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Would You Rather Have Married Young?: On Lena Dunham, Sally Rooney, and The End of Experience
In an iconic episode of Girls, “One Man’s Trash,” Hannah spontaneously spends a weekend with a hot, respectful doctor in his expensive brownstone. After a couple of sublime days in his house she suffers a moment of shameful envy. “Please don’t tell anyone this,” she says, in tears, “but I want to be happy.” Doctor: Of course you do. Everyone does. Hannah: But I didn’t think that I did. I made a promise such a long time ago that I was going to take in experiences, all of them, so that I could tell other people about them and maybe save them, but it gets so tiring, trying to take in all the experiences for everybody, letting anyone say anything to me. Then I came here and I see you. And you’ve got the fruit in the bowl and the fridge with the stuff, the robe, you’re touching me the way that… I realize I’m not different, you know? I want what everyone wants, I want what they all want, I want all the things. I just want to be happy.