Miroir, miroir, dans le mur...
Death is the beginning of immortality.
From his last speech to the National Convention, July 26, 1794.
Although I'd have to disagree with Maxime a bit here. Immortality begins by the actions we take in life, death is simply the transition between the mortal and the immortal...
So I just picked up a copy of Fatal Purity for a bit of nonfiction reading. It looks pretty solid, and given how fond I am of Robespierre, learning anything new about the man would be interesting, in a way. I'd like to figure him out sometime in the course of my life, because really, I'm not so ready to sign him off to the "dictatorial nutcase" pile with people like Hitler, Stalin, and Mao. Based on what I've read, he seems genuine enough -- while people like the three dictators mentioned above seem to be despicable and abuse ideals for their own purposes, Robespierre seems to have an air of meaning, a feeling that he earnestly believes in what he preaches. This does not excuse his actions, of course, he is responsible for the deaths of 2,500 Frenchmen within a roughly 5 month timetable, but from everything I've gathered... it seems like he saw no other option. His child, the Revolution itself, was to be protected by any means necessary.
Besides that, we're reading Frankenstein in English now. I read it once before and appreciated it quite a bit, and rereading it in-depth is reaching to the depths of my heart (It's that much better than Pride and Prejudice). As such, I think I'll write a psychological journal entry after each reading section, just to prod at my mentality and my inner reactionary. I haven't gone exploring in my psyche for a while, and the points consigned within Frankenstein seem to evoke a need to do that. Themes can do a lot. =P I'll probably post fragments of entries up every so often, just so whoever actually reads this thing can take a look at the Escher world below from a safe little balcony.
All in all, and though it seems unnecessarily early to be questioning my mark on the world, I hope it will be a positive one. There's no point to living if the impact of existence isn't felt for years, decades, centuries, millennia... go out with a bang, not a whimper.