(no subject)

[tinyjo]

When famous people die, particularly, it seems, members of the royal family, there is a great deal made of it in the media. All too often we are told that the whole nation is mourning. I remember it in the case of the Queen Mother, Jill Dando and Diana in particular. It's actually something I find deeply alienating. I was pretty much untouched by all three of those deaths. I didn't know them and wasn't interested in them. That feels to me like a perfectly normal reaction, but there's a constant barrage of coverage surrounding these events telling me that it ought to mean something - that there is some kind of national coming together over these deaths that everyone else is a part of. It's even more pervasive than sports - I have similar but less strong feelings about things like the world cup and the Olympics. I think the reason that they're less strong there though is that I'm aware of being part of a larger group of people who's just not interested whereas I'm not concious of a vocal community of disinterest in these cases. So, is that community there but silent? The only way to find out is a poll :)

[Poll #1048051]

TBH, if I could figure it out clearly enough, I could write a very long rambling post about my lack of sense of any national belonging of any kind (and my inability to comprend it in others) but it's still to up in the air in my mind, so you're spared :)

Comments

[applez.livejournal.com]

My sadness for Diana specifically is the real loss her death has been to some of her champion causes. Her continued pain-in-the-backside role on landmines may well have pushed that cause further in my country, for example.

On national mourning - it definitely is a manufactured event calculated for political benefit. Sometimes worthwhile, like Poppy Day, sometimes not. There is certainly a fanbase associated with a given celebrity's death, which does put it in the category of Olympics or World Cup, and I am pleased to say that other fandom, like ours, doesn't particularly believe a WorldCon has anything to say for national or international representation in quite that way. :-)