Shirley Jackson was such a badass master of horror. Her story _The Witch_ is about a sweet old man who goes around teaching young boys tales of violent misogyny under the guise of women being witches, and everyone just laughs it off as an old man telling stories, when in fact, he is the witch, indoctrinating children into evil.

@books_ncats

4 ай бұрын

Totally! We made a video on ‘The Witch’ a little while ago if you’re interested ☺️ - Rosie

@availanila

4 ай бұрын

​@@books_ncats😮 I'll have to read this.

@druidsongevergreens

4 ай бұрын

I cannot find the Witch at the library or on audible. Any rec for finding it?

@availanila

4 ай бұрын

@@druidsongevergreens I found it here on KZread. It's a short listen.

@falconeshield

4 ай бұрын

Reminds me of a certain Taint

These remind me of a horror story my own mother wrote (and published!) where a nurse (mother and breadwinner) goes through her day in the zombie apocalypse, but nothing's changed. Her husband (zombie) is locked away in his room were he'd normally spend his time gaming on the computer alone, and her son (based on me! also, zombie) is in the basement, where he'd usually hole himself up because he's a teen who doesn't want to spend time with his family. She goes to work, does her job, gets food for the family (all brains, of course, aside from herself), and comes home to feed them all and take care of the house. She treats her family completely normally, because, realistically, their dynamic hasn't changed, despite her whole family being undead. The warped but familiar home dynamics just felt similar to me, hearing about Shirley's stories for the first time. It was called "Just another day" (published in the First Time Dead anthology!) and I'd like to note- while I do still live in the basement, I do spend a lot more time with my mum to make up for being an angsty teen zombie in her story.

@margueritejacobs6404

3 ай бұрын

I love that concept, that's so brilliant

@stephgreen3070

3 ай бұрын

That is…blindingly brilliant, and something I can very much relate to. High five to your mum! She’s sounds extremely clever and amazing. (I have my own family of zombies, minus the dog. I think she might be impervious to the zombie virus because she hangs out with me no matter where I go or what I’m doing.)

@bakedpotato1717

3 ай бұрын

I love how proud you are of your mom :) I’ll check it out!

@KnockingONwood1111

3 ай бұрын

Thats awesome

@FallacyBites

3 ай бұрын

Your mom is so BadAss

Nothing is scarier than 24/7 cleaning and childcare with no help from a partner. *shiver*

@LuzMaria95

4 ай бұрын

that’s a fact.

@bleaf_

4 ай бұрын

I absolutely would lose my mind if my husband and I didn't have a pretty equal share of duties (and I include him having a job along with that - I may not be employed but I essentially am "on call" 24/7). Can't imagine how any of these women did it.

@kellybeck4579

4 ай бұрын

​@@bleaf_They didn't. Suicide was common for housewives. No fault divorce drastically dropped female suicide rates.

@yeet1066

4 ай бұрын

​@@kellybeck4579or they would be drugged up on meth, or lobotomized

@bleaf_

4 ай бұрын

@@kellybeck4579 Jesus Christ. I had a feeling that was the answer but I hate to be right

During WWII my mother worked as an editor at Dunne and Bradstreet. My father forced her to quit because she earned more than he did in the Navy. I am certain she resented him throughout raising us. We would have been better off financially instead of struggling in home of five kids

@Mastermint

4 ай бұрын

what a douche nozzle

@andeannafarnes4719

4 ай бұрын

So many husbands did that to their wives in the past. Having a working wife diminished their masculinity. They would sometimes go as far as physical violence to deter ♀️spouses from working outside the home. I was a 1970's teenage witness.

@Ilovebirdgag

4 ай бұрын

That sucks. She's got my full sympathy.

@CovenoftheOpenMind

4 ай бұрын

If someone tried to force me to quit, I'd be wondering where to stash the body too. How did they "force" it though? Why did women live like this for so long? I understand it objectively, but trying to imagine ever letting myself be treated this way is just impossible to me.

@janecklyn

4 ай бұрын

​@@CovenoftheOpenMindbecause they were raised that way. Hell, wives were considered property, not persons.

You start to think about how even the female protagonists themselves are only identified by their married status and the last name of the man they married. No first names; they are reduced only to their role.

@ane-louisestampe7939

4 ай бұрын

US citizens are among the foreigners in Denmark, who gets surpriced when they find out that by law, a married womean have to have her own bank account and hand in her own tax returns. Don't worry Girl, it's not like the US, where it takes a day to fill in the papers! It's just 5-10 minuttes in front of the computer: Travellin' Youngs have made a video about this subject, if you're curious: kzread.info/dash/bejne/Yquaus2mps2_f9o.html

@SabreBash

4 ай бұрын

That's wonderful that they can, but I'm not sure why it would be that much of a surprise, as women in the USA have been allowed to have their own bank account since 1974, and in some places the 1960s. @@ane-louisestampe7939

@SabreBash

4 ай бұрын

@@ane-louisestampe7939 I'm happy they have those rights, but i'm not sure that this would be a surprise to any American citizens, as women have had the right to open their own bank accounts since the 1970s, and in some cases since even further back than that.

@franjkav

4 ай бұрын

@@SabreBashnotice they said have to have and you said have the right to have…

@ane-louisestampe7939

4 ай бұрын

@@SabreBash There's a step between having the right to and having to. As I understand, married women from the US don't have their own tax returns, but disappears in to their husbands. Is that correct?

In The Renegade, I also think it’s thematically significant that the dog everyone is talking about torturing and killing with such normalized glee is female, and called “Lady.”

@ehngee

3 ай бұрын

i totally agree with you! i also thought it was significant how the dog was grouped in with the children wishing her harm - seems reminiscent of women who don’t recognize their own oppression and will gleefully go along with it in order to blend in further to their social role (like ‘tradwives’ who support antifeminist movements and think their lack of agency, choice, rights etc is its own kind of salvation, or are so frightened by the conservative environment they’ve found themselves in that they think their enthusiastic support will protect them as an outlier to Women at large)

@merrimcarthur7198

2 ай бұрын

@@ehngee THIS^^^^^^^^

My mother described herself as passive. What that meant is that she watched me being tortured and she did nothing. She justified herself by saying that she had "good intentions." The road to hell is paved with "good intentions."

@junejunejuniejune

4 ай бұрын

I relate to your comment as I was raised by an abusive grandfather and my grandmother did nothing to stop him. she would always just go outside and smoke till the screaming stopped. neglect is a form of abuse. What helped me to forgive her was to realize that she was also a victim. She didn't do the right thing, but she was scared and beaten down too.

@LoneWulf278

4 ай бұрын

@@junejunejuniejunethat’s often the case. 😢

@alimica

4 ай бұрын

my grandmother did the same when my sister and i told her about how her son was abusing our mom. for years since she was such a comfort and her home was always so nice and she always seemed so sweet i looked past it, thinking she only wanted the best for us even if she couldnt stop what was happening, but that wasnt true. she just didnt like my mom enough to speak up to my father, and let us suffer too as collateral damage. when we had to go live with her and i cried to her again about what happened she told me "i get it, my father was abused, my mother would beat him bloody and my sister would try to comfort him afterwards" as if the fact that she went through something similar made it okay at all. it makes it worse, you know how it feels, why would you let your grandchildren suffer the same way? all of this to say i agree, neglecting to remedy violence is participating in said violence

@tiahnarodriguez3809

4 ай бұрын

⁠​⁠​⁠@@alimica I have the same sentiments. A person can be both a victim and a perpetrator. Having victim status is not an excuse for being a perpetrator, but it can provide context. My family is full of victims that are perpetrators, and while I understand the context behind why, I could never forgive them because they still choose to be perpetrators and use their victim status as an excuse to hurt me. While I have been victimized, I don’t see myself as a victim per se, more like I’m just surrounded by people who are not capable of putting in the work to heal themselves and do better. This goes for many of my peers as well. I think it’s really good that you see your grandmother’s hypocrisy, and you realized what was really going on because it can help you to not fall for any tactics that perpetrators use to try to keep you as a participant in their games. That’s what freed me from my perpetrators hold even though I don’t forgive them.

