Ricket's Landing Sounds like the name of a nursing home to me. I imagine that dementia might be like being on a bus, trying to get home..again and again.
9th circle of hell 🥵 so sad depressing how often do elderly people leave this world to escape the hell on Earth? My dad always said there is no hell Hell is here on Earth
first read this in high school or maybe college and it's haunted me ever since. unsettling af. i think my interpretation is that either it's a portrayal of what it's like to have dementia, or she died and is in some sort of purgatory. just listened to the whole thing and now I'm convinced it's from the POV of a woman with dementia. i actually had an experience once when i volunteered at a nursing home as a teenager. i took a sweet old lady for a stroll in her wheelchair. halfway through the walk she became confused about where she was, then convinced she was in a different city and had parked her car somewhere in the lot. i was too young to know better so i pushed her up and down the parking lot looking for a car that didn't exist so she could go home to a place she no longer lived. she was so convincing and certain that i gaslighted myself into thinking maybe she was right, and only visited the nursing home during the day?? or something??? finally one of the staff saw us and rescued us, and despite her adamant protestations pushed her back to her room. she insisted it wasn't hers until he showed her her things, at which point she finally came back to herself. but i can imagine as her dementia worsened there may have come a day when she didn't come back to herself anymore. anyway, that's what i thought of when i listened to this. i think this was the experience of a fractured and demented mind. maybe the bus was one of those busses that take nursing home residents out to activities. maybe the young people she saw were nursing home workers, the "old woman" a charge nurse or the like, and finally when she felt like she was back in her childhood home except different - that reminds me of the real life old woman thinking she was in the city where she lived as a young woman. it's all just delirium and delusion, but to her, it seemed real and uncanny. really unsettling stuff. dementia is truly horrifying.
I really get your interpretation, as my mum had Alzheimer's and she said a lot of weird stuff. She imagined she saw things and people, and was so utterly convinced she had been to a hotel in the woods that she nearly had me believing it. My ex husband is now suffering from dementia and believes he is still driving lorries. He tells us in detail of his day at work, and thinks his care home is the traffic office. It's terribly sad and disturbing. Seems their memories and dreams all get mixed up with reality. 😢
I have many editions of Shirley's short stories as well as her novel and novella. But u have stories here I've never heard...how can that be? I'm just thrilled I found them! Thank you 💜
I love Shirley Jackson and this just popped up in my feed. Very creepy and sad story, very anxiety inducing. Shirley was incredible at creating an atmosphere of quiet dread. Your narration was top notch; I often find myself turning off stories because I don't like the reader but this was perfect. I'll be checking out the rest of your channel.
This story like the previous one on which I commented, has moments of suspense and anxiety for the listener. I specifically felt at any moment the truck drivers would murder her. But, there is ambiguity too. You can't be sure she is not dreaming all of the events after she slumbers on the bus. At the end, it seems she is looping in a dream state, which would predate many stories that have used that genre. The increasingly surreal nature of Miss. Harper's experience is what creates fearful dread. Jackson also describes the environment with such vivid detail the line between reality and nightmare is erased. For instance, the outside elements that feed into her present circumstance like visiting a person she knows, all make the listener know it's not just a dream. But as the tale becomes more become like a netherworld, a listener suspects she has somehow gotten into a worsening dream. As is her style it seems, Jackson ends the tell abruptly. leaving a listener wanting more, some alarm clock, huh?. The more I consider this story after listening for the 2nd time, it now seems clear that it has a very logical and rational explanation that provides for its surreal aspect. Miss Harper is really dreaming the first time around when the bus driver awakens her. Everything that happens after that is part of her strange dream. At the end, she is not repeating the dream but actually being roused from her dream. So, she only dreamt initially that the sarcastic driver awoke her and put her off the bus at a rain-soaking, nowhere stop, and the 2nd time she really is being put off the bus at the correct stop, fully aware and awake.
Reading this story for the first time, to me it seems like this story is about dementia (the anxiety, the repetitiveness). My late grandmother's final days were plagued by dementia may she rest in peace.
