Hannah Gadsby: Nanette Page #11

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know all of the things.

I need to tell my story properly

because you learn from the part

of the story... you focus on.

Take Vincent.

Old mate... Vincent van Gogh.

The way we tell his

story... it's no good.

It's destructive. Because we've

reduced it to a tale of rags to riches.

He only sold one painting in his life.

You know? Now look at him.

"He's quite dead." Yeah,

but very successful!

Only sold one painting in his lifetime.

And people believe, with that story,

that Van Gogh was this

misunderstood genius.

You know, he was born ahead of his time.

What a load of sh*t.

Nobody is born ahead of their time.

It's impossible!

Nobody's born ahead of their time!

Maybe premmie babies, but they catch up!

Artists don't invent zeitgeists!

They respond to it.

He was not ahead of his time. He

was a Post-Impressionist painter,

painting at the peak

of Post-Impressionism,

while Peter was picking

his pickled pepper.

He wasn't born ahead of his time.

He couldn't network.

'Cause he was mental.

He was... crazy. He had unstable energy.

People would cross the

street to avoid him.

That's why he didn't sell any more

than one painting in his lifetime.

He couldn't network.

This whole idea, this romanticizing

of mental illness, is ridiculous.

It is not a ticket to genius.

It's a ticket to f***ing nowhere.

And artists are not these incredible,

you know, mythical creatures

that exist outside of the world.

No, artists have always been

very much part of the world,

and very... very firmly

attached to power.

Always. Power and money,

art is always there.

Right back to the Renaissance.

Oh, the Turtles? All of them.

All of them, they knew how to network.

Leonardo?

Raphael?

Donatello?

They're right up there, painting

their own business cards, schmoozing.

Michelangelo was a bit

difficult, he was a bit... crazy.

But, you know, he still networked.

He gave gobbies to the Pope.

Kissed his ring. Literally. But...

I think it's a shame that art

history is such an elitist sport.

It taught me a lot, you know.

Useless... as far as a

money-earner's concerned,

but I learned a lot about the

world because of art history.

I understand this world very well.

I understand the world I live

in... because of art history.

I understand the world I

live in and my place in it.

And I don't have one.

And do you know how

much time that saved me?

I'm quite old, but look at the skin!

That's 'cause I haven't wasted

time looking... for how I fit in.

I don't.

A lot of naps.

Art history taught me there's

only ever been two types of women.

A virgin or a whore.

Most people think that

Miley Cyrus and Taylor

Swift invented that binary,

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