Reading 1001 discussion

Review thread: https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

1. Enoch Emery claims to have "wise blood" inherited from his father, which drives his impulses. What exactly is this "wise blood"?

2. Hazel Motes founds the "Church Without Christ." What is his ultimate goal in preaching a religion where "the blind don't see and the lame don't walk"?

3. Enoch steals a mummified man from the museum, which Hazel later destroys. What does the mummy symbolize to Enoch, to Sabbath Lily, and to Hazel?

4. At the end of his arc, Enoch Emery dresses up in a movie-promotional gorilla suit. Why does he feel a sense of fulfillment or transformation when wearing it? What does this say about his human identity?

5. Almost every character in the novel is profoundly lonely and unable to truly connect with others. How does the urban setting of Taulkinham amplify this isolation?

6. Hazel views his beat-up car as a place of refuge, a pulpit, and a means of escape. He claims that "nobody with a good car needs to be justified." What does the car represent to him, and what is the significance of the policeman pushing it over a cliff?

7. O'Connor uses extreme, distorted, and often bizarre imagery (the grotesque) to convey spiritual truths. Did you find the novel's dark humor and strange characters effective, or did they distance you from the story's deeper meaning?

8. Hoover Shoats copies Hazel’s idea and creates his own "Holy Church of Christ Without Christ," hiring a lookalike named Solace Layfield to preach. Why does Hazel despise Solace so intensely, to the point of murdering him?

1. Enoch Emery claims to have "wise blood" inherited from his father, which drives his impulses. What exactly is this "wise blood"? It is animalistic verses conscious or self Will. It is instinct.

2. Hazel Motes founds the "Church Without Christ." What is his ultimate goal in preaching a religion where "the blind don't see and the lame don't walk"? Hazel Motes is in an existential crisis or conflict. He is trying to escape his Christian faith but his conscious remains trapped by spiritual reality. Perhaps his argument that faith does not allow for free will but he is trying to exercise free will.

3. Enoch steals a mummified man from the museum, which Hazel later destroys. What does the mummy symbolize to Enoch, to Sabbath Lily, and to Hazel? the mummy symbolizes a tangible Christ. To Sabbath Lily it represents a baby and her desire to trap Hazel. To Hazel is repulsed by this "new Christ" that did not die for anyone's sins. The mummy symbolizes death. It forces him to see what the world is like when stripped of the divine.

4. At the end of his arc, Enoch Emery dresses up in a movie-promotional gorilla suit. Why does he feel a sense of fulfillment or transformation when wearing it? What does this say about his human identity? Enoch hated the gorilla's and wanted to defeat the gorilla but he sees the actor in the suit and the children's excitement, it represents connection in contrast to isolation. It is also a surrender to the "animalistic" and instead of being a source of contact with others he is once again rejected and isolated.

5. Almost every character in the novel is profoundly lonely and unable to truly connect with others. How does the urban setting of Taulkinham amplify this isolation? Though there are people all around, people really are not connected. The characters really lack communication skills and any effort is unsuccessful,

6. Hazel views his beat-up car as a place of refuge, a pulpit, and a means of escape. He claims that "nobody with a good car needs to be justified." What does the car represent to him, and what is the significance of the policeman pushing it over a cliff?

7. O'Connor uses extreme, distorted, and often bizarre imagery (the grotesque) to convey spiritual truths. Did you find the novel's dark humor and strange characters effective, or did they distance you from the story's deeper meaning? the car serves as Hazel's heaven. His escape from the heartless city. A mechanical substitute for the grace of God. With the car, he doesn't need "justification". A car is also a means of escape. The pushing of the car over the cliff is the climax or turning point. Shattering Hazel's false security. Hazel has been relying on a false diety. He is forced to face the fact that he cannot justify himself.

8. Hoover Shoats copies Hazel’s idea and creates his own "Holy Church of Christ Without Christ," hiring a lookalike named Solace Layfield to preach. Why does Hazel despise Solace so intensely, to the point of murdering him? It's a kind of anti Christless. Solace is Hazel's double. It is a visual of Hazel's own hypocrisies. While Hazel was honest in his blasphemy, the other is a con artist taking advantage of decieving others and spiritual

My goodness, what a challenging set of characters.

