#La Science des rêves

[somejuansomewhere]

one of my favorites

[bluen3hey]

2006   La science des rêves

The Science of Sleep

[mezimraky]

i wish i could live in a michel gondry movie. not as a woman tho. and not as a man either. as a cloud, maybe. or a house made out of cardboard. or a felt horse galloping over the carpet.

[edsonjnovaes]

La Science des rêves

EDSON JESUS – 6 DE DEZEMBRO DE 2020 Rompendo com a tradição romântica do cinema que vê o universo onírico sempre submetido ao princípio da realidade, em “Sonhando Acordado”, Michel Gondry anarquicamente inverte a fórmula, ao apresentar os sonhos subvertendo a realidade. Ao partir do princípio freudiano da “teoria das sentinelas”, Gondry mantém sua crítica às “tecnologias do espírito” apresentada…

[hi-i-am-a-sock]

So, I've decided to make a list of French speaking YouTube channels for those who would like to improve their French while wasting time on social media:

NEWS

• Le Monde (also a TV channel)

• Le Figaro (also a magazine)

• HugoDécrypte - Actus du jour

• BLAST, Le souffle de l'info

TALK SHOWS/INTERVIEWS

• Origines Media

• Le Crayon

BOOKTUBE

• Audrey - Le Souffle des Mots

• annelitterarum (Québécois French!)

• Rêve ta Vie en Lecteur

• La bouquinade

• Jeannot se livre

• Sous le ciel (Québécois French!)

GAMING

• Fuze III

• Ninjaxx

• Myrolame

• KoldGeneration (Québécois French!)

• BellePinte (Belgian French!)

• PIXIA

• - NS -

• - PLOUF -

• Lu K

CINEMA

• Regelgorila

• WatchMojo Français 

• Topcorn (Québécois French!)

SCIENCE

• Linguisticae

• Nat Geo France

• TheSimplySpace

• Science & Vie TV 

OTHER

• Trash

• HIBOU SAGE

• Trucs De Fou

• Info ou Mytho ?

• SYMPA

I hope this list was useful! Good luck with learning French :)

[mask131]

Max Ernst's "One Week of Kindness"

Which could also be called "A Week of Benevolence" - the original French being "Une semaine de bonté".

This post is a follow-up to a reblog I made, right here. Please go read this reblog first, because this post continues from all the info I placed there. If you don't go check it out first, you'll be slightly or massively confused.

I wanted to expand a bit on this fascinating piece of art, and to do so I'll use the info the Musée d'Orsay shared and put on their website when they organized an exposition of Une semaine de bonté.

An expo that deserves its own mention due to how exceptional it was. It was a 2008-2009 exposition of the original collages of Max Ernst the booklets were reproductions of. It was a grand world-tour that started in the Albertina palace of Vienna and ended in the Musée d'Orsay of Paris, passing by Brühl, Hamburg and Madrid. Why was it such a big deal? Because this was the second exposition of Ernst' work - the only other exposition of Une semaine de bonté's collages was in 1936, in the Museo de Arte Moderno of Madrid, just before the Spanish Civil War. It had been organized by Paul Eluard, who loved Ernst' work, but five of the illustrations couldn't be part of the exposition - due to being deemed too "indecent" or "blasphemous". And since this date, the works had never seen the light of day anymore, being preserved in private collections... It explains why the second exposition was such a big deal.

A few more sources for this collage-work I forgot to talk about: Beyond the general category of covers and illustrations of investigation stories/crime novels/polar tales, we also know that Ernst used illustrations of Sade's novels, the caricatures of Grandville, and the illustrations of Fantomas.

As with typical surrealist work, Une semaine de bonté offers a work of onirism that transcends the limits and categorizations imposed by society, by science, by our very conception of reality, and rather offers nonsensical visions and extraordinary wonders. It was the third "roman-collage" of Ernst, after "La femme 100 têtes" of 1929 and "Rêve d'une petite fille qui voulut entrer au Carmel" (1930). Throughout the illustrations, we find many references to the Bible, to famed legends, to fairy tales, to Greco-Roman mythology, but mixed with Ernst' recurring and favorite themes. More precisely, his strong rejections and dislikes: his rejection of the Church, his hatred of the bourgeoisie, his dislike of the traditional family, his refusal of patriotism...

Because Une semaine de bonté is actually a denunciation work, a great critique, a satirical caricature of the French society of the 1930s. Ernst superposes, subverts and reverses all sorts of stereotypical and cliches depictions, of either the "good society", or of the evil, the crime, the monster. Now, of course, there is no actual "real" or "good" story for this work. It is open to interpretation and everybody has to and must find their own meaning in it - as with all proper surrealist work... But there is still strong themes that form recurring motifs, and a message Ernst wasn't so subtle about.

The satirical, ironical, cynical, biting nature of the work can be read in the very title, which plays on two levels. One, on a Christian level: "Seven capital elements" is, as I said, a parody of the "seven deadly sins/seven capital sins" ; the motif of a work centered around a week alerts that there will be numerous references to the Biblical genesis, but most importantly "One week of kindness" is a reference to "La semaine de bonté", The Week of Kindness, a 1927 association creating for social help. Tied to this subversion of typical Christan morals, ideas and values, is the second level of irony in the title: this collage-novel is called "One week of kindness"... And yet it depicts all sorts of violences and abuses. Its pages are filled with murders, tortures and natural disasters - and Ernst doesn't hesitate to subtly denounce the sensationalism of a society obsessed with depictions and illustrations of the most horrible and criminal sides of humanity.

It also is no wonder that this work was created during the 1930s. The ghosts of the World Wars are haunting this piece. On one side, Ernst was seeing with an anxious and angry eye the rise of violent nationalist movements and of brutal, discriminatory dictatorships - the very ones that would cause World War II. On the other side, Ernst was of this generation that inherited the trauma and memories of World War I, had to live with the broken and disfigured survivors of the "Great War". Ernst himself had served in the German army during the Great War (if you don't know, while Ernst was born and raised in Germany, he ended up having a triple-nationality, German, American and French). One can almost read in this book Ernst' vitriolic take on a society that distracts itself with materialism, excessive pleasures and sensationalism, in an attempt to bury the wraiths of its past, and to stay blind to the dangers ahead...

It is only by the last day of the week that the atrocities fade away, and that we return to pure oniric poetry, in a set of illustrations focusing on voluptuousness and fantasy, inviting to or glorifying freedom and dreams... Now let's take a look at the structure of the Week in more details.

