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best described as a palimpsest

@lemurious / lemurious.tumblr.com

AO3: lemurious | tumblr old | Classical Greece & Rome, French Revolution(s), Les Miserables, Tolkien | writing tag: #lemur writes |
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"And yet, any one who follows the course of social clinics shakes his head at times. The strongest, the tenderest, the most logical have their hours of weakness.

Will the future arrive? It seems as though we might almost put this question, when we behold so much terrible darkness. Melancholy face-to-face encounter of selfish and wretched. On the part of the selfish, the prejudices, shadows of costly education, appetite increasing through intoxication, a giddiness of prosperity which dulls, a fear of suffering which, in some, goes as far as an aversion for the suffering, an implacable satisfaction, the I so swollen that it bars the soul; on the side of the wretched covetousness, envy, hatred of seeing others enjoy, the profound impulses of the human beast towards assuaging its desires, hearts full of mist, sadness, need, fatality, impure and simple ignorance.

Shall we continue to raise our eyes to heaven? is the luminous point which we distinguish there one of those which vanish? The ideal is frightful to behold, thus lost in the depths, small, isolated, imperceptible, brilliant, but surrounded by those great, black menaces, monstrously heaped around it; yet no more in danger than a star in the maw of the clouds."

- Victor Hugo, Les Miserables

#a.k.a. when the brick hits me like a ton of bricks#will the future arrive?#yes if we strive for it like a star between the clouds#les miserables#lemur reads classics
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Text: "They [the laws of 14 Frimaire] have contributed as much to the making of modern states as the more liberal philosophy for which the Revolution is better known. Modern states exist by the ideas of unity, order, subordination and efficiency, and by the idea of law as the will of a sovereign power. Twentieth century states, democratic or dictatorial, share these ideas; and these are the ideas of 14 Frimaire, proclaimed at a time when the rest of Europe was largely feudal." (Twelve Who Ruled, Robert Palmer)

I've been thoroughly enjoying this book, delighted by the 1960's edition that is beaten up, stained with coffee (or something more fanciful) and copiously underlined and scribbled in margins, by at least two separate hands; and now it is my commute-train-read.

The section about the laws of 14 Frimaire (Dec 4th, 1793) has been a slightly startling reminder that declarations of rights, as well as constitutions, are necessary, but not sufficient for governing a republic, especially a comparatively large one at war on multiple fronts, bristling with different factions and an administrative and a legal hodgepodge of institutions. One does arguably (!) need to create a legal and power structure, and enforce it too in order to make it functional; now whether a given system is acceptable, much less ideal, can be debated and improved and struck down and rewritten entirely.

(Government bureaucracy is made of inspiration and idealism and hard calculations all mixed together...)

#frev#french revolution#twelve who ruled#14 frimaire#lemur muses#lemur has been prevented from waxing poetic about government service to return to the topic at hand#more idealism and less anxiety would be nice these days
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Reblogged
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Jacobin club meeting

Guys you wont believe who my favourite revolutionaries are!

As a longtime summer disliker im preparing for the heatwave with this snowy piece. Also its teeny tiny bit inspired by James Sants painting "courage, anxiety and despair" even tho it doesnt look like it. I accidentaly made SJ look like he froze up... I might draw another snowy one soon bc even tho the snow didnt come out much how id like, it was still fun to draw.

#so they are older here... i imagine the ghosts of the csp standing around the jacobin club#just outside the door#looking through the window while the snow is falling and republic is subjugated by tyranny again#and then wakes up but the future is not as bright as they hoped for and history is a curved mirror#and eventually the building is boarded up. and they still stand there watching. in the snow#aaaanyway thank you op!!! i may write a piece inspired by this <3#amazing art#frev#robespierre#saint just#couthon
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Reblogged reflectiverecursion
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I've been thinking of SJ's siècles et cieux quote, and this translation discussion:

Dans les siècles et dans les cieux
“I condemn the dust of which I am made, this dust that speaks to you now. It can be persecuted, it can be brought to death. But I challenge
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He says "independent life". Why did he use that word? I mean, we all understand the meaning he was going for, but any ideas why he said "independent" vs any other word?

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I think you also have to factor in how he actually noted it down because the whole process is fascinating:

It didn't suddenly come to his mind formed perfectly. He refined and reworked it until he felt it was perfect. And the "independent" qualifier was added above after the first draft so he did specifically choose that word. Why though? That's a good question. But I think his decisions about his life and death show clearly what he means. This is his legacy. He knows it will be. And he has to make it clear that it was his choice. He wasn't Robespierre's pawn or lackey. He chose this life and this death.

#frev#french revolution#saint just#in the centuries and in the skies#!!!#first time stumbling upon this quote#and it is gorgeous and necessary
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la terreur et la vertu, pt II

[a.k.a. when a 60-year old movie reduces one to a sobbing mess. Or rather, when the 200+ year old events do.] With eternal gratitude to the folks who have painstakingly translated and annotated it and put it on youtube; it is from 1964 and the quality is not the best but... go no further if you want to see a take on Thermidor that may make you cry, and will make you think.

