The reviewer always has hold of the wrong horror.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that critics often misunderstand or misjudge the true essence of artistic works.
In this quote, Flannery O'Connor implies that reviewers may focus on superficial or inappropriate aspects of a work, missing its deeper meanings and intentions. This highlights the disconnect that can exist between creators and critics, emphasizing that the relationship between art and interpretation can sometimes lead to misrepresentation of the artist's true message or craft.
In practice
In a creative writing workshop, when discussing the impact of reviews, one might quote O'Connor to underline the importance of understanding an author's intent before passing judgment.
Let me make no bones about it: I write from the standpoint of Christian orthodoxy. Nothing is more repulsive to me than the idea of myself setting up a little universe of my own choosing and propounding a little immoralistic message. I write with a solid belief in all the Christian dogmas.
What people donβt realize is how much religion costs. They think faith is a big electric blanket, when of course it is the cross.
If you live today, you breath in nihilism ... it's the gas you breathe. If I hadn't had the Church to fight it with or to tell me the necessity of fighting it, I would be the stinkingest logical positivist you ever saw right now.
There won't be any biographies of me because, for only one reason, lives spent between the house and the chicken yard do not make exciting copy.
Knowing who you are is good for one generation only. You haven't the foggiest idea where you stand now or who you are
He loved her because it was his nature to do so, but there were times when he could not endure her love for him. There were times when it became nothing but pure idiot mystery.
Sometimes I dream a sentence and write it down. Itβs usually nonsense, but sometimes it seems a key to another world.
A great architect is not made by way of a brain nearly so much as he is made by way of a cultivated, enriched heart.
When a person is lucky enough to live inside a story, to live inside an imaginary world, the pains of this world disappear. For as long as the story goes on, reality no longer exists.
There is something about a poet which leads us to believe that he died, in many cases, as long as 20 years before his birth.
Elegance is not the prerogative of those who have just escaped from adolescence, but of those who have already taken possession of their future.
All you're trying to do in an improvisation is get as much material as possible for the editing room.
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