https://sites.middlebury.edu/individualandthesociety/files/2010/09/jackson_lottery.pdf
See you hear tonight for thoughts and discussions.
See you hear tonight for thoughts and discussions.
Discussion Group for April 10th-- The Lottery by Shirley Jackson
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What a coincidence. I'm going to read a story called The Lottery tonight and then I'm going to win the lottery a little later in the night.
Don’t know what’s so disturbing about this story, getting stoned doesn’t seem like a bad lottery prize
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Be careful which "lottery" you win!What a coincidence. I'm going to read a story called The Lottery tonight and then I'm going to win the lottery a little later in the night.
Neesy
#1 fan (Annie Wilkes cousin) 1st cousin Mom's side
I am going to chime in now in case I cannot be here later tonight - wow - it started off slow and I noted she used a lot of adverbs [at the beginning only] tsk tsk but the ending was quite chilling (call me naive but I did not see that coming!) - pretty good story 
….quick comment here, since I'm radioing tonight-this story resonated in my head when I was reading Steve's "Charyou Tree" description on my journey to The Tower.....
Again, a new author for me. As I read, the feeling something wasn't going to be one of joy like they'd won a $ lottery. Little hints-- time era/ pile of stones, reaction/ vibes I read into the characters. Negatives overtook positives. I'd say as the end approached, I already knew what would happen.
It was first published in 1948 in The New Yorker magazine, which is not a place where people were accustomed to finding and reading a horror story. So, folks started to read the tale and then get to the ending, which was horrific and upsetting for little Marge who lived in Cleveland Ohio and didn't like to read anything other than her Harlequin Romance novels. Given the era it was published lends another layer of disturbance to the tale- citizens weren't used to things like The Exorcist, The Omen, Alien, etc. They were used to Bette Davis films and Duke Ellington on the radio. It was somewhat a time of innocence. Here comes Miss Jackson (if you're nasty
) with her tale and this led to many people cancelling their subscription to The New Yorker magazine. It was definitely a controversial story for its time.
Good story - I think it's about mob mentality and how people will blindly follow tradition more than reason.
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Uh, okayIt was first published in 1948 in The New Yorker magazine, which is not a place where people were accustomed to finding and reading a horror story. So, folks started to read the tale and then get to the ending, which was horrific and upsetting for little Marge who lived in Cleveland Ohio and didn't like to read anything other than her Harlequin Romance novels. Given the era it was published lends another layer of disturbance to the tale- citizens weren't used to things like The Exorcist, The Omen, Alien, etc. They were used to Bette Davis films and Duke Ellington on the radio. It was somewhat a time of innocence. Here comes Miss Jackson (if you're nasty
Exactly. This was not the normal story to be published in such a magazine.It was first published in 1948 in The New Yorker magazine, which is not a place where people were accustomed to finding and reading a horror story. So, folks started to read the tale and then get to the ending, which was horrific and upsetting for little Marge who lived in Cleveland Ohio and didn't like to read anything other than her Harlequin Romance novels. Given the era it was published lends another layer of disturbance to the tale- citizens weren't used to things like The Exorcist, The Omen, Alien, etc. They were used to Bette Davis films and Duke Ellington on the radio. It was somewhat a time of innocence. Here comes Miss Jackson (if you're nasty
I'm running behind today due to a dental appointment. But, seeing as how I played Tess in a HS production of this, I do have some stuff to say. And I will later.
This is about the 4th or 5th reading for me, the first time in high school and a time or two in between.
This is the second time in the last year for this story as The Lottery was included in my Year of Cemetery Dance's The Century's Best Horror Fiction Volume One for 1948.
Very much a focus on superstition and not angering God. They wanted their crops to be good, so they made their sacrifice to obtain that. Very biblical.
And also reminiscent of the Salem Witch Trials -- a cow disease decimates a herd and someone needs to be blamed for that, someone surely was being punished for sin or for possessing the evil eye. Although the witch trials I think were more about jealousy and being able to covet and obtain a neighbor's worldly goods, including a husband or wife. So, accuse them of witchcraft and you get a cow and you get a cow and you get a cow! And a few hundred acres and a bunch of pewter, etc...
Anyway, I digress. The story is about community and ritual and tradition and rigidity. Giving a sacrifice before the crops fail. Before a blight took the animals. Before disease killed the children. It's man's inhumanity to man. Sanctioned murder for the greater good. the greater good.
At one time, I felt Shirley Jackson was a pretty good story teller. Her words are simple and the ideas are simple. But as I got older, I realized there was a mastery of subtle skill in her writing. Great story choice.
This is the second time in the last year for this story as The Lottery was included in my Year of Cemetery Dance's The Century's Best Horror Fiction Volume One for 1948.
Very much a focus on superstition and not angering God. They wanted their crops to be good, so they made their sacrifice to obtain that. Very biblical.
And also reminiscent of the Salem Witch Trials -- a cow disease decimates a herd and someone needs to be blamed for that, someone surely was being punished for sin or for possessing the evil eye. Although the witch trials I think were more about jealousy and being able to covet and obtain a neighbor's worldly goods, including a husband or wife. So, accuse them of witchcraft and you get a cow and you get a cow and you get a cow! And a few hundred acres and a bunch of pewter, etc...
Anyway, I digress. The story is about community and ritual and tradition and rigidity. Giving a sacrifice before the crops fail. Before a blight took the animals. Before disease killed the children. It's man's inhumanity to man. Sanctioned murder for the greater good. the greater good.
At one time, I felt Shirley Jackson was a pretty good story teller. Her words are simple and the ideas are simple. But as I got older, I realized there was a mastery of subtle skill in her writing. Great story choice.
....I’m far and away closer to that time than you young’un and the way he describes it is accurate....
It’s not that I didn’t understand or doubted the accuracy, it just came out of nowhere for a post quoting my dumb wordplay
You might want to rethink your Bette Davis thought. Remember, she did Whatever Happened to Baby Jane and Hush, Hush Sweet Charlotte.It was first published in 1948 in The New Yorker magazine, which is not a place where people were accustomed to finding and reading a horror story. So, folks started to read the tale and then get to the ending, which was horrific and upsetting for little Marge who lived in Cleveland Ohio and didn't like to read anything other than her Harlequin Romance novels. Given the era it was published lends another layer of disturbance to the tale- citizens weren't used to things like The Exorcist, The Omen, Alien, etc. They were used to Bette Davis films and Duke Ellington on the radio. It was somewhat a time of innocence. Here comes Miss Jackson (if you're nasty
....understood....
No it didn't come out of nowhere. You made your joke and that just showed how our thinking nowadays is. We joke. in general. Not everyone, but it's a more laid back and educated world out there today.
I think he was just saying that back in the day, that story horrified people. No one was making a joke about this story. Or looking for the joke. It was about 10 years after Orson Welles scared the holy hell out of a very naive society that aliens were landing in his War of the Worlds radio broadcast.