The Rise and Fall of Charlotte Perkins Gilman

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Charlotte Perkins Gilman was a self-described feminist. She divorced her first husband in 1894, which is some like almost 100 years probably before divorce became commonly accepted in America. So how do you, does this get talked about kind of acutely in the story or are you mostly just experiencing those women's descent into madness? You're just following her descent pretty much. And then it's through contextual knowledge that you're supposed to read in the stuff about it being like criticism of certain elements of marriage and of this treatment in particular.

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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