The Queen is Pig-Ignorant?

[Sonnet]

Can you believe how pig-ignorant the Queen is? :D

Do tell! :yup:

[livius drusus]

Let me just snag my copy of The Royals and I'll be right back with the juice. :plotting:

[Sonnet]

:popcorn:

[LadyXoc]

Hot dam! I have my copy to follow along and now it will be a Reading Group.

Livius's Literary Ladies. Bwhaahahaha!

[beyelzu]

Hot dam! I have my copy to follow along and now it will be a Reading Group.

Livius's Literary Ladies. Bwhaahahaha!
does this mean I cant join, because I want to know how pig ignorant the queen is as well.


head of british empire and all that.

[LadyXoc]

Ok, Livius's Literary Lunatics. :wink:

[Farren]

Hot dam! I have my copy to follow along and now it will be a Reading Group.

Livius's Literary Ladies. Bwhaahahaha!

And a gent. I'm equally curious

:popcorn:

[livius drusus]

Okey dokey. This excerpt is the key part, although of course there's more. I've got the Warner Books, 1997 paperback edition and this is on pgs 105-106.


The twenty-six-year-old bridegroom [Prince Philip], who had traveled through Europe, Australia, and the Middle East, was marrying a twenty-one-year-old woman who had never been outside Great Britain until the royal family tour of South Africa. Poorly educated, she had never attended school and received hourly tutorials only in British history and heraldry. She had studied Walter Bagehot's writings on the monarchy and had mastered the hereditary peerage with all its complex titles of antiquities. She spoke excellent French but barely understood mathematics and science and knew little about the natural world beyond dogs and horses. She disliked poetry, except for the rhymes of Rudyard Kipling and Alfred, Lord Tennyson. The only poem she ever memorized was the childish verses of "They're Changing Guard at Buckingham Palace" by A. A. Milne.

"I was never able to imbue her with enthusiasm for modern verse," said her governess, Marion Crawford. "'Oh, do stop!' she would say while I was reading from the works of some modern poet. 'I don't understand a word of it. What is the man trying to say?'"

Outside the Palace, Elizabeth felt self-conscious about the gaps in her education. She once asked if Dante was a horse, because she had never heard of the medieval poet.

"No, no he isn't a horse," was the reply.

"Is he a jockey, then?" she asked.

She blushed when told that Dante Alighieri was the Italian classicist who wrote The Divine Comedy, a masterpiece of world literature. Horses were what she knew best.

[LadyXoc]

That was a good one! :clap:

[beyelzu]

Okey dokey. This excerpt is the key part, although of course there's more. I've got the Warner Books, 1997 paperback edition and this is on pgs 105-106.


The twenty-six-year-old bridegroom [Prince Philip], who had traveled through Europe, Australia, and the Middle East, was marrying a twenty-one-year-old woman who had never been outside Great Britain until the royal family tour of South Africa. Poorly educated, she had never attended school and received hourly tutorials only in British history and heraldry. She had studied Walter Bagehot's writings on the monarchy and had mastered the hereditary peerage with all its complex titles of antiquities. She spoke excellent French but barely understood mathematics and science and knew little about the natural world beyond dogs and horses. She disliked poetry, except for the rhymes of Rudyard Kipling and Alfred, Lord Tennyson. The only poem she ever memorized was the childish verses of "They're Changing Guard at Buckingham Palace" by A. A. Milne.

"I was never able to imbue her with enthusiasm for modern verse," said her governess, Marion Crawford. "'Oh, do stop!' she would say while I was reading from the works of some modern poet. 'I don't understand a word of it. What is the man trying to say?'"

Outside the Palace, Elizabeth felt self-conscious about the gaps in her education. She once asked if Dante was a horse, because she had never heard of the medieval poet.

"No, no he isn't a horse," was the reply.

"Is he a jockey, then?" she asked.

She blushed when told that Dante Alighieri was the Italian classicist who wrote The Divine Comedy, a masterpiece of world literature. Horses were what she knew best.


dman that is ignorant.

I assumed that she would just be stupid about real world issues. I didnt realize she would be a fucking tard.

I am appalled that they would educate her so poorly. People have to go to school for a reason.

[Petra]

And all this time I thought Dante Alighieri was some type of pasta dish with artichoke hearts, or something.

Bugger.

Next thing, you'll be saying that Giotto is some kind of painter or something, when I know full well it's a place where glowworms and wetas hang out.

Ya rotters!

:naughty:

[livius drusus]

I am appalled that they would educate her so poorly. People have to go to school for a reason.

