best described as a palimpsest

your friendly neighborhood lemur | she/her | AO3: lemurious | tumblr old | Classical Greece & Rome, French Revolution(s), Les Miserables, Tolkien | writing tag: #lemur writes |

[amateurvoltaire]

Did I have a lot of work today? Of course I did.

Is this an art blog? Not really.

Do I have 19,990 unfinished drafts on various interesting topics (imo)? Naturally.

Is there an unfinished Bonchamps in the room judging me? Of course there is.

Did I spend 50 minutes sketching what I choose to believe is Lucille in charcoal because I randomly found an old charcoal set? Of course I did.

[cheeri1yfrancis]

my (incomplete) paris frev guide

so i’ve returned from my 3 day paris trip, and i’ve had various people ask me where i saw certain frev related things, or how to find certain locations, so i’ve decided to make a post of everything frev related that i saw, roughly in chronological order :)

so the first place i visited was the pantheon- it was the furthest south out of everywhere else i visited, so if you visit it’s worth putting aside a decent amount of time for getting there and back. here, i saw the national convention monument, and in the crypt i visited rousseau, voltaire, victor hugo, alexander dumas, carnot, and condercet. you’ll also have to pay €13-16 to enter, though it’s free for children and i believe eu residents under 25…

next, i visited the conciergerie- this was also €16 but free for under 18s. this was amazing- there was the statue of robespierre, but also a lot of good information about and artefacts from the revolutionary tribunal, as well as information about the women executed in the revolution. it’s very haunting to know that most of the frev figures spent their final hours in the building that you’re standing in 🥲

i also saw the luxembourg gardens (camille and danton were imprisoned here for a bit)

near there, is the danton monument! it’s just outside the l’odeon metro station, and he has a restaurant and cinema named after him. there’s a little side street almost directly in front of the statue, and if you go down it, you’ll see a plaque which marks danton’s house! 

the next day, i visited the palais royal, where camille gave his famous speech. this was outside the café foy, which was apparently numbers 56-60 on the galerie de montpensier, which is one side of the palais royal :) 

i then went to the louvre which i would Not Recommend. the david paintings were great to see, but There Were So Many People. Not Fun :|

however, here’s the pavillon de flore, the cps building, or at least the partially rebuilt version thereof… it’s on the side of the louvre closest to the seine, and it’s right on the end 

here’s the place de la concorde, where the guillotine was…

i then visited the petit palais, which i really recommended frev-aside- as the name suggests, it’s a pretty small gallery, but it’s got a lot of really lovely paintings, and it isn’t full of tourists! (i say this as a tourist, but anyway….. it’s not full of tour groups, at least) but in terms of frev stuff, it has the d’angers saint-just bust, which is obviously beautiful 

then i visited the duplay/robespierre house, which is 398 rue saint-honoré, and is now a very fancy shoe shop…..

the next day, i visited the père lachaise, and i found eleonore and elisabeth- someone else has kindly marked where to find elisabeth on this map. her grave is sort of down a side street, but it’s right at the start of it, so you can see it from the main road. once you find elisabeth, follow the path down into the bushes (down some stairs) and you come out near eleonore :)) i also found jacques louis david, but his grave is marked on the official map so it’s very easy to find. 

i then visited the national archives museum, and robespierre’s table… they also have a really cool exhibition on lafayette on at the moment, which finishes on the 14th of july, and they’ve currently got napoleon’s will on show until the 29th of june. they’ve also got some of robespierre’s notes on show!!

finally, i visited the carnavalet, which is 100% a must-see for any frev fans 

if you have any questions about anything i saw, please lmk!!!

[cheeri1yfrancis]

paris day 3!!

monument to the republic (specifically the abolition of the monarchy on the statue/engraving thing)

elisabeth, eleonore, and david’s graves 🥲 i left the pink flower on elisabeth’s- next time i will bring one for eleonore too, but i didn’t have enough money, and as i wrote elisabeth to be the protagonist of my play i thought it was fitting that she got the flower :)

THE TABLE (i’m pretty sure the brownish, almost lighter, patches are robespierre’s blood, as opposed to the dark stains…)

some of robespierre’s/the committee’s notes on representatives on mission (?) (thank you @anotherhumaninthisworld !!)

