/DOUBLEPOSTS LIKE A BOSS
I have apparently TOTALLY gotten over the book reading issue from my previous post (IN ABOUT TWO HOURS WHAT AN ACCOMPLISHMENT), and have been reading Vive La Revolution ALL DAY. Omg it's so fucking good. I REALIZE A LOT OF YOU ALL HAVE READ IT ALREADY in which case you can totally ignore this entire post I guess except the part where I talk to Squeak about cats purring??? BUT OMG
IT'S SO AMAZING YOU GUYS I CAN'T EVEN... IT BEGINS THUS:
"My introduction to the French Revolution was on an unemployed afternoon in the late 1970s, slouched in front of Blue Peter, the children's television program. This is a long-running show, famous for the condescending manner of the hosts, as they explain issues such as how a rocket works, or how to make your own rabbit hutch. But on this day there followed an item on Marie Antoinette, the last Queen of France. She loved beautiful clothes, they said, and was admired for her exquisite taste in jewelry, making her loved by the people of France. Then the mood changed, and we were told how "outside agitators" spread untrue rumors about the Queen's greedy habits. And we were shown a silhouette of a cloaked man on a horse throwing leaflets into the cobbled street. This, apparently, lead to the revolution, depicted as a shadowy crowd with pikes, while four of five actors shouted "down with ze queen". I can't recall what followed, though presumably someone showed you how to make your own guillotine using a shoebox, and elastic band, and a box cutter."
/GESTURES AT THIS BOOK???
Also the way he describes people makes me seriously love, like, EVERYONE EVER? FOR EXAMPLE: PREVIOUSLY I WAS MEH ABOUT ROUSSEAU BUT NOW THAT I KNOW HE TRIED TO MAKE INVISIBLE INK THAT ACCIDENTALLY EXPLODED AND BLINDED HIM FOR SIX WEEKS I AM INEXPLICABLY FOND OF HIM. The way he describes Marat makes him sound totally adorable as well; the monarchists look to be threatening to take things back over and nearly everyone but him flees Paris and he just... sits in his bath going "THE MONARCHY IS ABOUT AS MUCH USE AS A FIFTH WHEEL ON A CART!!!" and eventually marries his mistress w/o a priest "before the Supreme Being, in the vast temple of Nature". I JUST WANT TO RUFFLE HIS HAIR.
And then the author has this to say about Robespierre: "He was probably the sort of activist who calls you at one in the morning and says 'I want to speak to you because I feel you're not convinced about the political importance of changing the meeting night from Wednesday to Thursday', the type who would be invited to a wedding and say 'Ah that will be handy as Terry will be there and I need to convince him to take over as treasurer' and then be utterly bemused when Terry says 'Not now, Robespierre, I'm getting married in ten minutes.'"
(How much do I hope I get the opportunity to use the phrase "not now, Robespierre" in future conversations? SO MUCH.*)
Some other unrelated but entertaining passages: "Perhaps the most spectacular looting was at the St Lazare monastery, where 52 cartloads of hoarded grain were taken. Then every part of the monastery was pilfered, and one boy took a skeleton, which he dragged up five flights of stairs to his room. Obviously a college student."
"...Lafayette, who walked around Paris carrying a sword, a proper huge sword in an Errol Flynn scabbard. And he was a "moderate", which is the kind of moderation I could live with. How refreshing if Rudy Giuliani appeared on NBC saying, 'I'm proud to be a moderate but I won't stand for that' and unsheathed a sword."
"Other groups were set up by sans-culotte women, such as the splendidly-titled Fraternal Society of Patriots of the Other Sex."
