The Fallen Muse

[Leanne]

The Queen of Hearts, they called her.  Headlines wrote
themselves; the tabloid papers would devote
at least an inch each morning to her shoes
and made of her a goddess.  Should their muse
walk down a street, she had "the common touch",
although she didn't touch the poor too much
unless a camera waited. She would pose
and look down her aristocratic nose
at those whom she would never see again,
and smile. Sometimes she'd take a mother's wean 
to make herself look caring. Those would sell
her image best; such acts would help dispel
the rumours of affairs. A woman must 
appear as the Madonna -- if her lust
got out of hand, the peasants would not buy
the paeans of the Sun. Oh, Lady Di: 
not even still a princess when she died,
but just some Arab playboy's latest ride.

[just mercedes]

Yes. Best part for me 'paens of the Sun'. The tabloids created her, then destroyed her. I often wonder what she was like. What sort of life she would have had, without getting mixed up with the Windsors.

[Leanne]

She might have been quite a nice person, or a bit of a drip, who knows? But the myth is bullshit and someone doesn't just become a saint because they die tragically. What is lauded in the royals as being "the human touch" is what's known to the rest of us as "not being pricks".

[Achebe]

The Royals exist because tradition demands they do.
Without them, England would be like Namibia, Laos, or even America.

Nice pome.

[Leanne]

Maybe they exist because we're too scared to let them loose into wider society.

[Todd]

I remember when they rated her higher than Jonas Salk in the most important people in the last millennium. While Salk did get the credit that rightly belonged to a team of researchers. That team did cure Polio. What did Diana do again?

[Todd]

Great last line by the way.

[Leanne]

Sure, polio was bad, but she held an AIDS baby for 40 seconds. That's true heroism.

[Achebe]

Sure, polio was bad, but she held an AIDS baby for 40 seconds. That's true heroism.

anyone can hold an AIDS baby
not anyone can be a monarch

the plebs try and achieve greatness, but the truly great are born into it, like Evariste Galois and Kim Kardashian

[ellajam]

Sure, polio was bad, but she held an AIDS baby for 40 seconds. That's true heroism.

anyone can hold an AIDS baby
not anyone can be a monarch

the plebs try and achieve greatness, but the truly great are born into it, like Evariste Galois and Kim Kardashian

I never heard of Galois, fun article here, Thanks.