Shirley Jackson's classic
The Lottery came out on this date back in 1948, and raised the hairs on the back of
more than a few necks:
“The Lottery” takes the classic theme of man’s inhumanity to man and
gives it an additional twist: the randomness inherent in brutality. It
anticipates the way we would come to understand the twentieth century’s
unique lessons about the capacity of ordinary citizens to do evil—from
the Nazi camp bureaucracy, to the Communist societies that depended on
the betrayal of neighbor by neighbor and the experiments by the
psychologists Stanley Milgram and Philip Zimbardo demonstrating how
little is required to induce strangers to turn against each other. In
1948, with the fresh horrors of the Second World War barely receding
into memory and the Red Scare just beginning, it is no wonder that the
story’s first readers reacted so vehemently to this ugly glimpse of
their own faces in the mirror, even if they did not realize exactly what
they were looking at.
Of course as you well know, The Gnat and I were in a
7th grade performance of The Lottery:
Also, it reminds me of the time in 7th grade when Mr. Russell's class performed Shirley Jackson's The Lottery.
I can't remember who I played, for some reason I'm thinking Devareaux,
but I might not know what the fuck I'm talking about. Maybe The Gnat
remembers who he played?
There's also this:
Larry Yust's short film, The Lottery (1969), produced as part of
Encyclopædia Britannica's 'Short Story Showcase' series, was ranked by
the Academic Film Archive "as one of the two bestselling educational
films ever". It has an accompanying ten-minute commentary film,
Discussion of "The Lottery" by USC English professor Dr. James Durbin.
1 comment:
I know we did the play, but I can't remember who was who. Maybe I could read the book again to refresh. I perfer to remember my brief stage career through the eyes of a 14 yo gettign to play the male roles at the girls school's productions in town.
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