Day 1: Sunday. Element: Mud. Example: The Lion of Belfort

(The Lion of Belfort is a commemorative statue of the Alsacian town of Belfort in France, in homage to how the city had been assieged by the Prussians during the Franco-Prussian war of 1870)

Another Christian subversion: the week doesn't begin here on a Monday, but on a Sunday. We also see some of the games Ernst has with the Biblical Genesis not just by waking the "last" day of Genesis the first day of the week, but also by associating to Sunday (the day of rest for a God that created everything already) the day of the "mud" (understand, the primordial mud from before the world was created, the "chaos", the "primordial soup" from which the universe had to be sculpted). Not only that, but Sunday, the holiest day of the week for Christians, is filled with brutal deaths, sadistic violence and blasphemous imagery.

More precisely, this booklet/day explores the relationships between men and women, male and females. And... let's just say Ernst has a bad view of it, since all the interactions between male and female characters in this booklet can be summarized by: persecution, seduction, theft, punishment, torture, death. Since the Lion of Belfort is the recurring theme, there is a recurring character throughout the illustrations of a lion-faced man. He is always in a position of power and domination, and it is no surprise: we often see him wear military decorations, political medals or even religious symbols such as the Sacred Heart. As a result, the lion-man clearly embodies all the dominating, oppressive and violent male-dominated organizations of the time: the political world, the military and the Church.

(If you are curious, the Musée d'Orsay offered the original picture on which the one above was based. It was taken from the Mémoire de Monsieur Claude:

Day two: Monday. Element: Water. Example: Water.

Unlike the male-dominated first booklet, this one is filled with female figures, making it the most "feminine" of all the days. There is still a lot of violence in it - but it is not a man-made violence anymore. Rather Ernst presents the violence of nature, the brutality of natural disasters - through water, a water that is seen flooding bedrooms, destroying bridges, or drowning entire streets of Paris.

Day three: Tuesday. Element: Fire. Example: The dragon's courtyard/The court of the dragon.

La Cour du Dragon, The Dragon's Courtyard is actually - or rather was - a famous street of Paris. It doesn't exist anymore, but it was in the 6th arrondissement, between today's Rue du Dragon and Rue de Rennes. This street was called as such because of a famous dragon-sculpture located at the top of one of its entrances - the dragon can still be seen at the Louvres I believe. And it is within illustrations of this "Dragon's courtyard" that the booklet begins.

The dragon is one of the recurring symbols of the booklet, with variations: dragons and snakes of all shapes and size that follow the characters around ; humans with various dragon or snake-like features ; or simply the presence of bat wings reminding of demons, sometimes counterbalanced by angelic characters with bird wings. Here, the caricature, in terms of setting and characters, clearly is of the bourgeoisie. Not only is Ernst making the world of the bourgeoisie "Hellish" by filling it with snakes, dragons, demons and flames, but he also seems to use the symbolism of the fire as a way to denote the cliche of the "passion bourgeoisie", the violence of passions, emotions and desires within the bourgeois world, leading to tragedies. (Opposing the "natural forces" of the water, here fire seems to be the human forces) It is no wonder that this booklet has a great emphasis on walls and doors, often decorated by surrealist symbols: they are here to evoke a cloistered, walled-up, compartimented world where walls and doors hide and try to restrain things such as fears, desires or dreams...

Day four: Wednesday. Element: Blood. Example: Oedipus.

This booklet is entirely driven by the myth of Oedipus (that we know to have been one of the surrealists' favorite Greek myth). All the illustrations have one element or another of the legend, and keep retelling specific episodes of Oedipus' adventures. Oedipus killing his own father, the riddle of the Sphinx, or baby-Oedipus being abandoned at birth... Oedipus himself is symbolized in the collages as a bird-headed man.

One of the most famous collages of this booklet is the one that retranscribes the part of the legend that gave Oedipus his name, "swollen feet" or "swollen ankles", due to receiving a wound there as a baby. In Ernst's work, the bird-headed man (Oedipus) rather stabs in the foot a woman:

Day five: Thursday. Element: Black. Example: The laughter of the rooster ; followed by "Easter Island".

This is where we reach the last three days placed in one same booklet. It is also only in this last booklet that Ernst placed text, in the form of quotes or poems from other authors. This day has three quotes. In the "Laughter of the Rooster" segment, two. One from Marcel Shwob's L'Anarchie: "Those of them that are joyful sometimes rise their behind up to the sky and thow their feces at the face of other men ; than they lightly hit their bellies." Another from Schwob's Le Rire: "Laughter is probably fated to disappear." The third quote comes from the Easter Island segment, and is from Arp: "Stones are filled with entrails. Bravo. Bravo."

Here the symbols seem to again represent men or organizations of power. On one side, you have the recurring rooster - which is of course the symbol of France, and thus can be seen as a representation of the French government or French state. On the other side you have cruel and brutal men with the head or faces of the Easter Island statues, reflecting them not just being humans made of stone - but being literal "stones idols" (in the religious sense of the term, the sin of idolatry, again a Christian subversion).

Day 6: Friday. Element: Sight. Example: The inside of the sight / The interior of the view.

Again, three quotes here. One from Professors O. Decroly and R. Buyse's "Les tests mentaux": "If three is greater than six, make a circle around the cross, and if water extinguishes fire, draw a line from the sceal to the candle, passing above the knife, then make a cross on the ladder." One from Paul Eluard's "Comme deux gouttes d'eau": "And to love I oppose / Already-made images / Instead of images to be made" (The text is much more poetic and punny in the original French). The final quote is from André Breton's "Le revolver aux cheveux blancs": "A man and a woman absolutely white."

Unlike the previous booklets which presented dynamic, violent, active, interactive scenes, here we are in more still, contemplative images. Symbols, visions and settings to be looked at and gazed at, as the title of the section indicates.

Final day: Saturday. Element: Unknown. Example: The key of songs (again, a pun on "The key of fields", a French expression)

Only one quote: "........ / ........ / ........ / ......" from Pétrus Borel's "Was-ist-das".