@nettorak

4 ай бұрын

I'm a freetime-writer that tries to get their traumata right - and how to _heal_ them. I had to read a few books and I found "The body keeps the score" by van der Kolk really good and Pete Walker altogether. The latter has a website where you can check out if his work fits your situation. He focuses on overcoming complex PTSD, which is the form that occurs after repetitive traumatic events, like a really shitty childhood. I'd recommend starting with "The 4Fs: A Trauma Typology in Complex PTSD". You can list further helpful books, if you'd want. I personally search for good factual books that describe first hand experience of any sort of [c]PTSD, so I can handle it realistically and with respect in my writing. All the best wishes to you all from me and a hug, if you want.

I think there is a certain real horror in the fact that men don't seem to be able to see how repressed women are. It's like you see it or hear about it and it seems so obvious, but when you talk about it with your father or brother or boyfriend they're like "Psh! That's not a thing." and you realize that they have no idea, and that they don't want to know. They're completely dismissive like there's some kind of mental barrier for them to keep them from thinking about how women feel or what they have to deal with. It's not eve "ew, gross, periods" it's "domestic suppression isn't a thing". Like, how do you watch movies like "Pleasantville" and hear about how women couldn't drive or have bank accounts until recently and say that women have never been suppressed? I used to think "Oh, my father is just older" or "My brother has never really had a long-term relationship", but I have genuinely had conversations with every man in my life, men who I thought had fairly feministic leanings and each of them have said things to me that made me realize that they really don't see it.

@lyndsaybrown8471

2 ай бұрын

It doesn't serve them to have empathy so they don't have empathy. But I bet they want praise for their work and throw a stink if they don't get it.

@lexileemoney6205

2 ай бұрын

@@lyndsaybrown8471 they don’t have empathy because it was conditioned out of them by patriarchal society. Women and men are equally as capable of empathy, but as women we are raised to have empathy and men are not.

@aaabbb8812

Ай бұрын

They DO know. They DONT CARE!!

@Sabbathtage

29 күн бұрын

​@aaabbb8812 No. I know what they mean by "not seeing it." I've had to explain countless times to guys about why we want someone to walk us to the car or why a woman would be so rude as to cross a street rather than walk by them at night. And that should be the easy stuff. And don't get me started on having to explain to a guy about how someone he knows is being awful to me and other women and I get, "that doesn't sound like them" or "Well, they're alwsys nice to me. Maybe its because of something you did."

@M_SC

11 күн бұрын

Yes

i'm a disabled housewife who cannot escape my home. and i can relate to this very much. it is comforting to hear my suffering is not just "all in my head"

@LuzMaria95

4 ай бұрын

🫂

@katella

4 ай бұрын

😮

@books_ncats

4 ай бұрын

I hadn’t thought about this topic in relation to disability, thanks for sharing this. I hope your situation improves - Rosie

@yehmen29

4 ай бұрын

If you haven't read it already, you may like Charlotte Perkins' short story The Yellow Wallpaper. It is very morbid though and does not have a happy ending.

@LuzMaria95

4 ай бұрын

@@yehmen29 i read that one already. i love it so much. it’s one of my favorite short stories.

Miss ma’am was paid a grand per short story in 20th century dollars?? Man today’s writers really don’t get paid SHIT, huh

@gadgetgirl02

4 ай бұрын

There's a stat that circulates on social media: in Little Women, Jo received $100 for her first published short story (in the 1860s). Nowadays you're lucky to get cash at all. Often you are only paid in printed copies. I did get paid cash for my first published short story. I was lucky enough to be accepted by a national magazine. And yes -- I got $100, in the 2010s.

@catherinecrawford2289

4 ай бұрын

SO TRUE! My first paid gig I got $400 and thought cool, I'm gonna get rich. The next 50 gigs paid $25 to $50. Once I made $1600 and that was a one time thing. Too much content drove the price down.

@tomoko7584

4 ай бұрын

yes but compared to male artists, its still very little

@NoelleTakestheSky

4 ай бұрын

LOL, oh, darling, even without adjusting for inflation, that would be GOOD pay by today’s standards! $1,000 is more than I’ve heard anyone get for a short story now. $1,000 in the 1950’s is about $11,500 now. For a SHORT story. The pay is worse now than ever.

@jwhite-1471

4 ай бұрын

@@NoelleTakestheSky I believe that was OP's point. And "oh darling" sounds condescending as hell.

Reading Shirley Jackson stories is like being in the company of an intelligent friend who understands certain aspects of the human psyche that might go unnoticed by others. She's totally clued up on the subtle and quiet evil that some humans possess and exposes this in her work. The Lottery was the most unsettling story I've read in my whole life

@books_ncats

4 ай бұрын

I agree, she totally is! - Rosie

@kathyinwonderlandl.a.8934

4 ай бұрын

Made to read it in Jr high…it helped me forget my desperate home life , which was a godsend.

@DrawciaGleam02

4 ай бұрын

I HATED the lottery. But I get it gives a good moral....

@rayf6126

4 ай бұрын

I HATED the lottery too. I hated that instead of stopping the killing system the people were so relieved to not be extremely victimized today that they indulged their emotions in extreme violence. Then left everyone available to be quietly victimized by a standing threat later. It's bad but no longer horrible so it's tolerated.

@DrawciaGleam02

4 ай бұрын

@@rayf6126 Yes! A kindred spirit! But I've heard discussion about the lottery being an example of how older generations are determined to hang onto tradition. Even if said tradition is harmful to others.

You wanna know isolation? Be a stay at home mother. I listen to KZread people talk and teach me things because there are complete days where i do not speak with another adult. I rarely leave my home, and if i do, its in service to the rest of my family and taking care of my elderly family members. Isolation is not having peers and living to serve others without anyone ever taking a single beat to see if you need anything.

@Biiku_

4 ай бұрын

In my case, do it in the arctic during a pandemic. But the isolation remained the same whether I was in a big city like DC or quarantined in interior Alaska. It has less to do with physical isolation, in my case, than it does an emotional and mental and psychological isolation. It feels the same. And how do you explain it to anyone else how that possibly is a fact over years of observation.

@debbylou5729

3 ай бұрын

There are probably das where your children never hear an adult, as well

@kassassin_brahgawk

3 ай бұрын

@@debbylou5729 explain Because it sounds to me like you're calling me childish, and if that is the case, I urge you to seek out why you feel it necessary to shit on random strangers. You literally go out of your way to do that? Perhaps you should invest in yourself, some hobbies, and find some class somewhere.

@kaitwhy8337

3 ай бұрын

I had my first in December 2019. It was 1 month of bliss and 3 months of horror. And then the pandemic started. And everyone was in the same boat as me, but not. It was weird AF. I feel like so many people missed the rare opportunity to truly experience as others do.

