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Point About Books The Lottery
| Title | : | The Lottery |
| Author | : | Shirley Jackson |
| Book Format | : | Paperback |
| Book Edition | : | Tale Blazers |
| Pages | : | Pages: 30 pages |
| Published | : | 1990 by Perfection Learning (first published June 26th 1948) |
| Categories | : | Short Stories. Classics. Horror. Fiction. Science Fiction. Dystopia |
Shirley Jackson
Paperback | Pages: 30 pages Rating: 4.09 | 54158 Users | 2758 Reviews
Commentary In Favor Of Books The Lottery
Science Imitating ArtJackson’s story was published in 1948. At the time, and since, it has been praised as insightful and criticised as obscure. But almost 20 years later, the French philosopher, Rene Girard, produced a theory which has a remarkable congruence with its theme and, I think, provides the best explanation of what Jackson was getting at in The Lottery.
Girard argued that our individual desires are never the product of some inner longing but always rather of the imitation of others. We want what other people want. This he called ‘mimetic desire’ and Girard went on to explore the implications of this insight for the next half century.
Mimetic desire, according to Girard, has a predictable trajectory that is familiar to advertising executives around the world. One person wants what another has, just because the other has it. This attracts the desire of others in a sort of exponential wave of wanting.
But widespread wanting of anything means, first, a shortage of that commodity, and consequently the mutual antagonism of all those who share the same desire. Girard’s contention is that this incipient hostility threatens to create a sort of Hobbesian world, a non-society, in which no cooperative or coordinated action, including effective government, can be established.
Human beings, Girard believed, deal with this situation unconsciously and instinctively by the mechanism of ‘scape-goating’, through which a group identifies one of its own members as the cause of its mimetic tension. This individual is both sacred and an object of communal hatred. The elimination of this individual is therefore not just necessary for the welfare of the community, but also forms the basis of religious practice in which the role of the scape-goat is transformed into a noble duty.
Girard goes even further in his later work to claim that the ritual establishment of the scape-goat is the most primitive form of representation, and consequently of language, that human beings have demonstrated. In a sense the essential foundation for human power in the world is religious violence which victimizes random members or groups in modern society.
Whether or not one agrees with Girard’s anthropology, and there is a substantial body of evidence to recommend it, his literary usefulness is demonstrated by the application of his theory to The Lottery. The theory explains, among other things the liturgical character of the story; its origins in a distant past; its particular relevance to a relatively isolated agricultural community; and its connection to a paternalistic hierarchy whose continued existence depends on the ritual.
As far as I am aware, Girard did not read The Lottery; but since he was in America at the time he might have done. In any case, it is certainly remarkable that an author of fiction like Jackson could have written such a tight short story which captures so much of subsequent academic work. Thus demonstrating, if demonstration were needed, the tremendous importance of fiction to cultural life.
For an introduction to Girard’s work see: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Mention Books Supposing The Lottery
| Original Title: | The Lottery |
| ISBN: | 1563127873 (ISBN13: 9781563127878) |
| Edition Language: | English |
| Characters: | Tessie Hutchinson, Bill Hutchinson, Mr. Summers, Mr. Graves |
| Setting: | Vermont(United States) |
Rating About Books The Lottery
Ratings: 4.09 From 54158 Users | 2758 ReviewsComment On About Books The Lottery
3.5 StarsWhat a quirky and strange short story describing a fictional small town which observes an annual ritual known as "the lottery". Less is certainly more in the case of this short story as its one of those books that certainly makes you think outside the box and packs a punch in its delivery. I like a little dystopian every now and then and this one I found quite strange and eerie and yet its message in many ways is played out in modern society every day. The power of this story for meI read this short story again recently and was struck, as ever, by Jackson's mastery. It's only about 10 pages long, and every word is perfect. It would make my list of the best short stories ever written."The Lottery" opens in a village in late June, and the 300 citizens are assembling in the town square. Each family stands together and the head of the household must draw a piece of paper from a black box. We learn that the lottery has something to do with a good harvest, but the true meaning
Hmm. Well. *sigh* Shirley Jackson and I have this thing. I want to like her stories, and I get all "Yay! I'm going to just LOVE this one because THIS is the story that people think of when they think of Shirley Jackson!"... except, that's kind of been all of them, and they all have let me down in some way. This one... well... I think it needed more violence. The climax was just kind of "...andthenthishappenedtheend." It needed more oomph. More, "Holy shit are you kidding me? WTF!" Oh yes, yes, I
Really hackneyed dystopian story that has been written a thousand times. (view spoiler)[All it is, is the annual sacrifice to the gods of whoever the village, the religion, the political regime, worships. Someone must die. A pretty young girl of course. In this sort of story, men are very rarely the victims. In real life as in stories, it was usually a virgin required. But then villages, religions and political regimes are usually devised, set up and run by men for their benefit. Having a few
The Lottery, Shirley JacksonThe Lottery is a short story by Shirley Jackson written mere months before its first publication, in the June 26, 1948 issue of The NewYorker. The story describes a fictional small town which observes an annual ritual known as "the lottery".عنوانها: قرعه کشی بخت آزمایی لاتاری نویسنده: شرلی جکسون تاریخ نخستین خوانش: بیست و پنجم ماه جولای سال 2015 میلادیعنوان: قرعه کشی نویسنده: شرلی جکسون مترجم: احمد گلشیری در 15 صعنوان : بخت آزمایی ترجمه و نقد: فاطمه فولادی و مریم
"People aint the way they used to be." I've seen this short story a lot of times before and don't know why couldn't pick this up. It's full of tension! I haven't read a story having that much tension. There was no specific world and character building but still it managed to keep me interested. There's a lottery happens on annual basis. And the entire village has to take part in it. And it's a whole different kind of lottery than we see nowadays. That's all I can tell you without spoiling. (
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