“What happens when the familiar and poignant gap of desire is cauterized by a technology that underscores our separateness? What’s left but void?”

I wrote about the BBC/Hulu adaptation of Sally Rooney’s novel Normal People for CNN Opinions.

“Connell’s look tells the story of everything he shares with Marianne. It says that wires and cables and technology may enable this form of “chatting,” but intimacy requires proximity, and no video chat will ever replicate the nearness of the real thing. It says, I know you, and I’ll see you on the other side of this when we have nothing but time.”