@kassassin_brahgawk

3 ай бұрын

@@debbylou5729 did someone forget to take their pills today? Do better.

The more I learn about Shirley Jackson the more I love her. Its like she was attuned to the blood thirstiness of mankind and its pervasive grip on those around us. How a neighbor can bring you a plate of cookies for a sunday potluck then suggest you murder your own dog in a gruesome way or volunteer at the local church fundraiser, while secretly hoping your name gets pulled from the little wooden box and the delight of picking up the heaviest rock to stone you. I feel the same ick from that reading some of the comment sections under news headlines. The ambivalence some people have about violence upon others. The quietness while witnessing injustice. The grim reality of keeping traditions for traditions sake. My struggle is we learn nothing. Thats the psychological horror for me.

@jeanettesdaughter

5 ай бұрын

Well I’m Black and female so I get all of that. People may smile and smile and still be a villain. En garde! Love her.

@ad6417

4 ай бұрын

You cannot murder a dog.

@sentienttapioca5409

4 ай бұрын

​@@ad6417 Not by any legal definition, but definitely by the social understanding of the word.

@kassassin_brahgawk

4 ай бұрын

​​@@ad6417 Why the fuck is that your take away??? On lists much? 🤨Sus af

@rootzero

4 ай бұрын

💕❤️💫✨️🌟✨️💫❤️💕

Re: Mrs Harris... I know someone whose parents moved house the same week the wife gave birth to her first child. She spent a week in hospital, recovering from a difficult labour, while her husband dealt with the actual house-moving. When she returned home with their newborn/firstborn, nothing had been unpacked except the main bedroom's bedlinens, her husband's clothes, and, in the kitchen, one cup, one plate, one fork, one spoon, and one knife.

@girlsuckmydick

4 ай бұрын

This would send me into a full nuclear level meltdown that would leave me behind bars, and him in dirt. Please tell me that woman escaped :(

@gadgetgirl02

4 ай бұрын

@@girlsuckmydick Um, eventually? But that baby was in their 20s when it happened.

@CovenoftheOpenMind

4 ай бұрын

Wow.

@danielamato5168

4 ай бұрын

JESUS

@glitteryfaery5002

4 ай бұрын

weaponized incompetence is a very insidious sort of domestic abuse

I grew up in a house of horror. Being a lover of literature, I tried to listen to this but had to leave. My heart is racing.

@AnEmu404

4 ай бұрын

I was thinking of people who suffered domestic abuse and anything bad in their homes when she introduced the video. The home, for many people, is not and never has been a safe space. Sometimes when something is too triggering you just have to leave it be, hope you’re doing okay

@catherinecrawford2289

4 ай бұрын

Are you safe now? I hope so. I do understand.

@danielcantiego9374

4 ай бұрын

We live in a Thriller

@thing_under_the_stairs

4 ай бұрын

@@AnEmu404 As I was watching this video, I made the realisation that my current apartment is the first place where I've felt at home in a good, safe, way since I was 7. I'm now in my 40's. Sometimes recovery takes a long time, but it's possible.

@allluvin7977

3 ай бұрын

I laugh the pain away 😂 like wow all that verbal abuse thrown from my dad ñ, he could have chilled out

I’ve been working with children since I was a child. From babysitting to summer camp counseling to museum docent to children’s librarian to teacher, childcare has been an amazing adventure, but often a terrifying one. From worrying about their safety from outside threats (and I’m in America where the outside threats just keep getting bigger and scarier), to listening to the imaginatively unhinged things they say with pure innocence, it can be super unnerving to work with kids. Shirley Jackson articulates this unique horror PERFECTLY.

@ccruzrojo8856

5 ай бұрын

​@@eskede4733?

@Snowfoxie1

5 ай бұрын

@@eskede4733 not a Shirley Jackson fan?

@Snowfoxie1

5 ай бұрын

@@eskede4733 I’m not saying it’s risky. I’m saying kids say weird things because they don’t know better. In Dr. Rosie’s analysis of The Witch she goes into more detail about it. As for outside threats, there’s a mass sh-ting here every few days. I live one town over from Uvalde where one of the worst school sh-tings in history occurred, and that terror is still fresh here. There are signs outside the schools here warning that the teachers are armed and ready to engage. I’ve led many active sh-ter drills with preschool aged children. Try explaining to a group of 4-year-olds why we’re practicing hiding in a closet, then roll your eyes.

@williamchamberlain2263

5 ай бұрын

Children are the true eldritch horrors.

@Waspinmymind

5 ай бұрын

@@eskede4733Being a part of child care includes hostile adults? Never met an angry parent before? Also stop playing ‘I have it so much worse’ card. You aren’t a grade school student. Behave.

I was struck by my reaction to hearing, “You’ve got to do something about the dog.” It chilled me to the bone. This has been my life! It’s made me realize that the protection of my innocent animals has been the terror of my life. I’m always worried when my dog “misbehaves” in some way and I feel like his life is in danger from someone who doesn’t love him as much as I do. It’s absolutely the worst terror I can think of and the stuff of my nightmares.

@chrisogrady28

4 ай бұрын

Consider veganism 💚

@thing_under_the_stairs

4 ай бұрын

​@@chrisogrady28 What does that have to do with anything?

@chrisogrady28

4 ай бұрын

@@thing_under_the_stairs I'm shocked you need to ask. "I feel like his life is in danger from someone who doesn't love him as much as I do". This is the terror we face when thinking about animal agriculture

@thing_under_the_stairs

4 ай бұрын

@@chrisogrady28 You realise that this sort of response is what turns people off of vegans in general, right? It's why I avoid vegans the way I avoid evangelicals of any sort. You people need a new act, because this one isn't winning new converts. I'm mostly vegetarian, but right now, I want to go out and eat a great big burger just out of spite for your self-righteousness.

@chrisogrady28

4 ай бұрын

@@thing_under_the_stairs unfortunately advocates for change can't always tone down the messaging to appeal to the psychology of others, I'm sorry that you are to weak to hear the message, it might take you some time to comprehended, but we can't just tip toe our way around 'you people' becuase you're too sensitive to hear the truth

The way you connected a frying donuts in a kitchen as an alienating symbol of safety, confidence, and even power, really reminded me of domestically oriented tik tokers and how that confidence, safety, and power is kind of the allure of the fantasy they're selling. These ideas haven't gone away, still so relevant! Thanks for your analysis, I really appreciate your reading videos even more now!

@rayf6126

4 ай бұрын

The problem displayed here as someone who moved recently is that my previous location suited my skills as a cook because I had already organized it. I feel like as I adjust my new home that I have lost part of myself because I burnt pancakes the other night. My neighbor dropped off food as a welcome gift, it was beautifully done. I had to remind myself that moving caused the chaos not me. But the frustration and lack of confidence almost smacked me.

@KatieAndCatburger

4 ай бұрын

@@rayf6126 that is sooo real, all the little things we never think about that make up the infrastructure of a good life, like knowing a good dry cleaner nearby, just POOF disappear. BEYOND maddening. Best of luck with the new home!!

@katiefrankie6

9 сағат бұрын

@@rayf6126I never realized until my sister pointed it out that moving or renovating can be deeply psychologically disturbing.

I recently came across a term describing the female domestic experience, a "tolerable level of permanent unhappiness."

I've read 4 of her books but I've never heard the term "domestic horror." Menace is very hard to convey; it seems like it's a personal trigger and how can a writer even know how to hit that note? Makes her work even more startling.

