13. Why Do The Heathen Rage?

Everything That Rises is a weekly passion project podcast series dedicated to the short stories of the one and only Flannery O’Connor. Each week join English teacher, author and speaker John Meehan (@MeehanEDU) and a well-read friend to help co-host as we explore the stories, symbols, and rich cultural legacy of this iconic 20th Century author of the American South. Blending Catholic theology with literary analysis for a sort of 21st century book club (complete with the usual parade of good-natured tall tales and Southern “stretchers”), it’s a fun and fascinating journey through one of the most brilliant and influential writers in all of contemporary American literature. New stories twice a month! And new episodes every week, with about 45(ish) minutes devoted to the first half of each story, and another 45 minutes (or so) the following week dedicated to all the unexpected twists and turns that lie in store in the back half of each narrative. This week: we are super excited to welcome Dr. Jessica Hooten Wilson (@HootenWilson) to our program! Her credentials speak for themselves: Jessica Hooten Wilson is Louise Cowan Scholar in Residence at the University of Dallas in the Classical Education and Humanities Graduate Program. She is the author of three books: Giving the Devil his Due: Flannery O’Connor and The Brothers Karamazov, which received a 2018 Christianity Today book of the year award; Walker Percy, Fyodor Dostoevsky, and the Search for Influence; and Reading Walker Percy’s Novels. In 2019 she received the Hiett Prize for Humanities from the Dallas Institute of Humanities and Culture. She is co-editor of the volume Solzhenitsyn and American Culture: The Russian Soul in the West, a collection of essays on the legacy of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Currently, she is preparing Flannery O’Connor’s unfinished novel Why Do the Heathen Rage? for publication. You can learn more at her website http://www.jessicahootenwilson.com. Needless to say, I was thrilled to have her stop by the podcast for a deep dive into Flannery O’Connor’s shortest of short stories — “Why Do The Heathen Rage?”