“I’m always irritated by people who imply writing fiction is an escape from reality. It is a plunge into reality.”
So wrote famed author Flannery O’Connor in her essay “The Nature and Aim of Fiction.” Her stories serve as the lens for a new biopic about her life called Wildcat.
The film, Jessica Hooten Wilson writes at CT, “uses [O’Connor’s] fiction to discover what’s real, to ‘get down under things’ to the problem of suffering, the limitations of human experience, the desire for goodness, the habits of evil, and, always present, the longing for God.”
Wilson’s article explores the ways that Wildcat is loyal to O’Connor’s prophetic imagination as it celebrates her relationship to God, her mother, her audience, and her lupus diagnosis. In a recent episode of The Russell Moore Show, Moore discussed these themes with Wildcat’s director and screenwriter: Ethan Hawke.
The article, podcast episode, and film all point to a timely truth: O’Connor’s life and fiction were shaped by suffering. Through it, the reality of a wondrous God was displayed.
