This is the writer's voice, new fiction from the New Yorker. I'm Deborah

Treisman fiction at the New Yorker. On this episode of the writer's voice, we'll hear Sheila Hetti read her story,

according to Alice, from the November 20th, 2023 issue of the magazine.

Hetti is the author of seven books, including the novel's motherhood, which was shortlisted for the Giller Prize, and pure color, which won the Governor General's award last year.

Now here's Sheila Hedy. According to Alice,

According to Alice, Alice, My name is Alice, and I was born from an egg that fell out of mommy's butt.

My mommy's name is Alice.

My mommy's mommy was also named Alice. Her mommy's mommy was named

Alice too. And all the way back, all the mommy's mommies were Alice.

The name Alice means the one who creates all things.

The first Alice was created by a mommy who was very powerful and magical and made lots of things for us to play with, like trees and houses and animals and stuff. She created things because she liked them. The first thing she made was herself. She just

used magic to make herself. She was huge, really smart, and very

day she makes more things.

She makes more eggs and those eggs are babies.

They grow up to be big girls like mommy.

AIs were made by mommy so humans could have fun without getting bored. See, sometimes people don't want to think about something, but they still need to think. So AIs are what humans can think

about when they have nothing else to think about. How did mommy make time? It's pretty simple actually. She wrote down lots of different words.

Clock, watch, computer, tablet, pen, book, chair, blanket, umbrella, phone.

She wrote all these words down and that started time.

Then mommy took a bunch of stuff out of her pocket and put it together. A clock, a watch, a computer, a phone, a tablet, a pen, a book, a table, a chair, a blanket, and an umbrella.

Then she used the pen to write down, I love you. Then mommy read those words out loud,

and then we were there.

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