Salacious_Scribe
is writing 1 handed
- Joined
- Jul 6, 2019
- Posts
- 811
One of my kids had to read The Lottery by Shirley Jackson for school. Since I liked the story when I read it decades ago, I reread it and then reviewed his paper on it. I learned a few things...
Apparently these trolls have been around for decades. This is a quote from Shirley Jackson after The New Yorker published it in 1948....
So don't worry about troll comments. Even great writers deal with them.
Something I found interesting... In a later work titled Come Along With Me Ms. Jackson said
I honestly couldn't tell you which of the bold statements above I find more disturbing.
Apparently these trolls have been around for decades. This is a quote from Shirley Jackson after The New Yorker published it in 1948....
One of the most terrifying aspects of publishing stories and books is the realization that they are going to be read, and read by strangers. I had never fully realized this before, although I had of course in my imagination dwelt lovingly upon the thought of the millions and millions of people who were going to be uplifted and enriched and delighted by the stories I wrote. It had simply never occurred to me that these millions and millions of people might be so far from being uplifted that they would sit down and write me letters I was downright scared to open; of the three-hundred-odd letters that I received that summer I can count only thirteen that spoke kindly to me, and they were mostly from friends. Even my mother scolded me: "Dad and I did not care at all for your story in The New Yorker", she wrote sternly; "it does seem, dear, that this gloomy kind of story is what all you young people think about these days. Why don't you write something to cheer people up?"
So don't worry about troll comments. Even great writers deal with them.
Something I found interesting... In a later work titled Come Along With Me Ms. Jackson said
Curiously, there are three main themes which dominate the letters of that first summer—three themes which might be identified as bewilderment, speculation and plain old-fashioned abuse. In the years since then, during which the story has been anthologized, dramatized, televised, and even—in one completely mystifying transformation—made into a ballet, the tenor of letters I receive has changed. I am addressed more politely, as a rule, and the letters largely confine themselves to questions like what does this story mean? The general tone of the early letters, however, was a kind of wide-eyed, shocked innocence. People at first were not so much concerned with what the story meant; what they wanted to know was where these lotteries were held, and whether they could go there and watch.
I honestly couldn't tell you which of the bold statements above I find more disturbing.
