Shirley Jackson’s son on the work his mother left behind, INCLUDING (gasp!) a “new” story The New Yorker is running:
Shirley always steadfastly refused to explain her fiction; she would usually smile and tell people, “It’s just a story.” She firmly believed that her books would speak for themselves. After her death, in 1965, my father wrote, in his introduction to “The Magic of Shirley Jackson,” “I think that the future will find her powerful visions of suffering and inhumanity increasingly significant and meaningful, and that Shirley Jackson’s work is among that small body of literature produced in our time that seems apt to survive.” Shirley’s stories and novels, and her thoughts about writing, continue to be relevant; these stories, written in the middle of the last century, still resonate beautifully.
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Katie Heaney on vampires and Renfield syndrome, disappointingly titled “Drinking Someone Else’s Blood Does Not Make You a Vampire”:
A 1983 study called “Clinical Vampirism: A Presentation of 3 Cases and a Re-Evaluation of Haigh, the ‘Acid-Bath Murderer,’” argues that 1940s English serial killer John Haigh, indeed known as the “Acid Bath Murderer,” fits the Renfield bill, even if that terminology had yet to be applied. Authors Hemphill and Zabow cite Haigh’s own confessions, in which he claimed to have killed nine people, cut into their necks, and drank a cup of blood from each. He dreamed of blood, he’d said, dripping off trees. (Curiously, in what I guess is an attempt to highlight the weirdness and notability of Haigh’s blood fixation, the authors write: “Haigh, non-violent and sociable, murdered 9 people.” So, almost non-violent.)
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John Leavitt, who always has the best link roundup suggestions, pointed out “all the art from The Goldfinch on one Pinterest board.”
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The Billfold talks to a young man about aging out of foster care:
Was there any support system in place to help you transition out of foster care? Employment or school assistance?
Not as much as I had hoped nor as much as I was told there would be. As for while I was in the system, there were services aplenty. When I was emancipated, I was left at (a homeless shelter) and that was essentially the end.
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Actually a perfect couple.
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A commission! A commission! A reader has donated $50 for someone to write something informative and clever and great about Kym Worthy, the Detroit prosecutor working through the rape kit backlog. Please send me pitches!
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Are you working towards queering the suburbs?
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Tags: feminism, link roundup, the internet
I cannot risk even a single one of you not seeing Ricki/Lou’s hair:
(sorry if this posts fourteen times, html is being fussy)
That looks like The Most Fun wedding ever!!
They had a bouncy house! That is so brilliant!!
Yessss! Thank you, I could stare at that hair all day.
That pompadour!!!!!!! This was my entire takeaway from this link roundup, glad I’m not the only one.
OMG! Their officiant (Waxie) used to be our neighbor! He’s AMAZING.
Come for the hair, stay for the looks of pure joy on their faces. So sweet.
I read Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle recently, thanks to what I recall as Mallory’s piece about what YA lit to give your kids so they turn out properly weird – many thanks, it was perfection! And now I have a short story read for today. Already it’s off to a good start 🙂
I just read it too, after hearing about it so much here. It’s good stuff!
I am in the middle of reading it right now (I had meant to for years upon years, then was also spurred to finally track it down and read it by fellow Toasties too), so this article was highly relevant to my interests.
Recommendation: continue your Shirley Jackson adventures with Hangsaman. It’s weird and freaky and will make you wonder if you are going/have gone insane.
You’ve pretty much listed three things I prioritize in my fiction reading. Just requested it from the library – thank you!
Enjoying very much the idea of a “non-violent and sociable” serial killer
Someone who literally talks people to death, I guess?
That wedding is aces.
I really didn’t care for “The Goldfinch” but I appreciate the kind of person who makes that sort of Pinterest board.
Any recommendations for the best edition of Shirley Jackson’s collected works? I have decided I need one right this very instant.
Library of America. I got SJ’s collected works as a present for installing some software there – the editor gave me pick of any book I wanted and I took that one.
“I appreciate the kind of person who makes that sort of Pinterest board.” is the coldest shit ever. That’s beautiful.
I was prepared to roll my eyes SO HARD when you linked to wedding photos but that tux, you guys, the tux.
Ugh I have to go to a wedding this weekend and it’s not going to be remotely as awesome as Kitten and Lou’s.
🙁
Duh, everyone knows you have to drink a VAMPIRE’S blood to become a vampire. And if you are bitten by a werewolf you turn into a werewolf. And if someone stabs you with a hatpin, you become a milliner, etc.
Yes but do you only become a milliner at the full moon, or during the High Hat Holidays (Easter, Derby, Ascot)?
All of the above, and on National Hat day (January 15, btw).
What range do High Hat Holidays have? Does the Melbourne Cup only wreak The Change in Australian were-milliners, or can the British feel the effects too?
Depends on the phase of the moon, the tides, and the media.
And what about fascinators? How do they fit in all this?
Fascinator-were-milliners are to serious-hat-were-milliners as Twilight vampires are to Buffy Vampires.
During the High Hat Holidays, and within 5 minutes of anyone crashing a hi-hat cymbal (jazz clubs particularly are to be avoided)
Do you become an evil milliner, or just a normal one? And does it have to be a milliner who stabs you, or could I get a hatpin and start wreaking havoc?
If the pin was in an EVIL hat, you will become an evil milliner (hat morality status is generally printed somewhere inside the brim). As to the other question, no one knows! It’s very difficult to get any data on were-milliners because it requires self reporting and they are unreliable narrators.
I smell a science experiment.
If I get arrested for hatpin murders, 1) it’s your fault, and 2) please keep an eye on my victims while I am in prison to see whether they come back as zombie milliners.
I will endeavour to leave some victims just wounded so we can see if they become were-milliners.
Really bummed that the article about the perfect couple wasn’t Mr. Citizen and me.
EEEEEE! I made that Pinterest board about The Goldfinch art, I’m so excited it got mentioned in The Toast! This makes my morning!
I mostly put it together for my nerdy book club which is reading The Goldfinch this month. I posted it to facebook for my other nerdy friends to enjoy, I’m kind-of excited that it’s making the rounds!
Unrelated to any of these links, but may I say that I am more excited about the new baby on Archer* than I have been about any celebrity baby ever?
*edited to avoid paternity spoilers if that’s your thing
Also many thumbs up to that show for using old-timey race terminology. I hope Mallory never changes.
Edited: This sounds totes racist, but in the episode the moment is classic Mallory.
This is unrelated but there’s a Bustle article about my alma mater and it’s all over my Facebook and I clicked on it not realizing the site and now I feel gross. And people keep reposting it! It isn’t even a good article (obviously).
You should probably shower 50x
Hello fellow maroon I have not clicked it because yes 😐
Let me assure you that you’re not missing anything. Except I guess the knowledge that the part of Divergent that was filmed in Mansueto involves a lot of shushing.
Oh hey! Thanks for linking to Offbeat Bride… I found y'all in our referral logs, and I'm stoked your site and just subscribed to your RSS feed which is like a great first date.
Hm, I recently read about John Haigh and most people are pretty sure he made all the blood drinking stuff up so he could go to the insane asylum and not jail.
Hm, I recently read about John Haigh and most people are pretty sure he made all the blood drinking stuff up so he could go to the insane asylum and not jail.
Let me assure you that you're not missing anything. Except I guess the knowledge that the part of Divergent that was filmed in Mansueto involves a lot of shushing.
Ahhh thank you for linking to that clinical vampirism article. It has sent me down a lovely Wikipedia rabbit hole; the rest of the day is just gonna fly by.