Pssst.

[trf-chan.livejournal.com]

So, I'm going to be joining the school Speech team this year, and one of the categories I'll be in is Entertainment. Basically, you present a bunch of misinformation on whatever subject it is that your speech is about. I decided to do mine on Robespierre. 8D

I've been writing up a list of the ridiculous things people believed about him or put about after his death (green skin, beheading little birdies, etc.) If anyone here has heard anything else that's particularly juicy, I would love to hear it.

On another note, I'm reading Mantel's A Place of Greater Safety right now. Awesomeness. I'm not much a fan of the prose itself, but overall, I like it a lot thus far. I also read Piercy's City of Darkness, City of Light not long ago. It was all right, but nothing special. I got a bit confused several times when reading. She...did not seem to like Lucile Desmoulins much. Or Charlotte Robespierre (mind, it seems Charlotte really was rather a...bitch, let's say, but every time I read a scene with her in that book, I was like, "Christ, did she run over your puppy or something? What do you have against this woman?!" For some reason, even though she superficially acts quite the same in Mantel's book, it seems much more...I dunno, probable, natural, something. All I can get out of Piercy's is that Charlotte brutally axe murdered her in a previous incarnation [probably for ogling Maxime] and she's trying to get revenge. XD;).

Ooh, um, wow. That's a longish paragraph.

Comments

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

When one gets to a certain point in A Place of Greater Safety, however, one sees that while Hilary Mantel is fair to Charlotte, she makes a lot of the other female characters unnecessarily...malevolent. I really don't know why.

...Then again, Charlotte was rather scarily possessive of both her brothers. Scarily.

[trf-chan.livejournal.com]

Huh. Strangeness. It's so weird how female authors always seem to hate female characters, and yet (as far as I've seen) males don't seem to hate male characters. I'm sure there's a deep, psychological explanation or something on that one, but I still find it weird.

Yee-aah, I've been noticing that. O.O; Maybe it had something to do with the loss of their parents - abandonment issues, etc.? But I don't especially want to give the matter too much thought, or I know my mind will inevitably go where I don't want it to. Eeew.

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

It is rather strange....Perhaps they're trying to prove that they don't write any differently than male authors and in the end they try too hard and it fails...?

I don't really blame you there. It's possible we don't want to know why she had problems with her brothers' involvements with women. *headdesk*

[jonahmama.livejournal.com]

Re Robespierre misinformation: this will be a longish speech. ;) Among other unsubstantiated rumors both during and after his lifetime were sexual liaisons with Camille Desmoulins (Hebert's paper referred to "a very special friendship" I believe - yeah, that's what he meant), and of course our favorite, Saint-Just. Both are potentially true or completely absurd. Take your pick. He was also rumored to drink the blood of enemies of the Republic. I'll have to look for more.

So glad you're reading POGS! I personally love the prose and find it extremely quotable. There are a couple of things specifically that I don't know where Mantel got and that I dislike (the Annette liaison and the Elisabeth episode - you'll see what I mean), but the humor and the dialogue are priceless. I didn't much care for City of Darkness either. It was a little too soapy / sappy for my taste. Mantel is wicked, salacious and witty, especially once you get into it.

[trf-chan.livejournal.com]

Aaaaaaaah, yes. :D *licks lips* If only I could incorporate the first into my speech without fear of getting a smackdown from crusty old judges. Drinking blood, though, I should be safe there. >D Awesome, thank you.

It's actually been growing on me a lot, but when I first started it rather bothered me. I like a lot of the quotes, too. I keep finding myself wanting to mark certain things in case in the future I do a skim-through for parts I liked, but I don't want to deface the book. Demmit. Yeah, it was. And I kept finding perfectly innocuous lines randomly hilarious, and repeating them out loud in a dramatic voice until I annoyed myself. ("WHY COULDN'T THEY JUST BE FRIENDS WHO FUCKED?" immediately comes to mind, though I suppose that's not so innocuous.)

[jonahmama.livejournal.com]

Um, you mean saying he might have had a homosexual relationship is taboo, but saying he was a practicing vampire is okey-dokey? What the hell is our educational system coming to?!!!

POGS quote of the day (I am thinking of starting a "Revolutionary quote of the day" column, but not sure how annoying that would be): "I should prefer not to be an object of general odium, but I wouldn't go so far as to let my preferance alter my conduct."

[kurotoshi.livejournal.com]

*laughs* Well, Robespierre was said to control weather to being Pussyfooting Tyrant Robespierre!

THIS site has them all http://www.angelfire.com/ca6/frenchrevolution89/robespierre.html

Best of luck!

[trf-chan.livejournal.com]

Haha! Pussyfooting Tyrant Robespierre = Hilarious. Next time I want to insult someone, I'm calling them a pussyfooting tyrant. And I'll tell them that I know for a fact it's their fault that gardens wither, too, for good measure.

Thank you so much! :D

[kurotoshi.livejournal.com]

That'll get them for sure! I'm *psotive* they'll go crying in the other direction!

No problem! :3 It's a pleasure! (make sure to check everybody in that site, it's hilarious!)

[kurotoshi.livejournal.com]

*positive, wow. I need to learn how to spell O.o;