full citizenship for Jews and Protestants (and, er, actors)
I keep think of that exchange from "The Producers":
Leo Bloom: Actors are not animals! They're human beings! Max Bialystock: They are? Have you ever eaten with one?
― The Doug Walters of Crime (Tom D.), Saturday, 17 December 2016 19:48 (seven years ago) link
nearly done with 'greater safety,' wanna throw a shoutout to Mirabeau. I've been thinking--if he'd survived past 1791, would he have succeeded in making the revolution a bit more moderate? the assemblymen/convention deputies seemed to respond to strong personalities, and it seems like he had enough charisma to counter Danton. and he was an effective operator, not just a mouthpiece, with the admiration on some of those who eventually reigned in terror.
then again, he might've found his head on the guillotine like Orleans did.
― old cloud yells at man (voodoo chili), Tuesday, 25 June 2019 17:35 (four years ago) link
Being a Royalist double agent would scarcely have helped matters tbf.
― Orpheus Knutt (Tom D.), Tuesday, 25 June 2019 17:49 (four years ago) link
it certainly turned out to be a liability, but it was certainly more excusable during his lifetime than it was shortly afterward
― old cloud yells at man (voodoo chili), Tuesday, 25 June 2019 18:05 (four years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i45Y4Hf_so8
― I've Got A Ron Wood Solo Album To Listen To (Tom D.), Wednesday, 4 December 2019 23:05 (four years ago) link
otm
― éminence rose et jaune (Noodle Vague), Wednesday, 4 December 2019 23:24 (four years ago) link
so i'm at the point in a place of greater safety where the shadow of THE MACHINE is just starting to loom, and the charlotte corday legend took me down a terrible terrible addictive but so terrible late-night rabbit hole — which ended up (CN: severed heads) here
which is a lengthy foucault-shaped discussion of the philosophical and medico-legal debates about the biopolitics of the self when the revolution (and the guillotine) transformed the relevant rhetorics of justification in the capital punishment debate
this is the charlotte corday legend: marat’s assassin was seized, jailed, tried, sentenced and executed, all very speedily, without much resistance on her part (she believed she’d acted bravely, nobly and correctly; she entirely expected this outcome and more or less gave herself up to the authorities). as her head dropped into the basket, a fellow named legros stepped onto the platform, grabbed it and slapped it hard. the crowd — so it’s said — saw corday’s cheeks redden, as an angry scowl passed across her face…
(legros got a three-month sentence for this act btw: part of the the official executioner’s job was to ensure égalité, which meant that no one got to mess with certain bodies, however enragingly anti-revolutionary their crime)
anyway the piece is less about the modern-day science of how long a severed head retains consciousness, awareness, sensation (if it does at all: modern-day opinion remains divided), and also not much about the facts in the corday case (and several similar urban-myth type tales, from ann boleyn to the 1980s). It’s more about the specifics (and the jargon) of the philosophical debate that erupted in the late 1790s and early 1800s, in other words after the fall of robespierre, when it started maybe to be a bit safer to argue that the guillotine was (in general) bad not good. the argument in favour had after all been that (as well as equality of punishment) — it delivered a minimum of suffering (bcz death was instant), but if death wasn’t instant, this was exactly and dreadfully untrue. what if a head knew for many terrible seconds what was still going on, processing thoughts, feelings and emotions…
anyway that’s the rabbithole, and boy do I advise against diving down it
― mark s, Saturday, 2 October 2021 13:39 (two years ago) link
revolutionary who spent his entire tumbrel-ride to the guillotine alternately fainting and shrieking in terror: jacques hébert aka père duchesne, the bombastic leader of the enragés
also the guillotine operator did three lol-troll fake-out runs on him -- blade falls but then stops short -- before actually chopping off his head (which doesn't seem very scientific)
― mark s, Tuesday, 19 October 2021 12:15 (two years ago) link
also i just learned that marat's death-bath was filled with cooling water rather than boiling hot
― mark s, Tuesday, 19 October 2021 12:16 (two years ago) link
Because of his painful skin condition?
― Double Chocula (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 19 October 2021 12:17 (two years ago) link
In July, I read Jeremy D. Popkin's newish A New World Begins: The History of the French Revolution. Quite good on the Revolution's social advances and sans-culottes hypocrisies and heresies.
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 19 October 2021 12:19 (two years ago) link
(xp) That was Marat. That's why he was in the bath when Mme. Corday came a-calling.
