Thread by @frodofied

I want you to stop your life for a few moments and just 'listen.'

Something happened to me yesterday that needs to happen to everyone in this whole damn country, not that everyone would understand it, or accept it, but for those who can and do it might act as a catalyst.

1/

Art is a thing that we don't think or talk about much in times like these. But it's times like these when art is most needed.

We can debate the definition of art all day, but most know it when they see it.

Like @Hannahgadsby I studied Art History.

And her #Nanette is art.

2/

#Nanette is billed as a stand-up comedy special on @netflix, but it's so much more than that. It is funny, in fact, it's hilarious. @Hannahgadsby is a woman at the height of her performative power. But the journey #Nanette takes you on is as devastating as it beautiful.

3/

This is not going to be easy for many to watch, particularly if you are a straight white male. But great art is never easy, and the truth is often the thing that makes us most uncomfortable.

And there are moments here so utterly full of truth they will take your breath away.

4/

#Nanette is the most brutal & necessary critique / condemnation of the Western cultural norms that have led us to a world filled with Trump & too many others like him.

That might sound like an overreach, but I've watched it 4 times now.

I don't exaggerate.

@Hannahgadsby

5/

I'm trying to beg you to watch this in a thread in which I do not want to give too much away, because the conscious journey that @Hannahgadsby takes you on is intrinsic to it's brilliance.

Ultimately it is a bunch of stories about life and society that become her story.

6/

"I built a career," Gadsby says at one point, "out of self-deprecating humor. And I don't want to do that anymore, because do you understand what self-deprecation means when it comes from somebody who exists in the margins? It's not humility, it's humiliation."

7/

It's a powerful moment, but it's only the beginning. This is a hell of a journey & @HannahGadsby takes us places were not accustomed to go. Her dissection of the straight white male is brutal, heroic, and spot-on.

I love this woman and her show. I love that #Nanette exists.

8/

But what I love most about it is it's fucking rage. Near the end of the show @Hannahgadsby questions her right to bring her anger into her show, into a crowd, and ultimately into comedy and seems to conclude that the answer is no.

It's the one thing she gets wrong.

9/

The gift of this show is it's rage, it's @Hannahgadsby anger. It's righteous anger. And in a world filled with people seemingly unable to figure out how to deal with our times then I say this is it.

We need everyone to be this angry.

10/

By the time the gut punch of @Hannahgadsby's story comes full circle I was a wreck, but the good kind, if there is one.

Healing is a process that can't begin until you have a conversation about what's broken and I often counsel here the need to say things out loud.

11/

And she does that here.

She says things out loud that fucking need to be said.

#Nanette is transformative, courageous, forceful, and yes, it's goddamned funny.

It's something you might not even know you needed it at a time you didn't know you needed it.

12/

If you do nothing else today please take an hour and nine minutes and thirty eight seconds out of your life and give yourself this gift.

It's a miracle.

Thank you @Hannahgadsby. I hope you reconsider your conclusion. We need more of you not less.

#Nanette
#Masterclass