Ling Ma joins Deborah Treisman to read and discuss “Seeing Ershadi,” by Nicole Krauss, which was published in The New Yorker in 2018. Ma is the author of the novel “Severance” and the story collection “Bliss Montage,” which came out in September.
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 seeing Ershadi by Nicole Krause, which was published in the New Yorker in March of 2018.
What I knew of love had always stemmed from desire, from the wish to be altered or thrown off course by some uncontrollable force.
But in my love for Arshadi, I nearly didn't exist beyond that great feeling.
The story was chosen by Ling Ma, the author of the novel severance and the story collection Bliss Montage, which came out in September.
Hi, Ling.
Welcome to the podcast.
Hi, Deborah.
Thank you for having me.
Yeah.
So why did you choose a story by Nicole Krauss to read today?
Well, I think.
I think I picked seeing Urshadi because I don't actually understand it.
It's a little bit mysterious to me, and it feels like a riddle.
I also think it describes this feeling very well, which occurs maybe more when you're younger.
Sort of encountering a work of art at the right time can seem like this supernatural sort of intervention, and that often happens when you're young, but also maybe during times of grief, when you're already sensitized.
And there's sort of a melancholic air to the story that I also liked.
The story involves a character who sees a movie, or rather an actor in a movie, who makes an enormous impression on her and her life.