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Sitdown Sunday: 'The dark room which should have been a haven began to feel like a prison'

Settle back in a comfy chair and sit back with some of the week’s best longreads.

IT’S A DAY of rest, and you may be in the mood for a quiet corner and a comfy chair. We’ve hand-picked the week’s best reads for you to savour.  

1. Cat Person 

Alexis Nowicki reads a viral New Yorker short story, and starts to wonder: ‘Is this about me?’.

(Slate, approx 18 mins reading time)

Roupenian’s story was the first work of short fiction to ever go viral; as the Guardian put it, “Cat Person” “sent the internet into meltdown.” Now it’s being made into a movie starring Nicholas Braun, who plays Cousin Greg on Succession. But for me, the experience of reading it was particularly uncanny. I remember that, as I scrolled, I had to sit down on the train instead of leaning against the door as usual because I needed the added stability.

2. Long covid

Lucy Adams (44) writes about her battle with long Covid.

(BBC, approx 16 mins reading time)

I regularly lay in a dark room by myself because I couldn’t cope with the noise of family life and the sense that light – any light – was too bright. The dark room which should have been a haven began to feel like a prison, a place I couldn’t escape. The bed which should have felt warm and comfortable felt like a ship lurching in a rough sea.

3. Reunited

A dad searches for his missing son for 24 years. 

(New York Times, approx 5 mins reading time)

The apparent happy ending captivated China, where Mr. Guo has become something of a folk hero. His cross-country odyssey, during which he said he was thrown from his bike at least once and slept outdoors when he could not afford a hotel, inspired the 2015 film “Lost and Love,” starring the renowned Hong Kong actor Andy Lau.

4. The Beatles

A look behind the scenes of Peter Jackson’s new movie about the Beatles, Get Back.

(Vanity Fair, approx 17 mins reading time)

It’s the Beatles as none would ever see or hear them again—their last live performance as a group, January 30, 1969. It’s also the Beatles as none of us, 52 years on, has ever seen them. The approximately 43-minute sequence from director Peter Jackson’s forthcoming documentary, The Beatles: Get Back—screened exclusively for Vanity Fair—shows the full, uninterrupted concert on the roof of 3 Savile Row, the band’s headquarters, including iconic performances that would appear on their last album, Let It Be. The original footage, taken from at least nine different cameras, has been scrubbed to astonishing clarity, detail, and color, a rapturous window in time.

5. Jason Sudeikis’s hell of a year

The actor and former SNL comic on the surprise success of his show Ted Lasso.

(GQ, approx 23 mins reading time)

He became so adept at playing those types of characters, Sudeikis said, that at some point he realized he’d have to make an effort to do something different. “It’s up to me to not just play an a-hole in every movie,” he said. In conversation he is digressive, occasionally melancholy, prone to long anecdotes and sometimes even actual parables—closer, in other words, to Ted Lasso, the gentle, philosophical football coach he co-created, than any of the preening jerks he used to be known for. But he can definitely kick a soccer ball pretty good.

6. Sparks

An interview with the incomparable musicians Sparks (brothers Russell and Ron Mael), who feature in a new documentary by Edgar Wright.

(The Guardian, approx 10 mins reading time)

The performance turned the Los Angeles duo into a sensation in the UK. Hundreds of thousands of singles were sold – just missing out on No 1 – and soon mobs of screaming fans invaded stages at concerts, ripping the clothes from their scrawny bodies. In a more just world, the song that catapulted them there would possess the same ubiquity, and be sung with the same roaring drunken gusto in pubs and karaoke bars across the world as Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody (which followed a year later), but stratospheric stardom, Live Aid and an Oscar-winning biopic were not in Sparks’ trajectory. 

…AND A CLASSIC FROM THE ARCHIVES…

An article from 2017 about the tech insiders who are worried about the power of smartphone addiction.

(The Guardian, approx 20 mins reading time)

In 2007, Rosenstein was one of a small group of Facebook employees who decided to create a path of least resistance – a single click – to “send little bits of positivity” across the platform. Facebook’s “like” feature was, Rosenstein says, “wildly” successful: engagement soared as people enjoyed the short-term boost they got from giving or receiving social affirmation, while Facebook harvested valuable data about the preferences of users that could be sold to advertisers. The idea was soon copied by Twitter, with its heart-shaped “likes” (previously star-shaped “favourites”), Instagram, and countless other apps and websites.

More: The best reads from every previous Sitdown Sunday

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    Mute william looby
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    Dec 21st 2015, 2:31 PM

    Please stop searching twitter posts and pretending that it is news. Be a journalist, not a hack.