@danielyoung5137

5 ай бұрын

The thing with Shirley is: the domestic humor comes from her haplessness to control what seems to be a normal household situation. Always funny, always charming. She expertly pulls the reader into the burgeoning chaos and bonds with them over her admitted inability to deal with it the way she’s sure any other woman on the block could. Domestic “horror” is handled differently: No sweet details, no chummy first person narrative- this is…skewed. Get out or watch it twist inexplicably beyond your control.

I was mad for Shirley Jackson as a young woman and I remember realizing that Stephen King's mundane details and his ability to make the normal horrific must have been inspired in some way by the master of the mundane horror, Shirley Jackson. Another writer who did this was a predecessor, Oliver Onions. Thank you for this video!

@tripunk

3 ай бұрын

Yes! I believe Stephen king has said he was inspired by or admired Shirley Jackson, something to that effect!

I was a Mrs. Harris for 20 years until 2000. Shirley Jackson got everything spot on. Even just listening to the story brought back the feeling of constant nauseating dread. That pit in my stomach. My only consolation is I didn't have children....

"No live organism can continue for long to exist under conditions of absolute reality; even larks and katydids are supposed, by some, to dream." My absolute favorite opening line in a novel, so much so that I quote it... just randomly, as I perform my domestic chores. Just discovered your channel and I love how you talk about Shirley Jackson and gothic lit, the merging of my two most favorite things ever. P.S. I wish I had your voice and your accent.

@teresachaotic.corner

4 ай бұрын

If you ever take requests, I vote for Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast Trilogy which is rarely talked about on YT but somehow I have a feeling you will hit it out of the park. 🥰

@emilyreames7748

4 ай бұрын

@@teresachaotic.corner oh my goodness I haven't read Gormenghast since middle school, and haven't thought about it in years. I could only get through the first book, because while I loved it, the writing style was a bit laborious for my poor thirteen year old mind to decipher. Thank you for reminding me of the series' existence and bumping it back onto my reading list :)

We moved into "the countryside" where "neighbors" stole all the vegetables we planted & killed a few fruit trees during theft. Friends who work w/inner city kids doing gardening are appalled. Yes, there's a bit o'theft, but nothing wholesale like my parents experienced. Small town isn't as presented in media @ all.

@MissSeaShell

4 ай бұрын

I lived out in the country and ALL of my neighbors were absolutely unhinged!! There was one family that was basically a tiny Baptist cult. They weren't allowed to watch tv or eat anything that wasn't healthy whole foods, but like, to an extreme degree. They were obsessively Christian and the 8 kids were all super weird. One of them ate so many carrots that her skin had a constant orange hue. The kids reveled in tattling and getting people in trouble, again to an extreme degree, like gleefully sadistic and cruel. They had a litter of puppies once and two of the younger kids wanted to show me.. they brought me over and proceeded to laugh as they strangled the puppies. Not to death, just.. for fun. Now for the worst part.. the oldest daughter was the outcast of the family, they were deeply ashamed of her. As a teen she rebelled, went out and partied with friends, dressed in revealing goth clothes etc, and then she got pregnant. I swear to God this is all true and I'm not exaggerating. They forced her to have and keep the baby, but they took the baby away from her and raised him as if he was the child of the grandparents (the teen girl's parents). They kept her LOCKED UP in the basement, 24/7 for YEARS. I met her before all the crazy shit, she was a totally normal person with no apparent mental health struggles. She was more normal than the rest of them, I actually looked up to her because I thought the way she dressed was cool. When they locked her in the basement, they told all of the other kids (and me, and everyone else) that she was down there because she was sick, that she was schizophrenic. It was like a thing the kids gossipped about in hushed whispers. The parents didn't tell everyone this part but, what they told the kids was that she was schizophrenic because she was evil, possessed by the devil. None of the kids were even allowed to go down and talk to her. I remember one time when the parents were gone, the kids snuck me downstairs to see her and it was this big deal... She didn't say anything, just sat there in her little room and stared. No one ever did anything for her. Everyone believed she was just sick and they were "taking care of her". No, I know she wasn't.. I know they locked her away because she didn't follow their strict religious rules and then she shamed the family by getting pregnant as a teen, out of wedlock. They literally kept her down there for the rest of her life. Eventually, they'd let her go outside when she wanted to, but this was after like, at least 10 maybe 15 years of isolation and abuse. She was a completely different person. Like, just, vacant. She would wander the neighborhood alone, dressed in really strange clothes, like wearing a huge fur coat in the middle of summer, with her hair up in a shower cap, and thick messy makeup smeared all over her face. Smeared bright red lipstick and bright blue eyeshadow from the eye all the way up to her eyebrows. She especially walked around at night. She was always looking for cigarettes. My mom smoked so she came over a lot asking for cigarettes, but she had other neighbors she asked too. She never said more than that. Never made small talk or any kind of conversation. Just a really flat "I need cigarettes", or she just wouldn't say anything because my mom already knew what she was there for and would just hand her a pack and she'd leave. One time my parents were both gone, I was older like 19 but didn't have a car at the time, I wasn't really living there anymore just staying a few weeks during a rough patch. Anyway though my parents were both gone and it was like 8pm and dark out. There were no cars in the driveway and I had the lights off, just watching TV in the upstairs living room. It looked like no one was home, and she just walked into my house and went downstairs and started searching around for cigarettes. She didn't know I was there. I was scared at first then saw it was her and just gave her some and she left without saying anything. She lived like this for another like, 7 years or so.. she was in her 30s.. and one night she went out looking for cigs, but it was like midnight so she couldn't go knocking on doors, so she walked all the way to the nearest 24 hour gas station, which was about 5 miles away, down an unlit two lane country road. She was hit by a car that couldn't see her and.. she died. Fucking sad, and insane and fucked up man. This is mild compared to that but, also, the mom told me my eyes are green because the devil marked me. She told me that when I was like 6 years old 😬 THEN, I had another neighbor who HATED my dogs... Tbf they were unruly because my parents were horrible dog owners who were too lazy to train them but decided to get a husky and a chow, two of the most difficult breeds.. I tried my best but I was just a kid. One time I was chasing the chow through that guy's field, and when I caught her he came over and pointed a shot gun directly at me and my dog, while I crouched down holding onto her so she wouldn't run off again, and crying. The same guy purposely ran over my other dog, the husky. I could tell more stories about more crazy rural neighbors but those were the worst.

@DoritoBot9000

4 ай бұрын

The less socially adapted a community is, the more hostile they will behave. Unless you’re in a very poor area within a city, people are more used to other people and far less paranoid.

@uwaargh500

4 ай бұрын

​@@MissSeaShellJesus christ

@JimTheCurator

3 ай бұрын

​@@MissSeaShellThis is very easily the most disturbing comment I've ever seen on this website. Jesus Christ.

@caramel9154

3 ай бұрын

@@MissSeaShell do you need a hug?

I was the daughter of such a woman, born when she was 19, it didn't go well. Took me a while to realize that she was a young child during the Great Depression, when every adult in the country was terrified, and a teen during WW2. Today we know how that war ended -- in the 1940s they did not. Anxiety worldwide.Very well educated. The 1950s culture screamed that women were 'less than.' As a girl child of that era, I'm still crawling from the wreckage. But in the 60s, at least in my part of the world, there was suddenly more air to breathe. My mother was sick with jealousy, toxic, demeaning. Peace Corps let me put half a world between us. RIP.

