"The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full-summer day; the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green. The people of the village began to gather in the square, between the post office and the bank, around ten o'clock; in some towns there were so many people that the lottery took two days and had to be started on June 2th. but in this village, where there were only about three hundred people, the whole lottery took less than two hours, so it could begin at ten o'clock in the morning and still be through in time to allow the villagers to get home for noon dinner.

"The children assembled first, of course. School was recently over for the summer, and the feeling of liberty sat uneasily on
--opening paragraphs of Shirley Jackson's, "The Lottery"

[This message has been edited by rich 'cause I'm trying to get as close to 13 as I can (edited February 25, 2009).]

[This message has been edited by rich (edited February 25, 2009).]

But it's interesting that everyone said they first read it in school. I'm not overly fond of OSC's dismissal of academics telling us what we should read (sometimes you do have to force the horse to the water and make that SOB drink it), but, he does have a point to a certain extent.

In this case I do think we have a hook, and it concerns the children more than anything else. We don't normally associate kids with lotteries, plus a certain amount of curiousity is piqued because of the stones.

Example One: I hated The Old Man and the Sea when I read it in school---but I've read, and enjoyed, a lot of Hemingway I came to on my own.

Example Two: I dislike Orwell's 1984, which I read first for school---but loved his Animal Farm, which I found in the school library about the same time---and, still much later, I devoured his collected essays.

You better read through all the posts, again, in this thread. I definitely stated that this story was one of my favorites .

Edited to add an example:

In the past few days, a junior high school teacher confessed to police that she and another female teacher at the school had been having sex with a 13-year-old male student.

There are people in the community who are asking whether the boy should be charged as well. So not only did his teachers victimize him, but people in his community want to victimize him, too. No stones, but a life has been destroyed anyway.

It might not be the world's greatest hook, but just the idea of a lottery that was so widely attended is different enough to create interest. What was so important about it that a whole town would stop what it was doing to attend, and that the whole town's attendance was required?

But, the idea that a story *must* have a pronounced hook in its first thirteen lines is somewhat artificial. It doesn't hurt to start right off with an effective hook, but plenty of stories don't.

I just read the story. I don't recall reading it before. It seemed predictable, just knowing about a mindless lottery by villagers. I doubt it was so predictable years ago. Perhaps her idea has been used to 'death' in stories since.

In fact, I did a short story on the topic of a village culling last month.

The tension for me was who would be the 'winner'.

The writing is very good. The hook? The first 13? I wouldn't rate it very high, although, as I said, her writing is very good.

RE: Kathleen's example. I may be wrong, but as I recall it, the boy was having an affair with two separate teachers in unconnected affairs. To my way of thinking, that indicates the strong possibility that the boy was doing the manipulating. A sad story all around... three lives wasted.

Would we think the 13 year old was manipulative if he was a she? Not trying to start any major arguments (minor ones are fine), but I'm curious as to what others think regarding age and gender in these types of cases.

As a male, I'm not as outraged at these types of stories since the victim is male. If it was a 13 year old girl, I'm outraged. Is it culture? Or am I just a sick bastard? (well, I am kinda anyway, but you get the idea...) I mean, it's still a 13 year old and no adult should be intimately involved with a 13 year old, no matter the gender.