Inauguration of Saint-Just's Bust in the Mairie (Town Hall) de Blérancourt

[maelicia.livejournal.com]

"You know how it's difficult to speak objectively of Robespierre and of Saint-Just nowadays, that when they speak of them, it's generally to speak ill of them, and never to remind the good part, [when they posed] the first elements of a social politics.

We brought a monument here to remind everyone who was Saint-Just."


Antoine-Saint-Just.fr reports the inauguration of a bust of Saint-Just in the Mairie (Town Hall) of Blérancourt on 9 May 2009.

You can watch a video of the official inauguration, where they cut a pretty tricolour ribbon for him: http://www.antoine-saint-just.fr/buste090509.wmv (you can download the link).

One of the men in the video says that "Saint-Just is now back in his home", that is the Town Hall, where he began his political career. Gellé and his other enemies from Blérancourt = pwned in the centuries and in the skies.

They placed the bust in the Town Hall next to a great staircase, and facing windows with a view on the places where he walked and lived, like a great place (named Marais), where there were the patriotic manifestations and where he burnt that famous libel.

They placed three quotes on the wall next to the bust so that everybody knows what he said. (They suggest that they may add more.)

"The first is a reference to the optimism of the Enlightenment [...]: Le bonheur est une idée neuve en Europe."

"The second is a reference to a constant aspect of Saint-Just's politics, constantly turned towards the démunis (the poor), among which he was already in Blérancourt [...]: Les malheureux sont les puissances de la terre, ils ont le droit de parler en maîtres à ceux qui les gouvernent.."

"Finally, the third: the Terror. It's impossible to speak of Saint-Just without speaking of the Terror. It's obvious that it's impossible to accept a politics consisting in the physical elimination of political adversaries. Undoubtedly, for us, it's a painful past that refuses to pass. But I am tempted to say that this past refused to pass for Saint-Just himself, since he felt the need to write this beautiful phrase that you could read: La Révolution est glacée. La Terreur a blasé le crime comme les liqueurs fortes blasent le palais."

"So at least, now that this statue is here, it will be able to call out all those who pass next to it."

Comments

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

That's pretty sharp for someone who doesn't know the period--I'm glad there are still people out there who won't just mindlessly imbibe whatever the Schamas of this world throw at them. (That said, if this blogger were more familiar with the Revolution, I think s/he might well share my opinion on Mantel and Zizek: with friends like these, who needs enemies?)

[(Anonymous)]

Sad, isn't it? That's the manipulation of our era. Masked in a so-called plurality of opinions. Cheap psychoanalysis or hypertheoretical bloodlust detached from a particular historical conext are not the only alternative of an "understanding" approach to the Jacobins. Sib.
P.S. Maelicia, are you planning to post your essay here?

[estellacat.livejournal.com]

Yes, it is sad, precisely. And moreover, it is even possible to understand historical actors without agreeing with them--if it were a question of real historians trying in good faith to understand the people and events of this period and disagreeing, I would be all for that. But that was obviously never the point here.

[maelicia.livejournal.com]

P.S. It's coming. And it's coming here. (And going to be advertised in many places.) Very likely tonight. Depending on your time zone, you're sure to be reading it by tomorrow morning. I guess. >_> *silly time zones*

Edit, many, many, many hours later: There's still a part left to translate. That's (probably? or not?) going to be tomorrow then. At one point. Eventually. >_>;;