It’s been awhile since I read this, but I remember thinking Jane was the baby, and the “in spite of you and Jane” line referred to her breaking free of the role of wife and mother. Also, can we just talk about how after he faints, she says she has to crawl over him “every time”?? That to me implies that he died (maybe hit his head in just the wrong way) and she just kept crawling over his corpse

I grew up with a strong belief in sacrifice. My mom rarely ate after my dad left so we can eat more and my two older brothers went with less clothes or things so i could have some of theirs as i grew. I think the 4th situation of taking the suffering on for others is a great one but i know many people wouldn't agree. Most people wouldnt sacrifice for someone they dont know. I think id do it for a long time, even regretting my decision as im suffering, if it meant my sacrifice could help others i cared about.

Salem Oregon

"The glimmers of the life forbidden." When imprisoned the mind seeks an escape.

To me Of Course is a story about social isolation of victims of domestic abuse and also normalisation of said abuse. When the main character starts getting a sense of what is happening in that family her response to it is "of course". As if that abuse is natural and understandable

I love Shirley Jackson. So glad I found your brilliant video. Thoroughly enjoyed your analysis! Thank you from Amsterdam

If, as you say, the people of Omelas are living in guilt every day, treating every child nicely, knowing that at some point another child will eventually be chosen to replace that child when she dies, then the humane thing will be to DESTROY OMELAS, that people can once again live guilt-free. Omelas can not possibly be a utopia if everyone is forced to reckon with this guilt every day.

Thank you so so much for introducing me to Jackson's work! What a phenomenal write, my new fav

I got hooked on SJ a couple of years ago. My mother was of that generation, though a little bit younger. Any normal woman would go utterly mad as a 'normal' American housewife. Post-war doctors were knife-happy as a Sushi chefs, and they would have turned all women into Judy Garland with uppers and downers quite happily. My mother went back to work in 1962 after being widowed and never got over her anger at her treatment as a woman. She saw through things with that intensity of SJ's and wicked funny. But she went totally mad. Her creative gifts weren't valued or supported and she became very self-destructive. Later, in early 70s, my friend's mom got very depressed. They prescribed her quaaludes!

We're already living in Omelas. To enjoy modern comforts like phones, chocolate, clothes, cars, etc. we willingly allow children to die in mines and people in foreign countries to suffer in sweat shops. We may not live in a utopia, but the western world is closer to utopia compared to the countries we take advantage of.

I don’t know why but the yellow latex gloves, the kitkat, the rollers.. it’s entirely too good lol

Very interesting video. On a personal note, I love you voice. The way you speak, the diction, is very compelling.

Walking away from Omelas is jumping out of the trolley. Good for _you._

For Heaven's sake, even the "sacred" Bible has been re-written MANY times over the past 2000 years.

Maybe it was something as "simple" as writer's block 🤷‍♀

I haven't ever read this story, so maybe there are details that are missing from this summery. My problem is that there is a massive hole in this story, and that is the question of "WHY". What are the mechanics of the joyous city and the tortured child. It has taken me decades to begin to understand the Why of Humanity and civilization. I've come to understand that every civilization is controlled by a very small group of motivated people. That the vast majority go along to get along, and will only step up to change things when the rulers inflict to much misery to ignore. Normally this entails some charismatic person convincing them if the majority does as they say, their misery will be alleviated.

The husband already knew what was on that letter but was amused how his wife’s obsessive curiosity shows instability that is pupitred by him

I'm a writer, just barely; I've sold a handful of short stories. I would be thrilled if people were still reading my stuff decades from now, even if someone updated the language like this.

I dunno. I can kind of see where you’re coming from with your argument, but even if you go with the argument that her rejecting her husband’s authority through her obsession over the wallpaper is empowerment, I feel like it still circles straight back to tragedy that the only way she can achieve any kind of empowerment is through completely losing herself and her sanity. And as another commenter noted, the door is open at the end, she finally has the chance to leave her prison, but she doesn’t. She’s just traded one prison, her husband’s control, for another, the control of the room and the wallpaper.

The points you are making are one reason why I think that making Victor Frankenstein a woman actually makes the adaption *less* feminist.

A similar term is situational ethics. Fascinating.

Havent watched it yet but i love your outfit and vibe

What a brilliant video. Razor sharp analysis. Genre defining take on the domestic gothic. That settee though. It's similar to mine. I really must change it...

I've never really seen the value of these kinds of discussions. How does it help me to envision a scenario in a world I'll never live in? When will I ever have such a clear-cut case of moral decision-making as "You are in an empty room with the absolute knowledge that helping this child will condemn all of society to suffer." Life doesn't work like that. I don't need to think about how I would act in a contextless void because I will never live in a contextless void. In the real world, society will not collapse if we stop the suffering of children. So fuck Omelas, how about we just stop torturing children?

The question that comes to my mind is this: Which is more cruel? The city of Omelas, or your city?

This is hard. They say the problem with theoretical problems is you can never really know how you'll react to them until they're no longer theoretical, until you're actually placed in that dilemma. So I can't say for sure. There's a possibility of a situation where, knowing everything about what's going on, I become a kicker. That frightens me.

Another possibility is that she did continue publishing under another name, possibly in a different genre. If she preferred for that to remain unknown after her death, that would explain a loving husband burning her papers. If I became a popular writer, I might worry that my academic work would be undervalued due to association, for instance.

