Hilary Mantel - Bringing Up the Royal Bodies

I'm sure my headline has been used, so ascribe to me no delusions of wit.  Still, it is apropos.  A speech Ms. Mantel gave recently has caused the sort of uproar anything does when it's larded with de-contextualiz-able sound bytes well calculated to offend many but intelligent (and well-written) enough to provide defenders.

In posting this, I meant to do so without comment; but this is the internet, mine is a blog, and that is damned near impossible.  Suffice it to say:  I think the analysis of the Duchess (why do people still refer to her as Kate Middleton, by the way ... ?) is clever enough to in fact avoid the *personality* judgments a lot of people choose to perceive and become horrified by, but the piece provides an interesting critique of the mechanism of royalty-watching, from a higher brow than so often we see such commentary.  More to the point:  the piece really isn't about Kate.  Though it takes some time to get to the point, the piece is about her own subjects (the Tudors, if not Cromwell) and about the institution and how we treat it.

Even with the controversy, there is agreement it's beautifully written, and that alone makes it worth reading, even if the cult of royal celebrity leaves you cold.  This is more than the latest snark.  (Even so, it is somewhat long - for internet reading-  so give yourself fifteen or twenty minutes, if you care to partake.)

Image:  NPR.org