Good morning! Welcome to Five Great Reads, your Saturday roundup of great writing and insightful analysis this week on the Guardian.
Today we have Marina Hyde’s take on Irish actor Saoirse Ronan’s viral chatshow moment, as well as what happens when people with acute psychosis “meet” the voices in their heads.
(And if you’re heading out for Halloween this weekend, this origin story may change your mind about dressing up as a witch.)
1. ‘A stone-cold truth’
The major reason the clip of Saoirse Ronan on The Graham Norton Show affected so many women around the world: because “most women have found ourselves in that conversation”. Marina Hyde’s column sums up the exchange brilliantly.
What exactly happened on the TV couch? Three “good guys of showbiz” – Denzel Washington, Paul Mescal and Eddie Redmayne – found “self-defence a hoot”. Meanwhile Ronan, the only woman on the couch, was “honked over” – before she cut through with what Hyde describes as a line for the ages: “That’s what girls have to think about all the time.”
Best Silence Oscar: The silence after Ronan’s delivery deserved an Oscar, Hyde says – as did Ronan’s perfectly timed “amirite ladies?”, which was met with roaring applause.
How long will it take to read: three minutes.
2. ‘It’s a terrible thing for a child to have to think: what’s wrong with me?’
Simon Hattenstone’s interview with Hollywood action hero Luke Evans is a terrifying, “verging on implausible”, look-back on his turbulent life from a Jehovah’s Witness childhood to the West End, The Hobbit and Fast and Furious. The Welsh actor talks religion, rebelling and why he had to come out twice.
It’s a life, Hattenstone writes, that “would make a fabulous movie”.
Honourable mention: Ian McKellen, Evans wrote in his memoir, was one of the first to recognise the glass ceiling he’d broken through as an openly gay action star. “He was very aware of the ground I was treading,” Evans tells Hattenstone. “I just hoped it would have moved further than it has.”
How long will it take to read: ten and a half minutes.
Further reading: You can read an extract from that memoir here.
3. The Rumble in the Jungle
This week marked the 50th anniversary of Muhammad Ali’s boxing win over George Foreman in Zaire, also known as The Rumble in the Jungle. “No athletic contest in history has inspired as much global joy”, Thomas Hauser recollects, thirty-five years after rewatching the fight on tape while sitting beside the winner.
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“I didn’t really plan what happened that night … But when a fighter gets in the ring, he has to adjust to the conditions he faces.” – Muhammad Ali
The other side: When writing Ali’s biography, Hauser spoke to Foreman, who shared fond memories of their bond – which centred on religion, but went far beyond it.
“When I heard [Ali’s] voice, it would always bring me happiness,” Foreman told him. “It seemed with us there was something greater than religion – a longing to love and belonging to each other, a thankfulness we had each other.”
How long will it take to read: five minutes.
4. What happens when people with acute psychosis meet the voices in their heads?
In avatar therapy, a clinician gives voice to their patients’ inner demons. For some of the participants in a new trial, the results have been astounding. For one participant in particular, who had been hearing voices since she was 10, the voices have disappeared entirely. “For the first time in 40 years, she was alone with her own thoughts. Quiet,” writes Jenny Kleeman.
The diagnosis: People with schizophrenia or severe depression can experience psychosis, “when reality is disrupted by delusions or hallucinations”. But people without mental health conditions can also experience psychosis, triggered by drugs, or social and biological factors.
The symptoms: Kleeman notes that hearing voices is the most common form of psychosis, affecting as many as 70% of people with schizophrenia: “The voices heard tend to be persecutory and distressing.”
The AI therapy: In the trial, participants created a digital embodiment of the “persecutor inside their heads”, which a therapist could guide them through a dialogue with. In the process, the hope was, they might “gain control over it”.
How long will it take to read: fifteen minutes.
In the UK and Ireland, Samaritans can be contacted on freephone 116 123, or email jo@samaritans.org or jo@samaritans.ie. In the US, you can call or text the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline on 988, chat on 988lifeline.org, or text HOME to 741741 to connect with a crisis counsellor. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is 13 11 14. Other international helplines can be found at befrienders.org
5. An Australian family saga
The Blaines were a working-class Queensland family – they represented everything Michael Shelley hated about Australia. The only problem was, as Walter Marsh explains, Shelley’s children were Blaines.
Marsh has spoken to author and journalist Lech Blaine about the stories behind Blaine’slatest book, Australian Gospel: A Family Saga. It’s a tale about growing up in a household that is bound to another – trying its very best to tear that family apart.
A happy outcome: Blaine’s newfound connection with his three siblings, who he called every few nights while writing the book. “That went on for years,” he tells Marsh. “I think it just created a real intimacy.”
How long will it take to read: three and a half minutes. You can also read Catriona Menzies-Pike’s (very warm) review.
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