#Metoo & Cancel Culture: Roman looks at the dynamics of power between art and criticism

It took Alex Lyon a strong criticism of only 45 minutes to break the comedy show Haley Sinclair. When the next morning Sinclair reads criticism, it is clear to her: her career as a comedic star ended before she started. The second knowledge affects her even more: with a guy who made her so mercilessly in this text, she had just spent the night.

Haley avenging. She reveals her show into the “Experience of Alex Lyons”, talks about her experience and invites other women to share her stories. The show becomes a hit, the live broadcast becomes viral, and Alex, just the famous critic, becomes a symbol of male arrogance and moral disorientation.

This is a testing that British criticism and author of Charlotte Rani are developing at the beginning of his debut novel “Standing Ovations” to study topics such as power, morality and responsibility in the next act. Their language is precisely and pointed for this, the action of the novel works chronological, but is interrupted by thoughts and memories.

Runcie manages to shed light on both sides of the debate about the “abolition of culture” and “Metoo”, not giving simple answers. Her trick: she focuses on people standing behind art and criticism – with reliably developed figures with abyss and vanity, as well as humor.

There is no neutral storyteller

There is another trick: it switches, in the visible, neutral observer between the reader and the events described above. Because the story is told from the point of view of Sophia Rigden, colleagues of Alex. Which, although not integrated into the scandal around Alex, of course, is not at all neutral.

As a “younger writer of culture,” she works in a much less privileged situation than Alex. She is underpaid, receives little recognition, and – unlike Alex – is full of self -teaching: “Maybe I was bored. Maybe it was really more about agreeing with me than writing. ”

There are also private problems. Sophie, especially from maternity leave, fights the loss of his mother and the crisis of relations. All this allows them to observe the crash of Alex with a mixture of distance, compassion and uncertainty.

Alex, in turn, the son of a famous actress, remains in the shadow of his charismatic mother and was trapped in male self -esteem. Although he seems to understand Haley’s Epistle, he refuses to add small. His “excited disappointment,” says Sophie, shows that he still believes that he is not completely wrong.

Festival as the protagonist

Haley, an obvious winner, is also fighting. She struggles with the injury that Alex inflicted on her, and with the responsibility that her new status of the heroine brought. They pursue nightmares in which she has sex with Alex on an open stage. In addition, she remains in debt: her income of her blockbuster flows completely to the organizer.

Runcies Roman also has another main character: Edinburgh Festival Fringe, in which the action develops, greatly forms the dynamics of the novel.

Being the largest cultural festival in the world, he attracts thousands of artists every summer who hope for a big breakthrough. Its density of a person and presence form the opposite pole for the digital volatility of a shitty storm. Here, the main characters are found again and again, admit and encounter public opinion directly.

Runcy, himself as a critic on the edge for years, knows the charged atmosphere. As soon as she became the goal of a comedic number – an experience that inspired her to “standing applause”, how to make a newspaper Scottish said.

Who won now?

At the end of the “standing appliances” he remains open, who really wins – or whether the winner in this game and him can. Rancy shows that praise and betrayal understand only part of a person. Each criticism, every shit, every attack amazes a person who should live with consequences.

With this topic, some may feel a reminder of the decorative scandal of the dog in the opera of Hanover two years ago. At that time, the choreographer Marco Gok lubricated the criticism of Vibka Huster on his face during a break in performance. Free, wife and terribly stupid attempt to turn the dynamics of power between art and criticism.

Charlotte Ranchy Roman shows that it is also more smarter and more constructive.