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.
Provided we can escape from the museums we carry around inside us, provided we can stop selling ourselves tickets to the galleries in our own skulls, we can begin to contemplate an art which re-creates the goal of the sorcerer: changing the structure of reality by the manipulation of living symbols ... Art tells gorgeous lies that come true.
The core of my writing is not art but truth.
People don't remember me for how high my legs went, even though they went up very high, and how many pirouettes I did. They don't remember me for that. They remember me and any other dancer because something touched them inside. It's an indelible memory on the heart and in the mind.
We read and remember certain writers because they offer distinctive voices and perspectives, because they've given themselves over completely and passionately to their obsessions while vigorously ignoring everything else.
Those with prodigious skill in music are better suited for all things.
In the end, fiction is the craft of telling truth through lies.
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