Other than
the historical aspect of it all (it is one of the oldest palace), and the fact
that it’s the official residence of the Princess Royal (Queen Elizabeth’sdaughter)there really wasn’t much to see. However, one of my all-time-favorite
memorials is on the palace grounds, hence the visit:
This piece is dedicated to the memory of Queen Alexandra,
the daughter-in-law of Queen Victoria, and great-grandmother of Queen Elizabeth
II.
I can’t say too much about the piece, beyond the fact that
I just think it’s striking, and so different compared to many other memorials
I’ve encountered here. Also, as someone who is fascinated by the queens of
England, I find Queen Alexandra—especially her relationships with Queens
Victoria and (later) Mary—a very interesting figure.
After saying hello to Her Majesty’s memorial, EN and I took
a quick stroll down Constitution Hill, alongside Buckingham Palace, and briefly
set-foot in Hyde Park. By that point, it was simply too dark and cold, however (as evidenced by the poor photo below), and so
we set-off for the tube…
But not before swinging by Eaton Square to look for former
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s residence. Nic wanted me to tell her how
much we enjoyed her in ‘Death Becomes Her’ and ‘The Hours’ (but, so help me, not ‘Mamma Mia!’),
but no such luck.
Ah well, perhaps next time…
FIN!
PS: In case you were wondering, we walked about 8 miles
total.
So,
I just finished watching Meryl Streep in “The Iron Lady.”
As always, I cannot
say enough good about the divine Meryl Streep—I have loved her performances in
practically everything she’s done, and this is no exception. Indeed, her
physicality in “The Iron Lady” made me honestly forget from time-to-time that
she was not an 86 year old woman.
Yet,
regarding the movie itself, I cannot help but cry out: “You’re a walking lie;
and I can see right THROUGH you!”
Please
note that I’m about to start discussing spoilers from the film, so, if you
haven’t seen it yet, you might want to avoid the rest of this post…
“[Margaret
Thatcher] made popular a host of right-wing prejudices and homilies such as
comparing government expenditure to household spending, and denying the logic
of Keynesian economics, stating that governments could not spend their way out
of recession...Across the Atlantic, Ronald Reagan used a similar,
simple language to mark a new era of government. Each sought to reconfigure the
state, getting out of welfare and macroeconomic management while pouring public
resources into defence, security and foreign affairs.” ~ Gerry Hassan and Anthony Barnett, Breaking out of Britain’s Neo-Liberal State (2009)
There
are two different stories being told in “The Iron Lady:”
The
first story—and the one I feel the creators want us to pay closest attention
to—is that of an older woman. In the here-and-now (2011), she is seen as merely
a shadow of her former self, plagued by dementia and grief-stricken over the
loss of her husband (Denis) some eight years prior. This woman’s worried
daughter (Carol), personal assistant(?), and absentee son (Mark) all conspire
to keep her—once Britain’s first female Prime Minister—out of the public eye,
while the ‘ghost’ of her dead husband follows her around and reminds her of
bygone moments in her life.
The story of an older woman...
The
second story—the ‘B-story,’ if you will—is more-or-less that of Margaret Thatcher’s
political career. It follows her inculcation in conservative politics through
her father (a lapsed liberal, more or less), touches upon her time at Oxford
(where she met Denis), and glosses almost entirely over her time as a lawyer,
an MP, Education Secretary, and Leader of the Opposition—i.e., approximately 26
years of her life.
What we instead receive is a rose-colored—no, I won’t go that
far—salmon-colored version of
Thatcher’s time as Prime Minister. Audiences receive glimpses of the troubling Brixton Riots (1981), the divisive and socially-explosive miners’ strike (1984-85), and even a somewhat longer look at
the militarized re-occupation of the Falklands(1982). But, by the end, these issues are set aside and audiences are nonetheless still left with
hints at economic prosperity as a result of Thatcher’s “hard medicine,” neoliberal policies.
Thatcher (Streep) approaches No. 10 as Prime Minister
“…the
core twin principles of Thatcher’s
regime: the intensification of centralised executive authority and the
cultivation of an elite order at ease with a politics focused on winners,
wealth and corporate logic—a neo-liberal regime.” ~ Gerry Hassan and Anthony Barnett, Breaking out of Britain’s Neo-Liberal State (2009)
Okay, so just like there are two stories going on in “The
Iron Lady,” I have two reactions:
My first reaction: If I allow myself to parse-out the narrative about
the older woman coping with loss and our cultural treatment of the longer-lived*
(thereby eliminating the problems of Thatcherism all together), then I have to
say ‘kudos’ to the creators for a decent effort.
The opening scene in the
convenience store represents our collective intolerance, and the invisibility of
the aged (especially women). Likewise, the scenes with the older woman’s
children and assistant demonstrate the way we infantilize those of an advanced
age because we assume they are mentally deficient and incapable of taking care
of themselves—’cause, God knows, we can’t be bothered to actually talk to them,
and find out what they’re thinking and feeling!
He cuts her off without even seeing her...
In essence, “The Iron Lady’s”
primary narrative showcases our cultural view of the elderly as a problem that
we don’t quite no how to deal with (and so we don’t). Nonetheless, in the end, the
film’s creators problematize that cultural assumption by having the older woman
take a dose of her own “hard medicine” and send her husband’s ghost
packing—literally!—thereby challenging the audience’s assumptions about her
ineptitude and feebleness.
