Jezebel 
Enter your username and password.
New York, 11:57 AM
Tue Nov 24
65 posts in the last 24 hours
Tip your editors:
tips@jezebel.com
Editor-in-Chief:
Anna Holmes
Email | Twitter
Deputy Editor:
Dodai Stewart
Email | Twitter
Senior Contributing Editor:
Tracie Egan
Email | Twitter
Contributing Editors:
Anna North
Email | Twitter
Sadie Stein
Email | Twitter
Reporter:
Irin Carmon
Email | Twitter
Editorial Assistant:
Margaret Hartmann
Email | Twitter
Contributors:
Rich Juzwiak
Email | Twitter
Latoya Peterson
Email
Jenna Sauers
Email
Lizzie Skurnick
Email
Interns:
Katy Kelleher
Twitter
Original material is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution.
11/19/09
That said, I don't really understand the hero worship aspect the writer is referring to. I know it exists with some, and I think it can be attributable to what Didion's career represents - that a talented, smart, somewhat flawed young woman can become one of the most important figures in American letters. I am hardpressed to think of another woman who occupies such a place in our culture. It's not really all that different from generations who idolized Kerouac or Salinger or whoever. They don't just represent their own literary and cultural achievements, but also what is possible for others. So if I had to guess I would say that might be part of what is going on here. But then again, I am not the kind of person who is often starstruck or sent into tears by the mere presence of another person, no matter how much I admire their work.
11/18/09
Slouching Towards Bethlehem, though. Amazing from start to finish. Especially the one about Joan Baez.
Plus, Joan Didion was in my sorority, which is my favorite thing about my sorority, because of how she's awesome.
11/18/09
Especially since her observation about Baez would apply to Obama. That is what is interesting about her writing.
11/18/09
11/18/09
11/19/09
11/18/09
11/18/09
11/18/09
11/18/09
11/18/09
11/19/09
11/20/09
11/18/09
I just... I find her writing sardonic and sharp, and the way she's described here, it's not recognizable to me.
11/18/09
11/18/09
eta: I do idolize her though (as much as someone my age can idolize any stranger)
11/18/09
11/18/09
11/19/09
11/19/09
#tips
11/19/09
I don't really understand hero worship, unless by "hero worship" you mean wishing you could emulate someone's career and admiring their work intensely. But holding a copy of her book and crying while listening to her speak? I don't get that at all.
11/05/09
11/05/09
11/07/09
11/05/09
11/05/09
11/13/09
10/30/09
Also, how much did The Haunting the movie suck in comparison? I loved it because of the actors and all, but completely removing the idea that Eleanor had at least some underlying psychosis made it so namby-pamby. #shirleyjackson
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/30/09
10/31/09
10/29/09
One of these days I will write my epic screed about how "pretty" female authors such as Edna St. Vincent Millay and Zelda Fitzgerald get full on, in depth biographies whereas Shirley Jackson--who is called a "monster" in the biography because she's overweight--gets a biography that feels like a tabloid slapdash affair.
HARRUMPH. #shirleyjackson
10/30/09
10/29/09
Also, I think the fact that I am filled with creeping dread by almost every one of Shirley Jackson's short story titles is a testament to her power and gift as a writer. See for yourself: [en.wikipedia.org] #shirleyjackson
10/29/09
10/29/09
10/29/09
10/30/09
I have to read more Shirley Jackson is the awesome moral of this story. #shirleyjackson
10/30/09
10/29/09
It's unfortunate that "The Lottery" is her best-known story, for it's also one of her least nuanced pieces and isn't representative of the intricacy she was capable of. I've read Hangsaman several times and still don't feel I have a solid grasp on the ending.
I recently reread The Bird's Nest and was wondering if Jackson was plagued by mental illness herself--there are a few scenes that I can't bring myself to believe could have been compellingly written by a sane person. I'll have to read her biography now. Jackson's work is amazing but it must have been hell to live in her head. I wonder if, had she been born a half-century later, we would have been privileged to have her body of work to enjoy or if it would she would have been medicated into sanity by psychopharmacology. It feels almost selfish to take such pleasure in books that were the product of her inner torment.
(I don't really have a central point here, I just can't not comment on a Shirley Jackson post.) #shirleyjackson
10/29/09
Have you read The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman? That's another great short story written by a woman, featuring mental illness, an unreliable narrator, and abounding creepiness.
10/29/09
I don't think good literature loses its impact when one knows the ending. I've gone into every Shakespeare play knowing its conclusion (as did his contemporary audience, since none of his stories save The Tempest was original.) They were still awesome. (I guess I don't have any way of knowing how awesome they'd be if I went in cold, though.) #shirleyjackson
10/29/09
That's an excellent point! Now I'm looking forward to reading it even more. #shirleyjackson
10/31/09
11/01/09
(I just pulled it off my shelf, and there was a slip of paper tucked inside that read "Thanks, [cirocco], Susan and Joleen." Now I'm all freaked out! What were Susan and Joleen thanking me for? Reading too much Shirley Jackson makes everything seem ominous.) #shirleyjackson
10/29/09