EPISODE 33: You're To Blame! (Lydia Davis's The Mother, Larkin's This Be The Verse, and Russell Edson's The Optical Prodigal)

THE MOTHER

The girl wrote a story. “But how much better it would be if you wrote a novel,” said her mother. The girl built a dollhouse. “But how much better if it were a real house,” her mother said. The girl made a small pillow for her father. “But wouldn’t a quilt be more practical,” said her mother. The girl dug a small hole in the garden. “But how much better if you dug a large hole,” said her mother. The girl dug a hole and went to sleep in it. “But how much better if you slept forever,” said her mother.

-Lydia Davis

THIS BE THE VERSE

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.
They may not mean to, but they do.
They fill you with the faults they had
And add some extra, just for you.
But they were fucked up in their turn
By fools in old-style hats and coats,
Who half the time were soppy-stern
And half at one another’s throats.
Man hands on misery to man.
It deepens like a coastal shelf.
Get out as early as you can,
And don’t have any kids yourself.

-Philip Larkin

THE OPTICAL PRODIGAL

A man sees a tiny couple in the distance, and thinks they might be his mother and father. But when he gets to them they're still little. You're still little, he says, don't you remember? Who said you were supposed to be here? says the little husband. You're supposed to be in your own distance; you're still in your own foreground, you spendthrift. No no, says the man, you're to blame.

-Russell Edson

With additional audio clips and references to:

Love, Love, Love By Mike Bartlett. The Lyric Hammersmith Theatre production (recorded under lockdown): https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000k26n

Astor Piazzolla's Las Estaciones - Otono Porteno, Violin. Arabella Steinbacher: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ms1BR55bOmg

This American Life, Episode 672, "No Fair!": https://www.thisamericanlife.org/672/no-fair

Nadine Labaki's Capernaum: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ULUo0048xZE

Sam Harris's Free Will: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Free-Will-Sam-Harris/dp/1451683405

Peter Strawson's essay "Freedom and Resentment: http://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/P._F._Strawson_Freedom_&_Resentment.pdf

West Side Story - "Gee Officer Krupke!": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j7TT4jnnWys&t=2s

My Name is Lucy Barton by Elizabeth Strout: https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/My-Name-Is-Lucy-Barton-Audiobook/B01AX00OH0