Denis is sent off...
My second reaction: By juxtaposing Thatcher’s pernicious
premiership against the dominant cultural assumptions UK/US cultures makes about
longer-lived women, the film’s creators have attempted to make Thatcher’s actions (and, by
extension, her neoliberal policies) seem relatively non-threatening in the
grand-scheme of things.
Similarly, by playing to ideologically-rooted—and
emotionally-ladden—myths of (grand-)motherness, as well as our collective
sympathies (to the extent that they exist) for the mentally infirm, audiences are
left actually rooting for and excusing the actions of a woman whose tenure in
office was marked by greater attention to corporate interests than the
proverbial ‘little guy.’
(This is not to say that I was so distracted by such
coded messages that I fell fully into the creators’ trap; but, I confess, there
were times where I found myself thinking “Aww, she wasn’t so bad, really”—at
which point I would promptly slap myself in the face and come back to my
senses!)
So, yeah: all-in-all, there were definitely some problems
with “The Iron Lady.”
Was it worth watching? Sure. I’m a huge Meryl Streep fan,
and I cannot deny that she does a remarkable job assuming the role of former PM
Margaret Thatcher. Also, the makeup was superb, and what I have referred to throughout
as the ‘A-story’ is very (bitter-)sweet.
Thatcher at the Doctor's
I would simply caution viewers to be careful
that they don’t get so swept-up in our society’s culturally-rooted ideas about age,
gender, and disease, that they forget the social- and economic-reality of
Thatcher’s problematic premiership.
* I think I’m reasonably safe in assuming that today’s
British culture treats longer-lived persons in roughly the same way as modern
US American culture.
This weekend’s been somewhat of a wash, so there’s really
not too much to say. In other words: this will be short.
Most of
yesterday was spent writing (draft) essays for various scholarships I’m
applying to for the 2012/13 school year, and when I wasn’t doing that, I was
helping Nic run lines for his show that opens in about two hours (8PM
Central)—break a leg, baby! Later in the evening, however, I joined KG & MM for
"EuroCrash! The Musical," which was written by their landlord. The synopsis is as
follows:
“Meet Mark and Gilda—the Hansel and Gretel of Euroland—as they discover
the fantasy world of the single currency. Meet Papa Kohl and Madame Mitterrand,
the charming couple who hold it all together; meet the Snake, a clanky
prototype; Jean-Claude Trichet, the last great eurocrat; the PIIGS, paying for
past profligacy; the dark eminence of the mighty Bundesbank; and the wild,
exotic currencies of central Europe. All this packed into a pantomime. Vicious
rhymes, great music. From the creators of last year’s sell-out Broke Britannia!” ~ "EuroCrash! The Musical" Official Website
Image Courtesy of "EuroCrash! The Musical" Website
Now, I know what
you’re thinking: that sounds…interesting. And you would be correct. It was
actually quite amusing for the most part, and I walked away with a much better
understanding of the euro’s history than I ever had before. The acting was
good, and the lyrics to the songs were very cute! Who knew an economic downturn
could be so much fun?
Following the
show, I joined KG & MM at The Sun Inn for dinner and drinks (the second round;
the first being at the show). The food was excellent, as was the atmosphere,
but the company and conversation are what put it over the top as wonderful!
The Sun Inn / Image Courtesy of their Website
Somehow, today
was even less productive than yesterday. Once again, I helped Nic run lines for
a good portion of the day. Then, this evening, K&M went to her cousin’s
house for a bit, so I went out for some British Chinese take-out at Xiong Mao. Instead
of the stereotypical fortune cookie, however, I received two chicken wings. And
no chopsticks. I was confused—either the hostess really, really liked me (hence
the wings), or she hated me (hence the lack of a cookie and chopsticks)—so, of
course, I took to the Facebook-program-store to state as much. Fortunately, a
more worldly friend clarified that the fortune cookies are an American thing,
and that the wings were probably because it’s Chinese New Year’s Eve, and then
another friend, who lives in Cornwall, said that he’s never known Chinese
take-away over here to come with chopsticks. Ah, cultural adjustments…
Seriously, these are the types of tidbits that should be in one of those
London: From A to Zed books!
At any rate, at home with my take-out, I turned on the
telly, and what should I find: “Come Dine with Me.” I swear, that show is like
crack and I’m a filthy junky! After noshing away and enjoying this week's batch of participants, I chatted with Nic and the
folks for a bit, and then retired to watch BBC iPlayer in bed—which is
currently streaming “Doubt,” an AMAZING movie if you haven’t seen it yet!
Well, that’s enough for now. Not sure what’s on the schedule
for tomorrow yet—the hunt for housing resumes, and laundry happens. Those two
things are definites. Beyond that, though, I may do the Westminster Abbey tour
tomorrow.
P.S. to Cultural Studies and Queer Lit friends: I just found
out that Karl Marx and Radclyffe Hall are buried in the SAME cemetery, and that
it’s not far from here. Who’s going to be a creepy graveyard stalker? This guy!
Karl Marx Memorial (NB: This photo is NOT mine!)
Radclyffe Hall's Memorial (NB: This photo is NOT mine!)
