A Good Man Is Hard To Find, by Flannery O'Connor (SHORT STORY SATURDAY)

[@bigfat4172]

the ending made feel kinda sick with anxiety lol. Somehow I didn't actually think that they were gonna encounter the serial killer nor have it turn out the way that it did. Never read any Flanner O'Connor so I felt like it was just gonna be a lowkey family drama about past and future. So experiencing the random evisceration of this family just did not sit well in my gut. Really fantastic.

[@terencesommer6307]

My very favorite short story of all time!!!

[@augustas9844]

This analysis helped me more than any other. Thank you.

[@aspiringoptimist]

This is the first time I've been able to watch a video about some form of literature and not be bored out of my mind. You're brilliant, thank you for this!

[@TheKhidr]

You hit it on the nail, Ryan... Most profs/teachers aren't adult enough to read these characters as real humans. They keep looking for race, social and religious angles because they either don't see how real evil functions between humans or they don't want to see it. Granny is the cause of the whole family getting killed yet she's the only one who had it comin'. She's been using religious self righteousness to bully people all her life. From the opening she's the bully and manipulator of them all. The son is bred to resentment, so the children have learned to be mean and the wife to be sullen. They're all trapped in Granny's torture chamber of a family. She baits the restaurant guy as she baits everyone in reach...She's the cause of the accident and their being overtaken by the murderers. They are more understandable characters with the leader an honest psycho who focuses on Granny, fascinated with her selfishness and malice. I guess if there's a moral: Anything that can go wrong may go wrong all at once someday, and when it does you'll know why it does. Like the man said, "Shut up Bobby Lee. There's no pleasure in life, mostly."

[@reginalemoine5809]

I'm so excited that you like Flannery O'Connor! She is so often underrated but I think she's about as fine a short story writer as there is.

[@RyanRabid]

Sometimes she's underrated..... sometimes people like me are in danger of overrating her ;) either way she's contentious and amazing

[@UltimateMatt2000]

Hey, Ryan, great video! As a big fan of the story myself i've re-read it several times, but you provided some insightful thoughts about the story, which haven't occured to me, so thanks for that! Great channel!

[@ajfmusical]

Good analysis ... makes me want to dig deeper.

[@sammontoya87]

I am studying this in class now and your analysis has helped a lot! Thanks for making this vid!

[@michealmack]

Hi Ryan. I am a fairly recent subscriber to your channel. I am really enjoying this short story series of yours so far. Your style is very literate, limpid, lucid and cogent. Looking forward to seeing what other stories are in store! I've already read the Diaz. So far this is the third of three stories I've not read before. So thank you. As I read AGMIHTF I found myself wondering if Tarantino was influenced by it. Thanks for an intelligent, thought-provoking & enjoyable series!

[@RyanRabid]

Hi Micheal! Thanks for the wonderful comment. Glad you're liking the series so far, I felt pretty passionately that I needed to make this happen :) so I'll try and keep the momentum up on it. Glad to hear you're enjoying yourself !

[@tonyascott6273]

Really enjoying this series. I know it's more work for you but I love it, so thank you!

[@RyanRabid]

well as long as it's making people happy :) thank you for such a sweet comment!

[@Audrey-nr4se]

We are studying this is class right now and this video helped me understand it a lot better. Thank you for breaking it down like this.

[@adrianaperezvieira851]

I loved the story. I also felt I had many things to talked about when I finished reading it, but it was such a good reading experience. Although the story was all around the grandma, the characters .... tell me, who is it possible to develop characters so perfectly that you feel you know them after reading that? The grandmother so complex, you hate her, but also feel she is charming sometimes. I thought it was adorable at the begining, when she tried to convince the family to go to where she wanted to. The spoiled children, the son and her wife, the mistfit. I don't know if you understand what I mean but I had the feeling I had a really good insight of the personality of all these people...

[@RyanRabid]

even the kids! You feel like you know EVEN THE KIDS almost immediately. It's crazy, I know just what you mean. I know exactly.

[@TheLiquid765]

Great review, I think its the best one about this book I have seen so far. I loved your remarks about the short story form.

[@anaovejero103]

yes!!!! Junot is a genious!!!! really waiting for next saturday!!!!

[@RyanRabid]

glad to hear you're a fan :)

[@christopheradam3588]

Flannery O'Connor was a practising Catholic -- she wrote dozens of reviews of theological books for Catholic publications. That striking moment when the grandmother calls The Misfit her child is her epiphany. The man who murdered her family and will now murder her is the face of God. This is about the call to love our enemy. It's the outrageous, inexplicable essence of Christianity, rarely practised and so opposed to our own sense of justice, that our adversary, the person who seeks to harm us, is also the face of God. We are to recognise that even when doing so requires us to sacrifice ourselves.

[@PrettyBrownEyeReader]

This was my first time reading Flannery O'Connor. She is masterful in telling a complete story in a short space. I enjoyed your breakdown of the Grandmother's statements foreshadowing the tragic end. I am debating reading more of her short stories. I found with this story the problem I have with many "American Great" writers. The deragatory manner in which Black people are referenced. For me, that wasn't necessary in this story. There were no Black characters. Thanks for doing this series!

