le 24 Prairial an CCXIV

[cachecache.livejournal.com]

Salut Citoyens et Citoyennes! New member! Well...I guess we're all new members to this comm, aren't we? I took a class on the French Revolution and Napoleon last quarter so I'm a bit of a plebe, but I think I know a decent amount (my notes for the final ending up being 13 pages!) about revolutionary matters. I've also been taking French for the past seven years, so I'll be available if anyone wants some translation work for speeches or anything.

I'm currently reading A Place of Greater Safety by Hilary Mantel which is a semi-fictional account of the period through the eyes of Robespierre, Desmoulins, and Danton from their formative years to their respective deaths. The writing style leaves a lot to be desired (very anglicized, moderning sounding dialogue and the such), but the plot line is pretty good.

I'm also a big fan of musical theatre and I highly recommened La Révolution Française, the first collaboration by Alain Boublil and Claude-Michel Schönberg, the creators of Les Misérables (which was, in fact, not about the French Revolution like many high school history teachers think, but the student uprisings of 1832!) and Miss Saigon. It's in French and they were both pretty young and inexperianced when they wrote it, but it's still a great time. Maybe I can upload a couple songs for you guys sometime, if you want.

My current revolution-related loves are Saint-Just, Robespierre and basically the entire Committee of Public Safety, using the French Republican Calendar at every possible opportunity, what happened on the night of Varennes, and a young Napoleon Bonaparte (pre-Egyptian Campaign).

And now for some pimping: I'm the mod of little_corporal which is a Napoleon comm for all you Bonapartists, although I notice that a lot of people from over there are already here (Hi guys!). For World Cup fans out there: Allez les Bleus!!

Comments

[cachecache.livejournal.com]

What history class is it? I remember in my 10th grade World History class, we covered the Revolution in about 3 days. It was an incredibly quick skimming of the info, but we did act out the Estates General (we drew names and I was a member of the clergy!), which was loads of fun.

[kurotoshi.livejournal.com]

Really? In grade 10? We did it in grade twelve but it was an ENTIRE unity! (I dressed as a sans-cullote and we made a movie. I had a pitfork and it was AWSOME.) Lol! That sounds like fun though! Man, I wish all the french rev. fans could meet up and cosplay, that would be cool, yeah..

[cachecache.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we did World History in 10th grade, American History in 11th grade, and then American Government in 12th grade.

[trf-chan.livejournal.com]

That's how my school is set up, too.

[kurotoshi.livejournal.com]

Aaah! See, Canadian history is thought in EVERY year until grade 10, then in grade 10 we concentrate on the wars, classical history is grade 11, and then world is grade 12

[trf-chan.livejournal.com]

Yep, I'm going to be in 10th grade. Good to know it's at least covered!

Ah, I hope we get to do something like that.

[gogo-sakura.livejournal.com]

Woah, what school did you go to? We did the exact same thing with the Estates General. Except I'm in 9th grade.

Or is it common for history classes to do that?

[cachecache.livejournal.com]

Lake Washington High School. I'm sure it's a very common occurance.