For this part, the Musée d'Orsay used a quote by André Breton to explain Ernst's intentions: from the Surrealism Manifesto, "Glory to hysteria and its cohort of young, naked women sliding down the roofs. The problem of womankind is, to the world, everything there is of wonderful and troubled/murky." In this final day, we see women, always leaving a bed or bedroom or resting place, and either flying away or entering landscapes where gravity does not work. There is clearly here a work on the "clinal hysteria", and Ernst' own take on the surealists great obsession with hysteria, that they deemed to be disease, yes, but an illness that brought both freedom and inspiration. This idea of being set free is within the section's very title: "Prendre la clé des champs", "To take the key of the fields" is an expression meaning to go away (especially to go away from an oppressing or suffocating, unpleasant situation), to flee, escape, disappear (with the connotation of the fields as a vast, open space of great possibilities and endless horizon).

[multilingual-wannabe]

french youtube channel recs

POLITICS/CURRENT AFFAIRS/PANELS/GENERAL CULTURE

C Dans L’air various newsy stuff, I like the panel discussions https://www.youtube.com/c/Cdanslairofficiel

Popcorn - panel show general faits divers, skewing a lot younger than some of these others https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnyR4T5qpgOrWGcQU6Jinkw/featured

INA is the Institut national d’audiovisuel and they are a content monster. This is just one channel, of stuff from Thierry Ardisson’s talkshow but go to the “Channels” tab to see all the other INA channels, there’s enough there alone to keep you going forever https://www.youtube.com/c/InaArditube

Hugo Décrypte - probably very well know already, news of the day aimed I guess at the youth, one of my faves https://www.youtube.com/c/HugoD%C3%A9crypte

Ça commence aujourd’hui General interest slice of life interviews, like morning TV https://www.youtube.com/c/%C3%87acommenceaujourdhui/videos

Mediapart https://www.youtube.com/c/mediapart

Pascal Boniface some kind of random ex-diplomat/think tank dude who talks about the geopolitical issues du jour https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4VOE8jQPWUPp4PpNK8zhIg

Le Parisien only short videos of a few minutes but an interest selection of local Paris news https://www.youtube.com/c/LeParisien

Le Monde obvs https://www.youtube.com/c/lemondefr

Les Dessous des cartes - ARTE (there are a lot of ARTE related channels worth checking out) https://www.youtube.com/c/LeDessousdesCartesARTE

Ça se discute https://www.youtube.com/c/%C3%A7asediscute/videos

BOOK VLOGGERS

Mrs Bookyarmand https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0zQ-Sw3GQwmAwPc3EJMYrw

Pikiti Bouquine https://www.youtube.com/c/Pikitibouquine

La bouquinade https://www.youtube.com/c/Labouquinade/videos

Rêve ta vie en lecteur https://www.youtube.com/c/R%C3%AAvetaVieenLecteur

L’art du thriller https://www.youtube.com/c/LesCulottesNoires

BookTrip https://www.youtube.com/c/ReadTrip

Fruit Reader https://www.youtube.com/c/FruitReader

Younggiftedandblack https://www.youtube.com/c/MarinaNtsonga

Bulle Douceur Livresque https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCoL-QO8RDjKQNGE2eVcua2g

Antastesialit https://www.youtube.com/c/Antastesialit

La Grande Librarie long running tv show about books, interviews with authors https://www.youtube.com/user/lagrandelibrairie

HISTORY/EXPLAINERS/GENERAL DOCUMENTARIES/SCIENCE

Nota Bene really love this one, variety of different history/science/historical mysteries. I would buy his t shirt if it was in French but it is in English mon dieu! https://www.youtube.com/c/notabenemovies

Toute L’Histoire https://www.youtube.com/c/ToutelHistoireofficiel

Poisson Fecund https://www.youtube.com/user/PoissonFecond

Mamytwink https://www.youtube.com/user/mamytwink

Investigations et Enquetes huge range of long form documentaries, more straight topics and also a fair bit of “paranormal investigations” if that is your jam https://www.youtube.com/c/InvestigationsetEnqu%C3%AAtes Others like this are:

Documentaries Societe https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCYFI5PGuw_34XaA3SGDkQOQ

Imenio Documentaires https://www.youtube.com/user/imineoDocumentaire

Enquetes et reportages https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC7DHcyYJpGiSO0NIE7w_Eug

100 idées de culture generale https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC781HeW_j67wRZ5pqSmLpHQ

Le Precepteur Philosophy https://www.youtube.com/c/LePr%C3%A9cepteurOfficiel

Secrets de l’histoire officiel https://www.youtube.com/c/SecretsdHistoireOfficiel/videos

La Folle Histoire https://www.youtube.com/c/LaFolleHistoire/videos

Passé sauvage https://www.youtube.com/c/Pass%C3%A9sauvage

Destins really long (~2 hrs) deep dive profiles of famous french people https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC0EqF6QesMfPF5hat0mIKOg

Linguisticae linguistics/languages https://www.youtube.com/c/Linguisticae

AstronoGeek “une chaîne dédiée à la vulgarisation de l'astronomie. “ https://www.youtube.com/c/AstronoGeek

L’Histoire nous le dira https://www.youtube.com/c/LHistoirenousledira

StringTheoryFR https://www.youtube.com/c/StringTheoryFR/featured

Hygiene Mentale https://www.youtube.com/c/Hygi%C3%A8neMentale/featured

Le Réveilleur climate change/environment https://www.youtube.com/c/LeR%C3%A9veilleur

FILM/TV/THEATRE

La Comedie Francaise https://www.youtube.com/user/LaComedieFrancaise

Gigawatts lore of comic book heroes (I think) https://www.youtube.com/c/Gigawatts

Le Fossoyeur de films https://www.youtube.com/user/deadwattsofficiel

FilmACTU this is all bande annonces (trailers), quite cool to see all the new films/games in French https://www.youtube.com/c/FilmsActu

NetflixFrance I single this out as an official channel because it has vox pops (on the topic of netflix shows naturally) with accurate subs https://www.youtube.com/c/NetflixFrance

La Manie Du CInema https://www.youtube.com/c/LaManieDuCin%C3%A9ma

Videodrome https://www.youtube.com/c/VIDEODROMESC

Cinema et politique https://www.youtube.com/c/Cin%C3%A9maetpolitique/videos

IN THE PANDA https://www.youtube.com/c/INTHEPANDA

MATH https://www.youtube.com/user/MathSeFaitDesFilms

ANIMALS/NATURE

Christian L Biodiversité https://www.youtube.com/user/samy1on

Nat Geo Wild France and Nat Geo France wish these were longer https://www.youtube.com/c/NatGeoWildFrance

