Show Notes
WARNING: SPOILERS!!! SPOILERS!!! SPOILERS!!!
What if Count Dracula came to small-town America? That’s the premise of this brilliant vampire novel by the most famous and successful “What if?” writer, ever: Stephen King. Not only is this novel gripping and satisfyingly plotted, it’s beautifully written and goes way beyond the mere category of “horror” novel. The characters are engaging and the analysis of small-town American life is loving, honest, and unflinching. Treat yourself to reading it before you dive into this episode–you won’t regret it.
Join Sonja and Vanessa as they explore what ‘SALEM’S LOT owes to the Gothic tradition, and to Bram Stoker’s DRACULA, in particular. With Stoker in mind, we also consider King’s use of female characters. Do we like them? Is there a Mina Harker in this American town? Is there a vampy Lucy, snacking on innocent American children?
There’s for sure a creepy house–the Marsten House–and we will discuss parallels with Hill House, given that we dedicated an episode to Shirley Jackson’s THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE, and King literally quotes and references her novel in ‘SALEM’S LOT.
Finally, as we’ve established this season, writers use Gothic to metaphorically explore a real-life fear…King’s Gothic work is no exception, but for him, it’s not patriarchy. It is, however, not unrelated to patriarchy, and it goes back to a story that’s one of the oldest and most influential in human history. Hint: think talking snake.
Along the way, we bump into Sigmund Freud and a priest with “serious mojo,” Sonja explains how to ward off a vampire when at the doctor’s office, and Vanessa makes a rare comment about being older than her co-host.
REFERENCES
Check out our episodes on Shirley Jackson’s THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE and on Bram Stoker’s DRACULA.
More from In Walks a Woman
Women make up half the population, but only about 28% of Congress. What would change if more women held office? At In Walks a Woman, we believe stories shape reality, and if we change the stories, we can change who gets a voice. This episode asks what happens when we rewrite one of the biggest stories of all: who represents us.
Our guests today have just released two eye-opening books! In Swiftynomics: How Women Mastermind and Redefine Our Economy, economist Misty Heggeness uses the stories of trailblazers like Taylor Swift to reveal how everyday American women shape the economy, often in ways the numbers never capture. In A Gun of Her Own: The Everyday Lives of Women Who Shoot, sociologist Margaret S. Kelley shows that for many women, a gun is about more than protection; it's a symbol of independence and control over their own lives.
Content note: This episode discusses sexual violence, which is depicted in the Netflix series. Please make sure this episode is a good fit for you.
Clay Wirestone, award-winning opinion editor at the Kansas Reflector, was so generous to join us in studio for a great interview about his new book, Opinionated: Kansas Journalists Who Proved Why Commentary Matters — Then and Now, published by the University Press of Kansas. In his impressive tour of Kansas journalism from the 1920s to the 1970s, Clay honors some truly remarkable women who helped build and sustain their communities through their writing. Clay shares wonderful details about Mamie Boyd of Mankato, Zula Bennington Greene of Topeka, Donna Burough Opat of Lindsborg, and Lucile Bluford, who edited the Kansas City Call. We talk about a time when newspapers were truly local, and the people writing them were deeply woven into the lives of their towns. These women wrote about their neighbors, their politics, and their daily lives, and much of that writing has been lost, buried in the archives of small towns, some of which are nearly ghost towns today. Clay's book brings their words back into the light. Kansas is remarkable for so many reasons, and its legacy of fearless local opinion writing is one of them. As an opinion writer himself, Clay isn't studying the craft from the outside. He explores these columnists with the insight of someone who knows exactly what it takes to put your opinions in print, week after week, for the community you call home.
Content Note: This episode discusses war, physical trauma and injury, PTSD, and suicide, as portrayed in the novel and in the historical record. Please take care while listening, and feel free to skip or pause as needed.