The beauty of the restless mind

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In the past few weeks, I have been with people who are losing – or have lost – their thoughts.In the autobiography of Sinid O’Connor Memories, The 54-year-old singer recalled a life marked by child abuse, abandonment and long-term nursing homes. Her most recent craziness-based on her own diagnosis, menopausal psychosis caused after her poorly prepared hysterectomy-put her in and out of the institution for six years. The blockbuster films of her life are always hazy to her; she wrote the book twice, each time in what she called a “lunatic asylum”.

However, this lady was sent into cultural exile for tearing up a picture of Pope John Paul II during the performance Saturday night live Still very sober. With devastating insight, she attacked the industry that regarded her as a “crazy woman” and revealed a woman who seemed indifferent to trickery in her madness.

Similarly, in his latest Netflix special, Boburnum: insideThis comedian, written, performed, directed and edited by him, discussed his anxiety after Lightning became famous, as well as his sense of suicide, which he mainly expressed in songs. Burnham, an internationally recognized comedy expert who played YouTube sketches in his bedroom as a teenager, recalls Tom Lehrer of the millennial generation.

Sinéad O’Connor tore off the pope’s picture in “Saturday Night Live” in 1992 © Getty Images

inside It is an inner Odyssey. He combines the experiences of mental illness, culture wars and pandemics with dark humor and strange universal themes: my favorite is a sketch in which he is troubled by his decision in junior high school. Aladdin attends a birthday party and whether he will be exposed due to cultural appropriation by social media mobs.

Finally, in father, Florian ZellerAs a director’s debut, the French writer adapted Anthony Hopkins (Anthony Hopkins) from his own drama about Alzheimer’s disease into an Oscar, filling the screen with a Polanski-style ominous premonition, creating An atmosphere that makes the audience feel abnormal and confused like the protagonist.

Although some of these projects were conceived and even executed before Covid, they constitute a series of creations that will definitely be judged in the “Pandemic Art” category.

Anthony Hopkins’ Oscar-winning role in “Father” © Alamy

Watch father, Whose stage play was first produced in 2012, I found Zeller’s description of traps very familiar—he perfectly captured the horror of unconscious repetition and living in a rapidly shrinking world. Sinéad O’Connor wrote with amazing clarity about the agoraphobia that she now feels spent in solitude for a long time, and that despite her best efforts to socialize, she would rather stay at home. Bo Burnham ended his special show, which dramatized his withdrawal from the claustrophobic space, where he worked for a year, worked on his materials for a year, but when he When trying to leave the door, he was found cowering in the spotlight.

The irony is that these studies on mental illness, pain, and brain dysfunction should resonate more strongly than the jingle that now accompanies us to return to normal life. I shuddered when I read New York Magazine’s exhortation about “FOMO Return”. This is a recent cover story about the return of social anxiety before the pandemic that you might “miss”.

“FOMO may have been in hibernation for a while,” wrote Matthew Schnell, “but we may now be heading towards a new golden age as we try to do more to make up for our lost year. .. The city is based on FOMO, which is an appreciation of opportunity and possibility; “Are you invited, are you on the list, can you get a table? “The doctrinal question and answer; the execution of the plan.” Uh. Although Sinéad O’Connor made me feel very ecstatic, the expected buzz on the correct list made me suddenly frustrated.

In the United States, or perhaps especially in New York’s mentality, this epidemic is now almost regarded as old news. “Covid is behind us now…” I have read a lot of e-mails from my American colleagues in recent weeks. Presumably, the United States has forgotten about the virus. For a stronger physique, we can now look forward to a different #hotgirlsummer.If the new underground advertising hoarding is credible, we will now start a roaring summer in a scene reminiscent of Lin Manuel Miranda’s new film musical. In the highlands.

Now, I am much more comfortable with the company of abandoned people. O’Connor allowed himself to describe his “madman” and had more interesting things to say. Long pauses in production allow for powerful introspection. I hope this will be the moment when some great new works are born.

Alfred Hitchcock is the subject of Edward White’s new biography © Alamy

After all, Alfred Hitchcock’s genius as an “anxious and unexpected visual poet” can be, which is hinted in Edward White’s new biography The Twelve Life of Alfred Hitchcock, Thanks to his excessive fear during his teenage years in the First World War. Paranoia and fear of almost everything provided him with the fuel to make about 50 movies.As the pandemic meme reminds us, Shakespeare created King Lear In the plague year, it may be during quarantine.

Is Bo Burnham destined to be our Covid Bard?Maybe not, but inside It is a wonderful study of the chaotic thinking of social media. Similarly, with her portrayal of “crazy”, O’Connor became the most unlikely prophet this year.

Email Joe at jo.ellison@ft.com

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