Sally Rooney’s new book reminds us that the true joy of culture is the collective conversation

The real pleasure in art is in digesting it and sharing the experience, writes Harriet Hall

The real pleasure of culture is finding what appealed to or grated us, unpicking the power of art and its ability to reflect our state of mind (Getty)

Our approach to contemporary popular culture often feels a bit like participating in a sort of egg and spoon race. Desperately trying to stay ahead of the zeitgeist in an attempt to keep across it all: the egg, the spoon, our footwork. Sometimes it would be nice to have a little sit down and simply enjoy it.

With Netflix, Amazon Prime, Now TV and other streaming services dropping entire series of TV shows overnight, endless podcasts launched on a near-daily basis and think pieces on every subject under the sun, keeping up with conversations on the latest talking point is regularly a struggle.

So, it’s a real joy when something comes along in the more traditional sense – a series that plays out in weekly televised episodes, such as BBC’s gripping submariner drama Vigil, or the launch of a book we know that most of our friends will have pre-ordered. Now we can all read and watch along at the same time.

I speak, largely, of the imminent release of Irish author Sally Rooney’s third novel, Beautiful World, Where Are You. Rooney’s ability to put into words the unspoken communication between people in love and capture the nuance of relationships and unrequited feelings has been compared to Jane Austen’s sharp, witty observations. The TV adaptation of Rooney’s debut novel Normal People was devoured in lockdown one and now joins the TV canon alongside Pride and Prejudice as one of the greats. Connell’s chain was to 2020 what Darcy’s wet shirt was to 1995.

The last novels and their adaptations that captured the popular consciousness in this way were, as many people across Twitter have noted, JK Rowling’s Harry Potter books. The race to read them before anyone could spoiler them (though I do recall a particular spoilsport dropping a “Dumbledore dies” poster from a bridge on the A442) is as exciting as it is anxiety-inducing. But more than that, it’s a reminder of the real pleasure of culture – not trying to read it all and be ahead of the game or binge or aimlessly follow, but that the joy of it is also in sharing it, discussing the elements that appealed to or grated us, to unpick the power of art and its ability to reflect our state of mind, to be part of a collective conversation.

After 18 months in which we were forced to slow down, the return of normal life excites and daunts us in equal measure. How will we keep up? Must we go right back to our old social calendar whiplash? Some of our most popular lifestyle articles in recent months have been ones in which we share advice on how to cope with the “new normal”. Most of us do enjoy the resumption of real life, but we want to take it at our own pace.

Yours,

Harriet Hall

Lifestyle editor