Hi folks,
let me apologize: I think I have to write this column in english although I am not a native speaker, because I have become sort of addicted to the tv-serial „The Royals“.
I have even subscribed to Maxdome although I promised myself about a year ago that I would never do that again.
Seduction by „Maxdome on board“
It all started in the ICE from Berlin to Baden-Baden – or was it the other way round? Never mind, I have done this journey so often lately that I am loosing track. It has become a bubble-gobble of rushing to the railway station at six am or hanging out late at night waiting for a delayed train and praying that I will be able to make it home. But Deutsche Bahn makes up for it by giving you free wi-fi and free Maxdome-onboard. With the three initial episodes of „The Royals“. It is basically the typical rich-dynasty-tries-to-keep-the-company-story, but in this case the rich and the beautiful are stored in Buckingham Palace and acting as aristocrats. First I thought: „My goodness, these folks wouldn’t even do for aristo-CATS, they are just Hollywood personalities put into a nobel setting.“ But after the third episode I couldn’t stop watching.
The Queen and her rat-pack
It is true that „queen“ Elizabeth Hurley and the rest of her rat-pack are far from the real boarding-school and Oxford-trained royal British. They are SO american and superficial in their ambition to keep their status in the media. But as a metaphor for every artists struggle to get access to the public and attract as much attention as possible, the whole thing functions as a drug that enlightens my spirit when I am about to give up my dreams of becoming well-known as a writer. Maybe „The Royals“ even mirrors simply everybody’s struggle for being loved and successful, because didn’t Joseph Beuys say „everyone is an artist“ and didn’t Andy Warhol promise the fare share of fifteen minutes of celebrity to this everyone? These two were prophets of our times.
„Be known!“
„We want to be seen, but not known. BE known“ – this quote from „The Royals“ illustrates the dilemma between fame and failure. Every day there are so many small choices to be made, in your work, in your meetings. And with communication got so much faster the old saying that a word once said can not be taken back applies even more. To become known you have to be steady in your actions. But first you need to be noticed at all, you need to drum and whistle so that people look up. You constantly take the risk of overdoing it and just looking overwhelmingly silly, yet there is no other way than going out on the battlefield of social exposure and mass media. Every character in the royals constantly fights with its past, with its own life story and with its way of storytelling.
No more fairy-tale
Unfortunately I’m already through with love, so to say, through with all episodes there were. And the next season will not be shown before March. I am not sure I want to continue watching. Prince Liam, so far the only honorable person at the court, becoming a superficial fashion victim, Princess Eleanor not ceasing her constant fight with her bodyguard-lover, I see very few chances that my favourite fairy tale will be told towards a happy ending. Farewell, Royals.