I think there's a strange affinity between Kafka and Shirley Jackson. Tessie sort of reminds me of K in The Trial, though obviously Tessie is more sympathetic. There's a sense that she's being punished for minor transgressions against the normative state of things -- she's late, she doesn't want to cooperate (like K in The Trial) which makes her position worse. The descriptions of the box and the ritual in general remind me of In The Penal Colony, where the torture device is haggard and the act of torture was a public spectacle, the Lottery Box is also chipped and kind of in ruin

Did Mrs. Shelly ever comment or discuss her interpretation of her novel?

Never read the book myself. If this summary is accurate, it sounds like she perfectly exemplified the worst aspects of socialism.

Dear Dr Rosie, Mouse, and Books 'n' Cats team, Your videos make me so happy and I appreciate evey one, thank you so very much. The way you make evrything clear and how you recite passages is truly amazing and appreciate all of your efforts, I'm a young, very avid, reader and this just makes me feel at home. I would like to see a video about children books, not YA or books that are for a very young audience (f.ex. Peter Rabbit ecc.), but books like My Name Is Mina by David Almond, or the Chronicles Of the Cherry Tree and The Maple Tree by Camille Monceaux, or again Seven Minutes After Midnight by Patrik Ness and Siobhan Dowd. It's a category witch is very successful and I belive a bit overlooked. Here we have great authors like Davide Morosinotto that write for "children" and I never hear his name on the media even tho MANY read his books. What I'm trying to say is: children books are amazing, why does nobody read them? Are the sceptical? Snob? Imbarassed? I think they are missing out, a good story is ageless. Why are they not publicised like YA romantasys? Is there more to just pushing them to side beacouse of theyr category or is there something more to it? Why dose nobody talk about actually good children books? Sorry if it's a bit long, but it's a subject I am extremely passionate about, and I am open to see other people's point of view, especially a professional one like yours. Yours, great fan P.S.: I am sorry if there are any mistakes. English is not my first language :)

Another banger

Emotion is the enemy of rationality, and it is the reason the human race is doomed. Everything from climate change to genocide is ultimately because of the way people feel.

You do get this was the plot of a recent SciFi show episode where a child is forced into becoming The Brain of a perfect Society that relies in the Child 🧠 self-sacrificing to unceasingly agonizing torture

In Bong Joon-Ho's Snowpiercer, the protagonist fights like hell to reach the front of the train, the seat of power in his society, so that he can overthrow the current regime. He wants to create a new, equal society, where all can enjoy the bounty and luxury of the wealthy. However, when he finally gets to the front, he learns he cannot do this within the current societal framework. He sees a young boy underneath the floor of the train, holding a piece of equipment in place of a broken part. The society itself is built on suffering, even his rebellion was planned as ploy to cull excess population. It's with these revelations that he aligns with another character, who moments before revealed a different goal: destroy the train. You cannot meaningfully change a system built on suffering and exploitation, you must tear it down completely. No matter how difficult it is to create something new, no matter if that means hurting others, because the peace they experience is no peace at all. I would free that child.

This has suddenty become very topical and I'm suprised it hasnt started trending or something😂

Oh my God. This is a really good short story. I love it❤❤❤

In my experience, and of some of my kinsfolk, for whatever faith one may burden us with: ghosts are infinitely less dangerous & more reasonable than the living

The horror to me is watching customers at stores gleefully bragging about how cheap slave products are and claiming they are Christians. America is schizophrenic.....the brain and the reality are disconnected.

I keep mixing up Shirley Jackson with Agatha Christie, ugh.

Kate Chopin's "The Story of an Hour" published in 1894 illustrates the same domestic terror of Jackson, in an only slightly different slant of dimly lit restricting space. Recommended!

What a fantastic essay! I hadn’t heard of any of these stories and now I’m anxious to read them all! Thank you!

I am SHOCKED at how ignorant this made me feel. THANK YOU.

The pascal sacrifice. A covenant between the many at the expense and suffering of at least the one. And yet we make that sacrifice every day. Rich at the expense of poor.

Give it back or go to jail for being involved in the Freemason Illuminati Epstein network and for spying on me.

My cats and I enjoy your series. Usually we are watching on the television where we cannot comment. Diana did have a sad life.

Just want to point out that the issue is not women taking care of the home and family. That is not some sort of torture and prison. I grew up without a mom and the house was a disaster until I took it on myself to improve it. We dwell in homes with our families. It’s the basic lifecycle. If everyone things themselves intellectually superior to housework, they will find themselves dwelling in squalor.

She lived in N Bennington Vermont where her husband taught @ Bennington College & my first boyfriend grew up there after her death. It’s a creepy old house with a barn where his older brother killed himself. ❤️‍🩹 We were at a meeting where they discussed putting a historical marker in front of it 🤦‍♀️ he just slid down in his seat… nothing good ever happened there or in that town. Plz read her short story The Lottery about what we New England people are really like… it’s the most anthologized short story of all time & The New Yorker Magazine received more mail for it than any other to date. It’s awful for a reason… it’s the truth

Sadly, this is what many “christian” politicians are trying to get US women back to.

Your books got reading authors I did not imagine I would read...or know