Status Updates From The Lottery and Other Stories

The Villager: these really do accumulate. That is, they have a cumulative effect with similar themes. This one: pretence, adoption of identity, or shifting identity. Maybe adapting to fit into environments. Control over what others know. Control. Yes, I think that’s it - this is about control…

Trial by Combat: more loss of privacy (identity?) in apartment living. More lonely women. Strange behaviour - sharing of personal belongings. Being too polite to confront. Social niceties and embarrassment overcoming the need to speak up. Weird similarities between people. Similar to some of Aickman’s work.

Like Mother Used to Make: More strange, lonely people exploited by confident, lazy, manipulators. Was autism something often talked about in the 50s? Social anxiety. Hell is other people.

Hmmm
A lot of these stories are missing

Strange, sad women. The girl in The Intoxicated so matter of fact about Armageddon - written at the height of the Atomic Age. And the printed floral dress in Daemon Lover. So sad.