 Horror/Scary: August 05, 2020 Issue [#10301] |
This week: The Haunting of Hill House Edited by: W.D.Wilcox  
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FROM THE 1963 CLASSIC, 'THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE'
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| ASIN: B07NPKP5BF |
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Who Is Shirley Jackson?
Shirley Hardie Jackson (December 14, 1916 – August 8, 1965) was an American writer, known primarily for her works of horror and mystery. Over the duration of her writing career, which spanned over two decades, she composed six novels, two memoirs, and more than 200 short stories.
After publishing her debut novel The Road Through the Wall (1948), a semi-autobiographical account of her childhood in California, Jackson gained significant public attention for her short story "The Lottery", which details a sinister underside to a bucolic American village. She continued to publish numerous short stories in literary journals and magazines throughout the 1950s, some of which were assembled and reissued in her 1953 memoir Life Among the Savages. In 1959, she published The Haunting of Hill House, a supernatural horror novel widely considered to be one of the best ghost stories ever written.
A reclusive woman, Jackson remained in North Bennington for the last years of her life, and was reluctant to discuss her work with the public. By the 1960s, her health began to deteriorate significantly as a result of her increasing weight and cigarette smoking, ultimately leading to her death due to a heart condition in 1965 at the age of 48. Jackson has been cited as an influence on a diverse set of authors, including Neil Gaiman, Stephen King, Sarah Waters, Nigel Kneale, Claire Fuller, Joanne Harris, and Richard Matheson.
While her early stories are often about people being oppressed and persecuted by closed-minded communities, in her later work she focused increasingly on the “demon of the mind”—the evil that afflicts its victims from within. In “The Lottery,” a woman is stoned to death by her neighbors and family; in “The Haunting of Hill House,” written eleven years later, the stones that rain down on the childhood home of the protagonist, Eleanor, have a more ambiguous source. Eleanor’s mother thinks vicious neighbors are responsible; Eleanor and her sister blame each other; but the strongest suggestion is that the stones are the work of Eleanor’s poltergeist, a paranormal manifestation of her rage and unhappiness. At Hill House, where the adult Eleanor has been invited to assist in an investigation of psychic phenomena, she imagines that she is being ganged up on by the other people at the house and that its spirits have singled her out as their target. But what tortures her and ultimately drives her to insanity is her own complex of childhood fear and guilt. The leader of the paranormal investigation assures his assistants that if they ever become too scared they can always run away from the house: “It can’t follow us, can it?” But the horror for Eleanor is that she can’t run away from what haunts her.
EXCERPT: Now, Eleanor thought, perceiving that she was lying sideways on the bed in the black darkness, holding with both hands to Theodora's hand, holding so tight she could feel the fine bones of Theodora's fingers, now, I will not endure this. They think to scare me. Well, they have. I am scared, but more than that, I will not go along with hurting a child, no, I will not; I will get my mouth to open right now and I will yell "STOP IT," she shouted and the lights came on and Theodora was sitting up in bed, startled and disheveled.
"What?" she was saying. "What Eleanor? What?"
"God God," Eleanor said, flinging herself out of the bed and across the room to stand shuddering in a corner. "Good God--whose hand was I holding?"
The reason 'yours truly' is writing about Shirley Jackson is because I am reading her novel, 'The Haunting of Hill House'. She writes very similar to Stephen King in that she really builds-up her characters. I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good scare. I write in the 'horror genre' and this story even scares me. They've also made a TV series out of it on Netflix, but it is only loosely based on the book -- very loosely. The 1963, black and white movie is done very well. I recommend that as well.
Good Haunting,
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Hauntings
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This item number is not valid.
#2201244 by Not Available. |
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A paranormal investigation group is missing what exists beyond the lines.
#1481146 by A. E. Siler  |
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DEAD LETTERS
Question: Do you still shoot off fireworks on the 4th of July, and do you trust them?
Quick-Quill 
I'm sure I came across a dud or two. I too grew up in Los Angeles where sparklers were all we were allows, but I do remember black jacks. After moving North to So. Oregon, there were a few more types available. Now I'm in bed around 10 and the neighbors are usually done no later than 11pm. Its the neighbors that bother me. They sit in their backyard with friends and carry on way past midnight. Sound carries and so does the laughter, with no thought of their neighbors. I can understand why there are murders between homeowners.
jolanh 
As a teen without question, even though one or two firecrackers blew up in my hand. As an adult with kids, you tend to think about your mortality more often than not. So no.
MirandaCookies IS IN COLLEGE
Even if am a teenager right now, I would still say no. They’re dangerous and too loud.
Dr. Alex Dolittle
Never. I don't buy them since I'm a teenager, but if I could and did, I would not trust them fully. I almost accidentally burned my sister's eye out with a sparkler a few years back.
Paul 
I don’t buy them.
My youngest son came close to losing a couple of toes when he was 8 because of fireworks. If you haven’t had to hold your son down with him crying and screaming in your face “DON’T LET THEM DO THIS TO ME DADDY,” you probably won’t understand, but for the last 38 years I have actively promoted outlawing them completely.
LinnAnn -Book writer 
It's not the fireworks I distrust, it's the people who use them. WE've had scary incidents, but people would not practice safety.
prettypoetryWe celebrated every July 4th with plenty of fireworks. My husband was the only one who handled them. We never had a 'bad' one. We stopped when our youngest left home. Great and safe memories!
ForeverDreamer
I used to love shooting them, but not anymore. They are dangerous. I also just got tired of it.
In the town I live in now, for the last couple of years, there has been a rash of incidents of people shooting them at each other. The police id a demonstration of what would happen if someone threw a mortar into a car. It blew the back window out, and popped one of the doors open.
This year, somebody actually got brave enough to shoot a mortar at a group of police. It's getting crazy.
Beacon's Anchor 
When I was a teenager, I liked the fireworks because it was fun. Since I've gotten older, I have heard too many stories about fireworks and I won't get them. My kids like seeing them but we live in a place that it is all around us. Now I don't care for it anymore.
Beholden 
Thank you very much for including my short story, "Just Doing My Job" in your Editor's Picks.
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