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92NY Talks


For nearly 150 years The 92nd Street Y, New York has harnessed the power of arts and ideas to enrich, enlighten and change lives. This weekly podcast series features many of the fascinating people and conversations from our stage, both recent as well as treasures from the past.

Jan 24, 2021

T.C. Boyle on his selection: 

It was Donald Barthelme, along with Robert Coover, Samuel Beckett, Julio Cortázar and Flannery O’Conner who spurred me to be in writing myself. Barthelme is best known for his abstract stories, like “Indian Uprising,” a story I cherish, but I’ve chosen “The School” for this program because of its tight comedic narrative and its presentation as a dramatic monologue. It works by escalation, as much of our humor does. The line, “We weren’t even supposed to have a puppy” always brings down the house. Of course, at its core, the story questions what education--knowledge itself--can do to ease the souls of a species, burdened with the foreknowledge of its own death.

Sixty Stories, by Donald Barthelme.

Music: "Shift of Currents" by Blue Dot Sessions // CC BY-NC 2.0