When I was in college, I read Shirley Jackson’s short story “The Lottery” as part of my twentieth-century literature survey. A good deal of the class was shocked by it. I thought the conceit was *genius.* When I taught a narrative unit in my Comp. I class about three years ago, I decided to include “The Lottery” and pair it with the Reaping scene from The Hunger Games. My students were electrified. They were simultaneously horrified by the concept and curious to see its echoes […]
Merricat is just the coolest nickname ever
I am so behind on my reviews, guys! Help! “My name is Mary Katherine Blackwood. I am eighteen years old, and I live with my sister Constance. I have often thought that with any luck at all, I could have been born a werewolf, because the two middle fingers on both my hands are the same length, but I have had to be content with what I had. I dislike washing myself, and dogs, and noise. I like my sister Constance, and Richard Plantagenet, and […]
Angelica tried to take a bite of me
The air has just recently gotten a bite of chill to it, particularly in the early mornings and late evenings. I’ve been sleeping with the windows cracked and, when I wake up in the morning, I’m curled up tight under the covers, hiding from the cold. Fall is officially here. This was the perfect time of year to pick up We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. Jackson is probably best known for her short story, The Lottery, something I read in […]
Anything but ordinary
After Shirley Jackson’s death in 1965, her children found a treasure trove of unpublished short stories in Jackson’s attic. They cleaned them up, without changing much, and compiled this book: Just an Ordinary Day, adding in some published short stories (from various magazines and newspapers) at the end. While my familiarity with Jackson lies mostly with her horror — The Lottery, The Haunting of Hill House — this collections covers a variety of genres. In fact, it contains very little horror; instead it focuses on strange happenings in […]