Bonus: Normal People author Sally Rooney
Life and Art from FT Weekend
Forhecz Topher
4.6 • 601 Ratings
🗓️ 6 May 2020
⏱️ 31 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This week, we've dusted off a little gem from our archives. Gris spoke to the writer Sally Rooney in 2018, just before her bestselling novel Normal People was published in the UK. It went on to win tremendous acclaim, prizes and the hearts of many readers. Fast-forward eighteen months, and Rooney's tale of passionate young love has been turned into a gripping 12-part TV series on the BBC and Hulu. It's all we can talk about: Marianne, Connell — and Connell's neck chain. But what were the origins of the novel? And what does it have to say about sex, class and power?
We love hearing from you. Have you watched Normal People? How do you think it compares to the book? Email us at [email protected] or tweet us at @FTCultureCall. Also, we're still collecting your cultural recommendations: what are you watching, reading and doing at home? Fill out our short form at ft.com/culturecallout, or record a short voice note on your phone and email it to us. You can also find us on Instagram at @griseldamurraybrown and @lilahrap.
Recommended links:
–Sign up for the FT's Coronavirus Business Update newsletter and get free access to our journalism for 30 days: www.ft.com/culturecallcovid
–Our colleague Horatia Harrod interviews film-maker Lenny Abrahamson about adapting Normal People (paywall): https://www.ft.com/content/c590914c-8870-11ea-a01c-a28a3e3fbd33
–You know it's a phenomenon when a BuzzFeed writer digs deep into Spotify to unearth Sally Rooney's playlists for Connell and Marianne: https://www.buzzfeed.com/tatianatenreyrowhitlock/normal-people-playlists
–The FT's book review of Normal People (2018): https://www.ft.com/content/00461b64-b504-11e8-a1d8-15c2dd1280ff
–Neck chain hottake 1: 'Why Are Those Little Neck Chains So Sexy?': https://www.vice.com/en_uk/article/bvgwp8/normal-people-connell-silver-chain
–Neck chain hottake 2: 'Is This the Sexiest Thing About Normal People?': https://www.thecut.com/2020/04/why-is-normal-people-connells-chain-so-hot.html
–'Normal people takes sex seriously': https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/17/arts/television/normal-people-hulu.html
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hi, Gris. |
| 0:14.1 | Hey, Lila. |
| 0:15.1 | How are you doing? |
| 0:16.2 | I'm actually, I just came back from vacation and I am still recovering from speed reading normal people |
| 0:22.8 | and then watching all 12 episodes on Hulu. |
| 0:26.4 | So when you say came back from vacation, you mean watching TV. |
| 0:30.5 | I mean, where could I go? |
| 0:31.6 | I literally just rolled into my living room and spent a lot of time with Connell and Marianne. |
| 0:35.9 | And Connell's neck chain, actually, |
| 0:37.9 | which has really become a phenomenon. It has. Connell's neck chain, so the protagonist, one of the |
| 0:43.6 | protagonists of normal people, it has its own Instagram account, Connell's chain, if people |
| 0:48.8 | are interested. And there are also two think pieces that you can read about it as I did |
| 0:52.8 | on the cut and on vice. |
| 0:55.5 | Yeah. |
| 0:56.0 | When I finished normal people, I felt like it left a big hole in my life. |
| 1:00.1 | So I've just been sort of trawling the internet for any content I can get my hands on. |
| 1:04.6 | And it is often about Connell's necklace. |
| 1:07.8 | Yeah, seriously, never have we been so collectively attracted to a man and his necklace. |
| 1:12.7 | So, Lila, why are we really here? And we're really, I mean, we're really here because we're |
| 1:17.7 | obviously not the only ones who have been thinking and talking about normal people nonstop since |
| 1:22.0 | the TV adaptation came out last week. It's been a complete phenomenon and we remembered that we have a very relevant gem to |
| 1:28.9 | contribute to the greater cultural conversation, which is your interview with the author of the novel |
... |
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