(Mark Steel also keeps bringing up the fact that is was the sole duty of some unfortunate peasants to stand at the water features owned by nobility with a broom and chase frogs away so that their frog noises wouldn't disturb their lords. He refers to this as frog-swishing. Nothing is as good as this book.)
hamdrax: in english we say "purr" which is sort of it but not quite
hamdrax: in french the word is "ronronner"
hamdrax: and then he says
hamdrax: the german word is probably "katzensnoren"
sexybiopsy: LMFAO
hamdrax: sdhsdljfgsljdfsgfsglfd!!!!!!
sexybiopsy: skfjghdfkjg
sexybiopsy: GERMAN !!!
hamdrax: IT'S SO TRUE, FUCK
sexybiopsy: ...it's "schnurren"
hamdrax: ...ohhhh
hamdrax: ohh german
hamdrax: /touches it
sexybiopsy: german you never disappoint
hamdrax: dsfh;fds I KNOW RIGHT
sexybiopsy: in welsh it's grwndi ????
sexybiopsy: noko is grwning
sexybiopsy: or schnurring
hamdrax: I still want to use katzensnoren
sexybiopsy: kjhdfgg
sexybiopsy: yeah.
hamdrax: idc if it's wrong.
*ETA: hamdrax: I googled "not now Robespierre" and I got, among other things, this http://i393.photobucket.com/albums/pp14/Inverted_Heptagram_Star/MaximilienRobespierre1758-1794.jpg
sixbagatelles: that looks like not now Saint-Just
hamdrax: yeah it does.
hamdrax: "stop interrupting our virtuous republican discussion with your well-tailored trousers and your artfully debauched hairdo"
sixbagatelles: YES
boleroriot: They just look so...displeased
hamdrax: YES
hamdrax: and Saint-Just is like BUT MAX
hamdrax: THERE IS THIS THING ON THE FLOOR I MUST POINT AT
hamdrax: LOOK IT'S VERY IMPORTANT
hamdrax: and Robespierre is like goddamnit S-J do I have to reach into my waistcoat and get out my hanky to brandish at you
hamdrax: ..or something
hamdrax: OH OH I KNOW
hamdrax: S-J IS WARNING THEM THAT THERE IS AN ASSASSIN HIDING UNDER THAT MAGNIFICENTLY TASSELED TABLECLOTH
hamdrax: AND THEY ARE SUSPICIOUS BECAUSE ...
hamdrax: ....THE LAST THREE TIMES HE RUSHED IN TO TELL THEM THAT IT WAS THE FAMILY DOG
IT'S SO AMAZING YOU GUYS I CAN'T EVEN... IT BEGINS THUS:
"My introduction to the French Revolution was on an unemployed afternoon in the late 1970s, slouched in front of Blue Peter, the children's television program. This is a long-running show, famous for the condescending manner of the hosts, as they explain issues such as how a rocket works, or how to make your own rabbit hutch. But on this day there followed an item on Marie Antoinette, the last Queen of France. She loved beautiful clothes, they said, and was admired for her exquisite taste in jewelry, making her loved by the people of France. Then the mood changed, and we were told how "outside agitators" spread untrue rumors about the Queen's greedy habits. And we were shown a silhouette of a cloaked man on a horse throwing leaflets into the cobbled street. This, apparently, lead to the revolution, depicted as a shadowy crowd with pikes, while four of five actors shouted "down with ze queen". I can't recall what followed, though presumably someone showed you how to make your own guillotine using a shoebox, and elastic band, and a box cutter."
/GESTURES AT THIS BOOK???
Also the way he describes people makes me seriously love, like, EVERYONE EVER? FOR EXAMPLE: PREVIOUSLY I WAS MEH ABOUT ROUSSEAU BUT NOW THAT I KNOW HE TRIED TO MAKE INVISIBLE INK THAT ACCIDENTALLY EXPLODED AND BLINDED HIM FOR SIX WEEKS I AM INEXPLICABLY FOND OF HIM. The way he describes Marat makes him sound totally adorable as well; the monarchists look to be threatening to take things back over and nearly everyone but him flees Paris and he just... sits in his bath going "THE MONARCHY IS ABOUT AS MUCH USE AS A FIFTH WHEEL ON A CART!!!" and eventually marries his mistress w/o a priest "before the Supreme Being, in the vast temple of Nature". I JUST WANT TO RUFFLE HIS HAIR.
