Hey-we have arrived at post 666!! I would like to thank the dark lord Satan and Netflix. Seriously, I can't believe I have written (don't laugh- this qualifies as writing) 666 posts!
So what do I write for post 666? A plea for you all to read
The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. Again, I managed to wait 36 years to read this story. I know, bad horror girl. If you haven't read
The Lottery please go do it now. I will wait. Here is a link:
http://www.classicshorts.com/stories/lotry.html
Awesome wasn't it? The older I get the more obsessed I become with the short story form, most likely because of my reduced attention span and inability to remember things I did 10 minutes ago.
The Lottery may be the most perfect short story I have ever read. In less than 4000 words Jackson creates a realistic and terrifying world. I am not going to say much about the story, in case you couldn't spare the time to read it now (it took me 10 minutes). Written for
The New Yorker in 1948,
The Lottery created quite the commotion. People canceled their subscriptions and wrote hate mail, all of which was forwarded to Jackson. It seems that this short little fable that she wrote in one 2 hour sitting was more powerful than she could of imagined. Enjoy!
2 comments:
When I was twelve or so, I inherited a bunch of books from someone I didn't really know. The Lottery was in a book of short stories with that lot. I read it several times in my teens, always believing it really was the perfect short story.
For some reason, I never noticed before that it was Shirley Jackson who wrote it!
I agree this is a great short story. When I read Hunger Games this is the story it reminded me of.
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