THE PORTRAITS!!! you’ve got no idea how happy i was to see these, i got 0.5s that i will be posting too 😌

sj’s drawing and gun, the thermidor call to arms (more of robespierre’s blood, yay) and couthon’s wheelchair

barere 🤨 why does he look like this

assorted frev stuff!! robespierre’s hair, shaving bowl, and buttons; sj’s, robespierre’s, and le bas’s cocardes; danton’s personalised cutlery; guillotine earrings

models of the hôtel de ville and the chinese bath house 👀

and finally a hairdressers named after fabre 😭

[secondjulia]

So I'm going to New York tomorrow and I can't help thinking of your Revolutionaries in the modern world, somewhere out there in a midtown highrise... hopefully finding some peace at last <3 thank you for letting them inhabit our brains 😅

*EVIL GRIN*

I'm so happy they've occupied your brain, too! They would hate me for imagining them in New York, but I like to think it would allow them the space and time to heal, & I like to think they could still drop seeds of revolution in a place where they could possibly flourish. I hope you have a good trip!

(...for anyone to whom this is gibberish ☺️ : My Revolutionaries in the Modern World tag Origin Story )

[citizentaleo]

[theorahsart]

Incorruptible Chap 4 pt 25

OMG we finally finished chapter 4 omgggg it only took over a year 😭 A friendly reminder that you can buy vol 1 of Incorruptible here, both the print version or a pdf if you want to pay whatever price you want for it~

Also...lol a comment @anotherhumaninthisworld made before, made me wanna add this:

I wanted to add all the ways they f*cked each other over to end up in their end situations but...there is no room. Guess I'll hafta draw it all out in the comic lmao

[cheeri1yfrancis]

paris day 2!!

palais royal, and exactly where camille made his call to arms!!

pavillon de flore

some jacque louis david paintings (including marat!! and a self portrait)

napoleon’s coronation (ft. someone i’m 99.9% sure is fouché)

liberty leading the people

place de la concord!! (the guillotine was here)

SO MANY SAINT-JUSTS

louise michel my beloved

and finally robespierre/the duplays’ house 🥲 the security guard in the shop smiled and gestured to the sign, so seemingly he sees a lot of frev people on pilgrimages lmao

[theorahsart]

I'm giving you a corny af ending to this chapter 😌 But cut me some slack, I am a millennial... and since the millennial experience is all about being a 30-smth who's been thrown unexpectedly into a f*cked up world, who is culturally used to shamelessly sharing and unleashing all our emotions at every moment...I think I relate very heavily to The Jacobins lmao

So I'm sure they'd all approve of all this sentimentality.

[cheeri1yfrancis]

paris day one!!

the pantheon!!

(probably) saint-just

marat and carnot (?)

danton and robespierre :)

carnot’s tomb

danton themed EVERYTHING, plus his house

robespierre ft. a 0.5 and actually accurate information???

lucile and a TERRIFYING fouquier bust. why does he look Like That

and finally they were playing lrf in the conciergerie lmao

tomorrow i’m going to the louvre (help) and hopefully i’m gonna see the pavillon de flore, and the duplay house!!

[evulpes]

"The Colours of the Revolution": A review of a surprisingly decent FREV novel

About a year ago I came over the freshly published German novel Die Farben der Revolution: Eléonore und Robespierre (Jeanette Limbeck) and after a bit of initial scepticism – FREV fiction often tends to be more bad than not – I was actually pleasantly surprised by the result. As the title suggests the novel follows the perspective of Eléonore Duplay through 1791 to 1794, and while it is by no means flawless, it is still a reasonably informed and nuanced one for the standards of many French novels posted around here and definitely deserves a shoutout especially for those who can read German.