The stories are all about basically never speaking up and the consequences of that. “I have no mouth but I must scream”

I always think that because she endured such emotional abuse from her husband, it's rather understandable that her view of the domestic life is not all sunshines and laughter. I remember feeling really indignant about the way her husband treated her.

Housewife here! Been a housewife for more than 20 years now. Yes, you're right that you can be living waist deep in some of these emotions, and still love your family. That's part of the reason women never talk about these feelings, because you immediately feel like you have to defend yourself on that front -- "Of course I love them! I wouldn't have it any other way." I'd never read any of these stories, so I'm glad I found this video. Based on your descriptions, I think you pretty much nailed what the author was going for. There's a kind of alienation that a housewife feels that is completely unique: 1) The Renegade: You usually manage to convince yourself that it's "us against the world," "us" being yourself, your husband, and your kids. The events with the dog, culminating in the horrible scene with her children and the spiked collar, make it clear to her that there is no "us." Her husband, her kids, even her dog, are all part of "them." She's completely alienated from them. The renegade isn't the dog, it's her. 2) Of Course: Similar theme of being completely isolated and alienated. Even the one-on-one interaction with the new neighbor, which should be a place where they are defining a new relationship, is completely out of their hands. Nothing they do or say has anything to do with them, but rather the husband (who isn't even there). The horror for Mrs. Taylor is that she realizes Mr. Harris isn't only controlling his own wife, but through this interaction, is controlling her as well. She realizes, perhaps for the first time, that her sense of agency in her own life has always been an illusion. 3) Got a Letter from Jimmy: Wow...this one was dark. But the theme is the same - isolation and alienation. All those thoughts she's having, all that rage, all those questions, fears, plans, etc., of course they're internal. They always are. And he's completely oblivious. He has the luxury of being completely oblivious, because she curates herself for him. She's been driven practically insane by a few words and actions of her husband's, while nothing in his world is impacted by her at all. Their marriage has nothing to do with how she feels. She can literally be fantasizing about killing him, lol, doesn't matter one bit.

@ebonyplummer4621

Ай бұрын

So you think housewives should be able to complain about their family members to their face, and those family members just take it?

@Revelwoodie

Ай бұрын

@@ebonyplummer4621 I read this comment twice, I have no idea what you're talking about. I asked my husband to read my comment, and then read your reply, he has no idea either. You're going to have to elaborate.

@seitanbeatsyourmeat666

19 күн бұрын

@@ebonyplummer4621what an odd take. Seek mental help

Once for a family reunion we rented out this rural hunting lodge. We were told not to go upstairs because that was the owner's private family area. It was my dad's brothers, all my first cousins, and their kids (there were like 15 of these little kids all under 7), we had the whole property to ourselves for a week. My cousins and I stayed up late talking one night, and we kept hearing this noise like footsteps upstairs. We wrote it off as this old building settling. The next morning this gaggle of my little cousins (they were between 5 and 7) were yelling up the stairs to the second floor "stay back WITCH! Go back up there!" So yeah, kids are terrifying.

I recently read an opinion peice that suggested that the "James Harris" character is mentioned throughout this collection extensively. The thought was how the James, Jimmy, Jim and Mr Harris of the all the different stories were all the same man, and it really blew my mind about the context of the collection in its entirety 💯

the presentation here is STUPENDOUS. your aesthetics and editing is giving philosophy tube but make it literary.

@books_ncats

4 ай бұрын

Omg this is truly the highest of praise 🩷🩷🩷 thank you so much! - Rosie

@insertcheesypunhere

4 ай бұрын

@@books_ncats of course! im in love with the readthroughs. definitely excited to see what's next!

@Emiliapocalypse

2 ай бұрын

Ahhhh what did it give to philosophy tube???

Sometimes, the algorithm actually gets it right. This came up in my recommends, and I'm happy I gave it a watch!

@JanaToNth

4 ай бұрын

Same here!

Unlike a lot of people, my first encounter with Shirley Jackson’s works was when I found Raiding Demons on my mother’s bookshelf. When I read “The Lottery” in school, I didn’t immediately connect the author of this horrifying story with the quirky mother of busily raising her children. I really enjoyed hearing your take on these stories. I’m not sure how you ended up on my suggested videos, but I’m glad you did. Just subscribed.

@strawberrycherrybaby

4 ай бұрын

Wait she wrote that story too?? Fantastic. She’s been unnerving me from a young age, it seems 😂

The hair rollers are the worst, yet somehow the best. Definitely ties in to the home life aesthetic lol

@nobody8328

5 ай бұрын

I'm so glad I didn't live back then. I'm a side sleeper! 😂

@LuzMaria95

4 ай бұрын

i love rollers but lord knows i can’t sleep in them

@ttintagel

4 ай бұрын

I don't think I ever saw my one aunt out of curlers until I was, like, ten years old.

@Heyu7her3

4 ай бұрын

​@@nobody8328 it was worse, they used Coke cans!

@WitchKing-Of-Angmar

4 ай бұрын

​@@Heyu7her3 They didn't.

I was born in 1954. My mom worked 3 weeks afterwards, never stopped working till she was 67. My father was a gambler, irresponsible and lousy provider.My mom was my role model causing me to get 4 degrees at university. I raised my son alone,always working. Made me a better woman.❤

I knew Shirley Jackson/Hyman's daughter Sarah ( Sally/Sadie) when I lived in Berkeley. Her SCA/Musical name was Sadie Damascus. A very unconventional person, she loved the old Scottish and English Ballads just like I do and was involved in the local Folk scene. She told me a lot of stories about her mother. She clearly loved her, but it was a pretty disfunctional household. Her mother hoarded odd things. Both parents were intelligent, educated and literary. Shirley had an intensity that some people found hard to deal with, as did her daughter Sadie. I know Sadie was exactly who she said she was because she showed me letters and family photos. Knowing the daughter of such an important literary figure was interesting, as was hearing the stories about her mother and her family. As I said Sadie was kind of unconventional, she kept fragments of her mother's bones from cremation in a jar and showed them to people. I really enjoyed this video, as I enjoyed Shirley's stories and and books and the various movie adaptations. I think "The Lottery" is almost mandatory reading material for Jr. High and Highschool students, and it still makes quite an impression even today.

At 11:05 with that dialogue exchange between the neighbor and Mrs. Walpole, the first I thing I noticed wasn't the italics but the tags. When the conversation gets serious, it's no longer "the woman said" but "the voice said", something much more detached and separate from human that really spikes the threat and terror for me.

@Elekels

3 ай бұрын

That’s so interesting!

It actually makes me think of another Shirley Jackson story, The Possibility of Evil. It’s about an old woman who has a nasty hobby- and looking through the lens of domestic horror, I’m now thinking of it in a different way- this woman is not a good person, but what made her like this? Is she actually evil? Or maybe her circumstances broke her down to the point where she has to let the pain out on someone else. I love Shirley Jackson, she’s incredible! Great work!

@books_ncats

4 ай бұрын

Ooh I’ve not read it, but I’m intrigued - thanks for sharing ☺️ - Rosie

@joancavanaugh965

4 ай бұрын

Yes, that is a great story!

@mynameismarlys

4 ай бұрын

You introduced me to this story and it is marvelous. Just wonderful! Thank you very much.

