In a mere six days, Susan Boyle from Scotland has become a multi-million-view sensation on YouTube. Her rendition of “I Dreamed A Dream” from Les Miserables has been a phenomenon, growing steadily by the minute as more and more people …
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Nice take, well explained.
But no matter how we dissect what happened, indeed it’s a miracle by all means. I have never been into such heavenly ride on a song. How on earth she was hidden from all of us the last four decades and more and then take us to such heights of human emotion, almost seeing our own souls in a mirror is more than the usual miracles.
Thanks heaven, you gave us Susan Boyle.
Leon
i’d like to share this to FB. can you please add the app? thanks in advance
Almost every account I’ve read has mentioned that she is “dowdy”, “plain”, “unattractive”, “no style” (whatever that means) and other terms that I won’t mention.
It is very disappointing to me that people are focusing upon this woman’s looks/style.
Where is the love? Nowhere to be found, I’m afraid.
I am very disappointed in my fellow man/woman.
This was a talent show, not a beauty contest. Why would everyone prejudge the woman’s talent based on her appearance? This is the same kind of discriminatory treatment unattractive children are subjecting to in schools. How many talented, brillant people are not nutured, thereby depriving us of their potential contributions.
susan boyle set us up. she had a perfect song and was the perfect person to deliver it, she knew it and played her simplism to the hilt leaving us open to getting hit with her 2×4 of a performance. an awesome brilliant performance.
prejudice is perfectly useful and even necessary in life. especially when you can see that prejudice as a mirror.
she was an embodiment of limitation, of self doubt and bad decisions and then she stood there and cast it all aside with casual confidence. the self doubt was all in our own heads.
The ride that you refer to with Susan Boyle, is not so much about Susan Boyle herself, But almost entirely of who we are when we listen to her. Everyone sees her from their own personal take, their own lives and experiences, and in this fairy tail, there is a marvelous ending.
Susan brought out the worst in the folks, the snide, sarcastic meanness we all seem to have in us.
BUT, she also bought the goodness, and THAT”S what effected those who have watched her performance…the fact that any of us, in today’s society, COULD suddenly feel the joy, the total turnaround our hearts felt for someone most of us thought to be a joke.
We see so many people get booed off; so many who come up with airs, only to find there is no talent; it is EXPECTED of the audience to react by looks and actions first…
I am heavy, dowdy, set in my ways..much like her, so I can relate to Susan.
My father always told me to never judge a book by it’s cover, and I honestly believe and try to follow that dictum…but even so, I was totally shocked, mesmerised to tears of joy, by this woman’s performance. It truly turned an “ugly duckling” into a “swan”.
I hope, with all my heart, that Susan Boyle makes a good life for herself; she deserves it.
Mature,in control me: When she opened her mouth, I jumped out of my chair, arms pumping at the air with tears running down my cheeks. I had to watch a third and forth time before I began to settle down. One of us made it. That was all I could think of.
If only we could look for the real beauty that lies hidden in so many people, especially those who do not have the characteristics of what we consider attractive and therefore valuable.
Yes, we, both individually & as a society, make judgements & assign “worth” for reasons that go back eons & once made sense but, in the 21st century, have become disadvantageous. For our species to survive, the female being attracted to the physically dominant & smart enough to use weapons, male, was evolutionarily necessary.. In Greece & Rome, the gladiator received more accolades than the thinker or musician. Unfortunately & illogically (given the realities of modern times) when I was in school & now, the quarterback of the H.S. team gets more positive input, praise, & attention, and may be in-line for more financial reward from an academic institution, then the top student in physics or the school’s best violinist. There are those (Emerg. physicians & nurses & paramedics) who save at least I life per day, on average, but do not make 2% of the $$ society is willing to bestow, by our collective assigning of “value,” on a top major league shortstop. Ms. Boyle, unfortunately, will have more difficulty being recognized & rewarded than if she were, what we all judge as, “a knock-out.” Way in the future, when beings from another planet arrive at an earth from which we’ve disappeared, after researching our history, they’ll conclude that one of the main reasons for our demise was our inappropriate determination of what deserves our attention & rewards.
I am always surprised when people are surprised by looks-ism. It’s a Darwinian fact of nature that good looking people get an easier ride. Proven in multitudes of experiments. In fact I find it invalidating when people are shocked at looks-ism. Your denial takes away my support system.
I have my own theory about why the Susan Boyle phenomenon has taken off. I think on some level *all* of us are outsiders, with our noses pressed against the windows of the Beautiful People. Who hasn’t been bullied, been chosen last for the team, had our dreams disparaged? Which of us can meet the impossible standards for physical perfection the media puts before us every day? Even the young and trendy will someday find themselves aging and dowdy, and we fear it.
So when one of our own makes it, we celebrate. Too bad the chances of it ever happening to us are less than that of winning the lottery.
The symptomal attention given Ms Boyle can be understood in terms of the ideological problematic of the body-soul relationship:“Such a horrible body, and yet such a great soul!”. The same phenomenon is represented in the Elephant Man: “Such a monstrous outer appearance vs a beautiful inner civility”. Or our trope of the Femme Fatale: “Such a beautiful woman, yet evil”. (See Zizek, Enjoy Your Symptom!)
Why is it that we are so drawn to the “beautiful people” of the world? Even when most of us aren’t model or talent material, we still deep down wish we were. Look at all the TV shows of all the people striving to become “discovered.” And then, Susan Boyle steps up looking like a less-than-perfect individual and blows everyone away. I am so glad for Susan, not only because she has an outstanding voice, but because this humble person taught the entire world a really big lesson about looks and talent. I don’t need to write it here. You all know what it is.
I heard about Susan from a friend. He told me he cried when he heard her….and about how everyone thought she wouldnt do well. I immediately told him THATS BECAUSE EVERYONE IN THAT INDUSTRY ESPECIALLY, IS SO LOOKS AND YOUTH ORIENTED! Whats the big surprise? Then he played me “I dreamed a dream” over the phone and being a classical singer, i wasnt at all impressed. while of course she has talent, you can hear voices like that auditioning for Broadway shows everyday, and for me, a person with a more classically trained voice sings way better….. but susan’s kind of voice is the more “in” thing now. I didnt see it, but cant understand why anyone would cry. there is so much talent around.