[@RyanRabid]

That's true; and it makes Flannery O'Connor such an interesting, complex person to study, too.... because she was obviously from the south and informed by the south, mired in it even... but she's also one of the south's most vigorous critics. Some say she was ahead of her time, critiquing the racism of the south with intensity (her short story Everything That Rises Must Converge, for instance, features a character who thinks he's better than his racist ancestors, because he's enlightened, but then he runs into Black characters and ends up eating his words). But others say she still falls into the tradition of "american greats" that you mentioned. Good point, and thanks for bringing it up. And hey thanks for watching the series :) any recommendations for stories I should do?

[@PrettyBrownEyeReader]

ForTheLoveOfRyan The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. Short stories by Ernest Gaines, Danielle Evans, Christine Lincoln, Roxane Gay.

[@PrettyBrownEyeReader]

ForTheLoveOfRyan Thanks for the insight on Flannery O'Connor!

[@tortoisedreams6369]

I'd heard of the story, never read it, what a surprise! When I read it, it seemed almost existential, that life and death occur at random (how random that the criminal she feared would indeed find her) despite anything we do, we have no control, there is no meaning. That things are worse today than before is something people have *always* said. But i really appreciated your thoughts, you gave it a little rounder meaning, if that makes sense. Really enjoying this series -- thank you.

[@RyanRabid]

It does make sense :) aww I'm glad I could introduce this one to you! Flannery is devious, isn't she? No mercy. Or maybe just the right amount of mercy. lol. thanks for watching :)

[@Bicyclesidewalk]

SO good!

[@emmasorckoff8150]

I liked this one, but loved Good Country People.

[@RyanRabid]

Good Country People will definitely get its day in the sun, don't you worry ;)

[@sandra7319.]

I remember reading an in depth article fromfone my alma maters about a grant of OConners letters and reading about her life..Imagine my surprise when I bought her collection of short stories A Good Man...and realized what a twisted sister she was contrasted to her outer life...I read this story on an elliptical and almost fell off! She is dark in the best way.

[@RyanRabid]

she's SO dark. so devious. I've got a book that includes some of her essays and speeches (Mystery And Manners is the title) and it's quite funny to see the difference between O'Connor the storyteller and O'Connor the public person

[@Burps___]

"Hey, beautiful person of the intranet!"

[@RyanRabid]

hi :)

[@sanaosman148]

Who is protagonist in this short story?

[@KateMayberryinspace]

Don't kill me, but I have to be honest, I didn't exactly love this when I first read it for class last year and I still don't exactly love it now (but I do like it a little bit more than I did before). I think it's a well written story and I appreciate what it means to literary canon, but I don't really love anything I've read by O'Connor (mind you, I haven't read much by her so that's probably why). I'm totally willing to give O'Connor another shot, though, if anyone has any suggestions on where to start.

[@RyanRabid]

honestly... i understand? The first time I read it = no bueno. The second time = eh. The third time, and every time since then: a little more brilliant each time :) She has a book of essays/speeches called "Mystery And Manners" which, for someone like me specifically who straddles the worlds of lit and creative writing, is fantastic. I only read that earlier this year and it makes me believe much more firmly in Flannery O'Connor as a kind of Philosopher on what the short story should and can do.

[@RyanRabid]

Also.... my students were really split on A Good Man, so you aren't alone :)

[@KateMayberryinspace]

+ForTheLoveOfRyan Nice! I'll have to pick up "Mystery and Manners" and see if I can convert myself! I feel a little better knowing I'm not alone in my reaction, though. :)

[@doughtyluke]

bless. talent.

[@RyanRabid]

bless you back.

[@maxlover181]

For the longest time, I thought the name Flannery O'connor belonged to a male...my life is a lie. Anyway, I enjoyed the story. She is brilliant on every page.

[@RyanRabid]

she truly is :) we'll probably do another story of hers before too long, honestly. she's hard to avoid.

[@blodwynswayze1531]

Please do "Incarnations of Burned Children" by DFW. For therapy and that.

[@RyanRabid]

I might not do any DFW... but we'll see. If i do, it'll be later in the series, and it will (most likely) be Good People :) but hey, Incarnations is a hell of a story.

[@blodwynswayze1531]

ForTheLoveOfRyan is that in "Girl...." ? might have to find that online as my copy of that is in the wind!

[@RyanRabid]

blodwynswayze It's actually a chapter of Pale King that got published as a short story. but it's found at the new yorker!

[@blodwynswayze1531]

ForTheLoveOfRyan cool. thanks!

[@blodwynswayze1531]

"Good Country People" ? Is that the one about the false leg?

[@RyanRabid]

sure is :)

[@blodwynswayze1531]

ForTheLoveOfRyan now I feel like I dropped a spolier. oops

[@okayokayval]

That story fucked me up.

[@originoflogos]

STOP READING EVERYTHING THAT'S ON MY READING LIST FOR MY LITERARY STUDIES COURSE, YOU SEXY CLAIRVOYANT, YOU!!!!!!

[@RyanRabid]

;)

[@gsboss]

AY RYAN where you been man? seriously thought i was missing your vids in the sub list. you must be reading in search of lost time

[@olivierdube8110]

I adore Neil Gaiman

[@RyanRabid]

you've got good taste.