Her television work is animated by people concealing or suppressing their desires and traumas.❀ blog ❀ thestorygraph ❀ letterboxd ❀ tumblr ❀ ko-fi ❀ Although Coel wants greater transparency in creative industries, she states in the introduction of this book that when she was writing the lecture she was not aiming for transparency: “I am choosing language that lacks transparency, choosing to remain on this bench, in the dark, and inviting each listener to meet me here instead”.
And the length of a text is not the measure of its quality. Of course, no one should be obliged to disclose anything. She emphasises the importance of transparency in the creative industries, yet she doesn’t tell us that the Drama school she attended was Guildhall, or that the company that offered her $1 million dollars in exchange for copyright ownership over I May Destroy You was Netflix - facts which are not particularly sensitive. We see only glimpses of Coel’s schooling, career, and life. She briefly describes what it was like to grow up as a child of an immigrant Ghanaian mother who worked on weekends whilst studying during the week but she doesn’t stop and turn it over. Her life is sufficiently interesting to warrant one. If Coel used the lecture as a springboard for a fully-fleshed memoir, that would have been more promising. There are no new revelations, no deeper reflections. It is a lecture which, at times, has the frisson of a dramatic performance. In drafting her lecture, Coel, like moths, wants to likewise retain a degree of mystery.Īfter closing the book, I found myself thinking: what is the point of this book? You can find Coel’s original lecture on YouTube - and it is captivating, funny, and moving, expertly told in Coel’s richly wise voice. Before we get into the lecture, which forms the main body of the text, Coel offers us a short introduction in which she explains her fascination with moths: they constitute a symbol of death and desire in many cultures and they are mainly nocturnal creatures but often circle around light. It is a very slim book which can be read in one sitting. Misfits is based on the James MacTaggart lecture that Coel gave in 2018. Her first book, Misfits, is aptly titled. The overriding element in her work is the tension between the desire to fit in and the need to be true to yourself.
Not yet 35, she is the creator of two acclaimed television programmes - Chewing Gum and I May Destroy You - which explore religious fundamentalism, sexual awakening, emotional manipulation, shame, intoxication, and sexual assault. Ichaela Coel has established herself as the most distinguished British writer-actor of her generation.
0 kommentar(er)
