Early in my education, probably after my very first book report, I was told never to write, or even say, “Everyone must read this book.” Well, too bad, because that’s what I am telling you right now as my way of raving about The Uncommon Reader, by Alan Bennett. It is an hilarious tale about the present Queen Elizabeth, who in her 80th year, takes up reading, and with that, begins to see the world from different points of view.
I, also, started thinking from another point of view, the Queen’s. Does she have a personal persona or only a public one? What is it like to refer to herself as ‘One’ or ‘We’, and never in the first person as “I”? (Try it-- read this paragraph and substitute ‘one’ for ‘I’ and ‘my’).
I listened to this book on audiotape on my way to the cottage. Although read by the author, a male voice no less, I wondered if just maybe I was in the presence of the Queen. I ended up having a great deal of compassion for her and the scripted life forced upon her. Reading got her into trouble; it opened up her heart; it gave her feelings; it got her thinking outside the box; it introduced her to freedom. We non-royals know all that.
But, as the Queen might say, “One isn’t even free enough to join a book group.”
I, also, started thinking from another point of view, the Queen’s. Does she have a personal persona or only a public one? What is it like to refer to herself as ‘One’ or ‘We’, and never in the first person as “I”? (Try it-- read this paragraph and substitute ‘one’ for ‘I’ and ‘my’).
I listened to this book on audiotape on my way to the cottage. Although read by the author, a male voice no less, I wondered if just maybe I was in the presence of the Queen. I ended up having a great deal of compassion for her and the scripted life forced upon her. Reading got her into trouble; it opened up her heart; it gave her feelings; it got her thinking outside the box; it introduced her to freedom. We non-royals know all that.
But, as the Queen might say, “One isn’t even free enough to join a book group.”