SPORT

Les videos des Riles soccer but also TV and general stuff, I find his voice very soothing to listen to for some reason https://www.youtube.com/c/LesVid%C3%A9osdeRiles

Talk My Football https://www.youtube.com/c/TalkMyFootball

MUSIC

Nostalgies 60s70s80s because everyone needs a cheesy old music video now and then and it might as well be French https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmVaIULmAmz_2b2fEJwz3xg

La fête de la chanson francaise https://www.youtube.com/c/Laf%C3%AAtedelachansonfran%C3%A7aise

TRUE CRIME

Faites entrer l’accusé https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrjIfq-eWK9BTUhPgQ2IFFg

RevelateurX https://www.youtube.com/c/RevelateurX

Zélia https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClr5mpCfgQ9mgzZfJbPvK1w

Crime District https://www.youtube.com/user/ABcinerama

Serial Killer docs https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwgz2Ks0NDjvE7Wt6JWAOXw

GENERAL LIFE/TRAVEL VLOGGERS (I wouldn’t watch any of this sort of thing in English but they’re good for French)

Le Corps La Maison L’esprit https://www.youtube.com/c/LeCorpsLaMaisonLespritLaetitia00

Le coin d’elodie ​​https://www.youtube.com/c/lecoindelodie/videos

Margaud Liseuse https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCP2X3cVGXP0r56gOGhiRDlA

Robin du Garage https://www.youtube.com/c/RobinduGarage

Gabriel Goddyn https://www.youtube.com/c/GabrielGoddyn

Gregoire Dossier https://www.youtube.com/c/Gr%C3%A9goireDossier

Fred in French https://www.youtube.com/c/FredinFrench/videos

Emilio Abril https://www.youtube.com/c/EmilioAb

Julien Fabro https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCwCU29EADyPqr-LkngkKE3w

MISC

Pascal Haumont advice on public speaking techniques https://www.youtube.com/c/PascalHaumont

Le Tour de France des Fromagers yeah it's all about cheese! https://www.youtube.com/c/LeTourdeFrancedesFromagers/videos

Khan Academy Francophone not gonna lie, don't actually watch these but if you are into MATHS and stuff …. https://www.youtube.com/user/KhanAcademyFrancais

LANGUAGES, not for French learners but in French, for learners

Progresser en Japonais https://www.youtube.com/c/ProgresserenJaponais

[aurevoirmonty]

"La science est incapable de repeupler les cieux désertés, de rendre le bonheur aux âmes dont la paix innocente a été détruite… Nous sommes déjà fatigués de la vérité. Rendez-nous nos rêves !"

Gabriele D'Annunzio

[lepartidelamort]

Après avoir « discuté » avec la racaille allogène qui martyrisait son fils, Magalax retire sa plainte.

Nous avons besoin d'une police raciale pour trier les Blancs.

Il faut être demeuré pour mettre ses gosses en colonie de vacances dans la France remplacée de 2024.

Surtout sous la supervision d’animateurs qui votent LFI.

Justement, la mère de ce jeune Blanc est complètement demeurée.

Exceptionnellement demeurée.

Le Parisien :

Choquée par l’état de Jean, son fils, couvert de bleus à son retour de colonie de vacances, Cécile Lemaire, une habitante de Oissy (Somme), avait déposé plainte en août pour violences aggravées. Le garçon de 11 ans lui avait en effet raconté avoir été martyrisé durant son séjour à Camaret-sur-mer (Finistère). Mais la mère de famille a finalement décidé de retirer sa plainte, annoncent le Courrier Picard et France Bleu. Jean avait confié à sa mère les claques dès le premier réveil, les coups de baskets et de claquettes, parfois de poings à chaque repas, les menaces. « Ils lui disaient : T’as 2 minutes pour te laver sinon on te frappe », a confié Cécile Lemaire au Parisien. Si la mère de famille voulait obtenir des réponses, en déposant plainte, notamment de la part de l’organisme qui encadrait ces vacances, les choses sont allées trop loin, estime-t-elle. « Des gens que je ne connais absolument pas sont allés agresser les animateurs de cette colonie de vacances. Je n’ai jamais voulu ça ! », regrette-t-elle auprès de France Bleu. Selon elle, : « Il y a des gens très mal intentionnés qui ont menacé de mort les animateurs. Et j’ai eu peur que les enfants qui sont impliqués dans cette affaire reçoivent les mêmes menaces de mort ».

Cette vache se soucie plus de la sécurité de la racaille afro-maghrébine qui persécutait son fils que de celle des gamins blancs.

Je rêve de très cruelles séances de rééducation pour ces grosses Blanches empathiques.

Cécile Lemaire explique avoir rencontré les enfants en question et « beaucoup discuté » afin de « leur expliquer que ce qu’ils prenaient pour des jeux n’était, en réalité, que de la violence gratuite ». Cécile Lemaire a donc retiré sa plainte mais l’enquête pour comprendre l’inaction des animateurs de la colonie de vacances reste ouverte.

Il y a plus d’étincelles de vie dans le regard d’un labrador que dans celui de cette Magalax.

Instinct de conservation : 0,1%

Laissez-moi être absolument clair : une « mère » tatouée comme une taularde lesbienne devrait être interdite d’avoir des enfants ou d’en approcher. Si elle en a, la garde devrait lui en être retirée.

Aucune femme saine d’esprit ne se tatoue et elle évite encore plus d’écrire ses listes de courses sur son corps.

Je prendrais bien quelques unes de ces névrosées imbibées d’encre pour les passer à la meuleuse en place publique à des fins pédagogiques, mais certaines mauvaises langues vont encore dire que je suis trop radical.

Il y a autre chose.

Si des Blancs veulent rester du bétail fiscal qui se laisse traquer par les hyènes afro-maghrébines sans réagir, qu’ils se taisent et meurent. Leur faiblesse atavique est un véritablement empoisonnement social.

Ce poids mort – j’appelle ça de la mauvaise graisse – nous empêche d’adopter les politiques de survie élémentaires et nous met en danger rien qu’en respirant. Ils n’ont pas à entraîner des innocents dans un suicide collectif parce qu’ils ont peur de crever seuls.

Cette affaire nous rappelle que le racisme est une science qui ne se préoccupe pas prioritairement des autres races, mais de la sienne. Cela suppose de procéder à une ferme prise en main des populations blanches et de combattre activement toutes les tendances comportementales néfastes.

