In Flannery’s House

“Many of my ardent admirers would be roundly shocked and disturbed if they realized that everything I believe is thoroughly moral, thoroughly Catholic, and that it is these beliefs that give my work its chief characteristics.” ~Flannery O’Connor

When my first novel, A Hunger in the Heart, was published in 2013, I’d been a writer for many years, and a huge admirer of Flannery O’Connor.  And then a couple of weeks ago, on the morning of June 26, fellow author Charles Mc Nair and I entered Flannery’s house to talk about the perspectives in our own work.  Charles took on Southern Fiction, fiction in general, and magical realism in his novels: Land O Goshen and Pickett’s Charge.  My talk concerned Catholic Fiction, Catholic Imagination, and the influence of Flannery O’Connor on my writing. My aim was to also launch a second book, my new short story collection, Birds of a Feather—to launch it in a place that is clearly sacred to many, including those present for our event, some who traveled long distances to be there.

As for myself, I felt at home at once, almost kin. Kin because Flannery O’Connor and I share two legacies: Southern born and bred, and Catholic born and bred.  From what is read in her work and in her many letters, it can be pretty well assumed that these two mindsets influenced her so much that they were all-encompassing.  She could not write without communicating them, or her convictions about them. And neither can I. 

For writers concerned with sin and salvation, the South is ripe for fiction. Most all native Southerners, the greatest percent Protestant, know the Bible, can quote the Bible, and try to live by the Bible. And most of them admit they are sinners in need of being saved.  I don’t think you’ll find that anywhere else to such a degree. Like O'Connor, I know who I am as a writer, and I don't try to be different from that. I’ve never lived, or wanted to live, anywhere but the South. And I've never wanted to be anything but a Catholic, despite that all the men in my family--my father, grandfather, and four uncles, were Southern and Protestant. Nearly all of those men married Southern women who were Catholics, then they, themselves, converted to Catholicism near the end of their lives. So I believe I understand--and I know I try to address—-all readers, whatever their faith, or lack of it. 

The stories in my collection, Birds of a Feather, are about the commonality each of us share as human beings: sin and its risk, and the presence of God’s mercy, waiting for us to realize it’s there, and then to act with it. It’s my opinion that this common identity is key to the Catholic writer and his or her imagination. 

Here’s what Flannery says about identity, from Mystery and Manners: 
“…An identity is not to be found on the surface; it is not accessible to the poll taker; it is not something that can become a cliché. It is not made from the mean average or from the typical, but from the hidden and often the most extreme. It is not made from what passes, but from those qualities that endure regardless of what passes, because they are related to the Truth. It lies very deep. In its entirety, it is known only to God, but of those who look for it, none gets so close as the artist.”

So, as a Southern writer, I have taken Flannery’s words to heart. My identity is wrapped in the wonderfully changeable, material world around me—the world I live in—but as a Catholic writer, my identity is also wrapped in the mystery of mercy and grace in the immaterial world that lies deeply behind this one—because that is the world that is unchangeable and enduring. 

Enjoy this article by Roxane Beauclair Salonen who attended our event at Andalusia Farm.

- Kaye Park Hinckley, Author

 

Kaye Park Hinckley writes Southern Fiction from a Catholic Perspective. Her debut novel, A Hunger in the Heart, about sin and salvation in a family, was published in April, 2013, by Tuscany Press. Her short stories have appeared in Dappled Things, the 2012 Tuscany Prize for Catholic Fiction anthology, and elsewhere. She and her husband live in Dothan, Alabama and have five children and nine grandchildren. Her website is www.kayeparkhinckley.com and her blog site is www.aworldontheedge.com. Kaye's short collection, Birds of a Feather, will be published by Wiseblood Books on July 14, 2014. Both books are available on Amazon, from the publishers, or your favorite bookstore.

