SPINE by Clara Brennan - Soho Theatre

Review:

It was good.  The story was fantastic.  I thought her "Laaandaaan" accent sounded forced, which was a bit distracting, but Rosie Wyatt has a great energy on stage.  The set design is lovely, and the piece has really sweet things to say about having a backbone as a woman, and relating that to the spine of a book.  Most poignantly, a spine freely available in the dying world of libraries.

My response:

The books that have enriched my outlook on the world:

Roald Dahl, Matilda 

Taught me that a thirst for knowledge is cool.

DH Lawrence, Women in Love 

Taught me what love should look like. (FYI my favourite book ever)

T.S Eliot, Collected Poems 1909-1962 

Taught me that sometimes things deserve a second chance/reading i.e: The Waste Land

Henry James, The Turn of the Screw 

Taught me to trust carefully, and that it's okay to be unsure.

André Breton, Nadja 

Taught me that sometimes it’s okay that beautiful things happen in a moment, and then they’re gone.

Katherine Mansfield, Bliss 

For quite an academic reason. But generally, that women can pack a powerful punch against any insinuation that they might be ‘lacking’ in anything, anatomical or otherwise.

Jacqueline Wilson, all. 

Taught me about other people, and to be interested in other people.

Sylvia Plath, The Bell Jar 

Taught me to look after myself.

Francois Sagan, Bonjour Tristesse 

Taught me to savour my youth, recognise loneliness, and to respect the virtues of honesty.

J.K Rowling, Harry Potter 

Provocation: what this series can’t teach you, nothing else will.

Most of these books are from my university library or reading list. I had the incomparable privilege of receiving that education (before the £9,000 a year tuition fees, at that) and of being able to sit in the library for 24 hours a day. But, for those who will not go to university, libraries are still standing. And for as long as they stand, the young can learn the lessons that Channel 4, YouTube and Facebook just aren’t suitable for. Because what these books also teach is patience, and to be gentle with the world.

Also: there is nothing I have learnt from a female writer that I couldn’t have learnt from a male one. I will continue forevermore to take wisdom from each and charge straight back out into the world with it.

That is all.