No, it's not her home. The ending is ambiguous; maybe she's still asleep; maybe she's died, there on the bus, and is experiencing some kind of purgatory, or she's somehow slipped into a strange, ugly different reality. Jackson doesn't tell us, so we have to decide for ourselves.
@@ropeburnsrussell Yes, I think the doll was saying ''you are no longer the person I know''. I think the old woman is telling herself she has become a bad person through the doll
What I get from this story is that Miss Harper refuses to accept change. Until she accepts that the world is messed up, and it is not the same way it has been before (like the house being changed completely), and if she stops acting like everything revolves around her, she will continue to experience these loops of realities til she learns her lesson.
I feel differently. What I get is that she has lived a miserable and lonely existence, and has many complaints (which could easily be valid) due to a lonely life of an older woman in our society. She has no value to people anymore now that she is old. Her mind is slipping and she very well may have died on that initial bus ride. No one even noticed or cared. She is at the crossroads until she can truly make it home. Very very sad story. Horrifying and cautionary from Shirley
Shirley Jackson was ahead of her time! ❤️
Ricket's Landing Sounds like the name of a nursing home to me. I imagine that dementia might be like being on a bus, trying to get home..again and again.
9th circle of hell 🥵 so sad depressing how often do elderly people leave this world to escape the hell on Earth? My dad always said there is no hell Hell is here on Earth
My father thought the same.
first read this in high school or maybe college and it's haunted me ever since. unsettling af. i think my interpretation is that either it's a portrayal of what it's like to have dementia, or she died and is in some sort of purgatory.
just listened to the whole thing and now I'm convinced it's from the POV of a woman with dementia. i actually had an experience once when i volunteered at a nursing home as a teenager. i took a sweet old lady for a stroll in her wheelchair. halfway through the walk she became confused about where she was, then convinced she was in a different city and had parked her car somewhere in the lot. i was too young to know better so i pushed her up and down the parking lot looking for a car that didn't exist so she could go home to a place she no longer lived. she was so convincing and certain that i gaslighted myself into thinking maybe she was right, and only visited the nursing home during the day?? or something??? finally one of the staff saw us and rescued us, and despite her adamant protestations pushed her back to her room. she insisted it wasn't hers until he showed her her things, at which point she finally came back to herself. but i can imagine as her dementia worsened there may have come a day when she didn't come back to herself anymore.
anyway, that's what i thought of when i listened to this. i think this was the experience of a fractured and demented mind. maybe the bus was one of those busses that take nursing home residents out to activities. maybe the young people she saw were nursing home workers, the "old woman" a charge nurse or the like, and finally when she felt like she was back in her childhood home except different - that reminds me of the real life old woman thinking she was in the city where she lived as a young woman. it's all just delirium and delusion, but to her, it seemed real and uncanny.
really unsettling stuff. dementia is truly horrifying.
Thanks for sharing that interpretation, I appreciate it!
I really get your interpretation, as my mum had Alzheimer's and she said a lot of weird stuff. She imagined she saw things and people, and was so utterly convinced she had been to a hotel in the woods that she nearly had me believing it. My ex husband is now suffering from dementia and believes he is still driving lorries. He tells us in detail of his day at work, and thinks his care home is the traffic office. It's terribly sad and disturbing. Seems their memories and dreams all get mixed up with reality. 😢
@@suecondon1685 I'm sorry you're dealing with that 😞 my best wishes to you and your family
"Hell is repeatition." - Stephen King
The most anxiety-producing story I've heard in a very long time! Poor lady.
What a disturbing story. So many ways to interpret the story. Time loop . Purgatory.
Dementia...
Alzheimer's
I have many editions of Shirley's short stories as well as her novel and novella. But u have stories here I've never heard...how can that be? I'm just thrilled I found them! Thank you 💜
Thank you for listening!
I love Shirley Jackson and this just popped up in my feed. Very creepy and sad story, very anxiety inducing. Shirley was incredible at creating an atmosphere of quiet dread. Your narration was top notch; I often find myself turning off stories because I don't like the reader but this was perfect. I'll be checking out the rest of your channel.
At last someone “reported” Old Miss Harper and she received her reward: an afterlife as loveless as herself.