 

(Re)Considering O'Connor

On July 4th Andalusia hosted a luncheon gathering for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH)  Summer Institute.  "Reconsidering Flannery O'Connor" runs at Georgia College July 1-30 and is the second such Summer Institute. The first NEH O'Connor Institute was held at Georgia College in 2007 and was by all accounts a rave success. Well, NEH folks did tell co-organizer, O'Connor scholar,  and Andalusia board member Bruce Gentry that the 2007 effort was a model for how NEH Summer Institutes should be done. Post-facto activities of 2007 participants reveal impressive numbers that advance O'Connor studies: three books, 24 peer-reviewed articles, and 63 conference presentations. 

The 2014 NEH scholars come from 14 different states. They number 25 and are fiction writers and poets, theologians and political scientists, and those involved in teaching English, communications, gender studies, disability studies, race studies, and film. I am told there are a number of musicians in the group and I have heard tell of beer and banjos on the porch at Bell Hall, their residence in the heart of GCSU's campus core. I can imagine the synergies among this group of smart people as they discuss their varied portals to O'Connor and how their own disciplines are informed by her writing. Well, these folks had Andalusia all to themselves on Independence Day and I could just see the wheels turning in each scholar's head as I had the pleasure of showing them the farm. Of course the Main House was the main attraction: we screened the film version of 'The Displaced Person" (shot at Andalusia in the mid-1970s); they took in the exhibitions in the Back Parlor and Cline Room; and of course were very interested in soaking up the fabric of where Flannery lived and wrote. 

Outside the weather was delightful. We enjoyed a luncheon in the shade of the back yard, and there were tours of the Cow Barn and the Hill House and folks were even treated to a behind-the-scenes look at the materials we have been rescuing from the Equipment Shed. Plows and seeders anyone? GCSU's Melanie Devore (Biological and Environmental Science) led a group on a ramble on our mile loop trail along Tobler Creek and the peafowl got lots of attention. It was a lovely afternoon for me as I got to chat with fans and share Andalusia with folks who were demonstrably taken with everything Flannery. For the scholars, my hope is that they got an introduction that will lead to repeat visits and indeed just readin' and rockin' on the porch as they churn and turn ideas around about Flannery, her writing, Andalusia, and their respective areas of study. 

For more information about the institute, please visit http://www.gcsu.edu/nehoconnor/index.htm 

- Elizabeth Wylie, Executive Director

The Flannery O'Connor-Andalusia Foundation

A Place Like No Other

It is really exciting to work at a place that has so much energy. This energy comes from the history, the landscape, and most of all the passion from all the visitors. I find it absolutely amazing that these people from different places from all over the world can all be united by one person – Miss Flannery O’Connor. Getting to meet these diverse people with so much love for Flannery O’Connor and writing is so enjoyable, and they make me have an even greater appreciation of writing.

I can honestly say that I look forward to going to work each morning. I look forward to seeing the beautiful views of the pond and the fields and am in awe of the amount of history that can be packed into these 544 beautiful acres. It’s amazing to see the eager faces of people that come to Andalusia to learn more about such an influential author. It is truly a blessing to have a job that teaches me something new every time I go. Whether it is learning how to work a cash register or learning about this history of the town I grew up in, this job has educated me in ways no other job could. Andalusia is a place like no other and we are so blessed to have it in our town!

-Konner Smith, Visitors Services Assistant

The Flannery O'Connor Andalusia Foundation

On Saturdays, Konner (a 16 year old from Gray, GA) has joined Andalusia's staff as Visitor Services Assistant. Her position not only supplements staff on one of our busiest days, but contributes to job creation, skills acquisition, and mentoring for a teen in our community. We're happy to have her on board!

