The King's Speech as training in royal stupidity

As told 4

“Because I'm king by God's will, it's my right! / Now you are. I congratulate you.”
38:48 The Limits of Hegel: Rabble, War, Sex and Marriage2011-05-12 · 1:23:07

“The king shouts back, 'Because I'm a king by divine right.' And then the coach says, 'Now you got it. Now I cured you.'”
16:42 Vote: For Hegel2011-11-24 · 1:26:05

“his stuttering is a hysterical in a progressive good sense resistance to like sorry it's too stupid for me I cannot take that seriously”
52:20 Screening Thought2011-05-04 · 1:33:47

What it carries

one story, many jobs: the ideas this anecdote is deployed to argue, one tally mark per use (an idea page shows the same relation from the other end, as its shelf of stories)

contents · one story, 3 jobsuses

symbolic identity ×2 symbolic castration ×2 constitutive stupidity of the king ×1

Its cast and sources

populated by

Helmuth von Moltke (the Elder)2 Jack London2 Ignatius of Loyola1 E.T.A. Hoffmann1 Paul Taylor1 Alain de Botton1 Geoffrey Rush1 Robert Solomon1

alongside works

The King's Speech4 The Double Life of Véronique3 Black Swan3 Tales of Hoffmann2 Martin Eden2 The Trial / The Castle (Kafka)1 Spiritual Exercises1 Confessions1

Told together with

50% Black Swan and the female-mission death myth 2 shared talks 40% Martin Eden and symbolic success 2 shared talks 33% General von Moltke and the Prussian king 2 shared talks 13% China banning time-travel and alternate-history narratives 2 shared talks 10% Brassed Off coffee invitation 2 shared talks 4% coffee without cream / coffee without milk 2 shared talks

Every retelling 4

38:48 The Limits of Hegel: Rabble, War, Sex and Marriage2011-05-12 · 1:23:07

Žižek reads the film as showing how the coach (Geoffrey Rush) trains the stuttering king not to speak well but to accept his symbolic stupidity, to believe 'I'm king by God's will!' The film is reactionary because it celebrates the restoration of symbolic authority through the undoing of critical self-awareness., illustrating constitutive stupidity of the king,symbolic authority,ideology in cinema

16:42 Vote: For Hegel2011-11-24 · 1:26:05

Žižek reads the film as a tragedy: the king's stutter is a healthy resistance to accepting the absurdity of his divine title; the speech therapist 'cures' him by making him stupid enough to sincerely believe 'I am king by divine right.', illustrating symbolic identity,symbolic castration,ideology

52:20 Screening Thought2011-05-04 · 1:33:47

George VI's stutter is a hysterical, progressive resistance to assuming the idiotic role of king. The speech therapist's function is to destroy this resistance so the king can perform his symbolic role, presented by the film as triumph but readable as tragedy., illustrating hysterical resistance,symbolic investiture,ideology in film

19:11 A very dangerous Q&A - FULL with English subtitlespub. 2011-10-04 · 57:16

The film is reactionary, Žižek argues, because its arc is the Australian speech therapist helping King George VI overcome his ironic self-distance and fully identify with the role of king, precisely the pathology of mad over-identification., illustrating psychopath who identifies with what he is,the madman is a king who thinks he is a king,ideology in cinema