It's weird, isn't it? Although I wonder if it was particularly unusual for an aristocratic girl in pre-war England to be educated solely in matters of ceremonial use. Prince Philip is no man of letters either, but he's like a damn genius compared to her. It could be a royalty + old school gender assumptions thing that kept her so bloody stupid.

Then again, if she had had any interest at all, it looks like her governess would have been able to provide at least a modicum of education.

[Petra]

I am appalled that they would educate her so poorly. People have to go to school for a reason.

I'm not so surprised. The Royals are only really coached on their own history and importance. Who needs an education when you are filthy rich and your only duties are to attend garden parties and formal dinners hosted by sycophants? They are so removed from the real world that nothing really matters to them anyway.

[Godless Dave]

I'm glad you're all having fun with this, but there's something I don't understand.

Who the hell cares about the British royal family?


For us Americans, the British monarch ceased being our head of state 228 years ago. I don't understand the fascination for Americans. Few Americans seem to gossip about the Norwegian or Thai royal families.
So it turns out there's nothing special or superior about people with royal blood? I thought that had been settled once and for all around 1918, and much earlier in some cultures.

I like gossip at least as much as the next guy, but I don't give a rat's ass about the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, I mean Windsor, family.

[livius drusus]

I'm glad you're all having fun with this, but there's something I don't understand.

Who the hell cares about the British royal family?


For us Americans, the British monarch ceased being our head of state 228 years ago. I don't understand the fascination for Americans. Few Americans seem to gossip about the Norwegian or Thai royal families.
So it turns out there's nothing special or superior about people with royal blood? I thought that had been settled once and for all around 1918, and much earlier in some cultures.

I like gossip at least as much as the next guy, but I don't give a rat's ass about the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, I mean Windsor, family.

Okaaaay... You give enough of a rat's ass about them to know they'd still carry Prince Albert's name if not for their nodding to anti-German sentiment. Do you know the family name of the Thai monarchs off the top of your head?

As for why Americans in general harbour a fascination with the British royals, it doesn't seem that mysterious to me. We're raised with fairy tales involving kings and princesses; major events in the history of Europe and the United States have royal personages at their crux; entire states are named after European monarchs. They live lives of immense privilege and pageantry. If that kind of shit didn't resonate with people, the Windsors would be shopkeepers right about now.

The Queen's total lack of basic education is not news because we're all shocked, shocked I tell ya, to find out that blue blood can be as sluggish and cholesterol-filled as red, but because one expects any person raised in privilege to serve as head of a nation to have at least cracked a book. I'm disgusted with Paris Hilton's utter stupidity because I don't understand how people who could literally have anything could be totally uninterested in developing their children's minds. And Paris Hilton isn't even expected to head a chain of hotels, nevermind a country.

Finally, juice is juice and if you like that sort of thing, the Windsors are an endless fount.

[Corona688]

I read an anectode somewhere(probably a Reader's Digest - the magazine everyone reads but nobody buys!) of how, when the subject came up in a conversation, the Prince had no idea what a plumber was.

[Farren]

You know, for all his goofyness, I have a little fondness for Prince Charles because he appears to be quite widely read, even if he's not astonishingly bright.

I read an amusing story about him surprising a science conference with and inappropriate screed about the imminent dangers of the "grey goo" scenario, a little known (and at this point highly unlikely) scenario where, if we construct overly resourceful, self-replicating nanotechnology, it could go wildly out of control and mindlessly consume EVERYTHING, resulting in the planet being covered in "grey goo".

This demonstrates that he is not astonishingly bright (the grey goo scenario is decades away) but well informed. I also like him because he fancies himself a bit of an Eastern mystic, some of which he picked up from his tutor, former South African and British Poet Laureate, Sir Laurence Van Der Post.

[beyelzu]

I am appalled that they would educate her so poorly. People have to go to school for a reason.

It's weird, isn't it? Although I wonder if it was particularly unusual for an aristocratic girl in pre-war England to be educated solely in matters of ceremonial use. Prince Philip is no man of letters either, but he's like a damn genius compared to her. It could be a royalty + old school gender assumptions thing that kept her so bloody stupid.

Then again, if she had had any interest at all, it looks like her governess would have been able to provide at least a modicum of education.
The thing is in England they always knew that she could be the head of state. and they didnt educate her at all. Furthermore, she lacks even the basic education that almost any public library would offer.

[godfry n. glad]

Could this be another result of generations of inbreeding?

godfry

[livius drusus]

The thing is in England they always knew that she could be the head of state. and they didnt educate her at all.

Well, in all fairness, it didn't look even remotely likely that she would be queen until Edward abdicated when she was 10. Not that that excuses her lack of basic education, of course.

[beyelzu]

The thing is in England they always knew that she could be the head of state. and they didnt educate her at all.

