Came here for the waffle commentary, stayed for the ghost story.

In the vein of "shoulds" and "oughts," I love the symbolism in the main character choosing her dress. She is clearly very insecure about what her fiance or others might think about her based on her clothing and makeup, she frets and goes back and forth about how she "ought" to present herself. She finally lands on the more youthful, outgoing, romantic option, and as the story goes on and she begins to doubt herself more and more she regrets the decision to be outgoing, and covers up the dress with her coat.

Ms. Jackson knows what our nightmares are made of.

I love your ramblings as much as I love the oddities of literature you delight us with.

Personally, I really love the waffles! That's what sets you apart ❤

I have a suggestion for the future; it's a bit of creepy folklore by our girl Shirley Jackson. Have you read this one? It's The Man in the Woods.

My comment vanished like Jamie Harris! Shirley is brilliant at writing stories that ask more questions than she answers. Is Jamie a real guy who feels he is about to make a mistake and dives out because he is a coward? Probably not because that would be too simplistic. This is no wedding! A few preparations hastily made…….bacon in the fridge, no mention of a ceremony, guests or a honeymoon etc. No, the more I think about it the more I am convinced that she met this man at a bus stop or somewhere and dreamed up the rest. Is she nameless in order to throw the spotlight on the man? That he crops up in other stories is an interesting theory. Thank you for your rendering of this thought provoking story, Tony.😊

Your program is brilliant just as it’s presented never apologize for your unique talent

This tale masterfully weaves a narrative of a woman's search for her fiancé on her wedding day, only to turn into a haunting exploration of disappointment and betrayal. Jackson's psychological insights cut to the bone, revealing the specters of loneliness and the elusive nature of human connections. Prepare yourself for a journey that leaves more questions than answers, where every door and face can lead to deeper despair.

On Tony's channel, it's "ask and you shall receive." Thank you Tony! This is one of my favorite Shirley Jackson fever dreams.❤ The unnamed woman in this story reminds me a lot of poor Eleanor in The Haunting of Hill House. So insecure.

Painful, thought provoking also this time around. As always, masterful, Tony. Much appreciated. Thank you.

The story was begining to get me cross.....i was saying "leave the nasty piece of work be, he isnt worth it".....i stuck it out as i enjoy your commentary. I am on my own with my 4 dogs and i do what i want and when i want, i do not pander to folk whom think i should be this or i should be that and i do not tolerate men who say "you shouldnt be on your own". Thanks again for another tale. 🤗🐾🐾🐾🐾

the intro to this perfectly describes the amount of overthinking women waste on men who couldn't care less. He would just appreciate that she looked lovely in any of her dresses or however she styled herself.

I really liked this story and loved your narration of it. It can be interpreted on so many levels. What came through to me was this poor person's total desperation. And I loved your "after party talk", great fun. Thank you.

Yay! Shirley narrated by Tony!!!!!! 💜💚😁💝💕💙💖🩵

Taking time to comment while the ads run... Aaaa! Shirley Jackson! Shirley Jackson! (Jumping up and down like a 2 Year old!). 😃

Perfect start to the weekend. I am going to enjoy this. Thank you Tony

Good & Intriguing Story ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ I absolutely adore Shirley Jackson and everything she's written. Perfect Narration ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐❤️

Perfect timing! I've been on a Shirley Jackson kick all week. Thank you so much for uploading! ❤

Thanks Tony! I'll listen to this tonight. Hope there is a long discussion afterwards...

The most telling part of the story for me was when she returned the used towel back onto the bathroom rack; whereas previously, she'd place towels used for a split second into the hamper! AT THAT POINT SHE KNEW HER QUEST FOR JAMES WAS FUTILE. But she went on 'stalking' him... I don't believe he was her fiancee - I think she projected her desires & dreams onto a strange man living in her neighbourhood.... Perhaps she 1st saw him at t drugstore & there the fantasy began - & she found out his name by asking the drugstore owner. Bloody depressing & desperately sad whichever way you look at it, whether a phantom fiancee or not 🤔

Thanks for your insights. It triggers me to think more deeply about these stories. 🤔

There's something about this story that reminds me of the Tulpa, a figment of someone's psyche that becomes so vivid they take on a reality of their own. The most chilling aspect of this tale for me wasn't just the figure of the man, but all the people she encounters in her search for him, the sense of alienation some of them make her feel.

Hi, dear Tony! The "lovey-dovey" remark made me laugh rather loudly! Thank you for all the feels. ❤

Always liked her stories.

That was a fabulous story. I had a feeling that he was imaginary, possibly a fiance who was killed during the war or something similar that she couldn't come to terms with, but I liked the idea that he was completely imagined better though. The ending was amazing and really put the hairs up at the back of my neck. Excellent story. :)

I always listen to Tony Walker's stories and narrations twice because the first time around I have an emotional reaction and the second time around I can be rational and reasonable, usually. So I like this story, it won't let me go on my merry way, it is making me think outside the box I want to put it in. All in all, the lady in the blue dress and her daemon lover have a better love story than the one I am in.

