Spare

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ll read it - the library copy but that’s true of almost all my reading these days, I only buy books that come highly recommended and aren’t available by inter library loan. Then I usually donate the book with the request that they add it to the collection for others to enjoy.

Many of us have the painful experience of being the less favored child. Some of us have the very painful experience of being the scapegoat in a dysfunctional narcissistic family model. But I can’t imagine the experience of being the spare to the heir of a monarchy. For all the folks who glamorize monarchy, it seems to me to be a terrible life - no room to breathe, to make mistakes, to just be. All the money in the world does not outweigh mental health, and there is little in the way that Royal children are raised that is conducive to positive mental health even before you add in the parental dysfunction and particular tragedies endured by Wills and Harry. I feel sorry for both of them.

Harry used to be the favorite.

+1. Sad that he has taken a back seat to his ambitious wife. Someday she’ll kick him to the curb like everyone else in her life except her mother.

You call having a number one best selling memoir “taking a back seat”? Interesting standards.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ll read it - the library copy but that’s true of almost all my reading these days, I only buy books that come highly recommended and aren’t available by inter library loan. Then I usually donate the book with the request that they add it to the collection for others to enjoy.

Many of us have the painful experience of being the less favored child. Some of us have the very painful experience of being the scapegoat in a dysfunctional narcissistic family model. But I can’t imagine the experience of being the spare to the heir of a monarchy. For all the folks who glamorize monarchy, it seems to me to be a terrible life - no room to breathe, to make mistakes, to just be. All the money in the world does not outweigh mental health, and there is little in the way that Royal children are raised that is conducive to positive mental health even before you add in the parental dysfunction and particular tragedies endured by Wills and Harry. I feel sorry for both of them.

Harry used to be the favorite.

+1. Sad that he has taken a back seat to his ambitious wife. Someday she’ll kick him to the curb like everyone else in her life except her mother.

You call having a number one best selling memoir “taking a back seat”? Interesting standards.

That’s about the $$$. He definitely took a backseat to Meghan in the Oprah interview. Where is his podcast?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ll read it - the library copy but that’s true of almost all my reading these days, I only buy books that come highly recommended and aren’t available by inter library loan. Then I usually donate the book with the request that they add it to the collection for others to enjoy.

Many of us have the painful experience of being the less favored child. Some of us have the very painful experience of being the scapegoat in a dysfunctional narcissistic family model. But I can’t imagine the experience of being the spare to the heir of a monarchy. For all the folks who glamorize monarchy, it seems to me to be a terrible life - no room to breathe, to make mistakes, to just be. All the money in the world does not outweigh mental health, and there is little in the way that Royal children are raised that is conducive to positive mental health even before you add in the parental dysfunction and particular tragedies endured by Wills and Harry. I feel sorry for both of them.

Harry used to be the favorite.

+1. Sad that he has taken a back seat to his ambitious wife. Someday she’ll kick him to the curb like everyone else in her life except her mother.

You call having a number one best selling memoir “taking a back seat”? Interesting standards.

That book is already heavily marked down in preorders.

[Anonymous]

30% markdown on Amazon!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:30% markdown on Amazon!

You realize that is typical at this stage? Honestly, you just demonstrated your ignorance of publishing practices more than anything.

[Anonymous]

Absolutely not. I have no respect for someone trying to work out his issues by trashing his entire family on the world stage knowing they are hamstrung from responding in kind, or else just have more decency. He spent half his life screaming at the press for airing dirty laundry and here he is doing the same thing to everyone else in his family. What a self-absorbed, spoiled hypocrite. His father just lost his mother, and Harry decides now is a great time to pile on. Ugh. He's going to need his father and brother one day, because this marriage to Meghan won't last, but they won't be there because he's firebombing all the bridges. The whole thing is tawdry. Not giving it any attention or money.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’ll read it - the library copy but that’s true of almost all my reading these days, I only buy books that come highly recommended and aren’t available by inter library loan. Then I usually donate the book with the request that they add it to the collection for others to enjoy.

Many of us have the painful experience of being the less favored child. Some of us have the very painful experience of being the scapegoat in a dysfunctional narcissistic family model. But I can’t imagine the experience of being the spare to the heir of a monarchy. For all the folks who glamorize monarchy, it seems to me to be a terrible life - no room to breathe, to make mistakes, to just be. All the money in the world does not outweigh mental health, and there is little in the way that Royal children are raised that is conducive to positive mental health even before you add in the parental dysfunction and particular tragedies endured by Wills and Harry. I feel sorry for both of them.

Harry used to be the favorite.