I grew up watching my Mom work three jobs, two of which were unpaid. She was a home health pediatric nurse, then came home for the 'second shift' to be a domestic servant, cook, and childcare worker. Boomer wisdom said "Marry, have kids, and you'll be happy" but there was no roadmap for my Mom when she had major depressive disorder and a husband that was a narcissistic alcoholic with rage issues. She told me she felt like a zombie on more than one occasion. Given that so much of female person-hood is erased within domestic settings, that slavery is expected of women as the only way to show you love your family, I totally get why Jackson made it an unsettling and frightening place.

@nativevirginian8344

3 ай бұрын

Women DEFINITELY give up more when they are married.

Well I've realized why I cannot and never will read Jackson's work. My family lived it. They are still trapped in the echos of it, and I am just now, at 40, seeing a possible glimmer of an escape. Thank goodness for Jackson putting these horrors into words, but I will never be able to read them, and I am okay with that. I'm very happy to be able to point to her work and say it was like that.

I think the most horrifying thing about domestic horror is that for many women, its a reality

Shirley Jackson wrote two of my very favorite novels: "The Sundial", and "We Have Always Lived in the Castle". So much of these stories take place inside the respective households, where families shift the concept of what's normal into some truly bizarre behaviors. Love her writing.

Shirley Jackson was our author of study in year 12 English and I LOVED her work. Haven’t yet watched this video but I wanted to say that Shirley Jackson made some beautifully made horror that makes the mundane terrifying. I read “the lottery”, “the summer people”, “after you, my dear Alphonse” and “we have always loved in the castle”. I love the fact she was able to discuss themes of racism, sexism, misogyny, agoraphobia, the role of a house wife and many other seemingly mundane and normalised parts of the society she loved on and personal aspects of the life she loved such as her agoraphobia and struggles with diet. Also her perspective on “magic” and “witchcraft” being a tool women used to feel in control and powerful in a world/society where they lacked/had no control/power. Her art work is BEAUTIFUL and she deserves far more praise than she will ever receive. Her work is magical and very symbolic.

How you kept a straight face while Mousy was pawing at those flowers. Now that's composure!

Now that women are working full time, getting educated and still looking after home and family.....they are still very often asking "Is this all?" They are very exhausted as they ask it...but many women now work non-stop and have no time to enjoy life.

@mirimariana

4 ай бұрын

Yup. People in general feel like this, with extreme capitalism and people not being able to afford things.

@Quaila

4 ай бұрын

Maybe it's because the owning class adapted to the gradual expansion of women's rights by gradually degrading working conditions and stagnating wages and also because men are still being socialized to disrespect and abuse women by, on top of domestic violence,manipulating them into still bearing the brunt of housework even if they already work outside the home!

@CovenoftheOpenMind

4 ай бұрын

​​@@Quaila men are not villains in this, they are victims too. My husband is miserable as a house husband, and his incompetence is not weaponized. They are not raised right, they're not taught how to do the housework for themselves, they are more emotional than women, repressed, isolated by their own inability to connect with other men (especially men raised without brothers). They are not ok either lol Sexism hurts everyone.

@sarahrobertson634

4 ай бұрын

The missing piece of the puzzle is the village. We can now work, but we still no longer live in tribes. The tribe is what fulfills us. We evolved to live in tribes. Child rearing is much easier in tribes. Children will voraciously consume their mothers unless the mother is backed up by the village. Our nervous systems are designed to live tribally. We can't handle the anxiety of raising children in nuclear families with emotionally unavailable husbands. The nuclear family is such a failure, and such a source of trauma.

@sarahrobertson634

4 ай бұрын

​@@QuailaWe needs villages and tribal societies.

This video has turned me from "oh that's the author of The Lottery" into a Shirley Jackson fan. Since then, I've read two of her short stories collections, one is the one in the video and the other is "Just an ordinary day", a collection of unpublished and uncollected works published after her death. Her range as a writer is incredible, and I really enjoy her subtlety and wit when writing mundane situations. I also love her portrayal of fantastical and macabre things, weaved into every day life. Definitely a new favorite, can't wait to get to her novels.

not sure if this is purposeful, but the use of stock videos with women in modern clothes while describing the events of stories set in the 50s and 60s does a wonderful job of emphasizing that the issues Jackson covers in her writing are still so relevant in the present. excellent analysis!

My grandmother moved from the city to the suburbs of Milwaukee in the 1950s. My grandmother could have been a character in one of Shirley Jackson's stories. The uncomfortable housewife who resented having to leave the city and a job she loved and my grandfather was equally unhappy. He didn't want his wife to leave the city in the job she loved but if he wanted to move up at the company they had to be that picture perfect family or they might be communists. This all ended in the late '60s with my grandfather refusing a psychiatrist recommendation that my grandmother be put into a mental hospital and instead giving my grandmother a divorce. My grandmother desperately wanted a divorce not because she didn't love my grandfather She loved him but because she was unhappy and just needed to do something different. She did, She moved to Colorado in the '70s and smoked a lot of weed, ate a lot of mushrooms and did a lot of LSD. But she was still unhappy and she felt abused by her boyfriend/psychiatrist, and on the recommendation of her ex-husband my grandfather she moved to the east coast where two of her children had moved. My grandfather meanwhile had moved to California to settle in Sunny Santa Barbara. Both my grandfather and my grandmother met other people and got remarried My grandfather married a woman he liked who was extremely unhappy and he made her happy. Her story was equally awful She was married at a young age to a man in Panama where both her and the man she was married to were American. The man she was married to got a young Panamanian woman pregnant; He took the child from its mother presented it to his wife my step grandmother and said here this is your child You will raise it now. The object horror of having someone do that to you and you being a woman and not being able to say anything. Luckily Maggie's husband died there was a shipping accident in the Panama canal and he fell in and was drowned. And make you found herself and her son sent to California with scheck from his employer to set them up in a new life away from all the pain. I honestly feel like the stories I got told of both of my grandparents life are truly horror stories and the fact that both of them ended up relatively well at the end Maggie passed away and my grandmother's second husband passed away and suddenly my dad's parents found themselves talking on the phone all the time and wondering what it made them separate all those years ago. The truth was in the end they loved each other a lot.

Can really see the influence in later horror like the brightly coloured suburbia in Edward Scissorhands. Each housewife in the neighborhood fits the archetype

8.4k subs? This high quality? A cat??? How are you not more popular this is great

@mjohnson1741

4 ай бұрын

Trump is leading in the polls? There's your answer.

@snowbox6625

4 ай бұрын

@@mjohnson1741 what?

i love how you’re talking about such an interesting subgenre of horror, but your voice and cadence are just SO delightful

@CovenoftheOpenMind

4 ай бұрын

I liked this too. She really nailed this topic!

Wow wow wow. I haven't experienced a lot of her stories, and due to a wreck, can't really remember other than I liked her, but you have inspired me to hunt them down. This is the type of horror that disturbs me to my core: good people doing what actual good people are supposed to do, trapped/surrounded by evil that the world accepts as normal. Realizing that the "good townsfolk", "innocent children", or "loving spouse" have ideas so contrary from your values as to make them seem alien to you.

@chrisogrady28

4 ай бұрын

Fyi this how it feels to be vegan in our current world

I sometimes have nightmares of being married and unable to leave. And I'm not even in a relationship.

I confess that I've not read any of Jackson's work, but from your descriptions of some of her stories I'm reminded of some of the works of King. It and The Shining both have elements of domestic or suburban horror, and a persistent theme in his works is that middle class aspirations frequently cover up some pretty vile and dangerous instincts

@kellychuba

4 ай бұрын

You did not read "the lottery" in school?