Well, in all fairness, it didn't look even remotely likely that she would be queen until Edward abdicated when she was 10. Not that that excuses her lack of basic education, of course.
and by that time, she was coming along so well in knowing heraldry and blood lines it seemed pointless to shift gears and start teaching her how to read.

:D

[JoeP]

I also like him because he fancies himself a bit of an Eastern mystic, some of which he picked up from his tutor, former South African and British Poet Laureate, Sir Laurence Van Der Post.
Funny that the Republic of South Africa keeps cropping up in a thread about the monarchy.

[LadyXoc]

The thing is in England they always knew that she could be the head of state. and they didnt educate her at all.

Well, in all fairness, it didn't look even remotely likely that she would be queen until Edward abdicated when she was 10. Not that that excuses her lack of basic education, of course.

And it's not as if anyone thought she would have to earn a living. What would she need to do if she weren't Queen, aside from marrying well and breeding suitably upper-class children?

[livius drusus]

and by that time, she was coming along so well in knowing heraldry and blood lines it seemed pointless to shift gears and start teaching her how to read.

:D

/me giggles
Hey, that heraldry/blood lines shit is hard. I tried memorizing that spooge (http://laura.chinet.com/html/titles12.html) in an attempt to understand Jane Austen's society better, but then I just bought a book (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671882368/ref=pd_sim_books_1/104-0468532-8150307?v=glance&s=books) instead.

[LadyXoc]

and by that time, she was coming along so well in knowing heraldry and blood lines it seemed pointless to shift gears and start teaching her how to read.

:D

* livius drusus giggles
Hey, that heraldry/blood lines shit is hard. I tried memorizing that spooge (http://laura.chinet.com/html/titles12.html) in an attempt to understand Jane Austen's society better, but then I just bought a book (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671882368/ref=pd_sim_books_1/104-0468532-8150307?v=glance&s=books) instead.

See, that stuff is not that difficult to me. I cannot, however, figure out the tip at a restaurant without a team of people helping me. Also, keys and locks refuse to work for me the way they do for other people. In fact, now that I think of it, in many functional respects, I'm a bit of a failure. I'd think I was royal myself, but I also fall off horses. Say, what was the topic again?

[Dingfod]

I'm just as ignorant of their world as they are of mine.

Oh, this is not the shameful confessions thread?

[Petra]

You know, for all his goofyness, I have a little fondness for Prince Charles because he appears to be quite widely read, even if he's not astonishingly bright.

I read an amusing story about him surprising a science conference with and inappropriate screed about the imminent dangers of the "grey goo" scenario, a little known (and at this point highly unlikely) scenario where, if we construct overly resourceful, self-replicating nanotechnology, it could go wildly out of control and mindlessly consume EVERYTHING, resulting in the planet being covered in "grey goo".

This demonstrates that he is not astonishingly bright (the grey goo scenario is decades away) but well informed. I also like him because he fancies himself a bit of an Eastern mystic, some of which he picked up from his tutor, former South African and British Poet Laureate, Sir Laurence Van Der Post.

LOL! I remember when Prince Charles made headlines after saying that he'd really like to be a tampon. :hysteric:

He's a sick puppy.

[LadyXoc]

LOL! I remember when Prince Charles made headlines after saying that he'd really like to be a tampon. :hysteric:

He's a sick puppy.

I treasure that stupid tampon remark nearly as much as Falwell's stupid Teletubby comment.

[beyelzu]

and by that time, she was coming along so well in knowing heraldry and blood lines it seemed pointless to shift gears and start teaching her how to read.

:D

* livius drusus giggles
Hey, that heraldry/blood lines shit is hard. I tried memorizing that spooge (http://laura.chinet.com/html/titles12.html) in an attempt to understand Jane Austen's society better, but then I just bought a book (http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671882368/ref=pd_sim_books_1/104-0468532-8150307?v=glance&s=books) instead.
alright, I read that page.

I had no idea it was so difficult to speak to people back in the day.

I am glad that the us doesnt have lords and ladies anymore, because I couldnt be bothered to address them properly, shit I barely bother to capitalize letters and make coherent statements.

on the other hand if the ladies xoc and shea will tell me their exact titles, I will use those handy charts that you linked, liv and henceforth use the proper address. :D

[Beth]

LOL! I remember when Prince Charles made headlines after saying that he'd really like to be a tampon. :hysteric:

He's a sick puppy.

I treasure that stupid tampon remark nearly as much as Falwell's stupid Teletubby comment.
Well, if any man ever told me he wanted to be a tampon inside my knickers :eek: , I would have to wonder if he had some gross fetish:shrug:, or was madly in love :serenade:... :hookup:...gotta love those pervy Brits!:unitedkingdom: