The Importance of Short Stories

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Short fiction can be a good way to dip your toe back in and to kind of pick it back up. If you haven't read for pleasure in a while, I think it's interesting that these two stories too come from times when they were more impactful. And we don't know what short stories from our era are going to get picked out. So many more people in the world now than there were 100 years ago.

We double-dip a bit in this week's show, reading two short stories and proving that you don't have to have a ton of time to read something thought-provoking. The theme is "female authors writing about controversial-at-the-time ideas," and the stories are The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman and The Lottery by Shirley Jackson.

One is about a misdiagnosed "hysterical" woman slowly going insane through lack of mental stimulation, one is about a seemingly innocuous small town that is slavishly devoted to its own traditions. Both remain subversive and retain their impact even today.

Oh yeah and we also talk about which grocery store animal mascot would win in a fight.

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