Sep 9, 2022Liked by Claire Berlinski, Rachel motte
The thought that came to mind when I heard the news was of a line from “His Last Bow,” one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s tales of the Detective and the Doctor: “Good old Watson! You are the one fixed point in a changing age.” That was true as well of the Queen. Only Shakespeare, that poet of the Crown of England, could do justice to her long and storied reign. Well, may she sleep peacefully.
Sep 8, 2022Liked by Claire Berlinski, Rachel motte
This must be what it was like when Queen Victoria died in 1901, after a reign of 64 years. Many had never known another monarch. And who else do we mean when we say "queen"?
Well, as an American, she's been around longer than I've been alive, and I've known and understood her as 'the Queen' since I was maybe 3, certainly without understanding who or what the Queen was. I am not a fan of monarchy or the pseudo-monarchy or aristocratic snootiness or acting like Henrietta Bucket ('Boo-CHETTE!') but I totally love the queen, in much the same way I love the Eiffel Tower ('You don't like the Eiffel Tower? What the hell is wrong with you, you got a brain lesion or something? That's like hating the pyramids.'), even if I honestly tend much more towards Marseilles than Paris.
On the other hand, she was an old lady and Covid has been hell on the old, so I (like everyone else) was kind of expecting this.
The passing of the Queen saddened me.
I wager that we will see the absolution of the monarchy within 20 years.
The thought that came to mind when I heard the news was of a line from “His Last Bow,” one of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s tales of the Detective and the Doctor: “Good old Watson! You are the one fixed point in a changing age.” That was true as well of the Queen. Only Shakespeare, that poet of the Crown of England, could do justice to her long and storied reign. Well, may she sleep peacefully.
This must be what it was like when Queen Victoria died in 1901, after a reign of 64 years. Many had never known another monarch. And who else do we mean when we say "queen"?
Well, as an American, she's been around longer than I've been alive, and I've known and understood her as 'the Queen' since I was maybe 3, certainly without understanding who or what the Queen was. I am not a fan of monarchy or the pseudo-monarchy or aristocratic snootiness or acting like Henrietta Bucket ('Boo-CHETTE!') but I totally love the queen, in much the same way I love the Eiffel Tower ('You don't like the Eiffel Tower? What the hell is wrong with you, you got a brain lesion or something? That's like hating the pyramids.'), even if I honestly tend much more towards Marseilles than Paris.
On the other hand, she was an old lady and Covid has been hell on the old, so I (like everyone else) was kind of expecting this.
Glad she passed away peacefully. RIP.
elm
sic transit gloria mundi