| Wise
Blood by Flannery O'Connor For an author that most men-on-the-street wouldn’t recognize by name, O’Connor’s influence in the last few decades’ artwork is pervasive. Her debut Wise Blood, with its brew of accessibility, impenetrability and fascinating conflict of superstition and religion, is almost as enchanting as her nonchalant courage in continuing to write during her decade-long battle with Lupus - her opinion was it only affected her limbs, leaving her brain to continue writing for two hours in the morning; then, as she was fond of saying, she spent the rest of her day on her farm "in the society of ducks" . . . The music tlies together a collection of backwater and Appalachian-style samples to a loose-limbed bluegrass beat, with a smattering of lyrics truncating the book’s storyline into incomprehensibility. Our original intention was to compare Hazel Motes, the proverbial prodigal son/misguided soapbox preacher who returns home to find no father awaiting him, to televangelists of current times. The idea was to portray them sympathetically as well-intentioned showmen trying to better lives; but after several days of viewing “Christian” television footage, we realized that they were contemptible mountebanks. Postcard skylines, vintage landmark maps, automotive models and hot rod videos are also featured, and Chicago Industrial act Ministry’s video for “Jesus Built My Hot Rod” was used partially because its song featured unaccredited dialogue from Wise Blood. The buffoonishly space-invading narrator rambles and brow-bats, standing between the audience and the action both thematically (his comedy interferes with the tragic plot) and physically (his frame partially blocks a straight view of the action). As if his oversimplifications don’t render the narrative almost indiscernible, he’s punctuated by missing frames, static noises and (sometimes) complete lack of lip-syncing. Our misrepresentation analogizes Hazel’s misrepresentation of theology and his battle to be taken seriously in a darkly, horrifically comic world. |
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