As always, Tony, I enjoy your long unstructured commentary. I was a little surprised to see you regard Harris first and foremost as an outside entity rather than as a delusion or projection of the protagonist's mind, and I suppose different point of views is the point and the advantage of hearing someone else's commentary. I had a suspicion at one point that this might be an imaginary wedding day, one that reoccurred over and over in a poor deluded woman's life. Another point you made that stretched my imagination by contrasting with my own preconceptions, was comparing the the protagonist of this story to Eleanor in in The Haunting of Hill House. The protagonist here seemed to be fairly content to be living a common life ( not necessarily humdrum in her own eyes) but delighted to have a great addition like marriage and a loving man; Eleanor on the other hand seemed seemed enslaved by Family obligation the dictates of unworthy family members and the condition of poverty . I had a sense that Eleanor was all set to escape into something more exciting and totally different at the first opportunity. in The Daemon Lover as with most Jackson I find I have to stretch to interpret and the stretching and uncertainty is the greatest satisfaction in the unreached conclusion would be. oddly enough with Jackson's most famous story, the lottery, I thought everything about the story was clear and easy to understand even the setting was fantastic and unlikely to be encountered in real life.

I love your inquiries and explorations. You shouldn’t ever be who you aren’t lol 59:30

Thank you very much for this video. I enjoyed the story very much and the commentary even more so.

I'll have to put this story on hold for now, I'm only 5 hours into phantom of the opera 😂

Thank you for all your hard work on these stories.

Here's a thought --- The main character intentionally doesn't have a name because she is a representation of women during that time. Shirley Jackson, from what I remember in school, hates the rigid gender roles. Just like in the story either be married and have standing in society or not married and be mocked about it. She's in a constant state or unrest (paranoia) and can't even write how they met to her sister. In the end there was no James or Jamie Harris because she made him up in her own mind.

I love when you credit yourself in the intro.

Thank you Tony this is just so Bloody Unsettling and Wonderful!!😊 Thoroughly enjoyed your 'Blerhering' at the end, and wished you could have talked some more!!❤ Namasté 🙏🕊️💞🌟 Andréa and Jasper. XxX...

Like your interpretation of this story, more food for thought.

What a haunting story and superb narration. And congratulations Tony, 3 weeks to go! I’m so happy for you. So well-deserved. Edit: Thank you for talking about debating- some people seem to have lost basic decency and respect. They can’t/wont/don’t listen. There is nothing wrong with discourse, and to agree to disagree- with kindness.

Among the truly great, REAL HUMAN narrative voices on YT: (in no particular order): Mark John Maguire, (who has channel "THEY GOT AWAY WITH MURDERS":G.M. Danielson, THE TALE MASTER (does a lot of Lovecraft, including the best ever THE CALL OF CTHULHU, which uses audio crackle and hiss to great affect) and the wonderful,mesmerizing Tony Walker. All endlessly listenable!

That was kind of sad. I had different expectations for a daemon lover but I get this, that man was a dickhead. I mean there were so many red flags, like how she didn't know what flowers Dickhead would choose for her because he never had before...

I loved hearing you read, and I wish you had gone on talking about the story for another hour! Really enjoyed your insights.

First time listener , really enjoyed the story but loved the rambling waffle at the end 😅 hope you make a good living out of this job ❤

I do like your commentary, those other people can move on to the next video and stop complaining.

Just settled down and saw this posted. Any guesses as to what I am doing for the next hour or so? What a great story! I do so love your chats! Never change! As a veteran, I thank you for all of us you have helped. I can only imagine how many people you helped. I carefully listen to what you say during your chats, and I can tell you know this stuff inside and out. You worked in your career field for years and give great insights as to what goes through the minds of people finding themselves in the situations described in these stories. Thank you, my friend!

Love! More Shirley please if you wouldn’t mind 😍

I enjoy your waffle to hear your interesting tales.Have listened to your sleep stories Have you done any more.??? Thank you.

She is so spooky! Great story!

Thank You!!! ❤️❤️❤️⚜️

This is a great story and I really enjoyed hearing your critique. Takes me back to my English lit university days. Thank you for doing this one.

I DID enjoy this story. Thank you.

Great story thank you. Appreciate your commentaries too!

I did not realize that James Harris is some kind of recurring character of Jackson's, free-roaming about her writings---and I've read most everything she wrote. I wonder why our young woman who thinks she's to be a bride tore up the letter she began to her sister? Given that she (the protagonist) becomes fixated on the door to the empty apartment at the end---well, it makes me wonder if she even truly has a sister? Your ramble was epic, but I honestly don't give a fig what "feminists" say. Always a pleasure to hear your reading interpretation of an outstanding author's works....thanks Tony.

Fan of the commentaries here! Love your insights and knowledge!

Thank you, Tony.

So excited 😁 love me some Shirley Jackson. Thank you.

Thank you Tony!

Excellent performance

Your voice is fantastic. I’m subscribing. 😊

Your comments are gold!

I love the commentary.

0:00 the time is gone•the song is over•thought I’d something more to say•

PPS I like that you added other possible images created for the story. You’ve really gotten good at story to image AI creation. It’s neat to see.

Tak!

