Nesya

[burningdreambanana]

"Let them call me what they wish, Brutus or Herostratus, I will not have them forget me."

Herostratus was a Greek man who burned down the second Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, allegedly to seek fame.

Brutus is both Lucius Junius Brutus, one of the founders of the Roman Republic, successfully overthrowing Tarquinius Superbus and Marcus Junius Brutus, the most famous of the assassins of Julius Caesar.

They represent the three possible outcomes after Lorenzo murders Alexander: either he will be accused of only seeking fame, and people won't recognize the political aim behind it, either he will succeed and people will recognize the political aim behind it but he will be deemed an assassin, fail to bring down the tyranny (Alexander will simply be replaced by another tyrant) and be loaded, or he will succeed in creating a movement that will bring back the Republic.

Lorenzo will fail to start a popular movement as he predicted, as Alexander will be replaced by his authoritarian cousin Cosimo de Medici. He is more like Brutus the Younger in the end.

[lolochaponnay]

[doodleswiki]

15 years ago (Dec 11th, 2010) - Alfred de Musset's Birthday

This doodle was shown in France

Doodle made by unknown

[mournfulroses]

George Sand, from a translated letter to Alfred de Musset, featured in «Ô mon George, ma belle maîtresse...»: Lettres

[unhonestlymirror]

"This state of ecstasy, which I myself admire, Albert, turns into a disease when it lasts. Make no mistake about it: God does not approve of a person so renouncing the feeling and awareness of reality and so often falling into vague ideas of an abstract world. Such intoxication ends in madness and rage. It is, as it were, a retribution for pride and idleness."

(c) "Consuelo", George Sand.

[protectyouropacities]

“What an age! Every one is dying, everything is dying, and the earth is dying also, eaten up by the sun and the wind. I don’t know where I get the courage to keep on living in the midst of these ruins. Let us love each other to the end.”

— George Sand, letter to Gustave Flaubert (June 27, 1870)

[mournfulroses]

Alfred de Musset, from a translated letter to George Sand, featured in «Ô mon George, ma belle maîtresse...»: Lettres

[1five1two]

There are moments of exaltation and ecstasy when our thoughts become, in a way, more pure, more subtle, more ethereal. These rare moments raise us up so high, carry us so far out of ourselves, that when we fall back to earth we lose the consciousness and the memory of that intellectual intoxication. Who can understand the anchorite’s mysterious visions? Who can relate the dreams of the poet before his emotion has cooled so that he can write them down for us?

George Sand

[1five1two]

There are moments of exaltation and ecstasy when our thoughts become, in a way, more pure, more subtle, more ethereal. These rare moments raise us up so high, carry us so far out of ourselves, that when we fall back to earth we lose the consciousness and the memory of that intellectual intoxication. Who can understand the anchorite’s mysterious visions? Who can relate the dreams of the poet before his emotion has cooled so that he can write them down for us?

George Sand

[moonkissedletters]

"But whom to love?

To trust and treasure? Who won't betray us in the end? And who'll be kind enough to measure Our words and deeds as we intend?"

-Alexander Pushkin, Eugene Onegin

[moonkissedletters]

"But whom to love?

To trust and treasure? Who won't betray us in the end? And who'll be kind enough to measure Our words and deeds as we intend?"

-Alexander Pushkin, Eugene Onegin

[litandlifequotes]

My dreams, my dreams! What has become of their sweetness? What indeed has become of my youth?

Eugene Onegin by Alexander Pushkin

[metamorphesque]

Eugene Onegin, Alexander Pushkin

[metamorphesque]

"I`ve lived to bury my desires…", Alexander Pushkin (translated by Maurice Baring)

[lelif]

childhood

?// the opposite of a haunting is something very lonely, katie maria (by @heavensghost )// @smokedsugar// @mango-season// virgin suicides (1999)// aristotle and dante discover the secrets of the universe, benjamin alire sáenz//empty bed, cavetown// @princesskuragina// to die for, carol lee// anna haifisch// amy dunne// look who's inside again, bo burnham// how'd your parents die again, fatima asghar// richey edwards

[arylleth]

Hatred, I learned quickly, was the antidote to sadness. It was the only safe feeling. Hatred does not make you cry at school. It isn’t vulnerable. Hatred is efficient. It does not grovel. It is pure power. [...] Soon, my father and I found ourselves alone in this world, and our simmering hatred had nowhere to go but toward each other.

[lionofchaeronea]

I just finished (in one afternoon) the superb dystopian novel Kallocain by Karin Boye, originally published in Swedish in 1940. Set in a 21st-century "World State," a blend of Stalinist Russia and Nazi Germany, it's told in the first person by a scientist whose newest invention -- a 100% effective truth serum -- threatens to expose citizens' innermost secrets to the merciless gaze of the authorities. There are definite similarities to We and Brave New World, the former in particular, but it's still very much its own beast. Boye, who was first and foremost a poet, had a profound interest in the relationship between the inner and outer self, and she's excellent at portraying the relentless self-deception individuals must practice just to survive under totalitarianism. A book well suited to its times, and to our times.