Question 7 gets at my reaction to this book the most: the extreme, distorted, and often bizarre imagery (the grotesque) I find both effective AND distancing. Because these deeply scary ideas about hell and damnation are not part of my experience, and so the distortion and grotesquerie does help to convey to my imagination just how distorting the experience of constantly listening to this preaching as a child is. And we had Haze’s memory of his grandfather’s trips home which was a great set piece to tie that together with a more birds eye view of reality for me. But, yeah, it’s a hall of mirrors show and so a dark satire almost, which gives me room to not really emote myself.

The setting (5) and the car (6) highlight the distancing unreality and the extreme loneliness of the whole project, because the characters are just trying to get away from themselves, and there is no escape from that. That is the reason for the Church (2) – to get away from a need to suffer in order to be redeemed, in order to be forgiven for sins. Towards the end when Haze sets off to drive away there is the line “he knew all along that there was no more country, but he didn’t know that there was not another city.” That is, he did not realize that he could not kill himself off and leave himself behind (8).

The book is packed to the gills with symbolism, which makes it fun to analyze endlessly: the car is a parallel with the Grandfather’s which he used to control others, and even though the car is Haze’s symbol of independence (6), he cant leave it because it does not lock. And it can barely run. But when it is destroyed by authority, he takes that as a definitive end of his rebellion – he has been punished by the destruction of his symbols and the means of perpetrating his greatest sin, which must mean that he was wrong, and that sin is real and that he must atone. Enoch’s story as a foil is also a rich vein full of symptoms, someone who is acting on his instincts (“wise blood” 1) from the beginning rather than trying to overpower it with his intellect, but also totally constrained by societal rules, and so also desperate for a redemptive story line, for release from the secret pleasures and terrors of repressed sexual desire, for a way into being free in his sensual body (4) – ending up in a gorilla suit and still not being able to shake hands with the girl.

1. Enoch Emery claims to have "wise blood" inherited from his father, which drives his impulses. What exactly is this "wise blood"?

It is his inner feelings, instincts and whereas Enoch usually feels totally lost in the world, when he gets a sense of "wise blood", he trusts it utterly and gives himself over to its control.

2. Hazel Motes founds the "Church Without Christ." What is his ultimate goal in preaching a religion where "the blind don't see and the lame don't walk"?

Motes would like to "open the eyes" of those he preaches to, to what he believes are the facts about Jesus and religion in general. He wants people to deeply believe that they are not saved, and that there has never been anything to be saved from.

3. Enoch steals a mummified man from the museum, which Hazel later destroys. What does the mummy symbolize to Enoch, to Sabbath Lily, and to Hazel?

To Enoch the mummy is the "new christ" which, of course is not a christ at all. It also symbolizes his drive to respond to his wise blood as he believes he is doing something rather monumental by stealing it. Hazel is just disgusted by the mummy and Sabbath see it as another lost baby.

4. At the end of his arc, Enoch Emery dresses up in a movie-promotional gorilla suit. Why does he feel a sense of fulfillment or transformation when wearing it? What does this say about his human identity?

Enoch will gladly trade in his human identity for the ability to connect with others. He sees what the gorilla was to the people who stood in line to shake its hand, it was something greater than they were but able to connect with them. Unfortunately, the suit was not the cause of this connection.

5. Almost every character in the novel is profoundly lonely and unable to truly connect with others. How does the urban setting of Taulkinham amplify this isolation?

One gets the sense that the town is grungy and run down. There seems to be almost no place where people come together except church.

6. Hazel views his beat-up car as a place of refuge, a pulpit, and a means of escape. He claims that "nobody with a good car needs to be justified." What does the car represent to him, and what is the significance of the policeman pushing it over a cliff?

The car both represents his freedom and independence and it is also a deep hallucination in that Hazel can not see that it is a piece of junk and can not give him any freedom or independence. The policeman simply makes the obvious clear to Hazel.

7. O'Connor uses extreme, distorted, and often bizarre imagery (the grotesque) to convey spiritual truths. Did you find the novel's dark humor and strange characters effective, or did they distance you from the story's deeper meaning?

Every review speaks of this dark humor. I did not get the dark humor. It was all just a low level horror to me. I guess I would have to say that the characters were effective in giving me that feeling of horror. I had the sense that the characters and their deeper meaning were as one.

