I have great respect for British culture--after all, it brought the world Shakespeare, Newton, Dickens, Oxbridge--and loved "Gosford Park" and "Atonement" and admired "The King's Speech."
But where I draw the line at "the royals." I have no interest in the House of Windsor (though Diana Spencer was a gem who wed into that family), except perhaps to note how they are related to Kaiser Wilhelm.
And even less for William and Kate.
Who really cares?
Of course, it is at once a brilliant touch of mass communication to be able to elicit so much "love" (adoration) from the British public at large and, I suppose, much of the world. Or is a greater tribute to the extent to which adults remain fixated at the fairy-tale trappings of the Royals?
One thing: there's not much drama in the whole thing.
Princess Diana was a real person who stepped out of a boring and scripted role. And Queen Elizabeth II has to be respected not for simply being the richest woman in the world but for having survived more than half a century as monarch. She is living continuity with the twentieth century and its last terrible world war).
But where I draw the line at "the royals." I have no interest in the House of Windsor (though Diana Spencer was a gem who wed into that family), except perhaps to note how they are related to Kaiser Wilhelm.
And even less for William and Kate.
Who really cares?
Of course, it is at once a brilliant touch of mass communication to be able to elicit so much "love" (adoration) from the British public at large and, I suppose, much of the world. Or is a greater tribute to the extent to which adults remain fixated at the fairy-tale trappings of the Royals?
One thing: there's not much drama in the whole thing.
Princess Diana was a real person who stepped out of a boring and scripted role. And Queen Elizabeth II has to be respected not for simply being the richest woman in the world but for having survived more than half a century as monarch. She is living continuity with the twentieth century and its last terrible world war).
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