- The Observer
Comment & Analysis 11.08.19 47
PEOPLE
Rebecca Nicholson
F
arewell to The OA , the
Netfl ix series created
by Brit Marling and Zal
Batmanglij and starring
Marling, which lasted two
ambitious, lopsided seasons. It
told a story of alternate realities
to which characters could travel
by working through the rejected
sections of a community
mime class.
“Zal and I are deeply sad not
to fi nish this story,” Marling
wrote on Instagram. “The fi rst
time I heard the news, I had a
good cry.” She went on to say
that working in “speculative
fi ction” gave her the chance to
start with a world not already
defi ned by pre-existing norms.
“Science fi ction wiped this
‘real’ world clean like an Etch A
Sketch,” she said. It summed up
the reason why so many people
fi nd solace in science fi ction and
fantasy. It is escapism amplifi ed
into power and agency.
I am sad to see The OA go. It
was both hysterically silly and
deeply earnest in a way that, in
this age of archness and irony,
few shows dare to be. But it
didn’t quite know how to pull off
an ending. Each series laid the
breadcrumbs of a labyrinthine
conspiracy, only to implode in
the fi nale. As a result, season
two ended on such a meta note
that it seems almost a crime
to not be allowed to see what
happens next.
Still, if you wave your arms
around in the right combination
of moves and then hiss,
there may be hope. There are
rumours that the cancellation
announcement could be a fake.
However, Netfl ix also announced
that it had brought over Game of
Thrones creators David Benioff
and DB Weiss from HBO , for a
rumoured $200m, so let’s just
assume that the fi nancial portal
has been well and truly sealed.M
any of my American
friends have
announced that they
will be giving up
their gym memberships, so I was
intrigued by what might have
inspired this wave of rebellion
against physical activity.
They posted that they would
no longer be giving their money
to the companies owned by
billionaire Stephen Ross , Equinox
and SoulCycle (someone shouts
at you while you try to move
but remain fi xed in one place ).
Reports have emerged that Ross,
a long-time friend of Donald
Trump, would be hosting a
fundraiser at his Hamptons
home, which the president would
attend, with tickets costing up to
$250,000 each.
Public fi gures and celebrities
such as Billy Eichner and
Chrissy Teig en joined the#GrabYourWallet chorus,
advocating that gym-goers
renounce their memberships. As
was pointed out repeatedly, when
it comes to people such as Ross,
money talks.
However, as a sidenote, I
would question the strategic
sense of conceding exercise to
supporters of the far right, while,
out of principle, we weedy little
snowfl akes are stuck at home
with nothing but a Davina DVD.O
ne of the reasons I tend
not to mind the tinny
hiss of other people’s
headphones on public
transport is that I am a horribly
nosey person. Recently, I sat next to
a middle-aged man in a work suit
who played that ubiquitous Lewis
Capaldi got-dumped song not once,
not twice, but on a loop that lasted
as long as my train journey. I should
have asked him if he was OK.
The same nosiness applies to
what people are reading. Getting
lost in a good book should never be
a self-conscious act, but it is hard
not to wonder what brought that
particular person to The Subtle Art of
Not Giving a F*ck.
Summer is great for lots of
reasons: stretched-out days,
busier nights, the fact that the
climate emergency means you get
the chance to wear every item in
your wardrobe in a single week.
Catastrophically unpredictable
weather sure keeps you on your
sartorial toes but it also brings the
wave of famous people’s holiday
reading recommendations, which is
a bit like staring at a stranger’s book
on the bus, only far less creepy.
When asked for his summer
pick by NBC reporter Dylan Byers,
Mark Zuckerberg chose The Last
Days of Night by Graham Moore, a
historical novel that tells the storyBrit Marling
Someone
please give her
a happy ending
Stephen Ross
To work out or
to walk out?
Angela Merkel
You’re on hols, so less of the
despotic reading matter
The stories behind the
names in the newsof Edison’s attempts to preserve
his monopoly on the United States’
electricity supply. Zuckerberg was
roundly rinsed for this, as if we
were all shocked that he has an
interest in power, as if he was ever
likely to choose Eleanor Oliphant
Is Completely Fine and a sudoku
compendium like the rest of us.
A rewarding sub-genre of literary
voyeurism is what famous people
are seen reading. Angela Merkel was
spotted with Stephen Greenblatt’s
Tyrant, which draws on rulers in
Shakespeare’s works to explore
real-life messianic despots, while
she was on holiday in the Italian
Alps, which suggests that someone
should remind her what a holiday is.
Celebrities have long since been
aware of what a book can say about
them, from those famous images
of James Dean reading poetry and
Marilyn Monroe reading Ulysses ,
to Justin Bieber , shortly after his
engagement, fl ashing Tim Keller’s
The Meaning of Marriage, which
offers relationship advice according
to the teachings of God. Then there
is Lindsay Lohan , who knows
exactly how to keep the jacket
facing outwards. More recently, she
has been seen reading the Qur’an,
but in the olden days, she’d go for
something such as Toxic Friends. It
is the very essence of read into that
what you will.tes’
asver
trary
le
was
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n
one
ay is.
en
out
s
nd
,r’sding
ereshe
n,
or. It
hat
Angela Merkel
should be reading
something cheerier.
Philipp Guelland/
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