8. Hoover Shoats copies Hazel’s idea and creates his own "Holy Church of Christ Without Christ," hiring a lookalike named Solace Layfield to preach. Why does Hazel despise Solace so intensely, to the point of murdering him?

Solace both betrays his own preaching, in that he does not believe in his own words or in the faith he speaks about, plus he betrays Hazel's truth, which is that there is no Christ.

1. Enoch Emery claims to have "wise blood" inherited from his father, which drives his impulses. What exactly is this "wise blood"?
As far as I can tell, it is simply intuition and impulse. It seems to be violent at times if not always, e.g. on the day Hazel comes to the zoo, Enoch is under an impulse to show the “mystery” to someone, and if someone doesn’t come soon, “the nerve inside him would grow so big that he would be forced to steal a car or rob a bank or jump out of a dark alley onto a woman.”

2. Hazel Motes founds the "Church Without Christ." What is his ultimate goal in preaching a religion where "the blind don't see and the lame don't walk"?
To be honest I didn’t understand this. It seemed to me that he had the urge/dream to be a preacher but disliked traditional religious faith. However, weirdly, he does seem to have some belief, as he atones for his sins by walking with glass and rocks in his shoes and, later, wearing barbed wire around his body. Perhaps it is this contradiction that makes him so miserable.

In the introduction to the 2nd edition, O’Connor writes: “It is a comic novel about a Christian malgré lui…” which translates as something like Christian in spite of himself. She continues, “For [some readers], Hazel Motes’s integrity lies in his trying with such vigor to get rid of the ragged figure [Jesus/faith] who moves from tree to tree in the back of his mind. For the author, Hazel’s integrity lies in his not being able to do so.”

3. Enoch steals a mummified man from the museum, which Hazel later destroys. What does the mummy symbolize to Enoch, to Sabbath Lily, and to Hazel?
To Sabbath, it is a child, perhaps a child that will love her unconditionally. To Enoch it is something otherworldly, to be feared and/or worshipped. Hazel finds it disgusting both times he encounters it. I’m not sure what it symbolizes for him.

4. At the end of his arc, Enoch Emery dresses up in a movie-promotional gorilla suit. Why does he feel a sense of fulfillment or transformation when wearing it? What does this say about his human identity?
I agree with Kristel, that the suit represents connection, in contrast to isolation. The gorilla seems to have been the first “person” in the city to shake hands with Enoch, and he takes this as a gesture of friendship. He also watches people of all ages come to meet the gorilla, so if he can “become” the gorilla, everyone will want to shake hands/be friends with him.

5. Almost every character in the novel is profoundly lonely and unable to truly connect with others. How does the urban setting of Taulkinham amplify this isolation?
I agree with what others here have said. I would add that the only one really looking for a true connection is Enoch. This is why he becomes kind of obsessed with Hazel; he sees the possibility of a friendship with another stranger “new” to town. Sabbath is only interested in “connecting” with Hazel because, if he sleeps with her, he may feel obligated to marry her or at least take care of her. Hazel Moats could care less about making individual connections with people. He simply wants disciples for his church.

6. Hazel views his beat-up car as a place of refuge, a pulpit, and a means of escape. He claims that "nobody with a good car needs to be justified." What does the car represent to him, and what is the significance of the policeman pushing it over a cliff?
If he has a car, he has freedom. He can go anywhere he wants to preach his gospel. And I love what Gail points out: Hazel cannot see that it is a piece of junk that cannot give him any freedom or independence. Not much in this book moved me, but I did feel really bad for Hazel when the car was destroyed, I think because it represented the end of living in a dream world.

7. O'Connor uses extreme, distorted, and often bizarre imagery (the grotesque) to convey spiritual truths. Did you find the novel's dark humor and strange characters effective, or did they distance you from the story's deeper meaning?
I found a few things amusing, especially in relation to Enoch, who was so ridiculous. So maybe these devices did create a distance for me.

8. Hoover Shoats copies Hazel’s idea and creates his own "Holy Church of Christ Without Christ," hiring a lookalike named Solace Layfield to preach. Why does Hazel despise Solace so intensely, to the point of murdering him?
As Gail points out, Shoats and Layfield make a mockery of his belief, using it to make a profit, and isn’t that kind of what he believes all religion is doing – exploiting a belief in God to make poor suckers pay?