Une race a le devoir d’être impitoyable avec ses éléments faibles. Ils doivent être écrasés sans pitié, faute de quoi c’est la voie royale pour la mort des éléments nobles.

Démocratie Participative

[what-if-imagine]

LES ASPIRATIONS •••

Voici le système d'ASPIRATIONS (comme les Sims, oui, oui) ; attention, ce ne sont pas les groupes ! Votre aspiration peut être modifiée à tout moment de l'évolution de votre personnage.

*Les métiers cités sont non exhaustifs. Vous n'avez pas besoin de correspondre à TOUS les critères d'une aspiration pour y prétendre.

FAME 👑

Tu veux être reconnu et aimé. Tu veux que ton nom soit sur toutes les bouches, sur toutes les affiches de cinéma, sur tous les réseaux sociaux. Tu veux ta propre page Wikipedia ; ta propre biographie. Les abonnements, les followers, les chiffres : tout ça t'importe. Ton objectif de rêve serait de dépasser Cristiano Ronaldo et Ariana Grande sur Instagram. En bref, et avec plus d'humilité, tu veux simplement être célèbre. Qu'à ton échelle, même minime, on t'accorde l'attention que tu mérites. Ce peut être pour n'importe quoi. Il n'y a pas besoin d'avoir de talent particulier pour faire le buzz.

MONEY 💸

Si tu penses que l'argent fait EFFECTIVEMMENT le bonheur. Tous les moyens sont bons pour se graisser ! Tu n'hésiteras pas à frauder si ça peut faire grimper ton compte en banque, et, par-dessus tout, tu es prêt à faire même les actes les plus vils. Ta dignité coûte cinquante dollars. Bien sûr, tu es le premier à dire « cap » contre un billet pour lécher le sol. Ce serait cliché de dire que tu aspires forcément à être banquier. Tu peux aussi avoir monté ton entreprise, vendu des photos de tes pieds sur Onlyfans, participé à des défis bidons…

CULTURE 🔍

De toutes les aspirations confondues, c'est celle qui convient le mieux aux intellectuels de service comme toi (qu'on appelle aussi lèche-culs, poltrons, binoclards, intellos...), et qui souhaitent emmagasiner le maximum de savoir. Tu es propice à beaucoup lire, écrire... Peu importe le sujet. Tu peux avoir une préférence pour la politique, la littérature, les sciences, l'histoire, la psychologie : peu importe ! Tu t'informes vingt-quatre heures sur vingt-quatre. Tu écoutes des podcasts, tu regardes des documents Arte. Tu lis le journal. Tu dis « CHUUUUT » quand les gens parlent trop fort à la bibliothèque. Toutes ces connaissances te servent, en outre, à les utiliser pour aider (chercheur), pour partager (enseignant), ou bien, pour manipuler (politicien/hacker).

ALTRUISM 🙇‍♀️

C'est bon, on a compris, tu veux travailler à l'UNICEF et monter des fonds caritatifs. C'est par dépit parce que t'étais nul à l'école, ou par véritable volonté de faire le bien ? Tes parents ne t'ont pas assez choyé, alors tu compenses ? T'as un complexe de white savior ? Bon, cela, ce n'est pas de notre ressort, mais sache que la première consultation chez le psychiatre est gratuite. Néanmoins, si tu es ici, c'est que tu as l'âme d'un bienfaiteur. Tu veux aider les gens, quoiqu'il en coûte, à tes risques et périls. Tu es peut-être médecin, pompier, avocat, bénévole, militaire… Ou juste un glandeur de première. Mais voilà, tu as choisi le camp du bien, le camp de la paix. Peut-être que tu es aussi un profond humaniste, militant, bien-pensant, qui partage ses opinions dont tout le monde se fout sur Twitter. On te gardera au chaud, ne t'en fais pas.

CRIME 🔪

Tu as sûrement vu la série Narcos, et maintenant, pour te faire respecter parce que tu te faisais victimiser au collège, tu veux te confronter à la face coriace du monde. Tu veux monter ton empire et pour cela, tu devras te frotter aux criminels. Ça peut prendre plusieurs formes. La plus radicale : monter un cartel, vendre des armes, de la drogue dure… Etre chef de gang ou simple adepte, tout comme le dealer crasseux du coin de la rue. La plus douce : caresser les bornes de l'illégal, être un représentant véreux, un manipulateur méprisable… La citation « tous les moyens sont bons pour parvenir à ses fins » est, pour toi, un euphémisme qui veut dire que tu pourrais engager des tueurs à gage pour éliminer tes opposants. Le tout dans la discrétion et la perfidité. En gros : tu magouilles. Tu as un besoin d'asservir, d'acquérir le pouvoir, parce que tu souffres d'un complexe d'infériorité, c'est très probable.

SOCIAL 💞

L'attention, tu la recherches, tout le temps, toutes les secondes de toutes les minutes de toutes les heures. Tu es l'AW par excellence. Tu vis à travers le regard des autres. Tu existes pour être vu mais tu es la plupart du temps incompris. Tu as besoin des gens pour vivre et sans eux, tu ne sais pas ce que tu deviendrais. Que ce soit tes amis, ta famille, ton partenaire, tes amants ou ton chien de compagnie : tu as besoin d'eux. C'est ton énergie, ton besoin vital. Ils sont ta plus grande préoccupation et ton centre d'attention, ton centre du monde. Niveau sexe, tu aimes te perdre dans la chair des autres, même pour une nuit. En clair : t'es en chien. Tu es sensible et si tu étais un colis, on tamponnerait l'étiquette « FRAGILE » sur toi. Félicitations. Peut-être que tu veux travailler dans le social, ou dans quelque chose en rapport avec le contact humain, voire l'art ou les médias.

PASSION 🏈

Toute ta personnalité se base sur une seule et unique chose : ta passion. Soit tu es fan des BTS (ce qui est très louable), soit tu veux devenir scénariste de cinéma, écrivain de romans policiers, concepteur de trains, créateur de contenus sur la toile, sportif professionnel, pré-mâcheur de nourriture pour bébés oiseaux, etc, etc. Ta passion n'a pas besoin d'être lucrative et source d'admirations de ton entourage. Le métier le plus bas de l'échelon comme le plus haut est permis. Tu te fiches de la réussite, ce n'est qu'un précepte. Toi, tu ne cherches que le bonheur. Tu vis pour faire ce que tu aimes, à plein temps, et tu es prêt à faire des sacrifices pour y parvenir. En bref, tu n'as pas de personnalité.

