The Short Blog

In The Lottery by Shirley Jackson, while the lottery is starting and tensions are escalating, the narrator says “There was the proper swearing-in of Mr. Summers by the postmaster, as the official of the lottery; at one time, some people remembered, there had been a recital of some sort, performed by the official of the lottery, a perfunctory, tuneless chant that had been rattled off duly each year; some people believed that the official of the lottery used to stand just so when he said or sang it, others believed that he was supposed to walk among the people, but years and years ago this part of the ritual had been allowed to lapse.” In this long sentence, the narrator, an anonymous member of the community, reflects on the role that Mrs. Summers plays in the lottery. In the opening of the lottery event, there are many different ideas of what the postmaster should do. They say that he might be supposed to chant monotonously or in a more vibrant manner. They also disagree with what he s...

In their works of writing, authors express their opinions about the subject they’re writing about, and science fiction is no exception. In science fiction texts, writers describe the future negatively. They explain in their narratives that technology will either be always inadequate and never be able to fully satisfy the needs of humans, or they explain that technology can perform certain tasks perfectly. They portray technology as always performing tasks mindlessly and not have any idea about what is actually going on in the real world. In either case, they believe that technology will never be able to perfect and never enough to satisfy humans’ needs. These attitudes towards technology can be seen in The Machine Stops and There Will Come Soft Rains. Throughout The Machine Stops, technology always seems to be adequate rather than ever being perfect. When Kuno is talking to his mother through the machine, he says “the Machine is much, but it is not everything. I see something like y...