But you won't get away from the tune that they play to the bloomin' old rag over'ead

[sovay]

I caught a fragment of the funeral this morning: a black hearse at a slow march on a green field, a bell tolling and drums, bystanders watching through their cellphones. It is not really that the jokes about the Queen celebrating her cybernetic jubilee—Charles having expired of frustration in the interim—were more plausible than the fact of her death in the course of mortal time, but why else do we believe in fisher kings? I hadn't known she was married in a dress embroidered with ears of wheat, as though spelling for fertility. One of the commentators spoke of seasons of death and renewal, as if all the newly televised pageantry were some enormous mummers' play. I don't think I am used to seeing ritual on such a scale; that is the point of it. I keep thinking about people as links in time, as memory palaces. I wish it did not come so automatically paired with the thought of unmoored futures. Far enough down that way lies trying to glue time in place, to hold back the earthquake.

Comments

[watervole]

I see you share my taste in Kipling!

[sovay]

I see you share my taste in Kipling!

I grew up on some of him, but really picked him up from Bellamy's settings.

[watervole]

I discovered him mainly as an adult - apart from my Dad reading me the Just So Stories - I can still hear his voice in my memory. I came across Bellamy much later.

Kipling wrote many of his poems to fit existing tunes, but we don't know which ones...

[cmcmck]

The embroiderer lived in our town here and was famous for her work.

[lauradi7dw]

I remember that Sarah Ferguson's dress for her wedding to (the quite yet loathsome) Andrew had bees embroidered on it. I don't know who (presumably a team) did the embroidery or exactly what the symbolism was (united in service to the Queen? Couldn't be that blatant).

[davidgillon]

It was her family coat of arms, apparently - bees and thistles.

[sovay]

The embroiderer lived in our town here and was famous for her work.

That's really neat to hear. She should have been.

[minoanmiss]

*reads and contemplates*

[sovay]

*reads and contemplates*

I really appreciate that you leave these comments, without which I would not know if you are reading.

[minoanmiss]

Oh good, I'm glad they're not banal. Often you write about things I am just learning about (I learn so much from your journal), so I don't have much to say yet.

[sovay]

Oh good, I'm glad they're not banal.

Not at all! It's really thoughtful. And I would be happy for you to come back whenever you feel like saying something. There is no statute of limitations on commenting.

[minoanmiss]

beams

[selkie]

It was "The Last Post" that got me, and then seeing her pony and her dogs so very clearly waiting for her to come home. It's such an end to an era sort of feeling.

[OW. HELLO. OW.]

[sovay]

It was "The Last Post" that got me, and then seeing her pony and her dogs so very clearly waiting for her to come home. It's such an end to an era sort of feeling.

*hugs*

It is, though. Just because time passes willy-nilly doesn't mean its passing doesn't mark something real. One of the broadcasters kept saying that most of the viewers would never have seen anything like this funeral in their lives and it wasn't celebrity hyperbole, unless you saw the funeral of her father in 1952 it was true. And even if it weren't a line across history, it's still a death. I know you don't get chevrot kadisha in the Church of England, but I found myself hoping that people were kind with her body, my disappointment in the lack of chanteys notwithstanding.

[davidgillon]

I keep thinking about people as links in time, as memory palaces.

Oh, that's an interesting thought, and I guess for us she was, there's a whole slew of identity, both personal and national, and other stuff, that the Queen symbolized for us for the whole of my life.

I hadn't intended to watch the funeral, but caught the procession at a point I thought was about 20 minutes from the hearse leaving (according to the Guardian's expected timeline), so thought 'I can watch for 20 minutes'. That ended up actually being an hour, but it was interesting to watch and pick out odd details - soldiers with rifles reversed, legs moving into curtseys at the top edge of the screen as the gun-carriage passed the royal staff lining the kerb outside Buck House, the precise choreography of removing coffin and royal standard from the gun carriage - including things like the sailors braking the carriage from behind sidestepping in unison to open up the space. That choreography must be stored in a document somewhere (or did they pull out the old newsreels?), to be learned anew by a new generation of servicemen and, this time, women. I'll admit I was a little startled when I heard the commands for the sailors on the gun-carriage given in a female voice. Everything stays the same, everything changes.

[sovay]

Oh, that's an interesting thought, and I guess for us she was, there's a whole slew of identity, both personal and national, and other stuff, that the Queen symbolized for us for the whole of my life.

I think it's part of the job, which I don't mean flippantly. And I'm not sure she's stopped. It's just that little further in the past, now.

That choreography must be stored in a document somewhere (or did they pull out the old newsreels?), to be learned anew by a new generation of servicemen and, this time, women.

I saw the gun carriage! It was remarkable. I was also curious how the pattern and the pace were transmitted and rehearsed.

I'll admit I was a little startled when I heard the commands for the sailors on the gun-carriage given in a female voice. Everything stays the same, everything changes.

I loved hearing her voice. That's the earthquake.

[asakiyume]

Yeah, people as memory palaces is wonderful. It reminds me about what they say in (and about) oral societies: that when you lose an elder, you lose a whole library, you lose so much.

[sovay]

It reminds me about what they say in (and about) oral societies: that when you lose an elder, you lose a whole library, you lose so much.

Yes. I keep thinking about all the time she took with her. It was almost part of this post, but instead I went to bed.

[asakiyume]

She's been a constant presence in people's lives for literal generations. Her face is on stamps and coins and the news. I can understand the sense of loss.

I smiled at cybernetic jubilee--has someone drawn that? (They should--even though now it will represent alternative history)

[sovay]

She's been a constant presence in people's lives for literal generations. Her face is on stamps and coins and the news. I can understand the sense of loss.

I don't think it's not a real one. My mother is feeling it, without any particular attachment to the institution of another country's monarchy. It was very strange for me to see that half-hour of a funeral in real time, the real thing happening.

I smiled at cybernetic jubilee--has someone drawn that? (They should--even though now it will represent alternative history)

I agree. (You could!)