[image dump below the cut]

#lemur muses#movie rec#la terreur et la vertu#maximilien robespierre#saint just#saintspierre#yes precisely - the intensity of their connection is... hard to describe in mere words#frev#french revolution#thinking about what it takes to preserve a republic is more than relevant these days
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Reblogged cogitoergodoleo
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Anytime I get way too into school and prepping for some nebulous future career I try to remember what my Lucretius professor said after we finished book 6: “what I want people to recognize when they read Lucretius is that this is the only chance you have. There’s no do overs on life and too many people spend their entire life wanting” and I’m trying to be better about that.

#i need to be better about that
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Reblogged le-vieux-cordelier
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On April 5, 1794, due to the execution of the Dantonists:

Rest in peace:

Camille Desmoulins, journalist, deputy to the Convention (34 years old) Georges Jacques Danton, deputy to the Convention (34 years old) François Chabot, deputy to the Convention (37 years old) Philippe François Nazaire Fabre, known as "Fabre d’Églantine," deputy to the Convention (43 years old) Jean-François Delacroix (41 years old) Marie-Jean Hérault de Séchelles, deputy to the Convention (34 years old) Claude Basire, deputy to the Convention (29 years old) Joseph Delaunay, deputy to the Convention (41 years old) Pierre Philippeaux, deputy to the Convention (39 years old) Marc René Marie d’Amarzit de Sahuguet (41 years old) Junius Frey (40 years old) Andrés Maria de Guzman (40 years old) François-Joseph Westermann (42 years old)

#frev#they were so young!#is it midlife crisis to think“I am older than some of them and what have I done that would be worthy of a guillotine in 1794?!”#or - “is my life worthy of a republic”#that latter one actually does work ;)
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Reblogged le-vieux-cordelier
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“Many call the journalist ”Camille Desmoulins” and not ”Desmoulins.” The man of letters Linguet, the deputies Mirabeau, Sillery and Anthoine, and a number of the correspondents to the journal, even if they’ve never met its author, settle for ”Camille.” How can one not be surprised over that? After all, the habit of the century is to refer to men by their surname only, even when they are well known; the use of the first name hardly goes beyond the intimate circle. Historians have explained this apparent familiarity by the journalist’s youth and cheerfulness; how many authors, taking up the formula of Robespierre (1794) have not called him ”a spoiled child”? And how many, since Michelet (1847) ”un enfant terrible”? In the eyes of everyone, Camille is ”this child so naïve and so spiritual” that Fréron celebrates after the revolutionary events. One calls him by his firstname, like one would for a rascal… Nothing is more incorrect. From 1790, ”Camille” ceases to be a firstname to become a name; the journalist becomes ”Camille” or ”Camille-Desmoulins,” and it’s the letter C one must search for in the index of Révolutions de Paris or in le Petit dictionnaire des grands hommes de la Révolution. For those who identify him with the speaker of Palais-Royal, for Loustalot, for Cloots, for Robespierre, he has become the French Camillus; and he himself is convinced of having saved the revolution on July 12, like the general Camillus saved Rome from Brennus in the fourth century BCE. Where many contemporaries opt for ancient sounding names (Anacharsis Cloots, Gracchus Babeuf, Anaxagoras Chaumette…), the journalist manages to transform his name into a Roman and glorious reference. His opponents, moreover, do not fail to mock such a clever sleight of hand: ”His godfather, who meddled in judical astrology,” one reads in the Chronique du Manège (1790), ”thought it neccesary to give him at baptism the name of Camille. He had read in the stars that one day his godson would save France from the rapacity of the ministers, as once Furius Camillus had saved Rome from the fury of Brennus. This prediction has fortunately come true, and posterity will always share its admiration between Camille the dictator and Camille the folliculaire.” The attack is part of a work meant to discredit, that the journalist perceives as the ransom of his notority: if he has become ”Camille,” it’s because he matters in the political arena.”

— Camille et Lucile Desmoulins: un rêve de république (2018) by Hervé Leuwers, chapter 9.

#frev#camille desmoulins#camille! he'd be delighted to know that he is still camille 200+ years later
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Reblogged le-vieux-cordelier
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Ni Cicéron, ni Caton
Ni Cicéron ni Caton d’Utique, les deux grandes figures convoquées, ne lui offrent de solution. D’un côté, Camille Desmoulins » s’appuie sur Cicéron, qui affirme que le sage agit en tenant compte des exigences du moment ; mais en composant avec les vices de son siècle, l’orateur antique a voulu retarder l’effondrement de la république, sans y parvenir. Le « vieux cordelier », quant à lui, ressemble à l’austère Caton, en oubliant que son intransigeance républicaine a finalement hâté le « retour de la monarchie ». Une lueur d’espoir, pourtant, apparaît à l’issue du dialogue, lorsque « Camille Desmoulins » répète sa dénonciation de la contre-révolution à bonnet rouge, qui ne peut que faire haïr la république. N’est-ce pas une invitation à unir les Cicéron et les Caton contre les ultras ?

Camille et Lucile Desmoulins: Un rêve de république, Hervé Leuwers

#amazing art#camille desmoulins#frev#okay so i can almost follow the text? based on my spanish and portuguese and latin#translation to the rescue but looks like french will be next to learn
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