[anathriveline]

Les clans du ciel - La quête d'Ellie (Skyborn 1 - Sparrow Rising) Jessica Khoury Jeunesse, Bayard, 2024

Ellie rêve de rejoindre la garde royale des Ailes d’Or, qui protège la population des attaques de gargouilles, les monstres tapis derrière les nuages. Mais c’est une mission réservée aux castes supérieures de Faucons ou d’Éperviers, et Ellie est née Moineau. Résolue à participer malgré tout à la course de sélection des gardes, Ellie s’échappe de son orphelinat. Elle croise alors le chemin de Nox, un jeune Corbeau. Il l’entraîne malgré elle dans une aventure périlleuse, qui va bouleverser le destin d’Ellie et sa vision du monde… Une trilogie de fantasy haletante L’autrice, Jessica Khoury, nous entraîne dans une aventure sans temps morts, portée par des personnages attachants en quête de vérité, dans un univers aussi original qu’accessible pour des lecteurs à partir de 10 ans. De nombreux coups de cœur libraires et des lecteurs enthousiastes. 4,5/5 sur Babelio. « Alerte, nouvelle série palpitante et captivante ! » Science et Vie Découvertes

[bluen3hey]

2006 La science des rêves

The Science of Sleep

[project-zootopia]

ZOOTOPIA ;; (inspiration Zootopie/la planète des singes.)

Il y a bien longtemps sont apparus les thérianthropes, des êtres prodigieux pouvant se transformer en animaux. Les humains craignant ce don, décidèrent de chasser les thérianthropes et de les réduire en esclavage. Mais un jour, une thérianthrope se leva, elle osa dire non à l’oppression des humains ; cette thérianthrope se nommait : Oya. Elle se révolta contre l’humanité et guida son peuple vers la liberté, tandis que l’humanité se dirigeait vers sa chute. Cette l’histoire est celle de ses descendants.

Des siècles après, on entend ce conte exaltant. Celui d’une révolution, celui d’une libération, est-ce vrai ou non ? Ça n’a que peu d’importance, désormais les thérianthropes dominent la terre, tandis que les humains ont été relégués au second plan. 

La cité de Zootopia est idéalisée par tous, pour son aspect moderne et utopique, la promesse est simple et séduisante : n’importe qui, qu’il soit thérianthrope ou humain peut devenir la personne qu’il souhaite.

Malheureusement la réalité n’est pas aussi rose, des siècles après la chute de l’humanité, les injustices perdurent : des injustices entre humains et thérianthropes et des injustices entre thérianthropes. Zootopia est loin du rêve d’égalité et d’harmonie qu’avait formulé Oya, cependant certains n’ont pas abandonné ce rêve et luttent pour une égalité réelle à Zootopia.

Aujourd’hui deux visions de l’avenir s’affrontent à Zootopia : une société inégalitaire et injuste ou bien une société harmonieuse et juste, où tout le monde aurait sa place. Zootopia est sur le point de changer et chaque citoyen à la possibilité d’avoir un rôle à jouer dans ce changement.

Pour aller plus loin.

Zootopia est un projet de forum RPG city/science-fiction, qui s’inspire du film éponyme de Disney mais aussi de la planète des singes. Il est possible d’y incarner un simple humain mais aussi un thérianthrope : une personne pouvant se changer en un animal. Le thème de fond se concentre sur la cohabitation entre humains et thérianthropes, cependant c’est un forum city et je crois qu’il est important de laisser au joueur faire le personnage qu’il souhaite (dans la mesure du possible.)

Zootopia s’inspire donc beaucoup de la planète des singes (surtout du roman), dans le roman les raisons de la chute de l’humanité ne sont pas mentionnées ; cependant les singes ont pu évoluer et atteindre un niveau technologique similaire à celui des humains ; Zootopia reprend ce postulat. Hormis quelques technologies plus avancées, la technologie présente dans la ville est l’équivalent de ce qu’on trouvait en 2024. Zootopia est un reflet de l’ancien monde, dans un monde devenu chaotique.

[paulysson1]

La peur du Père

Sa venue est comme un pic à glace,

Venant découvrir comment a dépéri son fils,

Mes échecs,

Toujours mes échecs.

Pourtant je me construit et je pense déjà l'avoir dépassé malgré les années et de part caractères de de nos vies différés.

Je pense que la danse de mon existence contrebalance sa soumission à sa compagne et à ses rêves abandonné.

Dessiner pour lui un bras d'immortalité qu'il vivra de par ma conscience,

Sans science,

Je puis dire qu'il ne réalise pas encore la fierté qu'il m'aurait donné sans savoir/vouloir.

Bonne nuit Père, à demain.

Tu es un jeune âgé qui se bonifie comme le vin,

Tu es de ces êtres divin qui s'ignore,

Qui vive plus que ce dont possède leur cœur.

Je t'aime

P.amis

[anotherhumaninthisworld]

Could you tell us about Camille’s relationship with his father?

Given the fact that we actually have quite a bit of letters between Camille and his father Jean Benoît Nicolas Desmoulins — 27 written by the former, 12 by the latter — we actually know a fair bit about their relationship. The majority of these letters have been published within Correspondance inédit de Camille Desmoulins (1836), however, there are a few unpublished ones as well (five for Jean, three for Camille), so if I don’t include a link to one, just assume this is the case and that I’m taking it from Camille et Lucile Desmoulins: un rêve de République (2018) instead.

Jean Benoît Nicolas Desmoulins was born October 17 1725. After having considered becoming a priest and then taught at the college of Guise, he studied law at Reims and became a lawyer in 1751, and then a judge in 1757. He would go on to become one of the biggest pillars of his community, being mayor of Guise 1760-1763 and then obtaining the office of lieutenant general five years later (for more info about Jean in general, see Le père de Camille Desmoulins (1936).)

On January 9 1759 Jean got married to Marie Madelaine Godart (1730). The two quickly started a family and over the following 13 years they had nine children together, of which five reached adulthood.

