Book Review: "Dianaworld: An Obsession"
Edward White's new book is a fascinating cultural study of the enduring phenomenon of Princess Diana and her many afterlives.
Hello, dear reader! Do you like what you read here at Omnivorous? Do you like reading fun but insightful takes on all things pop culture? Do you like supporting indie writers? If so, then please consider becoming a subscriber and get the newsletter delivered straight to your inbox. There are a number of paid options, but you can also sign up for free! Every little bit helps. Thanks for reading and now, on with the show!
If, like me, you grew up in the ‘80s and ‘90s, you’ll recall that it was impossible to escape from Princess Diana in those years. The tabloids were filled with her image and with details of her various marital and romantic entanglements and woes, and her death sent shockwaves around the world. To this day she continues to exert a remarkably strong hold on the popular imagination, as the final several seasons of The Crown demonstrate. One could be forgiven for thinking that the show was always meant to be about her, given how much attention she receives and how central she is to the story.
As it turns out, The Crown is but one example of the phenomenon of Diana worship, which emerged during her life and has only become more potent and enduring after her untimely death in 1997.. In Dianaworld: An Obsession, author Edward White takes a deep dive into the fascinating, and sometimes unsettling, world of those who have made the late Princess Diana the center of their world. As he memorably and aptly argues, few royal figures–except for perhaps Queen Elizabeth II herself–have managed to exert such a powerful hold on the public imagination.
The book is less a traditional biography and more a cultural study of the icon that Diana became from the moment that she entered the public eye. Some of this was due to the tabloid culture of the UK and their fascination with the Royal Family and all of its various foibles. At the same time, it was because Diana herself was such a master at publicity. This isn’t to say that she was a total cynic, though she was quite adept at presenting to the world whatever part of herself she thought the public needed to see.
Indeed, the thing about Diana, White argues, is that she was something of a tabula rasa, a blank slate onto which her adoring public could project itself. There are, of course, some peeks behind the curtain throughout the book, as White draws on the many, many books written by those who were intimate with the Princess of Wales, before, during, and after her time as the wife of Prince Charles. Even those who were most intimate with her, however, tended to view her through the lens of what she meant to them, rather than seeing her as an individual person with her own identity and subjectivity.
Dianaworld makes for a quick and fascinating read. White takes us to some very strange corners of both the internet and print worlds. It’s no exaggeration to say that everyone who had a platform in the 1980s and 1990s had something to say about every aspect of Diana: what she wore, what she ate, what she said, and what she did. There were those who were on her side and those who hated her and what she represented. There were republicans that strangely enough found her appealing, and there were Tories who loathed her for the damage she did to Prince Charles’ reputation. Even Tony Blair got in on the act, and he apparently saw her as something akin to a kindred spirit.
There are, of course, those who continue to believe that Diana was killed by some sort of nefarious cabal (this theory has been espoused by some very high-profile people, including Dodi Fayed’s father). There are also those who have amassed a significant amount of Diana memorabilia, and those who followed her around while she was alive. There are even those who continue to insist that she be given the memorialization that they feel she deserves (though, as White points out, the two statues that have been produced have been…of questionable quality, when they were completed at all).
Though White does sometimes seem a bit bemused by the phenomena that he’s writing about, I don’t think he ever goes so far as to view Diana fans with outright condescension or contempt. Indeed, some parts of the book are strikingly poignant and resonant, particularly those dealing with the queer community and its deep connection to Diana. In part, White argues, this connection sprang from her willingness to hold the hands of AIDS patients without gloves. While she might not have been the first public figure to do so, there’s no question that Diana’s decision to do so helped to shift the conversation about HIV and AIDS, and it solidified her place as a saint for gay men.
Yet her connection to queer folks also sprang out of her own status–whether perceived or real–as an outsider, as someone who had never really been accepted by the establishment. It certainly helped that, throughout her life, Diana was also more than a little androgynous, her appearance always straddling the line between male and female. She was also not above going out on the town in men’s clothing. It’s thus no wonder that many queer men continue to idolize and to remember her fondly, even if she wasn’t what one might call a queer activist.
Perhaps no event brings out the contradictions of the Diana icon quite like her death and funeral. It was, White asserts, something akin to a collective experience of grief and emotion, one that brought out some latent emotion in the British people that had lain dormant since the 19th century, buried beneath the relatively recent phenomenon of the “stiff upper lip.” Even those who were bemused or disgusted or opposed to such outpourings of grief sometimes found themselves connecting to this whole mass experience, something that has never quite been replicated, even upon Queen Elizabeth II’s passing.
In the end, though, White reminds us that, for all of Diana’s ubiquity in the world of popular culture, there still remains something more than a little enigmatic about her. He closes the book with an anecdote of a group of tourists at Althorp who, when all is said and done, find themselves a bit frustrated that there’s so little of Diana in her ancestral home. That is precisely what makes her so compelling and enticing and enthralling and enchanting. Like another royal who entered into the realm of the iconic, she makes hungry where most she seeks to satisfy. Dianaworld brilliantly shows us why this is the case, even if, like its subject, it leaves us wanting more.