(written by Islander)

This morning I read an unexpectedly engrossing essay written by a woman who unexpectedly became an obsessive fan of a Broadway musical named Operation Mincemeat. She makes very clear that fanatical fandom isn’t typically part of her personality — far from it. She spends the entire essay thinking out loud, trying to understand why she has seen the musical at least 12 times, interspersed with evidence of her obsession and stories about how the musical came to be and what it’s about.

Eventually the writer comes close to an answer, which is that the musical is an exception to the “desert drought of originality and ideas” that surrounds us. She writes: Continue reading »