@animeotaku307

4 ай бұрын

King cited Jackson as a major influence, so it’s no surprise that there’s similarities.

@snowhitequeer

4 ай бұрын

​@@kellychubamaybe the person is not from US....

I don't know why but every Jackson story ends in a way that I can't help but imagine the woman murdering someone soon after the story ends.

Well shit, I AM Mrs. Walpole in just about every way. The whole first story just SCREAMS of social anxiety, and even autism-the degree to which we can feel alienated and uncertain of others’ motives, having to put on the social masks of basic human interaction that are somehow heavier and scarier than everyone else’s, like we’re aliens yet somehow still on our own “safe” home planet. At least, I feel that way. Glad I’m not alone in feeling this way 😅

I've never left a comment before. But i have ADHD and really strruggle to read as much as i'd like. I watched this video a week ago and it's really helped me fall back in love with reading, thanks for that. :)

The scariest part of the Renegade for me on reread is that even someone in the same situation as Mrs. Walpole-mrs. Nash, the fellow housewife who gets everything right-can still only suggest a solution that is a prison: chain Lady into her place. Terrifying that even someone who could’ve been an ally endorses a system that reinforces their shared captivity. How isolating it is.

@AlysaAlysaBolissaBananaFannaFe

Ай бұрын

That's a good observation. It's also reflective of her basically being chained to the stove making doughnuts.

This is my first time learning of Shirley Jackson but I'm already fascinated. Her words, especially through your delivery, are so powerful in portraying the horror only visible to the pov character. I'm eager to look into more of her work

As someome raised mormon and is now a mom, I was taught a version of womanhood that resembles the Victorian era and the 1950s. This video hits so hard. I'm out of mormonism now, and been seriously questioning my gender identity for years now due to the severe discomfort I have near constantly. But the horror of those gendered roles is still ingrained in my habits and anxiety and I feel like I'm in a panopticon despite my isolation. It's taking a lot of effort to unlearn it, and figure out what being me as a parent even means.

@books_ncats

Ай бұрын

Sorry to hear that, that must be challenging. I don't really know anything about mormonism, but would be interested to learn more and see how it relates to Jackson's depictions of housewifery - Rosie

Horror often uses the hyperbolization or hystericalization of commonalities to bring about a feeling of deep dread and, well, horror. Shirley Jackson sounds like she was very good at utilizing this technique in her stories to create horror out of the mundane- or, on the flip side, she also was wonderful at the skill of taking terrible and horrid scenarios and having the characters treat them as mundane (such as in The Lottery) to instil that same dread and horror on the flip side. Unfortunately this type of horror doesn’t do anything for me, but it is fascinating!

I am a big fan of horror, yet I had no clue that the home life could be so gut-wrenching and sickening. The fact that I could hear my inner voices panic as the neighbor said to "take care" of the dog is a testiment to Shirley's writing and your reading of the passage. It's certainly something that gets under one's skin, and I think that's pretty darn cool.

This is my first time hearing about domestic horror, it made me realize so many of the horror stories I read are actually part of that genrr such as the movie Vivarium and most of Junji Ito's stories are sup

So, this really makes me wonder why so many of those women rallied behind the opposition to the ERA in the 70's. The time where their daughters would be entering the same life they had or rebelling against it.

@xRaiofSunshine

3 ай бұрын

Two words: white women 🙄

@ViewingChaos

3 ай бұрын

It's hard to see people gain the emancipation and self expression that you've long since been denied And it's easy to think that they have to suffer how you did to understand why you feel that way to others

@heathercontois4501

3 ай бұрын

@@ViewingChaos No ones explained it to me that way before. Thank you.

I started crying watching this. I know Shirley Jackson because of The Lottery. It seems she was always elucidating human evil, but not what to do about it.

Shirley Jackson is one of my main literary influences when it comes to horror! I wrote a whole short story collection for my seminar in writing fiction because I was so inspired rereading her work. So excited to see someone talking about her!!

This was, in the absolute best way possible, just like being in a really good lecture at uni. Loved it! ❤

@books_ncats

4 ай бұрын

Aww thank you very much, that’s the vibe I’m going for! - Rosie

Reading Hangsaman was really interesting because I sensed that there were a lot of fears that Jackson was projecting into the story. Natalie's mother feels trapped and insecure because of her eccentric, narcissistic husband, and she constantly tells her daughter to marry well and not waste her life. Natalie, in turn, perceives her mother as the emblem of a miserable future if she does not leave her household. There is so much femininity interwoven into the story that it feels as if Jackson is reckoning with the belief that she feels trapped as a housewife. Very strange book, but engaging read nonetheless!

@books_ncats

4 ай бұрын

Interesting, need to give it a read. Thanks! - Rosie

Thank you for inviting comments. I'm surprised by how many people doing criticism on KZread don't offer this seemingly obvious courtesy.

I was born in the middle east and came to the US when I was 3. On my *birth certificate* it says "Occupation: Housewife" lmao

I'm a transmasc who was afab. I've always had an intense phobia of pregnancy and a personal dislike of kids. Im 30 now and still am single and childless. I woke my ass off for my full time job that i love and still live w a divorced parent (the good one, thank god) in a good area w my grandma. We wanted to help her rather than dunp her in a home. My situation is pretty good, and still im asked constantly WHEN im gonna marry some man and get married by everyone from well meaning family to ignorant coworkers. Like it will just naturally improve my life, aka, make it more palpable for cis het nuclear family obsessed weirdos. Even my gay dad, who came out when I was 12, seems convinced that im gonna magically change my mind someday. "Never say never!" It makes my resolve stronger every fime. Forced heteronormativity would not make me happy it would kill me, and i wish everyone could understand how their flawed antiquated system has no place for many modern people. All people with vaginas deserve worlds better than being reduced down to their use to men.

@books_ncats

3 ай бұрын

Agreed! I recently turned 30 and have been asked several times when I'm thinking of having kids... - Rosie

@woebegoneclown

13 күн бұрын

Oohh, this shit never gets old to them, and they love to talk about it, even when folks are way too young. I hate how that fear is oddly consistent with a lot of people (including me who's an ace transguy) of getting pregnant since elementary school. Ruffles my feathers, to put it lightly.

I just watched “Don’t Worry Darling” and I don’t want to spoil too much but it touches on a similar note. DEFINITELY worth a watch, and great video as always!

Mousie! One of my all time favorite kitties was my sweet Mouse! Mousie lived the life of a very tiny cat, in the land of the Labs, which she had wrapped around her little paws. Oh I do miss her. Nice to make your acquaintance Miss Mousie!

Nothing is scarier than 1950s America

@elliotville7820

4 ай бұрын

Real. Nothing more scarier than seeing your life becoming a living hell just because you permanently bind yourself to the wrong person

@AlexandriteRush

3 ай бұрын

Yes. I've heard multiple cis white gals saying they'd love to live in the 1950s, and every time I reply "no you don't." They go on about athstetics and I say, "you can wear a poodle skirt today and still have a life outside your husband and kids. And we have far less lynchings now." That's usually where the conversation ends.

@zizojaezekeom3565

3 ай бұрын

​@@elliotville7820there's no such thing as a wrong person, all men that period treated women as objects and maids and trapped them

@kevinericsongs

2 ай бұрын

i'd rather have 1950's america than the clown-world we have now!

@randomfella8448

2 ай бұрын

@@kevinericsongs it's the same clown world bro. It's just the 1950s had less technology and people hid their dark shit better ( assuming if people care that is).

