ‘I love and accept myself completely’ as you look in the mirror – a book that everyone should read and apply in practice

 

Nevertheless, it is about another work that I write now, The Psychological Effects of Religion https://realini.blogspot.com/2016/04/psychological-effects-of-religion-by.html which concludes that those effects can be (actually are) devastating, the notion that you have an Almighty Sculptor and colorist always watching cab be disastrous

Furthermore, he is ready to strike you down (think Pulp Fiction, Ezechiel whatever number it is, the Samuel L Jackson lines, I will, strike down upon thee with great fury and vengeance, and you will know that my name is The Lord…) if you masturbated at fifteen, the you can get Thunderstruck at what, forty-two…

 

Sonja Lyubomirsky https://realini.blogspot.com/2014/07/the-how-of-happiness-by-sonja.html is another extraordinary psychologist, and she is religious, indeed, is of the opinion that religion offers paths to happiness, her fabulous books is The How of Happiness, and she insists on the benefits of believing in a Supreme Being

Belonging to a church (probably it could work for mosques, temples) provides a social network, and there are other benefits, there is no unanimity on this, our greatest mind, Andrei Plesu is  a Christian, so I have him as a model, if I ever decide to take Pascal’s wager, or better still, see the light, the miracles of this world…to add another sarcastic comment, what about those millions of evangelicals who vote for Satan aka Trump?

 

Now for my standard closing of the note with a question, and invitation – maybe you have a good idea on how we could make more than a million dollars with this http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/02/unique-in-world.html?q=unique+in+the+world – as it is, this is a unique technique, which we could promote, sell, open the Oscars show with or something and then make lots of money together, if you have the how, I have the product, I just do not know how to get the befits from it, other than the exercise per se

 

 There is also the small matter of working for AT&T – this huge company asked me to be its Representative for Romania and Bulgaria, on the Calling Card side, which meant sailing into the Black Sea wo meet the US Navy ships, travelling to Sofia, a lot of activity, using my mother’s two bedrooms flat as office and warehouse, all for the grand total of $250, raised after a lot of persuasion to the staggering $400…with retirement ahead, there are no benefits, nothing…it is a longer story, but if you can help get the mastodont to pay some dues, or have an idea how it can happen, let me know

 

As for my role in the Revolution that killed Ceausescu, a smaller Mao, there it is http://realini.blogspot.com/2022/03/realini-in-newsweek-participant-in.html

 

Some favorite quotes from To The Hermitage and other works

 

‘Fiction is infinitely preferable to real life...As long as you avoid the books of Kafka or Beckett, the everlasting plot of fiction has fewer futile experiences than the careless plot of reality...Fiction's people are fuller, deeper, cleverer, more moving than those in real life…Its actions are more intricate, illuminating, noble, profound…There are many more dramas, climaxes, romantic fulfillment, twists, turns, gratified resolutions…Unlike reality, all of this you can experience without leaving the house or even getting out of bed…What's more, books are a form of intelligent human greatness, as stories are a higher order of sense…As random life is to destiny, so stories are to great authors, who provided us with some of the highest pleasures and the most wonderful mystifications we can find…Few stories are greater than Anna Karenina, that wise epic by an often foolish author…’

 

‚Parturiunt montes, nascetur ridiculus mus’

 

“From Monty Python - The Meaning of Life...Well, it's nothing very special...Try and be nice to people, avoid eating fat, read a good book every now and then, get some walking in, and try and live together in peace and harmony with people of all creeds and nations.”