2023-04-02
1 小时 16 分钟Saïd Sayrafiezadeh joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “Ill Seen Ill Said,” by Samuel Beckett, which was published in The New Yorker in 1981. Sayrafiezadeh is the author of a memoir and two story collections, the most recent of which, “American Estrangement,” was published in 2021.
This is the New Yorker fiction podcast from the New Yorker magazine.
I'm Deborah Treisman, fiction editor at the New Yorker.
Each month we invite a writer to choose a story from the magazine's archives to read and discuss.
This month we're going to hear ill seen, ill said by Samuel Beckett, translated from the French by the author, which was published in the New Yorker in October of 1981.
There, then, she sits as though turned to stone, face to the night.
Save for the white of her hair and faintly bluish white of face and hands, all is black.
The story was chosen by said Sairafazadeh, who is the author of a memoir and two story collections, the most recent of which, American Estrangement, was published in 2021.
Hi, Saeed.
Hi, Deborah.
So why did you choose a piece by Samuel Beckett to read today?
I'll tell you exactly why.
Because when I first through and saying, what story would I like to read?
And the moment I saw Beckett, I said, that's the one.
That's the one.
He made me want to be a writer.
I used to be an actor.
I've performed in some Beckett plays.
I said, how could I not?
I think this is the only Beckett that was ever published in the New Yorker.
Yeah.