Normal People II: Even Normaller People

I had a few more thoughts about ‘Normal People’, or rather at a tangent to it. This is more about ideas of taste, and love for the arts, in general.

I loved ‘Normal People’, both the book and TV series, a great deal, as I’ve already said. I found it very moving and all-consuming. There are a great many things I like and admire which do not come close to moving me in the same way.

E.g. When I made a list last year of the books I’d enjoyed reading the most in the last 12 months, ‘Normal People’ was second, behind ‘The Good Soldier’ by Ford Madox Ford. I wouldn’t say I was greatly moved by ‘The Good Soldier’, I wouldn’t say I was consumed by it, or that it stirred up many emotions about my own life … I just thought it was brilliant and a great joy to read.

We are all affected by works of art in different ways, and what’s more we are all affected by different works of art in different ways. This is obvious, but is often forgotten.

When things really corkscrew their way into our very beings, we are affected by the opposing view of them in a different, and always unexpected, way. We take it to heart.

I’ve sought out, and seen, lots of opinions on ‘Normal People’ this week, mainly positive and a few negative, and at times, wanted to (though haven’t) oppose the negative views, or to wonder out loud if they’d read a different book/watched a different show.

I have felt a bit silly about this, but then realised this ...

It’s quite rare for a work I love to be in the wider popular conscious, such that there are lots of opposing views to be seen. I wouldn’t view the sweet spot of my taste as being particularly esoteric and offbeat, but it’s possible most people would.

E.g. In my head I’m a bit of a standard cliché … What kind of guy is he? Oh you know, he likes The National, Iris Murdoch, Our Friends in the North, and Sideways. Aah, fucking hell, one of those … but the thing is, and I know this, I know it from my job running and writing quizzes above all, those are all subjects to the topics well to the left of general knowledge. I wouldn’t have a q about The National in a standard music round, the only Iris Murdoch q would be “Who is this author?” and a picture of her, you might have something related to Daniel Craig and OFITN, and Sideways, well maybe, but only for certain crowds … those are just examples, anyway. In most quizzes (Only Connect being different), "stuff I really really love" doesn't come up all that often.

The point is, I realise, loving something “popular”, genuinely popular, like ‘Normal People’ leaves me feeling peculiarly vulnerable … most people are not interested in most of the stuff I love (the last example I can think of was Bob Dylan in Hyde Park last summer where, cos of the setting, it generated a lot of mixed reviews, it ticked over into being something lots of people with bad opinions had opinions on, whereas usually most of us who still love old Bob in his dotage can just get on with it undisturbed) ... so I don't need to protect and defend them all that much. There are not rows of people queueing up to slag off the 'The World Won't End' by The Pernice Brothers.

It's not like I'm not also a fan of entirely popular stuff, like Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, The Beatles, but I'm not a fan of them in a poignantly personal way. I love them, but they don't make me feel like they're "my thing", like 'Normal People' does. I realise that some people do feel that way about extremely popular things.

And so, you know, I, generally oblivious to these things, belatedly realise there’s an extra degree of sensitivity called for when people really love something. I recall, with a certain shame, when someone was telling me years ago how much they loved Queen, and I set up my own little joke, “Oh yes, I used to listen to Queen loads when I was young … fucking embarrassing …” and I remember, even at the time, that I’d caused genuine hurt, because the other person really loved Queen, and why shouldn’t they, and I couldn’t really have been more of a dick, though … if they’d only quite liked Queen, rather than loved them, it would probably have been fine.

What does taste matter? As in the idea of good taste, of taste makers and critics and ideas of what is good … two opposing examples spring to mind whenever I consider that 

1. When there was a broad survey a few years ago of Britain’s best book, the winner was one of the Harry Potter books, and, of course, that was because, since it was a broad survey, most people, including lots of children who were asked, hadn’t read all that many books, so yeah, they liked Harry Potter the best, and actually, it really is better to ask that question to people who’ve read lots of books, as their answer will mean more, but then, again

2. The one song that, for many years, was in the UK’s Top 10 songs played at both weddings and funerals was ‘Angels’ by Robbie Williams, and, you know, to me, that song, in composition and realisation, is cheap, phoney, meretricious, ersatz trash, but, the thing is, those won’t have been cheap, phoney, meretricious, ersatz, trashy, weddings and funerals, will they, they’ll have been great affairs of real love and loss and heartbreak and beauty. If you’re on the sidelines for people’s real emotions rolling your eyes and going “oh god, how ghastly, why did they pick that?” you’re going about life wrong.

So, taking that back to ‘Normal People’ … because my connection to it is emotional, I take greater issues with criticisms I’d usually ignore. If people are saying “I don’t like the main characters”/”I can’t empathise” I take that more personally than usual. 

I’m usually fairly baffled by liking the characters as criteria for enjoying a book or film. Surely that only matters if they’re explicitly meant to be likable and thus badly-written or acted, I usually think … but, in this case, as warmth towards the main characters is part of my enjoyment of the work, my own usual position is turned on its head.

What is it, particularly, about ‘Normal People’ that has drawn an emotional response not just from me but from millions of others? My life wasn’t like that in most respects – I imagine that is true for most, but Rooney has, I think, used specifics to trigger universal memories. 

If I was to point at one thing as an example that really hit home, it was remembering the way “becoming yourself/feeling natural in your own skin” isn’t a linear thing – as we grow up, we can be shocked from social setting from social setting how we do/don’t feel comfortable in them. I think ‘Normal People’ gets that across brilliantly. A sense of belonging/not belonging and even when you find belonging of whatever sort, it’s not necessarily the answer to everything.

So, that was probably my biggest emotional hook - identifying in some sense with Connell and his not breezing through life like he/others might have expected him to ... whereas for others, there will be completely different hook, perhaps in Connell's story, perhaps in Marianne's, perhaps in the setting. It is daringly, thrillingly, about being young, and perhaps it has take someone who is still young themselves, like Rooney, but also so thoroughly accomplished, to do this magic trick