Excellent narration. Thank you.
This story like the previous one on which I commented, has moments of suspense and anxiety for the listener. I specifically felt at any moment the truck drivers would murder her. But, there is ambiguity too. You can't be sure she is not dreaming all of the events after she slumbers on the bus. At the end, it seems she is looping in a dream state, which would predate many stories that have used that genre. The increasingly surreal nature of Miss. Harper's experience is what creates fearful dread. Jackson also describes the environment with such vivid detail the line between reality and nightmare is erased. For instance, the outside elements that feed into her present circumstance like visiting a person she knows, all make the listener know it's not just a dream. But as the tale becomes more become like a netherworld, a listener suspects she has somehow gotten into a worsening dream. As is her style it seems, Jackson ends the tell abruptly. leaving a listener wanting more, some alarm clock, huh?.
The more I consider this story after listening for the 2nd time, it now seems clear that it has a very logical and rational explanation that provides for its surreal aspect. Miss Harper is really dreaming the first time around when the bus driver awakens her. Everything that happens after that is part of her strange dream. At the end, she is not repeating the dream but actually being roused from her dream. So, she only dreamt initially that the sarcastic driver awoke her and put her off the bus at a rain-soaking, nowhere stop, and the 2nd time she really is being put off the bus at the correct stop, fully aware and awake.
but at the ending, the sign at the crossroads says Rickets landing, the same name as in her dream.
Very good. Sounds likely a dream she was having on the bus.
One of Jackson's finest short stories.
Thank you! I love hearing you read Shirley Jackson!
I'm glad you enjoyed it!
Weird and disturbing! Love Shirley Jackson.
Reading this story for the first time, to me it seems like this story is about dementia (the anxiety, the repetitiveness). My late grandmother's final days were plagued by dementia may she rest in peace.
"Deploying her own cross voice." Jackson! Neat one, WNS.
Thanks for listening!
Good one! Thank you.
So I must share that the commerical before this was a Bible reading app...
Why do you think you must share that
Mine was for decorative lighting
Reminds me of the 1940s movie Dead Of Night.
I'm a new subscriber, loved the Burnt House story. Thanks for sharing. 😊
Horrible to imagine living this
I read it as her having dementia but then also some sort of time loop.
A like the hungarian movie adaptation Long Twilight
Sounds like the type of weird dreams I have when the allergens are high
i'm not sure but i think miss harper got soaked in the rain.
Circular storyline...
Well, that was disturbing.
And now I’m scared for life
Bookmark: 10:42
So....was ricket's landing her actual home?
No, it's not her home. The ending is ambiguous; maybe she's still asleep; maybe she's died, there on the bus, and is experiencing some kind of purgatory, or she's somehow slipped into a strange, ugly different reality. Jackson doesn't tell us, so we have to decide for ourselves.
@@WindyNightStories cool.
(and very frightening)
I hadn't realised before before now that the right reader can make a Shirley Jackson story even more alarming than it was to start off with.
She told the boy on the bus to go back home, but she can't.
Really one of Jackson's most disturbing stories.
That doll, that traitorous doll!
@@ropeburnsrussell Yes, I think the doll was saying ''you are no longer the person I know''. I think the old woman is telling herself she has become a bad person through the doll
What I get from this story is that Miss Harper refuses to accept change. Until she accepts that the world is messed up, and it is not the same way it has been before (like the house being changed completely), and if she stops acting like everything revolves around her, she will continue to experience these loops of realities til she learns her lesson.
Interesting theory.
Miss Harper learns her lesson? That is a very sick observation scary I don't think I'd ever want to come across you in a dark alley
Well aren't you the know it all
I feel differently. What I get is that she has lived a miserable and lonely existence, and has many complaints (which could easily be valid) due to a lonely life of an older woman in our society. She has no value to people anymore now that she is old. Her mind is slipping and she very well may have died on that initial bus ride. No one even noticed or cared. She is at the crossroads until she can truly make it home. Very very sad story. Horrifying and cautionary from Shirley
@@ThePattibeth wow, rude
Worst story ever
bruh. go back to watching your marvel movies