Thursday, February 9, 2012

Short story: The Lottery

I am planning to read The Hunger Games series some time before the first movie comes out in March. In fact, I read the first couple chapters of the eponymous first book of the series, just to make sure it was tolerable and that I could go through with my read-then-see-movie plan. Actually, Alan read the chapters out loud to me from his Kindle because I, in my lazy and sleepy state, asked him to and he obliged (he has already read the whole series, btw.). Verdict: It seems pretty interesting and exciting, although it may take me a bit to get used to the fact that it is written in first-person present tense. I tend to dislike first-person narration, and I HATE WHEN STORIES ARE WRITTEN IN PRESENT TENSE. But I'll get over it. Lol.

Aaaanywayyyyyy, I stopped reading The Hunger Games for now because I want to finish the volume of The Wheel of Time series that I am currently reading (WoT 4 LIFE SUCKAHHHHHHHHS!) before really diving into the HG books. But I did also read the first few HG chapter reviews/read-alongs at Mark Reads, which is an absolutely hilarious and wonderful site and you should go read all of the Mark Reads Harry Potter posts, they are amazing. (Actually, that reminds me that I need to do a whole blog post dedicated to Mark Reads. But I digress.) ANNNDDDDD getting back to the topic of this post FINALLY, in his reading of the first chapter of HG, Mark mentions how The Reaping brings to mind a short story called The Lottery (a.k.a. the title of this blog post) (p.s. don't read that Wikipedia article for The Lottery yet because it has spoilerrrrrs omg no not that).

Naturally, I went and found the story and read it because I was intrigued and because I ♥ short stories due to my short attention span, as explained in this previous post, lolololol oh. Anywhoo, Mark is correct as always because he is the most awesomest and it is indeed a really really good short story sooooooooo without any further incoherent rambling ado go read The Lottery by Shirley Jackson right HERE!! You're welcome.

6 comments:

  1. Pretty sure we read that in junior high. And write essay about it/comparing it to every other thing we ever read/etc all through junior high and high school (my school was 7th through 12th grade. Humanities for 6 years means lots of those essays).

    It's the one about some weirdo town that has this lottery and you find out at the end they kill the person or something crazy, right?

    ...I feel like I'm missing something important. I guess I could re-read it.

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    1. SPOILER ALERT, ROSANNE! Geez, lol. Yeah, that's the one.

      Honestly, the reason I like it isn't something deep and meaningful, like that I think it conveys a ~powerful message~ or is ~full of poignant symbolism~ or anything.... (Although I'm not saying that it doesn't!)

      I just like it because it starts off normal, then it starts getting kind of creepy and there's a sense of rising dread, which keeps ramping up until the end when it's like WTF THIS IS MESSED UP. And I really like things that start out normal and turn out messed up and creepy, haha. Maybe because I, too, appear normal at first but then become more and more messed up and creepy the longer one is around me. :P

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    2. Oops. My bad. hehehehe.

      Yeah, it's powerful writing, at least, and I do distinctly remember it's a very slow progression where you somehow realize something is a little off, then a little more weird, then WHAT?! haha.

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  2. Also, that should say "wrote essays" not "write essay"...wow, I suck at typing!

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  3. Funny you mentioned the Hunger Games in this post, since this could have been a direct excerpt, minus the whole first-person-present dealio. Oh, and I'm also working simultaneously on the Hunger Games and WOT series right now. Just finished book one in both series. We have goodly taste.

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    1. YAYYYYYY we have the best taste in books!! How did you like WoT?? I am finishing up book twelve right now. :D

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