Camille, the oldest of the children, was in October 1771 sent to Paris to study at the prestigious college of Louis-le-Grand. He was enrolled not as a scholar but as a paying boarder, the place of which cost his family 400 livres per year, a clear indicator Jean was willing to go great lenghts in order for his son to get a good education. In 1774, when the cost started to weigh on him, he was still determined that Camille continue his studies. On December 9 that year, he therefore sat down and authored the following text, hoping it would persuade the authorities of the school to do something for him:

J’ai du moins une descendance 

Enfants chéris, de fils nombreux,

Qui, si j’accepte l’opulance,

Ont presque déjà tout pour eux,

De ce qui para l’existence

Du premier des nobles aïeux:

Santé, vigeur, intelligence,

Goût du vrai, cœur bon, cœur joieux,

Grand appêtit de la science,

Et dont le travail fait les jeux.

L’ainé, près de l’adolescence,

Dans son college est un preux:

Il feuillette avec connaissance

Auteurs grécs et latins poudreux;

Mais malgré toute sa constance,

J’en suis pas moins soucieux

Qu’on ne le force avant vacance,

Par un congé disgracieux,

De faire aux maîtres d’éloquence

Ses involontaires audieux,

Parce que du sort l’inconstance

A rendu son père trop gueux

Pour subvenir à la finance

D’un pensionnait dispendieux.

Jean succeded, and Camille obtained a scholarship the following month.

Camille was the only one of the siblings who got sent to Paris to receive a higher education there. This could simply be seen as a sign Jean couldn’t afford to make them all paying boarders. However, a letter from him to Camille dated January 23 1791 also suggests he actually placed his oldest son on a higher level than the rest:

Your brother Dubocquoi has always had a rather limited peak, he has just acknowledged it to you; but it is not his fault. In the portion of nature and in the lot of the spirit, why have you exercised your birthright so copiously and taken such a great precipitate, to leave your siblings’ afferent share so small?

Camille kept up contacts with his father during his college years, as proven through a letter dated May 10 1782 he wrote to his cousin Ribeauvillé: ”If you’re interested to learn more about what happened at this ridiculous examination, you can go consult the gazette I sent to my father.” In the same letter, Camille also complains a bit over his father’s need for monitoring — ”There is one thing, my friend, that I really thank my aunt Viefville for, it’s for taking my sister to spend some days with her in Maizy. I do not doubt that this stay is a little diversion from the boredom she must have at Guise, for, although I sometimes lament seeing my dear father holding the purse strings so tightly for me, I cannot prevent myself from feeling infinitely happy by comparing my situation to that of my siblings.”

The same year this letter was written, Jean came to visit his son in Paris as revealed through another letter Camille wrote to Lucile’s father in March the following year:

At this moment my father has probably written to you and part of my joy was to think about he who does not care about the dowry (that of my mother, who is still whole despite our misfortunes because it has always been sacred in his eyes, was more important) but who loves me with tenderness and is no doubt delighted that I have finally obtained this demoiselle Duplessis of whom I have been speaking to him incessantly for five years and whom he wanted me to show him when he spent a few days in Paris two years ago.

But the relation was still far from problem free - in a letter dated June 4 1784 Camille accused his father of spending his time locked in his office ”compiling, compiling, compiling I don’t know what compilation” instead of caring about work and the future of his children.

One year later, in March 1785, Camille obtained his law decree and took office as a lawyer. He chose to stay in Paris, but we know of two confirmed visits back to Guise — one in 1787 and one in 1789. In the latter case, the goal was to stand for election for the Estates General. As we know, Camille failed to obtain the opportunity of becoming a deputy, as did his father. The former still went back to Paris to witness the proceedings, and in a letter dated May 8 1789 he wrote to Jean about the event, he had this to say:

I believe that if I had only come from Guise to Paris to see this procession of the three orders, and the opening of our Estates General, I should not have regretted this pilgrimage. I had only one sorrow, it was not to see you among our deputies. […] I was very angry with you and your gravel. Why did you show so little haste to obtain such a great honor? It was the first of my sorrows.

Over the following two months, Camille wrote five more letters to his father (they have all been published), telling him about the situation developing in the capital. I could however not find any details regarding their relationship in any of them. Jean responded with a letter (that has gone missing) where he must have expressed his doubt over Camille’s revolutionary career, because the first lines of the next letter sent from his son (dated September 20 1789) are as follows:

The best response to your reproachful letter is to send you the three books. I have therefore prepared a very large package in which you will find four copies of La France libre, La Lanterne, and a number of copies of a small sheet, which has just done me infinite honor, and from which I receive compliments everywhere.

But his father was still someone Camille respected, in the next letter, dated 22 September 1789, he writes: ”M. de Mirabeau has offered me to work on his newspaper. I hesitate, and I await your advice.” A week later Camille wrote yet another letter, telling his father to ”take care of yourself, and don’t say so many bad things about your son.” In the next letter, dated October 8, Camille asks Jean for money and goes on a long rant about how he feels abandoned by his hometown and family:

In truth, you are in my view of an extreme injustice; you see that in spite of my enemies and my slanderers, I knew how to put myself in my place among writers, patriots and men of character. Thank Heaven, I'm happy with my little reputation, I don't want more. […] So here I am almost without creditors, but also without money. I beg of you, since this is the time to collect your rents, since the price of corn is holding up, send me six louis. The King and the National Assembly are residing here, I want to stay in Paris, I am abandoning my ungrateful and unjust country. I want to take advantage of this moment of reputation to install myself, to register myself in a district; will you have the cruelty to refuse me a bed, a pair of sheets? Am I without necessities, without a family? Is it true that I have neither father nor mother? But, you will say, it was necessary to employ these 30 or 40 louis to have furniture. I will answer you: one had to live; I had to pay the debts that you have forced me to contract for 6 years; because for 6 years I have not had the necessary. Tell me the truth, have you ever bought me furniture? Have you ever put me in a position where I don’t have to pay the exorbitant rent for furnished rooms? Oh the bad policy of yours to send me two louis to two louis, with which I could never afford to have furniture and a home. And when I think that my fortune is held in my domicile; that with a domicile I would have been president, commandant of a district, representative of the commune of Paris; whereas I am only a distinguished writer: living testimony that with virtues, talents, love of work, character and great services rendered, one can achieve nothing. But, surprisingly, I have been complaining in these terms for ten years, and it has been easier for me to make a revolution, to upset France, than to obtain from my father, once and for all, fifty louis, and for him to give his hands to begin an establishment for me. What a man you are! with all your wit and all your virtues, you did not even know how to know me. You have eternally calumniated me; you called me eternally a prodigal, a spendthrift, and I was nothing less than all that. All my life, I have sighed only after a home, after an establishment, and after having left Guise and the paternal house, you did not want me to have another lodging in Paris than a hotel , and now I am thirty years old. You always told me that I had other brothers! yes, but there is this difference that nature had given me wings and that my brothers could not feel like me the chain of needs which held me to the ground. […] So help me in these circumstances and send me a bed, if you can't buy me one here. Can you refuse me a bed? I told you that I didn't want to hear any more about Guise. Your nullity in this country and a fortiori mine have detached me from it. So do something for me, for your eldest son. […] The hour of the post office had passed, I reopened my letter to insist again on my needs. All that I learn from Guise through cousin Deviefville's letters confirms my intention of renouncing that place, the antipode of philosophy, patriotism and equality. I have a reputation in Paris, I am consulted on important matters; I am invited to dinner; there is no pamphleteer whose sheets sell better: all I want is a home; I beg you, help me, send me 6 louis or else a bed.