All Flannery All the Time

I have to say that I am so enjoying life on the farm. Well, not life as in the kind of day-in-and-day-out life that Flannery and her mother lived at the farm, but the kind of work-a-day life that characterizes a professional career in the museum world. Those of us who work at historic house museums and historic sites know well the ways in which ALL aspects of the place seep in to your consciousness. It is a daily delight for me, as I go about 'bidnis' at the farm, to experience themes and images from Flannery’s writing (fiction and non-fiction) that was so shaped by place: Andalusia, Milledgeville, and Middle Georgia. Some of the behind the scenes tasks of ‘opening up’ the farm for visitors take me directly into Flannery’s fiction and her letters. When I swing open the big door and enter the now defunct milking parlor in the Cow Barn the ghosts of cows with names like Scotty, Big Margie and Primrose seem to lurk at the edges. I think of Flannery’s short story “Greenleaf’ and the consternation of the self-righteous Mrs. May when she realizes the ‘white trash’ Greenleaf boys have a better milking parlor than she does. The protagonist is grappling with the post-war breakdown of social stratification and the threat of ‘progress’ and new technologies on the old comforting ways. The themes coursing through this story, and others, can be read in the remnants of the Cow Barn, the materials in the Equipment Shed, and in the early 1950s newspapers that line the walls of the rooms where farm workers lived. "Jobs...and the Air Age! No spot on earth--however isolated by land or water barriers--is inaccessible to the airplane."  

When I walk across the barnyard to open the Hill House for the day, I can feel the former activity of the farm with tenant workers, hired hands, local vendors and casual visitors. It is true that I have been doing nothing but reading Flannery O’Connor for the last six months and I was thrilled to take Bruce Gentry’s O’Connor class at GCSU, so naturally all of these connections are in the forefront for me. What about our visitors? Do they get it? They run the gamut. There are devotees who have traveled far to visit the place and easily mine all these connections from every aspect of the house, the vestigial farm operation, and the landscape. There are hipsters sporting peacock tattoos and “Flannery’ messenger bags who want to know everything about the super cool artist who, at about age 25, had to go home to live with her mother. There are folks on their way someplace else and stop by Andalusia because they saw the characteristic brown highway sign “Andalusia, Historic Site” and pulled in. There are local residents who report they “have lived here all my life and never been to this place” and those who come every week because the “kids love the peacocks” or they walk the trail for exercise. Some have read everything Flannery, others have their favorite story they read in high school, some have never read her work, and some admit they really don’t understand or like her writing. 

We welcome all of these people. We want all of them to ‘make the connection’ between the place and Flannery’s writing, because that is why we are here after all. We do this in active ways, verbally in tours through the main farm house, and in passive ways, through signage and exhibitions on site and through social media for Andalusia’s world-wide audience. Now that I have been here six months and cleared my eyes from my celebrity crush on Flannery, I am fully aware of the challenges of stewardship of this place. There are of course all the many preservation and conservation needs of buildings and land. If we didn’t pay attention to this there would be no Andalusia and no connections to make. A tandem challenge—interpreting Flannery and helping our wide range of visitors make the connection between this place and her writing—is in fact one of the most compelling of opportunities. It is exciting work and requires smarts and creativity, innovation and imagination in order to reach each and every one of the thousands of visitors with a message about the value of literature and of reflection on the array of themes that Flannery explored in her too short life. For us at Andalusia, it is all Flannery all the time! 

- Elizabeth Wylie, Executive Director 
The Flannery O'Connor-Andalusia Foundation

HOT. HOT. HOT.

“Just wait until July and August.” This has been the frequent refrain as I have mentioned my interest in exploring the idea of going without air-conditioning at Andalusia. A 1962 photograph of the farm house shows a window air conditioning unit installed in Flannery’s room but surely this was a recent addition (the first window unit was introduced in 1939 but just 10 percent of U.S. homes had air conditioning as late as 1965). Instead, we can imagine Flannery and her mother ‘operating’ the farm house in a classic manner. This meant minimizing heat gain by working with the original climate-specific vernacular architecture of the 1850s plantation-style house. The high ceilings, tall windows, deep roof overhang and cross-ventilation were designed for the middle-Georgia climate. 