The positives

The author has clearly done a fair share of good secondary reading on relevant topics in revolutionary historiography in French and English (Godineau, McPhee, Linton, Leuwers...) and in fact even includes a list of major factual changes or at times inventions at the end of a book (though as we will see later there are a few she missed)

Choosing character on which there are limited sources like Eléonore Duplay can be a bit of a tricky task - it leaves room for invention but also the risk of overdoing it - but for the most part Limbeck succeeded in fleshing her out as a character. A character that shows has artistic and political interests as well as personal friendships beyond her relationship with Robespierre. A character that can be wrong - there is for example a good part in the book where the author decided to make her very enthusiatic for the revolutionary war in 1792 and let her argue with Robespierre on the topic until they finally work it out. Its also pretty good in stressing some of the limits of her outlook as a middle class woman for example as she grows increasingly suspicious of Enragé allied women like Pauline Léon and their "material interests".

And importantly the author for the most part resists the urge to make the main heroine in a historical novel a girlboss who overcomes all the sexist constraints of society through sheer brilliance. Instead she actually has to struggle with them. So, even as she gets more more interested in politics, she has to constantly work on her readings skills to get from basic literacy to actually reading comfortably (and borrow Maximilian's books) because of the limits of her primary education. When she tries to pain classical or revolutionary scenes in her painting lessons, she actually repeatedly realises or is even told by others (thank you David!) that her paintings are stale – which obviously makes sense when female painting students were to allowed to see real male bodies.

While not the POV, Robespierre is overall handled reasonably well - it definitely leans towards a more favourable perspective, especially when the authors can choose between multiple explanations and scenarios, but he is flawed in his own right. It does a pretty good job illustrating the mix of admirable conviction and frustrating self-assurance (eg. he is both very right and very arrogant when explaining why Eléonore is wrong about he war), the limits of his role in the Revolutionary government, not shying away from his growing paranoia (or indeed generally that of revolutionaries), while at the same time doing a good job of making the reader understand it under the circumstances.

For the most part it is also pretty nuanced on a great variety of players at least on the broad revolutionary "left". We can see a Danton who can be frustrating, offensive, vulgar and corrupt but also warm and humane and perhaps a bit more conventionally sympathetic but also naive Desmoulins. We get at first a little distant but increasingly sympathetic Saint-Just and see a lot more of his human side once him and Eléonore warm up to each other. We get sympathetic portrayls of women from the Citoyennes Republicaines Révolutionnaires as well as wives of other revolutionaries like Lucille or Simonne Éverad (who becomes a bit of an older advisor/friend). We even get a couple of sympathetically portrayed Hébertist sympathisers (though usually fictional), which is otherwise pretty rare in FREV media. And it even has a few quite well written interactions between Eléonore and her royalist former teacher, who is portrayed with some human sympathy but is also clearly wrong, not both-siding the issue.

Finally, the relationship between Eléonore and Robespierre is handled generally well – probably better than in any other FREV novel I read. The author goes for a romantic interpretation of the relationship, which is obviously not universally shared and can at times seem a bit overstated, but the relationship itself is reasonably good. You have an element of friendship, admiration, interest so that the relationship does seem natural but also hardly idylic with its arguments and tensions.

Also has some great moments - some more serious personal or political conversations but also funny ones. Eg. when Eléonore and Robespierre eventually start sleeping together (which is again handled a lot better than in most other FREV media), she gets very excited by the fact that she can finally improve her skills with drawing male bodies while he sleeps, only for him to wake up and start panicking what would happen if someone leaks it to the press or if god forbid (!) their children or grandchildren would find it one day.

The controversial/ mixed bag

The whole book is from Eléonore's POV which sometimes creates a tensions between when the author is trying to authentically represent her perspective and when to present a more objective analysis of situations or push her own view. For example, the Girondins basically come of as self-serving hypocrites - which may well be authentic in terms of Eléonore's perpective but is clearly reductionist if it is the author's own. By contrast, Eléonore seems to hold a lot of understanding and even sympathy for the Dantonists until the end (and while she comes to treat the trial as a political necessity, she knows they are not actually foreign agents) - which may be a more nuanced view, but not one that would represent Eléonore's opinions.

