The Hilary Mantel and Royal family furore

[dweomeroflight]

Has anyone else heard about Booker prize winner, Hilary Mantel's, controversial speech on Royal Bodies, presented for the London Review of Books? I saw it yesterday in my twitter feed and clicked on it out of interest. As someone coming to it as a cultural historian, as a writer and as someone who comes from a country that has little love left for

Comments

[a_phoenixdragon]

Not far off at all, though I found her questioning of monarchy a little less subtle than most people do - it was between every line, really.

A very thought-provoking article but (at times), poorly worded. Very well thought out, but I can see how it would cause outrage, really.

*HUGS*

[dweomeroflight]

What parts did you find poorly worded out of interest? I thought that some of her linkages were dodgy but the wording had 100% clarity for me. I thought her argument was pretty straightforward to be honest. It's all a bit puzzling for this Australian.

I mean, come on, if it's the Kate section that everyone got upset about, you have to ask yourselves why? Every word Mantel wrote is true. Kate does seem that way. 'Seem' being the key word. Whether or not she is, is an entirely seperate issue. Mantel is talking about the 'public' Kate, not the 'private' one. She is talking about the myth, not the person. The distinction is important and yet so many people seem to miss the point.

Why does it cause outrage? Because the UK doesn't like to have their Royal myth questioned, just as Australians hate their National story myth to be questioned. But just because we hate to question it, doesn't mean that we shouldn't.

[a_phoenixdragon]

Ohh, she was straight-forward and where as some people found her subtle, I found her words a hammer. Questioning is all good, I'm a big believer in questioning. And she made a fair number of very good points. But her gleeful distain for monarchy bled through every paragraph. It wasn't so much WHAT she said, was how she said it. She never laid out in so many words her dislike of the royals (and her intense, predatory delight in finding their weaknesses), but it is very much there. A neutral party would have been better suited to writing this article, but alas, we did not get such. That's where the true subtlety lies - her borderline need to see them crash and burn, while studiously distancing herself from her own feelings on paper

[dweomeroflight]

But see that kind of reaction says more about how you and others feel about people talking about the monarchy, then it does about Mantel. I didn't find it gleeful. I found it insightful and sad. You couldn't pay me to be a Royal. Not after Diana and to a lesser extent Royal's like Prince Harry and Beatrice. And what on earth is wrong with pointing out weaknesses. They aren't untouchable just by dint of being Royal. A neutral party? Nobody is neutral on this earth. Mantel wrote a very long, academic speech for the London Review of Books and she was asked to talk about her work- her work on Royal Bodies in her fiction is well known. Out of anyone, she was highly qualified to discuss such an issue. Just because her opinion is I'm no Royalist doesn't make her opinion invalid

[novindalf]

I'm not fussed either way about the monarchy, but I'm slightly picky about titles, so just had to mention that she's not 'Princess Catherine' because she's not a princess in her own right. She's a princess by marriage, but that affords her the title 'Princess William of Wales' (like 'Princess Michael of Kent) :)

[dweomeroflight]

The tabloid press regularly refer to her as Princess Catherine and frankly I don't give a damn what her title is. I care that poor Mantel is being lynched for pointing out the obvious- that the voyeuristic interest in the Royal family is pretty disturbing and that the roles they play are just that... roles.

[novindalf]

Oh I agree with that, but I'm surprised they've gotten away with calling her that though.

[dweomeroflight]

You think the Royals care? As long as people like Kate and the Royal myth continues they won't give a toss. It's too dangerous to be otherwise after Diana. #cynical

[a_minute_in_me]

Kate's not a princess ;)