Appreciation …

… Graced Grit: A Hymn-laced Eulogy to True Grit Author Charles Portis | Front Porch Republic. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

 Portis is the maker of Mattie Ross and the adventure that leads a close reader to take stock in the high cost of revenge. French philosopher René Girard makes a universal concept from such matters in his mimetic theory. As in Shakespeare’s Hamlet, most of us recognize the poignancy of a child (or parent) seeking to right the most taboo of violent acts—kin slaying. This is the theme of the first literary English language epic Beowulf, and it is the quest that Mattie is on when she picks the “meanest,” most “pitiless” marshal in Fort Smith to track her daddy’s killer. Of course we are cheering her on, just as we did that Texas father back in 2012 that killed the man he found molesting his four-year-old daughter.