House of Seven Gables

I've already posted that I don't like horror movies or reading them. I've never been interested in reading a Steven King book, but I did like his forward for a Harlan Ellison anthology. I do like Edgar Allan Poe.
From 7th grade on I read Poe. The Pit and the Pendulum, Cask of Amontillado, Tell Tale Heart. In college for American literature the Dread Professor Jamar assigned all students a topic for the semester term paper. I was given: Explore the Gothicism in the writings of Edgar Allan Poe.
I felt I lucked out. I'd read most of Poe's stories and his poems and brushing up on them would be easy. The only story I hadn't read was The House of Seven Gables. I naturally procrastinated about writing the term paper until it was a week before it was due. It was between Cross Country and Track seasons so I had a weekend without a road trip. My roommate went home and like a fool I waited until 11pm to start reading the one story I had never read. It took me thirty minutes to read. Then I got up, got dressed and went to the SUB not venturing back to the my dorm room until dawn. BTW I got an B on the term paper. That was as good as an A in any other class. She was the only teacher in college that made us do graduate level work. She would have been my easiest teacher at Seminary.

Bad science makes bad law

"Three generations of imbeciles is enough."
--Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes in the majority opinion of Buck v. Bell. May 2, 1927

Paula Paul has written a horror story, only this one actually took place in 1926. The Mind of a Deviant Woman is about  Carrie Buck who under a newly crafted law was forcibly sterilized for being feebleminded. The novel is based on a real woman, but Ms. Paul has created a living breathing human being by fictional means. Carrie Buck is given to a family and adopted, but treated as a servant. It might have been a hard luck story set in a hard time for everyone who lived in such a time as much of the book is devoted to Carrie growing up from her point of view.
The science of the day considers those less fortunate to deviate from the norms of society. (Using the terminology of the day) Through heredity they believe criminals, prostitutes, epileptics, and morons perpetuated themselves through reproduction. Many conclude that the sensible answer is sterilization.
Louisa Van Patten wrote a scholarly article that was published in a scientific journal while working on her masters. It was entitled The Mind of a Deviant Woman. While researching to expand her research she becomes involved with the case of Carrie Buck, whose mother produced three children and was unable to properly take care of them. Her mother was sent to The Colony, an institution for epileptics, feebleminded and morons. Carrie became pregnant and the Dobbs family felt this shamed their family and had her declared feebleminded. Then the all too true horror begins.
I commend Paula Paul for writing such a compelling story and making the reader feel the pain of a scared little girl who was so horribly treated by all those around her.