The Sadness Goes On
On Aug. 31, 1997, the world shed its first tears for a fairy-tale princess. One year later, many are still crying, still grieving, still trying to make sense of the untimely death of Princess Diana.
Perhaps in no place is the uninterrupted mourning of the people’s princess more pronounced than on the people’s message board--the Internet. Conduct an Internet search for the tragic royal figure, and hundreds of sites, ranging from the divine to the distasteful, pop up.
Upon the one-year anniversary of the princess’ death, Internet sites are urging everyone to wear a pink ribbon to honor Diana’s memory on Monday. They are providing words of solace and comfort from the Archbishop of Canterbury. They are encouraging people to share their year of sorrow on community message boards.
The sites, though, can also be quite curious. There are the poetic thoughts about Diana’s death by a Finnish gentleman named Hannu Kuusela (https://www.geocities.com/Eureka/Gold/3669/Diana1.html). And another site offers to light a virtual candle for the departed princess for those who send in their condolences to https://members.tripod.com/~Storm101/diana/indexa.html.
A virtual candle flickers away because Lynne Smith from Connecticut posted this: “I have idolized and admired Princess Diana for as long as I can remember. And her death hit me the way any family member’s would. I cried. And I still get teary when I see her pictures or hear those songs. It’s a sad time when the world loses a great person.”
Such prolonged and public grieving is hardly surprising, say cultural observers. Diana’s striking beauty, her marriage and divorce from Prince Charles, her well-photographed outreaches to the sick and poor played out like some real-life international soap opera.
Perhaps because of her troubles, the ordinary people of the world were able to feel an abiding connection to Diana, despite her extraordinary social station.
“She was Cinderella, although, of course, she wasn’t because she came from money, but she was viewed that way,” said Allan Levy, a professor of communications at Chapman University in Orange. “And the death of Cinderella taps into mythic emotions, the same kind that are present in fairy tales and Greek myths.”
To Diana mourners, the Internet provides a safe, private way to continue grieving, he added. More important, it links their lives directly to Diana’s.
“The Internet gives them the opportunity to be sad about something that is important and unimportant at the same time,” Levy said. “It’s not like they’ve lost a family member. But they can still grieve and become part of the celebrity and the grander story. It’s almost like they become part of the extended family this way.”
In any family, though, there’s always a cut-up, and even sites where people cry as they type in memorials to Diana are not immune from pranksters. One Web site features more than 500 messages that speak tenderly of Diana’s unparalleled warmth, compassion and unselfishness.
Then, a note from someone who calls himself “Findus Pancakes III” filed this: “The press hounding her was terrible. . . . Hang on. . . . Who was the last person she called? That’s right. A Daily Mail reporter! She was a sad hypocrite like the rest of you. Get this: She didn’t know you; you didn’t know her. Get a life.”
The Internet’s world of commerce has not ignored the global throngs who are desperate to remember Diana in some way. Not surprisingly, merchants are marketing any number of items with Diana’s likeness upon it for sale. (Most merchants promise to donate a cash surplus to one of the princess’ charities.)
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Some of the most popular ways to remember the beloved mother of Prince William and Prince Harry is to buy a Diana plate, coffee mug or tea towel. Others believe purchasing a wooden dollar with her royal image on one side and a rose on the other to be a fitting tribute.
The flood of public tears--and merchandising--for Diana, however, seems to have produced its own backlash. Scores of Web sites reveal a darker side to the Diana phenomenon and are clearly meant to shock the faithful.
For shock value, few places outdo the so-called “crash photos” sites. These (https://www.hotresume.com/crash.html, for example) post what they claim are photographs taken the night Diana and her boyfriend Dodi Fayed died after their Mercedes crashed inside a Paris tunnel. Of course, nothing could be more hurtful to those who revere Diana.
To show the grotesque and deathly images is horrible enough. But when considering that those are the photographs that may have been shot by the same paparazzi who may have contributed to the crash, the display becomes a dagger in the heart of Diana supporters whose Web site battle cry has been “boycott the evil paparazzi.”
But according to another very popular group of alternative sites, to believe Diana and Fayed perished in an accident is to be terribly naive. These “conspiracy theory” sites (https://www.healey.com.au/~themagic/di.htm and https://205.243.132.23/dodi-1.html are a couple) suggest any number of scenarios ranging from the idea that the couple faked their deaths so they could live happily ever after to the theory that weapons manufacturers arranged the deaths to silence Diana’s campaign against land mines.
A good roundup of the conspiracy theory sites is available at https://www.londonnet.co.uk/ln/talk/news/diana -- conspiracy -- theories.html. It includes a discussion of two favorite theories that argue that the British secret service killed the couple to end a national humiliation and that business enemies of Fayed’s assassinated him, but also killed Diana to cover up their true aims.
Assuming Diana did die, a couple of sites create a controversy about her final destination in the afterlife. Though the vast bulk of sites tearfully proclaim such sentiments as “Our loss is heaven’s gain,” more than a few beg to differ.
“Princess Di Burns in Hell,” declares a headline at https://www.tabloid.net/1998/08/19/dianahell--980819.html. The article, courtesy of the Tabloid News Services, quotes two English Sunday school teachers who told their students that Diana’s relationship with Fayed precluded her entrance into heaven.
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For Stories About Diana’s Death . . .
To take a look at stories and photos from The Times’ coverage of Princess Diana’s death one year ago, go to The Times’ Web site at https://www.latimes.com.diana.