And then the author has this to say about Robespierre: "He was probably the sort of activist who calls you at one in the morning and says 'I want to speak to you because I feel you're not convinced about the political importance of changing the meeting night from Wednesday to Thursday', the type who would be invited to a wedding and say 'Ah that will be handy as Terry will be there and I need to convince him to take over as treasurer' and then be utterly bemused when Terry says 'Not now, Robespierre, I'm getting married in ten minutes.'"
(How much do I hope I get the opportunity to use the phrase "not now, Robespierre" in future conversations? SO MUCH.*)
Some other unrelated but entertaining passages: "Perhaps the most spectacular looting was at the St Lazare monastery, where 52 cartloads of hoarded grain were taken. Then every part of the monastery was pilfered, and one boy took a skeleton, which he dragged up five flights of stairs to his room. Obviously a college student."
"...Lafayette, who walked around Paris carrying a sword, a proper huge sword in an Errol Flynn scabbard. And he was a "moderate", which is the kind of moderation I could live with. How refreshing if Rudy Giuliani appeared on NBC saying, 'I'm proud to be a moderate but I won't stand for that' and unsheathed a sword."
"Other groups were set up by sans-culotte women, such as the splendidly-titled Fraternal Society of Patriots of the Other Sex."
(Mark Steel also keeps bringing up the fact that is was the sole duty of some unfortunate peasants to stand at the water features owned by nobility with a broom and chase frogs away so that their frog noises wouldn't disturb their lords. He refers to this as frog-swishing. Nothing is as good as this book.)
hamdrax: in english we say "purr" which is sort of it but not quite
hamdrax: in french the word is "ronronner"
hamdrax: and then he says
hamdrax: the german word is probably "katzensnoren"
sexybiopsy: LMFAO
hamdrax: sdhsdljfgsljdfsgfsglfd!!!!!!
sexybiopsy: skfjghdfkjg
sexybiopsy: GERMAN !!!
hamdrax: IT'S SO TRUE, FUCK
sexybiopsy: ...it's "schnurren"
hamdrax: ...ohhhh
hamdrax: ohh german
hamdrax: /touches it
sexybiopsy: german you never disappoint
hamdrax: dsfh;fds I KNOW RIGHT
sexybiopsy: in welsh it's grwndi ????
sexybiopsy: noko is grwning
sexybiopsy: or schnurring
hamdrax: I still want to use katzensnoren
sexybiopsy: kjhdfgg
sexybiopsy: yeah.
hamdrax: idc if it's wrong.
*ETA: hamdrax: I googled "not now Robespierre" and I got, among other things, this http://i393.photobucket.com/albums/pp14/Inverted_Heptagram_Star/MaximilienRobespierre1758-1794.jpg
sixbagatelles: that looks like not now Saint-Just
hamdrax: yeah it does.
hamdrax: "stop interrupting our virtuous republican discussion with your well-tailored trousers and your artfully debauched hairdo"
sixbagatelles: YES
boleroriot: They just look so...displeased
hamdrax: YES
hamdrax: and Saint-Just is like BUT MAX
hamdrax: THERE IS THIS THING ON THE FLOOR I MUST POINT AT
hamdrax: LOOK IT'S VERY IMPORTANT
hamdrax: and Robespierre is like goddamnit S-J do I have to reach into my waistcoat and get out my hanky to brandish at you
hamdrax: ..or something
hamdrax: OH OH I KNOW
hamdrax: S-J IS WARNING THEM THAT THERE IS AN ASSASSIN HIDING UNDER THAT MAGNIFICENTLY TASSELED TABLECLOTH
hamdrax: AND THEY ARE SUSPICIOUS BECAUSE ...
hamdrax: ....THE LAST THREE TIMES HE RUSHED IN TO TELL THEM THAT IT WAS THE FAMILY DOG