    187
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    Mute Batdroid
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    Dec 21st 2015, 3:02 PM

    Twitter the one big fartbox echo chamber

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    Mute Gary
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    Dec 21st 2015, 4:43 PM

    “Fartbox echo chamber” lol. Very good. You definitely nailed it.

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    Mute Crom Cruach
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    Dec 21st 2015, 8:18 PM

    You do realise that you’re logged in via Twitter, yes?

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    Mute Batdroid
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    Dec 22nd 2015, 12:08 AM

    Yes I know. I only use it for here. I don’t enter the dreaded fartbox

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    Mute family guy
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    Dec 21st 2015, 1:32 PM

    What does it matter what skin colour she has. As long as she can act.

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    Mute Grigori Rasputin
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    Dec 21st 2015, 1:35 PM

    Or can actually do magic.

    127
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    Mute Fozz
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    Dec 21st 2015, 1:37 PM

    and cast spells…

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    Mute TheBull
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    Dec 21st 2015, 1:40 PM

    The vast majority of the people complaing went even see it. They just like complaing.

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    Mute Rob Cahill
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    Dec 21st 2015, 1:42 PM

    colour doesn’t matter…but they could of went with 3 younger actors no??!

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    Mute luke frankus
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    Dec 21st 2015, 1:57 PM

    @Rob. No, actually!. It’s supposed to be about their life when their older. Harry has a wife and school aged children!. But only the people who actually read the article would know that…

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    Mute Joe MacCarthaigh
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    Dec 21st 2015, 2:07 PM

    The character of Hermoine is white, always has been always will. This is just pandering to the pc crowd.

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    Mute Joe MacCarthaigh
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    Dec 21st 2015, 2:08 PM

    If it’s about their life when their older how will they explain Hermoine changing skin tone? Rachel Dolezal stuff.

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    Mute luke frankus
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    Dec 21st 2015, 2:10 PM

    You obviously didn’t read the article either, Joe.

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    Mute Joe Phillips
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    Dec 21st 2015, 2:13 PM

    Joe, you should have a word with JK. She thinks that whoever invented the character never actually specified skin tone but she obviously hasn’t seen your notes, which I presume she must have received before inventing the character.

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    Mute Joe MacCarthaigh
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    Dec 21st 2015, 2:20 PM

    I’ve seen all the films, Hermoine is white as snow.

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    Mute Debi Nikita
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    Dec 21st 2015, 2:28 PM

    She’s magic, Joe. She can change into anything she wants. That’s the beauty of being magical.

    28
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    Mute family guy
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    Dec 21st 2015, 2:30 PM

    It’s only a book and film will people chill out. There are alot more serious things going on.

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    Mute Imperator Isachukwu
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    Dec 21st 2015, 2:31 PM

    Exactly the view most folk would have family guy. Unfortunately Social Justice types are jumping on the race bandwagon with glee.

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    Mute Nicholas J Campbell
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    Dec 21st 2015, 4:04 PM

    She’s not a real person. She could be played by any race or any person. Didn’t see you giving it socks when daredevils kingpin was black in the movie in the mid 00′s or the fact that nick fury is now Samuel L. Get over it. Fictional characters people. They are created to be reinvented forever. It’s a pat on the back of a novelist to see diverse versions of their characters come to life. Narrow minded moaning weirdos who have a problem with that. It’s not even a PC patrol thing, it’s a freedom of creation and appropriation thing.

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    Mute Meehawwl O'Buachailla
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    Dec 21st 2015, 4:06 PM

    Okay joe, it’s a spolier alert but here ya’ go. Harry in adulthood has cast a spell on Hermione changing her skin colour to black. There, is that easier for you?

    12
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    Mute Amanda Horan
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    Dec 21st 2015, 6:11 PM

    Yes Joe and the play is based on the books, not the film.

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    Mute willr
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    Dec 21st 2015, 3:31 PM

    The guy playing Ron Weasley got Brown hair… Where are the Ginger defenders?

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    Mute Tricia Golden
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    Dec 21st 2015, 4:16 PM

    Guy playing Ron (Paul Thornley) looks like he has more grey hair to me (and I am a ginger….. a ginger who is going fecking grey!)

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    Mute Drew TheChinaman :)
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    Dec 21st 2015, 1:46 PM

    I think it’s good casting…

    But is someone not allowed be of the other opinion without needing ‘putting in their place’ by politically correct social justice touting hipsters on Twitter?

    God I really hate Twitter, and the publishing of tweets on articles/media. It just breeds more of these people who think their tweets and opinions really influence anyone….

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    Mute Imperator Isachukwu
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    Dec 21st 2015, 2:28 PM

    Amen. The Social Justice crowd take the most innocuous things and ruin them. Far more people complaining about the complainers than are complaining abput the casting. Most people dont care if the actress is black or white. SJW’s are the ones reducing it to a race issue.

