3 speeches (weekly wrap #21)
Ursula K. Le Guin on some truths about fantasy, Leo honours Robert De Niro at Cannes, and the Princess of Denmark gives maybe the best birthday speech ever
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A speech I’m reading
A good (and super interesting) friend of mine recently prompted me to look up Ursula K. Le Guin, legendary American speculative fiction writer, and I came across this incredible speech she gave in 2004.
Some Assumptions about Fantasy by Ursula K. Le Guin
Here’s an excerpt from one of the assumptions she lists, which hopefully encourages you to read the whole thing.
“As for my stuff, how anybody can call it a Battle Between Good and Evil is beyond me. I don’t write about battles or wars at all. It seems to me that what I write about — like most novelists — is people making mistakes and people — other people or the same people — trying to prevent or correct those mistakes, while inevitably making more mistakes.
Immature people crave and demand moral certainty: This is bad, this is good. Kids and adolescents struggle to find a sure moral foothold in this bewildering world; they long to feel they’re on the winning side, or at least a member of the team. To them, heroic fantasy may offer a vision of moral clarity. Unfortunately, the pretended Battle Between (unquestioned) Good and (unexamined) Evil obscures instead of clarifying, serving as a mere excuse for violence — as brainless, useless, and base as aggressive war in the real world.”
Another speech I loved
A couple of weeks ago, Leonardo DiCaprio presented Robert De Niro with the Honorary Palme d’Or at the Cannes Film Festival 2025. I’m a big fan and was really glad to see Robert De Niro getting this honour and acknowledgement while he’s still alive and able to receive it and even respond to it. His speech is quite good but it was actually Leo’s speech about Robert De Niro I loved even more.
One more speech that warmed my heart
In May 2018, Princess Mary of Denmark gave a speech in Danish at her husband’s (the Prince, that is) 50th birthday bash. It was quite random how I stumbled upon it but it really touched me.
I had never listened to or read in full this speech until a couple of days ago. In case you don’t know, the now Queen Mary of Denmark is an Aussie girl from Hobart who happened to fall in love with and marry a real, actual prince and married into the Danish royal family.
I’m not someone particularly interested in royal families and monarchies don’t inspire me in the slightest, but this speech is such a beautifully authentic expression of love, admiration, and respect, as well as an elegant mix of sentimentality and playful humour.
And I’m pretty sure there was no ChatGPT to help the princess write it (even if she might have had some speech writers to help, but I choose to believe she didn’t).
You can read the English transcript on the official website here.
But I invite and encourage you to watch the actual speech itself (you can turn on English subtitles).
That’s it, that’s the wrap for this week.
Have a nice weekend.
Dev