Mystery and Manners: Occasional Prose Book

A Confession:

Two or three times I began writing a review and later tossed them away. For I was not happy with what came about as a review.

A Fact:

This is one of the posthumous collections of essays by F. O'Connor and is my first O'Connor book. O'Connor is revered for her short stories and fiction more than for her prose writing. Moreover, this collection has some essays which were not yet revised for publication.

The Result:

I ended up liking her writing and am really hungry for all of her writings.

This essay collection contains just a single 'personal' essay in which she speaks of her own experience of rearing the King of Birds (the peacock) in her farm.

The other essays are also personal but they can also be termed as essays dealing with literary criticism. In a special way, she analyses the questions like Who is a Novelist?, Who is a Catholic Novelist?, What is a Story?, How do we teach Literature (especially the fiction)?, How do we read fiction?, etc. This part is a must read for all lovers of literature and above all for the aspiring writers.

A quote to express her idea of a well written story:

"A story that is any good can't be reduced, it can only be expanded. A story is good when you continue to see more and more in it, and when it continues to escape you. In fiction two and two is always more than four."

According to her, to be a writer is a vocation. You are called specially. If one does not have the call it is no use trying writing anything.

She writes: "Of course, the ability to create life with words is essentially a gift. If you have it in the first place, you can develop it; if you don't have it, you might as well forget it."

And what is the material for the fiction writer and how should he write it?

She writes: "The fact is that the materials of the fiction writer are the humblest. Fiction is about everything human and we are made out of dust, and if you scorn getting yourself dusty, then you shouldn't try to write fiction. It's not a grand enough job for you."

So the essential quality for a fiction writer is his ability to see the natural world surrounding him. 'See and do not be afraid to see longer and all the more be not afraid to show what you saw in the words.' This seems to be her advise. "Fiction writing is very seldom a matter of saying things; it is a matter of showing things."

If I go in this way, I might end up quoting the entire book or at least the first five or six essays.

Besides, she being a devout Catholic also tries to answer the call of a Catholic novelist. In searching for the differences between the secular novelist and a Catholic novelist, she comes up with a theory that is absolutely stunning if you are a believer. In fact, even when one is not a believer, her points might still ring true and convincing.

She says that life is made up of two elements - Mystery and Manners.
Mystery = the unknowable, the Image of God, the Divine element, the grace, the transcendental element.
Manners = The knowable, the normal human make up, his observable behaviour, his place in the society, his habits, his environment, his language, his culture, etc.
The Fiction is always in search of the Mystery. This does not mean to indoctrinate the fiction with her beliefs. According to O'Connor, to arrive at the mystery the writer had to present the manners as accurately as possible and from there surely the Mystery element will be made visible in one way or the other.

Note: Do not depend on the review. Just get a copy and read at least the first five essays. You will have found something worth a treasure.