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    Mute Tricia Golden
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    Dec 21st 2015, 4:22 PM

    Imperator Isachukwu – I’m impressed by your trolling BTW. Very subtly done.

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    Mute Leo Massey
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    Dec 21st 2015, 1:41 PM

    Ah JK trying to get back some PR ‘right on’ points after backing the murderous apartheid Israeli regime.

    50
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    Mute Lurfic
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    Dec 21st 2015, 2:08 PM

    I’m pretty sure that as a highly accomplished billionaire she has f all need for your approval of her political views.

    45
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    Mute Kal Ipers
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    Dec 21st 2015, 2:08 PM

    No need for publicity the tickets have the biggest presale of tickets in the history of the west end. I think it has 2 years pre sold already

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    Mute Leo Massey
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    Dec 21st 2015, 3:17 PM

    Nor I yours chimp

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    Mute Leo Massey
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    Dec 21st 2015, 3:20 PM

    Highly accomplished billionaires should be entitled to do anything they want. They’re above us all, and reproach, due to their billions.
    She might spit on you if you ask her nicely.

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    Mute Imperator Isachukwu
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    Dec 21st 2015, 2:30 PM

    Doesn’t say anywhere that Ron doesn’t transition to being a woman after hogwarts. Ron should be a woman now.

    45
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    Mute Fozz
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    Dec 21st 2015, 2:38 PM

    Pretty sure Ron being a boy was mentioned several times…

    20
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    Mute Imperator Isachukwu
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    Dec 21st 2015, 2:47 PM

    Yes but he could have transitioned after leaving hogwarts. Would be stunning, brave and important if they made Ron a trans woman.

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    Mute Rock Stoneballs
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    Dec 21st 2015, 3:55 PM

    I’m actually offended they didn’t.

    30
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    Mute Tricia Golden
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    Dec 21st 2015, 4:19 PM

    Ron is clearly identified in the books as being a red haired male.

    Herminone is clearly identified as being a brown haired female.

    She is not identified as being white. She was merely played by a white actress in one interpretation of the books.

    19
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    Mute IrishGravyTrain
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    Dec 21st 2015, 5:48 PM

    Transgender is so 2014. Its all about Gender Fluid now. Keep up will you.

    19
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    Mute Lorem Ipsum
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    Dec 21st 2015, 2:38 PM

    “THIS IS SO IMPORTANT”

    Yeah, I dunno why I was getting so preoccupied with all that Syria stuff

    33
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    Mute luke frankus
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    Dec 21st 2015, 2:00 PM

    Great aul trick this one! When a film or programme is dying out just switch one of the characters to be black and everybody will take notice…

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    Mute Anthony Byrne
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    Dec 21st 2015, 3:28 PM

    A complete and absolute non-article

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    Mute Paddy Kavanagh
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    Dec 21st 2015, 1:41 PM

    sounds like an ali g moment.

    12
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    Mute David Harkin
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    Dec 21st 2015, 1:35 PM

    More to the point, when will the film version be released???

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    Mute ThatGuy
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    Dec 21st 2015, 3:49 PM

    The film version of a play, based on a movie that’s based on a book. :-D

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    Mute Meehawwl O'Buachailla
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    Dec 21st 2015, 4:08 PM

    I’m looking forward to the outtakes reel after that then.

    3
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    Mute Paul Darby
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    Dec 21st 2015, 1:41 PM

    Aren’t the all a bit old to be playing any of these parts.

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    Mute Daniel Mccullagh
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    Dec 21st 2015, 2:38 PM

    You obviously haven’t read the article. It takes place after the books

    28
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    Mute Carol Oates
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    Dec 21st 2015, 4:35 PM

    I have zero issue with the casting. I think she’ll be wonderful. As others have said the character’s skin color isn’t specified and it doesn’t take away from the fact Emma Watson did a great job with the role. What I don’t like is some gleeful articles I’ve read today about how all is right now and taking a dig at Emma Watson because she’s white. Racism goes both ways. On the other hand, I can’t be good with a person of color James Bond, because unlike Hermione, the character of Bond could not be a poc based on decriptions.

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    Mute bandido
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    Dec 21st 2015, 6:22 PM

    When will the outrage commence for the other two characters being white?

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    Mute danny fitz
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    Dec 22nd 2015, 10:00 PM

    Only news here is JK Rowling now referring to herself in the third person.

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    Mute Bobby wilson
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    Dec 21st 2015, 10:52 PM

    What difference doest make about the colour of someone skin, as long they can act well……

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    Mute Anonymous Man
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    Dec 21st 2015, 10:22 PM

    Orange is the new Black…

    1
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