All of these stories remind me of "The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Again it is incredibly gothic in something meant to be comforting. The horror of a postpartum mother and the anxiety the baby actually causes her, feeling as though she is the lady trapped in the wallpaper. It is so good!! If you're reading this you should check it out!!

@books_ncats

3 ай бұрын

We've made a video about it! 'How "The Yellow Wallpaper" changed women's medicine' - Rosie

@emrilbennett8704

13 күн бұрын

My English teacher introduced me to thit

love how passionate you are about these stories, really adds to the analysis!

This is my first Books n Cats video and it made me an instant fan. I was SHOCKED to see that your channel has under 10k subscribers because of the insanely high effort and quality that went into the production of this analysis which is usually indicative of a creator being around for years- it’s really admirable to see this in newer channels! I’m so glad the video is getting the traction it deserves and I can’t wait to see more videos about women in horror literature (and everything else you make from now on) !! (P.S. tell your cat I say pspspspsps)

You ending the video with just a slightly too long, uncomfortable stare into the camera is just so perfect. Such a small touch but it really hit me.

Brand new subscriber here! I love the traditional housewife garb you presented in. Lovely touch! My awareness of Shirley Jackson began (and ended) with "The Lottery". Thanks to your rich deep dives, I am drawn to read more of her works. Thank you!

@books_ncats

4 ай бұрын

You’re very welcome! ☺️ - Rosie

I'm currently writing my BA thesis about this topic! great video xx

@goldensloth7

4 ай бұрын

cool!

She wrote a very researched commentary about the Salem witchtrials, too. Wonderful!

19:00 that's even scarier if you imagine a world where divorce isn't possible. Like, you were married at 18 and knew them for a week, and suddenly you're trapped with someone you thought you knew but didn't 😰

Growing up in a home with mentally ill parents makes this video.... uncomfortable! I've had so much therapy over it but my life being someones horror novel always hits me in the emotions. First experienced it reading My Sweet Audrina at 12. My aunt gave the book to me, my mother approved, this should tell you ALOT.

@tinabenson1492

3 ай бұрын

I read that book. Really stuck with me!

Ive tried to express my lack of confidence that I would keep my sanity raising a child, and like my primary concern is in fact the child, I think I would be a horrible mother, I'm too selfish for it. But people in my life interpret this as like trepidation and they go "oh you'll make a great mother dear" goddamn!!! You ain't listenin!!! The ability to simply sacrifice your personal ambitions is not a natural faculty all women possess 🤯

I absolutely LOVE these deep dives into Jackson's works.

@danielyoung5137

5 ай бұрын

Absolutely! Beyond anything else in her life or work, you realize experiencing her point of view is so WORTH it!

I can’t get over the fact that the dog’s name is lady

"true terror is found in discovering the exact boundaries of your limitations. True *horror* comes from the realizatiom that you'll never be able to change them."

What you said about thwo thirds of the way through resonated with something earlier - the absent yet controlling male figure. This is post-war, when the women were, as you said, expected to slot back into their previous role. The menare no more present than when they were overseas, but their emotional absence confers none of the benefits that their physical absence did. The women now have neither agency nor connection. The opposite of having your cake and eating it too. But about basic psychological needs.

I'm so glad the KZread algorithm led me to this video! Love your analysis of and enthusiasm for Jackson's writing. For me, Jackson has always been part of the holy trinity of "domestic horror" writers of that era: Shirley Jackson, Flannery O'Connor, and Joyce Carol Oates. They've all written short stories that have haunted me for decades. (Oates' "Where Are You Going, Where Have You Been?" can still raise the hair on my arms. 💀) I find the subtle undercurrent of menace in their work to be far more haunting than any horror movie I've ever seen.

I absolutely ADORE Shirley Jackson, with Haunting of Hill House being one of my favorites for the way she confuses the narration with Eleanor and how the house itself becomes the mother, represents the woman in her domain. its all so so good.

Fiction from this period is so interesting to me. So much of what was feared from this time was very unnatural cruelty for humans to do (from our modern understanding of psychology), yet it was believed to be the natural and normal for humans to do (as psychology was understood then). The story of the young children describing the dog punishment is right to be disturbed by, but psychologists back then believed that children were naturally cruel and needed to be implemented with morals. But our data today points to children to be incredibly empathetic and caring. Cruelty is something that is learned behavior. How this story relates to day vs. when the author wrote it is now related back then. When this was written, it would have been seen as this is the uncomfortable truth of the cruelty of children. Reading it now, we see how the casual cruelty of those around them and the enjoyment of it is affecting the children. It is fascinating how the story holds up in this evolved way

I feel like the isolated housewife archetype also lends itself to exposing the psychological torture of groups of people that are punished for being "different" and stepping out of line, such as dissidents, especially silent dissidents, living in fascistic or totalitarian regimes. I wonder if that had any bearing on her writing, with the cold war going on.

What a wonderful voice this creator has!

26:25 I hate that my reaction isn't that this is uncanny valley, but it's "home". It was my home growing up. Everyone spoke in code, eggshells were always walked around and children were always subservient to adults no matter what the request meant for our safety. I wish I had known about Jackson's work before today, but I wanted to thank you for making this video so that I can explore her work on my own terms.

@books_ncats

3 ай бұрын

Thanks for sharing this, and I'm glad you can explore her works - Rosie

Although I was little then, I remember the days when most women wore curlers all day until 4pm, to the shops and over to friends houses, curlers all day. Then before supper or just before when hubby came home, she would comb and set her hair. I thlught it pretty funny to show theor ugly curlers to the world all day then spend the evening often sitting at home watching tv with pretty hair.

Shirley Jackson is good at writing about the casual cruelty and sadism, which were necessary to make settler-colonialism and chattel slavery possible. In her story, the victim of lynching will be her dog, in past stories, it would have been non-w. pp. As a woman, living at home scares me. As a Black woman, w. rural/suburban communities scare me.

I hit the like button while waiting for your next installment because you never disappoint darling.

I love Shirley Jackson and I absolutely loved your take! My favorite book of her's has always been "We Have Always Lived in the Castle" and I'd be really curious to hear your views on it and especially on Merricat. I've seen people paint her as the villian, but I've always seen her as a victim of abuse from the men in her family and community who has had virtually no power as a child/woman to stop it and protect herself and her sister, so she does the only thing she can do to end the abuse, and cope with it and its aftermath. While her actions may be viewed as morally wrong, they are often the only available paths to her to do something about it.

@books_ncats

4 ай бұрын

I love ‘We Have Always Lived in the Castle’, too! An analysis is on my list - Rosie

I adore Shirley Jackson for the all reasons you covered and this is a really fascinating analysis. I do think we need to be careful how we characterise women's experiences of paid work/labour in the 50's and 60's. A specific demographic of white, middle-class women were renegated to the domestic sphere and subjugated to the experiences characterised by Jackson's work and Friedan's Feminine Mystique. However, there were many working class women and women of colour that had to engage in paid work. They were subjected to the same cultural expectations of ideal femininity, but could never achieve them - they had to break this ideal to survive. Those women lived a very different genre of horror. It is not to take-away from this excellent exploration of Jackon's work or to denegrate the horror of the domestic sphere. But let's also acknowledge this was never an experience shared by all women - and it's important to consider the spectrum of women's experiences throughout history.

Off topic, but I love that this video includes music from the game LA Noire. Really fitting to the theme of seeing the worst of humanity under the veneer of midcentury perfection.