“Old Man Warner snorted. “Pack of crazy fools,” he said. “Listening to the young folks, nothing’s good enough for them. Next thing you know, they’ll be wanting to go back to living in caves, nobody work any more, live hat way for a while. Used to be a saying about ‘Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.’ First thing you know, we’d all be eating stewed chickweed and acorns. There’s always been a lottery,” he added petulantly.”
— Excerpt from “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson.
In a historical footnote, this story was so disturbing it caused a bunch of New Yorker subscribers to cancel their subscription in 1948. Enjoy!
(The latter link is also a kind of fascinating look at the role of women in horror writing.)
2 responses
I own everything Shirley Jackson ever wrote.. you want freaky, try The Haunting of Hill House. This woman was a master. Thanks for sharing.
There are also a lot of stories in the collection that contains “The Lottery,” including one in which the scary neighbors make a timid suburban lady put a spiked collar on her dog to stop it from chasing chickens. With the spikes on the INSIDE. And then there’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle. Man, I love me some Shirley Jackson.
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