As is a bit of a tradition with women in FREV literature the author has decided to make Eléonore a lot more interested in women's rights that we have any indication she would be. Now, given how little we actually know about her, there is certainly some space to do this. In some cases it can be just fairly natural frustration about the limitations imposed on her as a woman in society - whether in the expectations of marriage or the limits on her artistic pursuits, which seems quite realistic. Her interest in issues like family law reform or education or the fact that she attends some meetings of the mixed Société des Amies de la Verité and later even of the SCRR (though she eventually parts with them), don't seem implausible either. But eventually this is simply pushed too far with the author attributing her proto-feminist views that she almost certainly did not have, especially support for womens' right to vote and even repeatedly arguing with Robespierre over the issue (as if that was something widely supported even among revolutionary women). And yes, technically all those conversations happen behind closed doors, but it seems like an instance of the author projecting views she would like the heroine to have.

While the book does a lot of good in constantly reminding the reader that Robespierre is not some bloodthirsty dictator but a member of a collective government in the middle of war, it can sometimes come off as if the burden of blame for things that go wrong is shifted to a couple "extremists" - especially Billaud, Collot, Vadier and Amar – rather then having to explain the variances and complexities of revolutionary violence.

While most characters are quite nuanced, Madame Duplay and Charlotte Robespierre clearly get the short end of the stick - with Eléonore's mother coming of a bit like a kind of Madame Bennet obsessed with securing her daughters' future and Charlotte being pretty much reduced to the jealous sister trope (though again, its Eléonore's POV).

And perhaps most controversially, the author decides to include a plot-point just before Thermidor, where Eléonore with the support of Le Bas (concerned both for the revolution and the fate of their families) try to convince Robespierre to eliminate his enemies by force and temporarily take on the role of dictator. It makes for good tension and Robespierre does quite categorically refuse the suggestion but it is certainly a very 19th century drama/dubious mémoires inspired invention.

The bad

Even apart from the final corrections (usually to do with simplifications, cutting out characters etc), there are at least two strange moments with outright incorrect descriptions of political events. Once it is claimed that appart from baning women's clubs the Convention also banned women from its galleries and from gathering in the streets in 1793, even though that only happened after the Insurrection of Prairial in 1795. It is also implied that the Law of 22 Prairial did away with any judicial process entirely, which is simply an overstatement whatever objections one can have to it.

In a bit of a Hilary Mantel-esque moment the author decides that Robespierre could not simply have come to signing the arrest warrant over Desmoulins of his own volition. Fortunately we are spared fake SA stories (indeed Danton's harasment of Elisabeth is mentioned and taken seriously). Instead, Eléonore makes some politically unsound comments criticising the repression in the Vendée and Vadier then threatens Robespierre that the CPS could issue an arrest warrant for her if he does not agree to add Desmoulins to the list. While I can take overplaying the romantic element elsewhere, this seems simply like a cop-out of a morally uncomfortable decision.

But overall, I would definitely recommend the book - it was in some respects a bit like Piercy's A City of Darkness, a City of Light with occasional modernisation or simplification, but still a well informed and nuanced book, especially in the context of FREV media.

[lemurious]

On this glorious 25th of May, here are three quotes that are only too applicable. That's what fiction is - truer than the truth.

"You saw how close men lived to the beast. You realized that people like Carcer were not mad. They were incredibly sane. They were simply men without a shield. They'd looked at the world and realized that all the rules didn't have to apply to them, not if they didn't want them to. They weren't fooled by all the little stories. They shook hands with the beast.” "How dare you? How dare you! At this time! In this place! They did the job they didn’t have to do, and they died doing it, and you can’t give them anything. Do you understand? They fought for those who’d been abandoned, they fought for one another, and they were betrayed. Men like them always are." "They hadn’t run, and they could have run with honour. They’d stayed, and he wondered if the path had seemed as clear to them then as it did to him now. They’d stayed not because they wanted to be heroes, but because they chose to think of it as their job, and it was in front of them."

- Terry Pratchett, Night Watch

[lemurious]

Here’s to the ones who deliberately step outside the ranks and ignore categorization. Here’s to the revolutionary who contradicts Newton based on experimental evidence on the diffraction of light; to the journalist who describes eye diseases; to the doctor who advocates for prison reforms; to the lifelong skeptic of lofty pretensions who is turned into a symbol before his blood has clotted.

Here’s to refusing to turn away from the fear and the violence and the treachery and the war; to claiming the guard-post, though armed with words alone. Perhaps, just enough to protect the shared ideals. Perhaps, too much. Perhaps, insufficient; history may have the answer, but how could one know that, when one is in the process of making the history happen?