I’ll tell you what was imaginary, that “evil” rat. I guarantee you that was a very kind rat and she just projected some outdated and cruel rat stereotypes. I’ve never once met an evil rat. Cecelia was a bit grumpy, but certainly not evil.

Definitely a feminist interpretation from my perspective. I read this story 30 years ago and felt the same then. I relate to the main character, having lived with an alcoholic who often didn’t come home. I remember trying to figure out where he was, thinking he’ll be home soon and being devastated when he wasn’t. He wasn’t a daemon luckily and I no longer live like that, but I definitely relate to the feminist perspective.

I am totally onboard with your post- read analyses. It's no different than emerging from a movie theater with friends and talking about the movie is it not? Plus one has to conceed that a British accent offers an air of authority and legitimacy to both the read and subsequent commentary.

Oh no, this is a sad story 😢. The poor dear.

I love waffles 🧇

Great reading. Good luck on taking the pulge to full time. I've listen for a long while now and always thought that you should make a career of voice acting.

How DARE you refer to me as "Old Bean!" You have no right nor basis to project your ageism upon my beans! I challenge you to a duel of deadly eyepins!! ;) Seriously, though, huge congratulations on leaving your day gig! I've been rooting for you for years and you've finally made it! Please take it as a compliment that I'm very jealous and hope, one day, in the fullness of time, I, too, might be able to pay my bills with only my own creativity. How about this for a contentious interpretation: Tricksters have been around forever (you mentioned Loki from Norse mythology, consider also Coyote and Iktomi in Lakota mythology) and, although mostly confined to the protagonist's mind, Harris is a trickster because he leaks into her physical reality, even into the apartments of strangers. Harris is also, by the end, a ghost, because he is missing-yet-not-quite-presumed-dead. He is again also a daemon in that he has brought this message of exceptionalism into the life of the protagonist and has turned all the routines of her plainness upside down. He is the daemon, but she is the daemon-lover. I'm glad you mentioned Kafka in the comments. Although I don't know Schultz well, the ending of this story has always seemed like almost an homage to Kafka. Have you ever thought that these interminable mazes of sparsely populated buildings and old newspaper (or Machen's brick-kiln suburbs, or Aikman's sealess seashores, or Burroughs's Interzone tenements...) are the actual ends of the Earth? They're not edges off which to fall, but, instead soft borders beyond which travel could continue forever without changing anything of notice to the traveller. That's what makes Harris a ghost. He has penetrated that edge of her world and now only exists somewhere just outside it. (...oh, and if we're thinking about the same Geoff, I'm pretty sure he was actually a beetle who turned into a teacher...) The Freudian slip about masculinity might be telling as well. She eschews her blue pocketbook and blue silk dress because they are too plain and severe. Instead she carries a shabby brown pocketbook that matches her "soft, feminine... over-young" print dress -- a garment which is repeatedly torn as she waits and later searches the city for a man in a commonplace blue suit. Maybe, even as a woman in a man's world, she is sufficient in herself, but cannot see it. Or, at least, she cannot see how to simultaneously be flowery and feminine while also maintaining the (plain? blue?) severity needed to navigate (and, indeed, be an author within) the wide world. Your comments about "shoulds-and-oughts" are also dangerously on the money, and frankly chilling. I'm not sure that they are the only pillars of depression, but you've got to be right in that they are among its crucial supports. Ill have to think more about that! Congratulations again on your career as a full time creator!

Thank you for reading in your English accent. 😂 I'm wondering about the blue suit. It was such a recurring detail and I have the impression of a blue suit being the sign of a dandy, or a salesman, or a huckster at that time.

I've wondered for a long time now how much mental illness imfluenced her writing vs. feminst themes, ie a response to her husband's infidelity. Also, I thought the rat was James. Here she is thinking the locked apartmet contains her lover who is ignoring her and perhaps cheating on her, when in fact the empty room with the rat, (the trickster) is the reality?? A reversal of the Cinderella (ella, ella)😁 fairytale. The prince turns into a rat. No house in the country. No happily ever after.

Thanks! I apologize for the lengthy comment. I try to write, post, reread & edit my comments. My brain too can be scattered w/ Virgo-critique of micro to the macro, and the seed of my communication lost in the jumble. (Even support can look like criticism when looked at from fresh eyes.) Also, most people just don’t have to time to slog through the jumble & of course, I hope it’s the edited version you see, but nonetheless. Thank you!

Good evening all ❤

😅

"Christian stories". Ha, haaa. Also known as The Book

I would rather hear your British voice reading the American story than an American voice.

Ok, love the channel but this story...seems to be a woman obsessed over what she's going to wear. Must be a woman thing. Ill try and finish it later.

“The smell of burning fields, Will now mean you and here But I know that this will never be mine”. Your talk reminded me so strongly of this wonderful song, thank you twice Tony. I was particularly impressed by your talk today; your take on the story from a mental health clinician’s point of view was totally pertinent. I can’t help feeling that the *protagonist* was a kind of ghost. Existing in the world, but unable to make an impression on it, barely being noticed at all,except for her incongruity, and completely unable to touch a “real life” All success to you in your future ventures Tony. 🎧🎤📚🛜🧡