2025 Readings 20

 I finished Flannery O'Connor's Wise Blood yesterday morning, a book that I hadn't read in almost thirty-five years. I first read it early in my time at Georgia Perimeter College during the President's Retreat. It's a novel that I think is really good, although one that, because of the many, many racial epithets thrown around, is difficult to read today. It's strange to think that it was a book chosen by one of the professors at the retreat, and I don't remember there being any kickback at the time, and that probably says something bad about the time period. I can't imagine it being read in a similar situation today, at least not in a general meeting, although I could still see specialists reading it in a meeting. That said, I don't know if we actually benefit from simply tossing it aside without even trying to consider the contextual worlds involved, because, even considering the difficulties it presents, there's a lot more good here than bad.