Here’s to hard decisions made unflinchingly; to cutting through the rush of a new republic like a soldier escaping a siege, decisively and with full understanding of the inevitable defeat; and to words that continue to ring true as we offer complacency to the twin hydras of poverty and injustice in hope that it will be enough to escape them, just this time.

"...que la société humaine y prenne garde, on ne tuera Marat qu’en tuant la misère ; Charlotte Corday n’a rien fait ; tant qu’il y aura des misérables, il y aura sur l’horizon un nuage qui peut devenir un fantôme, et un fantôme qui peut devenir Marat." - Victor Hugo

Happy birthday, Marat.

(*engraving is from the British Museum collection)

[spockslash]

An open Tumblr letter to younger fans, from a 77-year-old TOS fangirl

* who has shipped Spirk since that night in 1967 that Amok Time first aired * and helped storm NBC to keep TOS on the air for a 3rd season * and wrote fanfic way back in the day * and was privileged to be around for the earliest days of fandom, when Leonard used to come to your house if that’s where the fan club was meeting and sit on the sofa with you in that Spock hair cut and eat cake

All of you who are writing TOS/AOS fan fiction and creating fan art now: remember, YOU are the ones shaping the traditions of fandom. You have inherited the kingdom. Bless you for keeping it vibrant, growing, alive. In fifty years, you will be the ones who are remembered for molding it and handing it down to the future. It probably doesn’t feel like now, but you are making history.

Your current addiction to TOS and the feels you get when you contemplate the love between Jim and Spock will be with you for life. It won’t always be in the forefront; you will sometimes go years, sometimes go a decade, without Star Trek being more than a passing thought. But then something will remind you and every consuming feeling you feel right now will come rushing back, every bit as powerful and deep and strong as it is today. All there, right where you left it.

The friendships you make in fandom will be with you for life. Like all friendships, they will wax and wane as the focus of your life shifts over time, but you will always be able to pick up the thread. You will — to give you a hypothetical example — be 77 years old and discover Tumblr and get a rush of Spirk feels after a decade of not giving TOS a thought, and contact your 83-year-old fangirl friend in the nursing home, to whom you haven’t spoken in several years. You will open the conversation with, “So, Jim and Spock love each other and that just makes me so happy.” And your friend in the nursing home will sigh and say, “Yes. They do love each other. It’s such a comfort.”

That look that Jim and Spock give each other, of absolute adoration and acceptance and love? That’s real. It’s rare, but it’s real. One of my greatest joys in life is to see my son and his husband give each other looks like that. Of course I don’t know you; I don’t know your strengths and struggles or your place on the spectrum of gender or anything about your sexuality or what you look like or what your life has taught you to believe about yourself, but I do know this: YOU DESERVE TO BE LOVED AND LOOKED AT THE WAY JIM AND SPOCK LOOK AT EACH OTHER. Please don’t accept less than that in your life.

The future of our planet does not seem very hopeful at the moment. But please remember that when Gene created Star Trek, the world was in turmoil and the future seemed very bleak. Star Trek is, was, always shall be about hope. Reach for it. When TOS first aired, we hoped to see some form of a Starfleet on the horizon in our lifetimes. That vision must be passed on to you. Do it. Make the world worthy of launching the human race out into space. CREATE STARFLEET.

You are all creative and funny and amazing. Far more amazing than you know. Be kind to yourselves. Live long and prosper, kids.

Tags are in reference to my first bullet point. Meant as a kudos to your work, but feel free to untag yourself if you don’t want to be linked to my ramblings; I won’t be offended! (Also, this extends to a thousand other artists and writers out there who deserve kudos. tag at will.)

[spockslash]

@spockslash​ will not be taken down until / unless tumblr takes it down.

Love from “Fandom Grandma” Dee’s children

[theorahsart]

Incorruptible Chap 4 pt 24

If you recall in chap 3, I explored how important the Jacobin Club likely was as a place of connection for Robespierre. I think about that when I read about this boycott/walk out that happened, and the events of the following day- the early impact it probably had on him and the struggle to trust people later on.

