"The Yellow Wallpaper" by Charlotte Perkins Gilman

"The Yellow Wallpaper" is a short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman. Normally I wouldn't write an InCoHerEnt review of short stories but I'm bored and this one has a little story.

My parents moved into a new house and it needed a lot of renovating. They worked one whole summer throwing out junk, tearing off wallpaper, painting, re-wallpapering, refinishing the hardwood floors. Lots of work. And it does look nice now that they have it done. But I'm not a big fan of their choice of wallpaper in the guest bedroom. It looks like a meadow puked all over it... and that meadow had very, very tiny flowers. Basically, it has these green vines, or stems, and these little dark blue flowers. If you stare at the wall long enough, it looks like the wall is moving and you will get nicely dizzy. It doesn't seem to have a pattern that you can focus on so you end up just feeling a little seasick after a bad acid trip. You wonder that if you stare long enough at it, you might get lucky enough to see a 3D image like a sailboat in one of those posters from the mall, but it never comes through. Messes with the head, it does. (And I have learned to never make fun of the wallpaper as Mother seems to love it and will take offense.)

Anyway, a friend of mine came over the other day and she got to experience the psychedelic fun of the guest room which is really my room as I am the only one to visit. She told me about this story and she dared me to read it in there. And boy, did that add an interesting effect to the story.

"The Yellow Wallpaper" is about a woman, an author, who is sick and is made to rest in this room to recuperate. She is not allowed to write and all she is has to focus on is this horrible yellow wallpaper. They are only going to be there for three months which is not long enough to go to the expense of re-wallpapering. She starts seeing something in the paper that starts moving and then that something seems to be able to escape the paper and creep along outside during the day. At night, that something looks like it is trying to escape.

Very creepy story. Very good. One of those American classics that everyone should read. (Go here if you want to read more about Charlotte Perkins Gilman.) It reminded me a lot of The Hours, it had the same tension, not sure who was going to die, the same feelings that make me think of depression. Reading it in the crazy wallpapered room and the effect of the story left me feeling a little woozy. Not sure if I'll do that again but I will read the story again. Very cool.