― Starmer: "Let the children boogie, let all the children boogie." (Tom D.), Tuesday, 19 October 2021 12:26 (two years ago) link
i knew abt the condition, i just somehow always imagined the bath was very hot and that this contributed to marat's constant fury
― mark s, Tuesday, 19 October 2021 12:29 (two years ago) link
He thought, "You know what? This will make a great painting one day".
― Starmer: "Let the children boogie, let all the children boogie." (Tom D.), Tuesday, 19 October 2021 12:30 (two years ago) link
with good reason: jacques-louis david was right there! he's the instagram influencer of the national convention
― mark s, Tuesday, 19 October 2021 12:37 (two years ago) link
Just realized I misread J. Redd's post, I thought he was saying Hébert had a painful skin condition. Wouldn't have surprised, they were an unhealthy lot, Robespierre was forever pulling a sickie.
― Starmer: "Let the children boogie, let all the children boogie." (Tom D.), Tuesday, 19 October 2021 12:37 (two years ago) link
apparently he had a pain in the jaw before he was guillotined, that hypochondriac
― So who you gonna call? The martini police (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Tuesday, 19 October 2021 12:55 (two years ago) link
The wee fella wis up tae high doh in the weeks afore Thermidor. As Boaby might say.
― Starmer: "Let the children boogie, let all the children boogie." (Tom D.), Tuesday, 19 October 2021 13:44 (two years ago) link
the lancet has opinions
"his disease did not play any part in his death" <-- hard to argue with i suppose
― mark s, Tuesday, 19 October 2021 14:04 (two years ago) link
Believe there is an R.E.M. song that mentions the incident. This one.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWgTv9TvZys
― Double Chocula (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 19 October 2021 15:33 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0rgeQ0QD-o🎥 Napolean XIV - They're Coming To Take Me Away, Ha-Haaa!
― Typo? Negative! (Boring, Maryland), Tuesday, 19 October 2021 15:35 (two years ago) link
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KZXI9RJSgok
― Double Chocula (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 19 October 2021 16:16 (two years ago) link
^Probably my favorite song related to this, DO U SEE?
― Double Chocula (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 19 October 2021 16:27 (two years ago) link
Almost forgot this one, close second: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXa8IXvaW0I
― Double Chocula (James Redd and the Blecchs), Tuesday, 19 October 2021 16:42 (two years ago) link
charlotte corday stabbing the gallagher bros in *their* bath, no committee of public safety in the land wd have guillotined her
― mark s, Tuesday, 19 October 2021 17:14 (two years ago) link
ps not to step on a joak but the "pain in the jaw" alfred mentioned was from being shot in it when arrested (possibly by RP himself possibly by an arresting officer, the wikipedia version of events in his final 48 hours is the opposite of lucid but i also think there were several rival versions of said events)
― mark s, Wednesday, 20 October 2021 12:38 (two years ago) link
I dunno, pretty sure that Wikipedia editor was on the scene as events unfolded
― Gimme some skin! Because I don't have any skin. (Old Lunch), Wednesday, 20 October 2021 13:05 (two years ago) link
His brother jumped out a window and broke his leg(s) too I think? And somebody else did succeed in blowing their brains out which Maxie might have been trying to do.
― Starmer: "Let the children boogie, let all the children boogie." (Tom D.), Wednesday, 20 October 2021 13:09 (two years ago) link
executed alongside hébert: craz name crazy wig!
prussian-dutch rather than french, anarchist and internationalist, he shd still probably be in the OP list (esp.as these are basically the reasons he was guillotined)
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bc/Anacharsis_Cloots_-_Ecrits_révolutionnaires.jpg/800px-Anacharsis_Cloots_-_Ecrits_révolutionnaires.jpg
― mark s, Wednesday, 20 October 2021 16:12 (two years ago) link
anyway i finished a place of greater safety, no spoilers but only a handful of the characters make it through with their heads on etc lol
based on previous mantel experience i will need to reread to get some of what's going on: also it was published in 90s but actually written in the 70s and is i think very different in how it manages material to wolf hall et al
― mark s, Thursday, 21 October 2021 11:58 (two years ago) link
The French Revolution was an obsession of mine a couple of years back so don't get me started on those Thermidorian so-and-so's.
― Starmer: "Let the children boogie, let all the children boogie." (Tom D.), Thursday, 21 October 2021 12:12 (two years ago) link
les wojacques:
the best thing ive ever participated in the creation of (i selected almost all of the people and positions, tost did the actual work of photoshopping them into this) pic.twitter.com/SkYSY3tEKC— Femboy Political Theology (@OldDreyfusard) March 18, 2022
― mark s, Friday, 18 March 2022 17:44 (two years ago) link
v useful chart.
