How to Be Both

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of death.

Shortly after midnight on New Years Eve, George, a 16-year-old girl from Cambridge, England, makes a plan for the remainder of the school holidays. George is researching music from the 1960s and plans to dance the twist each morning in honor of her recently deceased mother, Dr. Carol Martineau. Prior to her death, Carol would dance and stretch every day before work, and there is old video footage of her dancing the twist as a toddler with her own mother. After dancing, George plans to spend time each day watching a disturbing pornographic video in the garden so as to bear witness to the exploitation of the young woman in the video. George’s father, currently out drinking, previously came across George watching the video once, and was horrified both by the video itself and by George’s dubious explanation of why she keeps watching it.

George is interrupted by her younger brother Henry, who is seeking comfort after waking up upset. George consoles him and tucks him into her own bed before making herself a snack and falling asleep on the floor beside the bed. They are awoken a short while later by a knock at the front door.