+1. Sad that he has taken a back seat to his ambitious wife. Someday she’ll kick him to the curb like everyone else in her life except her mother.

You call having a number one best selling memoir “taking a back seat”? Interesting standards.

That’s about the $$$. He definitely took a backseat to Meghan in the Oprah interview. Where is his podcast?

What an odd take. Why should he have a podcast? You seem very determined to impose your….something….on these people. Harry co-wrote his memoir and did the audio. That’s a commendable and time consuming project. I’m sure he has other projects at different stages, as does Meghan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:30% markdown on Amazon!

Lol Tell me you’ve never ordered a book from Amazon — without telling me that you’ve never ordered a book from Amazon.

Actually, tell me you’ve never bought a HC bestseller before from, well, from pretty much anywhere.

[Anonymous]

Some of these comments and criticisms strike me as seriously bizarre. Why not actually read the book — and then criticize what’s actually in the book? Some of the tabloids are flat out nuts.

[Anonymous]

They were right to step back. Once William had kids, he really has no role except as personal assistant and it makes sense to have a life of his own vs. always in the shadow.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I probably won't read it but like others will read about it.

The think I'm most interested in is what he says about his dad, particularly regarding his childhood. One of the conflicts between Diana and the royals was that she wanted to have a more normal relationship with her kids, and like, see them everyday and be a part of their lives, and also to be emotionally supportive of them and talk to them. That's not how the royal family normally raises children (it's more common now but was not then). So I'm curious to find out how someone who had one parent who believes in a loving, supportive parent-child relationship and one who was raised by nannies and tutors and rarely saw his parents, who were formal and distant from him.

That's why something like this is interesting to me -- that's a family drama that could be instructive for other people even if most of what being a royal is like has no bearing on my life. But I'm curious how someone like Harry would describe those relationships and that experience.

Diana used them, particularly William, for inappropriate emotional support during the divorce and after. It's a wonder William is as normal as he is. I attribute that to Charles.

You think William is normal?

Yeah, can't endorse that. I think William has handled his super weird life and it's bizarre expectations fairly well, but that is a reflection of how *not* normal he is, actually. I think Harry's responses are much more normal and reflect a person with a more typical (and healthy) sense of personal boundaries and limits

It makes me think of when my brother got divorced and everyone went on and on about how my niece "handled it well" because she accepted it immediately and never cried or got upset with her parents or struggled with how it changed her life. And my nephew was said to be "taking it poorly" because he cried and got mad at his parents and had lots of questions and struggled with it. But of course they each handled it as well as anyone could expect them to and there was absolutely nothing wrong with my nephew's behavior, and in fact it was probably healthy for him to express his feelings more openly and to express frustration and anger with how the choices of others would upend his life. My niece was easier to deal with through that process and made it really easy for her parents, so she was praised, but I'm not convinced that these traits will benefit her for the rest of her life as she's mostly learned to internalize all her feelings and that she will get rewarded for accommodating other people's feelings instead.

Everyone is "normal" and no one is wrong in their response to trauma, but the idea that people who are not expressive and never negative in the face of traumatic experiences are better or more "typical" is false. It's just that when we see someone having an emotional or vulnerable reaction to trauma, it stresses US out and therefore we reject it.

I recall reading a long time ago that daughters tended to deal with the impacts of their parents’ divorce later in life (30s) while sons tended to have more immediate responses. Not sure if that still holds.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Some of these comments and criticisms strike me as seriously bizarre. Why not actually read the book — and then criticize what’s actually in the book? Some of the tabloids are flat out nuts.

It’s the MM haters. They are obsessed to the point of lunacy. Don’t expect logic from them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:30% markdown on Amazon!

You realize that is typical at this stage? Honestly, you just demonstrated your ignorance of publishing practices more than anything.

I’m sure it will be a sell-out, like him.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of these comments and criticisms strike me as seriously bizarre. Why not actually read the book — and then criticize what’s actually in the book? Some of the tabloids are flat out nuts.

It’s the MM haters. They are obsessed to the point of lunacy. Don’t expect logic from them.

Thanks for your comment. Realizing that some are commenting with agendas is helpful. I’ll step back instead of responding to what I mistook for a more cordial conversation. Lesson learned.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some of these comments and criticisms strike me as seriously bizarre. Why not actually read the book — and then criticize what’s actually in the book? Some of the tabloids are flat out nuts.

It’s the MM haters. They are obsessed to the point of lunacy. Don’t expect logic from them.

Thanks for your comment. Realizing that some are commenting with agendas is helpful. I’ll step back instead of responding to what I mistook for a more cordial conversation. Lesson learned.

Hopefully this thread will end like all the others.