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

Treisman, fiction editor at the New Yorker.

On this episode of the writer's voice, we'll hear Simon Rich read his story,

We're Not So Different, you and I, from the May 13th, 2024 issue of the magazine.

Rich has published eight books of fiction including the last

girlfriend on earth which was adapted for the TV series Man Seeking Woman and

hits and misses which won the Thurber Prize for American humor in 2019. A new story collection, Glory Days,

will be published in July. Now here's Simon Rich. We're not so different, you and I.

You'll never get away with this, Ultraman vowed as he wriggled in his chains,

You may destroy me, but you'll never destroy what I stand for.

Death skull let out a hysterical cackle, which echoed piercingly from the stone walls of

his lair.

Why so combative, he said, emerging from the shadows.

At the end of the day, we're not so different, you and I.

What are you talking about?

Ultraman demanded.

We are both strangers to this world, Death Skull-intoned,

blind, misunderstood. We make our own paths, live by our own rules,

refuse to compromise for anyone.

Yes, in many ways ways we are the same. Ultraman squinted at him.

I don't know man, he said. That's a pretty big stretch. Like I know we both wear capes or whatever, but I stand for good and you stand for evil.

That's about as different as it gets. Hmm, Death Skull murmured.

...