We Have Always Lived in the Castle

Shirley Jackson
We Have Always Lived in the Castle Cover

Harold Bloom is dead

Bormgans
3/31/2022
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4.5 stars rounded up

Harold Bloom -- the literary guru that claimed literature and politics should have nothing to do with each other -- challenged the idea that Shirley Jackson's work should be included in the Western canon. Nevertheless, in 2001 he edited a volume of Jackson's short stories. There he wrote that "Her art of narration [stays] on the surface, and could not depict individual identities. Even 'The Lottery' wounds you once, and once only."

Bloom is dead, and in 20 years time his work likely will only be read by a few academics. I think there's a fair chance Shirley Jackson will still be read widely 50 years from now.

I'm not trying to dis academia, but Bloom's tale is stark warning for us meta-writers to not confuse talking taste with pontificating. I have not read The Lottery -- I will -- but based on We Have Always Lived in the Castle, I'd say that Bloom's claim about Jackson's "art of narration" is a bit off.

The Western canon seems a bit of an outdated concept, or, at least, it is outdated as an apolitical idea: the reasons why something becomes a "classic" surely ain't devoid of politcs. Either way, there is no doubt about the fact that Shirley Jackson belongs at least in the canon of speculative fiction -- that peculiar subset of literature.

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Full review on Weighing A Pig Doesn't Fatten It

https://schicksalgemeinschaft.wordpress.com/2022/03/31/we-have-always-lived-in-the-castle-shirley-ja