― Fizzles, Friday, 18 March 2022 18:43 (two years ago) link
Is it? It’s of interest to me cause I’ve been reading about the revolution. But that version of the political compass just seems like a vehicle to promote libertarianism. Surely there’s some less arbitrary axis than ‘libertarian vs authoritarian’. Just one example, the Girondins are separated from Robespierre here but weren’t they actually pretty close? Maybe that axis really just refers to the degree of fondness for the guillotine?
― recovering internet addict/shitposter (viborg), Saturday, 19 March 2022 10:51 (two years ago) link
I don't know what the Girondins have to do with libertarianism, or why Dantonists are further left than Robespierre or why Robespierre isn't further left than the Girondins, for that matter. Or what is authoritarian about Babeuf etc.
― Alfred Ndwego of Kenya (Tom D.), Saturday, 19 March 2022 11:13 (two years ago) link
basically i just like the faces
― mark s, Saturday, 19 March 2022 12:17 (two years ago) link
OTM
― Alfred Ndwego of Kenya (Tom D.), Saturday, 19 March 2022 12:47 (two years ago) link
https://static.dezeen.com/uploads/2022/11/olympic-paralympic-mascot-hero-1704x959.jpg
https://www.dezeen.com/2022/11/17/paris-french-revolution-hats-olympic-paralympic-mascots/
― conrad, Thursday, 17 November 2022 13:36 (one year ago) link
https://pyxis.nymag.com/v1/imgs/188/b26/44452f4a73fd2a6cb18f27c644c5c7a1f0-9-smurfs-1.2x.rhorizontal.w700.jpg
Reckless and Unrepentant Smurfs Continue Their Defiance
― mark s, Thursday, 17 November 2022 13:54 (one year ago) link
it seems like this is the thread we come to when we’re rabbitholing the revolution due to mantel’s place of greater safetyhi it’s me this reread has convinced me i finally need to do actual history reading to get a better grasp on all the players & surrounding events etc thinking of - Christopher Hibbert “french revolution”- RR Palmer “twelve who ruled”any other recommendations? i don’t think Schama is for me - too populist? idk. i liked his art history years ago but this seems out of his lane. but i do need a ~good~ overview, and at least one good specific robespierre bc he intrigues me
― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 4 March 2023 20:12 (one year ago) link
how are we doing on this fine Ventose day
― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 4 March 2023 20:14 (one year ago) link
I liked Jeremy D. Popkin's 2021 A New World Begins: The History of the French Revolution
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 4 March 2023 20:14 (one year ago) link
i tried schama but i didn't vibe with him at _all_, he seemed to be coming from a very different place than i was and nothing he was saying seemed to make much sense to me.
― Kate (rushomancy), Saturday, 4 March 2023 20:21 (one year ago) link
from cursory research seems like a few of revolution historians disagree w him too
― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 4 March 2023 20:24 (one year ago) link
xxpost that looks like exactly what i’m after, thx Alfred!
― werewolves of laudanum (VegemiteGrrl), Saturday, 4 March 2023 20:34 (one year ago) link
schama shd turn his mind to the reckless and unrepentent smurfs imo
― mark s, Saturday, 4 March 2023 20:36 (one year ago) link
is Ruth Scurr's Fatal Purity any good? I bought the paperback but the print was too small and a struggle for my bad eyesight. I managed to acquire the e-book but seem to recall someone on here being unimpressed with it.
― calzino, Saturday, 4 March 2023 20:53 (one year ago) link
i enjoyed mike duncan's revolutions podcast on this particular revolution: he was good at clarifying who was thinking what and how this or that group's political stance could be genuinely radical one month and then cofusedly reactionary the next without having changed much in-between
― mark s, Saturday, 4 March 2023 21:02 (one year ago) link
I think "Twelve Who Ruled" was the first thing I read on the French Revolution - I've never read the Hilary Mantel novel - anyway it rules. "Robespierre: A Revolutionary Life" by Peter McPhee is also very good. Both are fairly favourable towards Robespierre. I wouldn't go anywhere near Simon Schama on this particular subject.
― Maggot Bairn (Tom D.), Saturday, 4 March 2023 21:16 (one year ago) link
― calzino, Saturday
I mentioned it upthread. Solid as research but his identification with Robespierre gave me the creeps.
― Malevolent Arugula (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, 4 March 2023 22:06 (one year ago) link