ShmoopTube

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The Lottery, a la Shmoop. Who doesn’t want to be famous these days?

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But… have we been turning Fame into some kind of twisted spectator sport.

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In Shirley Jackson’s short story,,“The Lottery” a couple of Old Men put everyone’s

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name in a box…

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…and then draw the name of one unlucky person…

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…who becomes famous for a second…

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…before the townsfolk stone her.

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Has this come true for us in the digital age? Let’s noodle…

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Well, we do have our own version of Old Men to pull some unlucky person’s name from

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a box.

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Care for an example of one of the lucky ones? How about everybody’s favorite: Snooki!

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Instead of drawing a name and throwing a stone at the unlucky victim…

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…we have a very similar moment of fleeting fame for the Reality TV star…

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…until the Late Night TV shows pounce. Then it’s all downhill.

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Are we acting just like the Townsfolk in “The Lottery” when we help spread the latest

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celebrity gossip? Do our posts in the digital world cause as

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much pain and anguish as the Townsfolk’s stones?

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Are we sentencing these people to failure before they even have a chance?

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Do people just go along with whatever is trendy?

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Judging from the way we recycle celebrities, it seems that way.

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Doesn’t poor Snooki have feelings, too?

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Many people want to be famous…

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…but at what cost?

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Shmoop Amongst Yourselves.

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YouTube blurb:

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Who doesn’t want to be famous? Plucked out of obscurity in front of an adoring crowd…who

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will then throw stones, or Tweets, at you, until you’re nothing but a pile of slobbering

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oatmeal? Is this what we’ve come to? An internet driven version of “The Lottery”?

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Hide those bows and arrows. Just in case.

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