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4.51 AVERAGE
4.51 AVERAGE
Fantastic, tender, devastating and illuminating. Gonna go watch Nanette again, for the nth time.
Excerpts from the book:
"If I were pushed to categorise Nanette, I would call her "stand-up catharsis," an experiment in the transmutation of trauma. You see, I was not simply telling my audience about my traumas; my goal was to simulate a feeling in the room that was akin to trauma, because I wanted to see if I could create an experience of communal empathy in a room full of strangers. Not just for me, but for all the people who have ever gone to comedy shows and been triggered by all the rape celebrations, violence, misogyny, homophobia and transphobia that gets spewed into microphones the whole world over.
.
I needed my audience to trust me because I needed my audience to feel safe, and I needed my audience to feel safe so that I could take that safety away and not give it back. Why? Because that is the shape of trauma.
.
For all the brutally direct specificity that I employed to get many of my points across, I also deployed quite a lot of purposefully non-sensical phrasing. I did this to make sure I provided enough space for a broad audience to potentially connect to my considerably idio-syncratic life.
"To be rendered powerless does not destroy your humanity. Your resilience is your humanity."
This does not make any sense whatsoever. Surely resilience is more a tool for survival than an accurate indicator of this so-called humanity. But I figured it might be helpful to reframe resilience as an active power-pose instead of a passive state of just getting by, because I knew better than most that "coping" takes a fuck-tonne more effort and energy than "thriving" ever will. But even as I wanted to champion it, I must admit that I don't really know what resilience is, exactly. I am sure it is a complicated mix of a lot of things. But again.
Not the point. The point was to almost say something profound, and in the space between the words said and the meaning I didn't make, other people might be able to turn it into something that they were searching for. It is a little trick I learnt from Tony Robbins, except I left out his messiah complex and victim-blaming rhetoric and replaced it with the faith that people are capable of finding their own meanings. There are quite a few of these non-wisdoms scattered throughout Nanette; most of them obviously did their job, as I see that many a meme has been created in their honour. Nanette is basically Eat Pray Love for autistic queer folk.
To be clear, people are not wrong to find meaning in a meaningless phrase. When it comes to trauma, no two experiences are the same, so who am I to say it is impossible to find any meaning in places I can't? If you are someone who found meaning in those two sentences, then I want you to know that you did the real work."
Excerpts from the book:
"If I were pushed to categorise Nanette, I would call her "stand-up catharsis," an experiment in the transmutation of trauma. You see, I was not simply telling my audience about my traumas; my goal was to simulate a feeling in the room that was akin to trauma, because I wanted to see if I could create an experience of communal empathy in a room full of strangers. Not just for me, but for all the people who have ever gone to comedy shows and been triggered by all the rape celebrations, violence, misogyny, homophobia and transphobia that gets spewed into microphones the whole world over.
.
I needed my audience to trust me because I needed my audience to feel safe, and I needed my audience to feel safe so that I could take that safety away and not give it back. Why? Because that is the shape of trauma.
.
For all the brutally direct specificity that I employed to get many of my points across, I also deployed quite a lot of purposefully non-sensical phrasing. I did this to make sure I provided enough space for a broad audience to potentially connect to my considerably idio-syncratic life.
"To be rendered powerless does not destroy your humanity. Your resilience is your humanity."
This does not make any sense whatsoever. Surely resilience is more a tool for survival than an accurate indicator of this so-called humanity. But I figured it might be helpful to reframe resilience as an active power-pose instead of a passive state of just getting by, because I knew better than most that "coping" takes a fuck-tonne more effort and energy than "thriving" ever will. But even as I wanted to champion it, I must admit that I don't really know what resilience is, exactly. I am sure it is a complicated mix of a lot of things. But again.
Not the point. The point was to almost say something profound, and in the space between the words said and the meaning I didn't make, other people might be able to turn it into something that they were searching for. It is a little trick I learnt from Tony Robbins, except I left out his messiah complex and victim-blaming rhetoric and replaced it with the faith that people are capable of finding their own meanings. There are quite a few of these non-wisdoms scattered throughout Nanette; most of them obviously did their job, as I see that many a meme has been created in their honour. Nanette is basically Eat Pray Love for autistic queer folk.