Many of us remember our grandparents keeping the house closed in the day and then opening it up in the evening to cool off. Shutters played an important role in this dance as did behaviors: one would be early to rise to beat the sun. Lots of outdoor work happened early in the morning before it got hot. Mid-day ‘dinner’ was the main meal and was typically followed by rest, or at the very least low-impact activities performed inside or in the shade. Once things cooled, folks would go back outside until sun-down. A light evening meal (‘supper’) would close out the day. This kind of schedule encouraged lively civic engagement with lots of porch sitting, strolls in the town square, and conversation. The human body is also remarkably adaptable. If we were to dial back air-conditioning, we might start to question our assumptions about what is comfortable and can (re)learn how to live in the environment we have. 

Today, 90 percent of U.S. homes have air-conditioning. Commercial spaces are typically over-cooled and who can say they have not had to ‘layer-up’ in response to what I call the ‘tyranny’ of air-conditioning in office buildings and commercial spaces. The associated impacts from refrigerants and fossil fuel energy use are contributing to climate change. Going without air-conditioning at Andalusia is certainly a preservation strategy as we demonstrate mid-century life ways, encouraging porch sitting, etc. But revival of the original design intent at the house also underpins a conservation story, one of environmental stewardship and resource efficiency. There is for sure a critical need for climate controlled spaces (for those sick or vulnerable, as Flannery was for example) so I don’t imagine we can or would jettison air-conditioning altogether. Still, Andalusia is valued as a place of beauty and serves as a snap shot of mid-century farm life. It is the place that inspired and supported an original and influential artist; part of our job is to tell the story of how she lived there. That means going without air-conditioning (or trying to anyhow!). What say you? Could you eliminate or minimize your air conditioning use?

 Photograph by Joe McTyre. Note the red arrow that points to Flannery's A/C unit. 

- Elizabeth Wylie, Executive Director 

The Flannery O'Connor-Andalusia Foundation

Worth Its Weight

There is something special about Southern cuisine and its foodways, so much so that there is even an organization, The Southern Foodway Alliance, wholly dedicated to the study, documentation, and celebration of the food of the American South. Pound cake is a distinctively Southern dessert that is a favorite amongst many Southerners, and apparently Flannery O’Connor’s own mother, Regina, was quite fond of pound cake. In an interview with Sarah Gordon, Professor Emerita of English at Georgia College & State University, writer Louise Abbot discusses her friendship with Flannery, and the first time she met Regina:

[Regina] said, “Well, tell me about your husband.” And then she said, “By the way, I’m going to send you home with some slices of pound cake that I made the other day.” I said, “Oh, my husband will be so excited. He loves toasted pound cake for breakfast.” That was what impressed Regina. So I was the friend of Flannery’s whose husband liked toasted pound cake for breakfast. And we talked pound cake. We talked it into the ground. 

With as many variations of pound cake as there are, with different types of crusts, etc., it is no wonder that Louise Abbot and Regina had so much to talk about. As I have gone through some of the objects in the laundry room at Andalusia over the course of the past few weeks, I happened upon the label of an entirely different type of pound cake - a ready-made frozen one from Sara Lee. While I can’t tell you whether Flannery ate any of this particular cake, I do find that this premade packaged food does reflect a broader shift in Southern foodways. With the introduction of refrigeration, and the rise of industry in post-World War II America, the nation began to shift toward mass consumption of factory to table food. 

Do you recall how the shift toward mass produced food altered your own family’s foodways? For those of you who are Southern, do you have memories of homemade pound cake? Or did your family serve the frozen sort one had to thaw before eating?

April Moon, Operations & Visitor Services Manager

The Flannery O’Connor – Andalusia Foundation

**Louise Abbot's interview is one of several featured in At Home with Flannery O'Connor: An Oral History, edited by Bruce Gentry and Craig Amason.