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(Gregory Hamaker/flickr)
A 20th anniversary celebration a contemporary classic—Tim O’Brien’s stirring and poignant tale of foot soldiers in the Vietnam War.
“They carried all the emotional baggage of men who might die. Grief, terror, love, longing—these were intangibles, but the intangibles had their own mass and specific gravity, they had tangible weight.” --Tim O’Brien, “The Things They Carried.”
A 20th anniversary celebration a contemporary classic—Tim O’Brien’s stirring and poignant tale of foot soldiers in the Vietnam War.
“The Things They Carried” is a powerful fictional depiction of the reality of America’s doomed enterprise in Vietnam. It is the title story of a book in which O’Brien follows one platoon of grunts, and its fantastic literary conceit is that their experience can best be conveyed by detailed listings of the actual things that the men carried in their backpacks and pockets, and on their shoulders and necks. When the cataloguing of these things makes the imaginative leap into a description of the less physical things they carried--to include such burdens as guilt, and fear, and memories--the piece earns its status as a great American short story.
The reader is Dylan Baker, whose numerous film and television credits include appearances on “The Good Wife”; “Law and Order”; “Monk; and “Spiderman 3.”
The SELECTED SHORTS theme is Roger Kellaway’s “Come to the Meadow.”
"The Things They Carried," by Tim O’Brien, read by Dylan Baker.
For additional works featured on SELECTED SHORTS, please visit Symphony Space
We’re interested in your response to these programs. Please comment on this site or visit www.selectedshorts.org
Listener’s choice! On June 9th, 2010, SELECTED SHORTS at Symphony Space in New York will feature stories selected by our nationwide audience. Go to http://www.symphonyspace.org/shorts/audience_picks to submit your suggestions for a published story you think we should read. Then in the spring, you’ll vote for your favorite from among the final contenders.
A 20th anniversary celebration a contemporary classic—Tim O’Brien’s stirring and poignant tale of foot soldiers in the Vietnam War.
“The Things They Carried” is a powerful fictional depiction of the reality of America’s doomed enterprise in Vietnam. It is the title story of a book in which O’Brien follows one platoon of grunts, and its fantastic literary conceit is that their experience can best be conveyed by detailed listings of the actual things that the men carried in their backpacks and pockets, and on their shoulders and necks. When the cataloguing of these things makes the imaginative leap into a description of the less physical things they carried--to include such burdens as guilt, and fear, and memories--the piece earns its status as a great American short story.
The reader is Dylan Baker, whose numerous film and television credits include appearances on “The Good Wife”; “Law and Order”; “Monk; and “Spiderman 3.”
The SELECTED SHORTS theme is Roger Kellaway’s “Come to the Meadow.”
"The Things They Carried," by Tim O’Brien, read by Dylan Baker.
Click here to hear Isaiah Sheffer and Tim O’Brien in conversation
For additional works featured on SELECTED SHORTS, please visit Symphony Space
We’re interested in your response to these programs. Please comment on this site or visit www.selectedshorts.org
Listener’s choice! On June 9th, 2010, SELECTED SHORTS at Symphony Space in New York will feature stories selected by our nationwide audience. Go to http://www.symphonyspace.org/shorts/audience_picks to submit your suggestions for a published story you think we should read. Then in the spring, you’ll vote for your favorite from among the final contenders.
Comments [1]
I've listened to this, and what can I say? I felt stunned. Taken away to another almost forgotten place! This story grips your heart and tells of a very special truth.
Each man -- or each boy -- carries a burden when faced with the things he was never prepared the face, when faced with the unreality of something never meant to be lived.
Burdens of an experience never meant to be felt weigh more than most people imagine. Burdens of war are particular heavy to the person carrying them, and each weighs a little differently accordingly.
People carry burdens in a different way, unique to that person's way of treating and dealing with another whole other kind of inner reality. This is a gripping story about carrying burdens in a faraway place; it's as real as it is unreal, and as true as it is also purely imaginary. This story talks about a place where truths becomes false, and falsehood seems too true to fully understand.
I know something of it only because I was a part of it for a bit longer than I care to admit to myself. I know the heaviest parts of all are what can't physically be carried. The strange things that can't or won't be hauled around very well, after the fact. Yet we do manage it. The numbness that never really goes away, in a way that's the heaviest weight there is. And how it's carried makes all the difference when back home.
This story talks about burdens and the weights they hold. This story is a piece of fiction that becomes very real in the telling.
Thank you for airing it.
Dear Warren:
Thank you for your thoughtful remarks; many people feel this way about the story, according to Tim O'Brien.
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