To be clear, people are not wrong to find meaning in a meaningless phrase. When it comes to trauma, no two experiences are the same, so who am I to say it is impossible to find any meaning in places I can't? If you are someone who found meaning in those two sentences, then I want you to know that you did the real work."
I rarely listen to audiobooks but knew I had to get this one in that format. Raw, honest and vulnerable - just like Hannah’s stand up specials. Loved it.
What a gift it is to be a contemporary of the art of Hannah Gadsby. A long read that I savored with each word.
This had a slow start but I really enjoyed the second half. Mostly, I think this book could have benefited from more editing. The author intentionally did not narrate the story of her life in a linear fashion to anonymize certain events, but I found this a bit hard to follow and contextualize in the early chapters.
Gadsby dives deep into her upbringing which plays a large part in how Nanette was formed.
When I think about watching Hannah Gadsby’s NetFlix special a few years ago, I remembered it as being funny and original. I didn’t remember the heartbreaking aspects she included. Her memoir, Ten Steps to Nanette, has laugh-out-loud funny bits, but it describes many painful memories she survived as well in greater detail than her special. (I caught them the second time I watched after reading this book.)
Hanna is a lesbian from the small, very isolated state of Tasmania (part of Australia) where it was illegal to be gay until 1997. (!) She also wasn’t diagnosed with autism or ADHD until late in life, and then social media let her know she couldn’t possibly be autistic or have ADHD because she’s female. (?) “It’s rare for girls and other not-boys to receive a timely diagnosis. Probably because we were overlooked in the stereotyping process and because girls with ADHD often present as inattentive as opposed to hyperactive. We are the daydreamers. Not the distractors.”
Because of the anti-gay rhetoric (similar stuff I remember living through in this country, things like the sentiment that “gay” is a synonym of “pedophile” and HIV “only” impacts gays and IV drug users, i.e., people who don’t matter,) she was homophobic herself even as she was beginning to recognize her attraction to women. She repressed her sexuality “without too much effort.”
This is definitely worth a read of what it took for her to become “an overnight success” that was many years in the making. Even if you never watched the special, this is a memoir that's worth the read for how many important topics it touches upon.
Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this memoir.
Hanna is a lesbian from the small, very isolated state of Tasmania (part of Australia) where it was illegal to be gay until 1997. (!) She also wasn’t diagnosed with autism or ADHD until late in life, and then social media let her know she couldn’t possibly be autistic or have ADHD because she’s female. (?) “It’s rare for girls and other not-boys to receive a timely diagnosis. Probably because we were overlooked in the stereotyping process and because girls with ADHD often present as inattentive as opposed to hyperactive. We are the daydreamers. Not the distractors.”
Because of the anti-gay rhetoric (similar stuff I remember living through in this country, things like the sentiment that “gay” is a synonym of “pedophile” and HIV “only” impacts gays and IV drug users, i.e., people who don’t matter,) she was homophobic herself even as she was beginning to recognize her attraction to women. She repressed her sexuality “without too much effort.”
This is definitely worth a read of what it took for her to become “an overnight success” that was many years in the making. Even if you never watched the special, this is a memoir that's worth the read for how many important topics it touches upon.
Thanks to NetGalley for the opportunity to review this memoir.
Absolutely marvelous biography - but a damn hard read because frankly, Hannah has had a goddamn difficult life. This should be obvious from anyone who actually watched Nanette, but the topics discussed in this book are often deeply triggering and painful.
As an artist of a completely different medium, reading about how Hannah both thinks about art history and comedy was 100% my favorite parts. She has a very particular brain, so we definitely don't think of art in the same ways, but thats exactly why I found it so very interesting.
As an artist of a completely different medium, reading about how Hannah both thinks about art history and comedy was 100% my favorite parts. She has a very particular brain, so we definitely don't think of art in the same ways, but thats exactly why I found it so very interesting.
5 stars. So interesting, funny and honest. Can’t wait to watch Nanette
this was really good. no complaints, i just only give 5 stars to books i would re-read and this was probably a one-timer for me. though i do want to go re-watch Hannah Gadsby's specials now.
4.5 stars. I adore Hannah Gadsby and fell in love with both of her stand up specials-Nanette and Douglas. I also thoroughly enjoyed the audio version of this memoir and it gave an eye opening look into her life and how her trauma shaped who she is. My only complaint is that some parts felt a little repetitive and vague.