[secondjulia]

Nothing—nothing—will prepare you for a royalist account of the Girondins

if you're coming from the soft-hearted moderates perspective. The >>>forty page<<< translator's preface to Brissot's pamphlet To His Constituents can be summed up as basically "Haha, you bloodthirsty bastards deserved it", but here are some highlights:

"the royal party, and the Christian religion, never had a more determined enemy."

"All the members of the Girondin subdivision were as deeply concerned as any of the Mountain could possibly be, and some of them much more deeply, in those horrid transactions which have filled all the thinking part of Europe with the greatest detestation, and with the most serious apprehensions for the common liberty and safety."

"A question will very naturally be asked, what could induce Brissot to draw such a picture? He must have been sensible it was his own. The answer is—the inducement was the same with that which led him to partake in the perpetration of all the crimes, the calamitous effects of which he describes with the pen of a master,—Ambition. His faction, having obtained their stupendous and unnatural power by rooting out of the minds of his unhappy countrymen every principle of religion, morality, loyalty, fidelity, and honour, discovered that, when authority came into their hands, it would be a matter of no small difficulty for them to carry on government on the principles by which they had destroyed it."

"They, who on every occasion had discovered a sort of furious thirst of blood, and a greedy appetite for slaughter, who avowed and gloried in the murders and massacres of the 14th of July, of the 5th and 6th of October, and of the 10th of August, now began to be squeamish and fastidious with regard to those of the 2nd of September..."

"Under the thin veil of prediction, [Roland] strongly recommends all the abominable practices which afterwards followed. In particular, he inflamed the minds of the populace against the respectable and conscientious clergy, who became the chief objects of the massacre, and who were to him the chief objects of a malignity and rancour that one could hardly think to exist in a human heart..."

"In this memorable epistle [Roland's letter to the National Assembly on the September Massacres], he considers such excesses as fatalities arising from the very nature of things, and consequently not to be punished. He allows a space of time for the duration of these agitations; and lest he should be thought rigid and too scanty in his measure, he thinks it may be long. But he would have things to cease at length. But when, and where?—When they may approach his own person.

“ “Yesterday,” says he, “the MINISTERS were denounced…"

"He did not at all differ from either of them [the perpetrators or organizers of the massacres] in the principle of those executions, but only in the time of their duration; and that only as it affected himself."

[^the bold is mine; those caps are not.]

I'm having such mixed feelings.

On the one hand, my initial kind of shocked reaction (because, again, I cannot stress enough how much there are FORTY PAGES of It's your fault. Look at these bloodthirsty bastards...), was that it's a reminder that the Girondin & Mountain were not as different as they are sometimes portrayed, or tried to portray themselves. Whether you see either or all of these factions as patriotic or bloodthirsty, they were often on the same page.

At the same time, it makes me kind of defensive of them. The opinion of a royalist/staunch conservative is worse than meaningless in actually understanding the Revolutionaries, because it frames everything they do as illegitimate (not just the September massacres, but every challenge to the monarchy, the change in the order of society, everything.) Even in my frustration & confusion over the Girondins, I can recognize that this is hardly a reliable source of information. However, it also stands as a reminder that for those who fundamentally oppose progress, there is probably no stance the Girondins could've taken, nothing Brissot could've written that would be "moderate" enough. The overthrow of Louis XVI "a prince succeeding to the throne by the fundamental laws," was never going to be justified by someone who believes that inherent inequality and hereditary rule are just and necessary. This is the kind of perspective that stymied even the tiniest steps of progress since the Estates General. There is no point in trying to cater to this POV, because no small, incremental, moderate progress will ever be allowed to flourish; any appearance of reform can only exist within that inherited framework of "fundamental laws", i.e. fundamental inequality and control.

My defensiveness of Brissot has not entirely survived the first few pages of his pamphlet, but I think that's probably a rant for another post.

This is the English translation I'm reading. This is a cleaned-up, more searchable version of the Preface, because the old orthography is very difficult to read and the text in the pdf can't be reliably copied/searched.

[theorahsart]

Can you name all the Jacobins in this picture? >:3

[edoutft]

Thinking about the nature of revolutions