Britney Spears and the snake

Housekeeping

On Wednesday, I am talking with Anna Gat about Cultural Christianity.

The next bookclub is on 26th November, 19.00 UK time. We are reading The Origin of Species.

I made a chatbot that gives life advice from Samuel Johnson and one that tells you How to Read the Canon.

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the snake brought its head right around to my face

The first time I saw the snake was when they brought it to a little back room of the Metropolitan Opera House in Manhattan, where we would be doing the show. The girl who handed it over was even smaller than me—she looked so young, and she was very tiny, with blond hair. I couldn’t believe they didn’t have some big guy in charge—I remember thinking, You’re letting us two little munchkins handle this huge snake…? But there we were, and there was no going back: she lifted up the snake and put it over my head and around me. To be honest, I was a little scared—that snake was a huge animal, yellow and white, crinkly, gross-looking. It was okay because the girl who gave it to me was right there, plus a snake handler and a bunch of other people. Everything changed, though, when I actually had to do the song onstage with the snake. Onstage I’m in performance mode: I’m in a costume, and there’s nobody else there but me. Once again the little munchkin came to me and handed me that huge snake, and all I knew was to look down, because I felt if I looked up and caught its eye, it would kill me. In my head I was saying, Just perform, just use your legs and perform. But what nobody knows is that as I was singing, the snake brought its head right around to my face, right up to me, and started hissing at me. You didn’t see that shot on the TV, but in real life? I was thinking, Are you fucking serious right now? The fucking goddamn snake’s tongue is flicking out at me. Right. Now. Finally, I got to the part where I handed it back, thank God.

From Britney Spears: The Woman in Me. I am enjoying it so far.