Then follows two letters, one dated 4 December 1789 where Camille informs his father about his new career as a journalist and wishes him a happy birthday, and one dated 31 December 1789, where he wishes his family happy new year and tells them about the success of his journal. 

On January 7, in the seventh number of Révolutions de France et de Brabant, Camille published the following letter from his father:

[…] What confuses me, and greatly alleviates the evil of my position, is the hope that my son, with more modern principles, and which nevertheless still seem to me to be very bold, will make one of the first workers of the ark which must save his brothers and himself from the shipwreck of their common father. I see you among the small number of the chosen ones, who, with the printers and the booksellers, remain upright in the midst of the revolution, which puts everything on the ground and overthrows your family. I find the task you have taken upon yourself to be immense, and I do not know how you will be able to cope with it. People talk to me about your successes, and I am not insensitive to them; but the dangers you run affect me even more.

In the same number, Camille included a response to his father:

So you will no longer make fun of my dreams, of my republic and of my old predictions, of everything that you have finally seen, what is called seen, with your own eyes seen. You have spent your life writing, struggling […] What consoles me for you is that you still have the memory of a life always militant against the oppressions of all kinds which desolate our province. The moment has come to reap the fruit of the gratitude of your fellow citizens, witnesses of so many sacrifices that the rigidity of your principles and your heroic and inflexible stiffness have cost you.

Two months later, 13 March 1790, Camille once again writes to his father about how he feels abandoned:

I feel more and more that my business is beyond my strength. When I have sacrificed for six months all my money to pay debts, to give myself a home, furniture and effects for more than a hundred louis, please tell me at least that you are not my enemy, and join those who encourage me. […] I am not asking you for news of Guise; but tell me about yourself. There are many times when, in spite of the compliments of a crowd of people who tell me that I have the arrows of Hercules, I find myself as unhappy, as abandoned as Philoctetes on the island of Lemnos. My bookseller assures me that he sends you and my brother my numbers. I embrace you a thousand times.

Once Jean got the letter, he sat down to reassure his son:

No, my son, I am not and can never be of your enemies; you could only have had this suspicion in the delirium of imagination or despair. I am and always will be your friend and your best friend. It has been a fortnight since your mother and my conscience begged me to write to you, without finding the moment because of my troubles and the numerous embarrassments which follow my painful administration. I like to see you more touched by Dubucquoi's correspondence and cordiality than by so many honorable testimonials, which are nevertheless well calculated to encourage you in the pursuit of your great work. If all that is missing to your satisfaction is my bravo, then receive it; I whispered it to you long ago, as befits a father. As long as you still have a father, a mother, brothers and sisters, your comparison with this Philoc, whom I have reason to fear of becoming more than you do, if only my pains and my misfortunes are left to me, will be wrongful. My island is beginning to become quite deserted for me; or what is worse, it seems to me no longer crowded with anything but monkeys, tigers, serpents and voracious birds, which infest our marshes of the Oise.

We have to wait until December 6 1790 to find a new letter from Camille, where he wraps up by writing: ”I embrace you and all my family. There are many times that I in vain have asked you for laundry, a tablecloth, towels and a pair of sheets.” Five days later he can inform Jean about happier news: 

This charming Lucile, of whom I have spoken so much to you, whom I have loved for eight years, finally her parents give her to me and she does not refuse me. […] Send me your consent as well as that of my mother. We can get married in eight days. It’s how long my dear Lucile and I can handle being seperated. Do not attract the hatred of our envious people by this news, and like me contain your joy in your heart, or pour it out in the bosom of my dear mother, of my brothers and sisters. I am now in a position to come to your aid, and this is a great part of my joy: my lover, my wife, your daughter and all her family embrace you.

Soon, Camille finds himself annoyed at his father yet again, as he’s lingering with giving his consent to the marriage. On December 18 and 21 he wrote three letters to Jean complaining about it, the last of which has been published:

This is the third letter I’ve written you to ask for consent to my marriage with a completely celestial woman, and you let the post go three times without sending me your acceptance; I did not expect that the obstacles to this marriage would come from you. You should have taken the post and brought it to me yourself. You know the vivacity of my character and the violent situation you would have thrown me into if you had used an absolute veto and even a suspended veto. M. Duplessis wants to attest to you himself that he grants his daughter to your son.

We have two unpublished letters (dated December 15 and 23) from Jean to Camille regarding the marriage, where, it would appear, he’s hesitating to give his support for it. However, after receiving a letter from Lucile’s father giving his approval, Jean was quick to respond positively:

The letter you do me the honor to write to me, confirming the approval you give to my son's happiness, fills me with all the joy that a father can feel at the news that his son will be happy. Please accept all my gratitude and expression of sensibility. We can only well guess the fate of our dear children with the auspices under which they contract. Let us unite on both sides our blessings on them and on their union. I would have been delighted if my health and the season had allowed me to attend this feast so sweet to my heart.

Camille and Lucile got married on December 29 1790. A week later, Camille wrote to his father to inform him about it:

[…] My wife embraces you, my dear mother and all my family. She asks me to tell you that she has not yet had time to write to you, that she does not dare to do it out of fear of not supporting the opinion that I give you of her, and that she postpones his letter for a few days. She was delighted with your letter about my marriage, and she keeps it very preciously; she reread it many times with tenderness.

Jean responded enthusiastically four days later, while also explaining why he lingered with giving his consent:

Your happiness, my son, resounds fully in the depths of my heart, since you yourself announced to me your solemn marriage. From the pleasure I had of learning about it indirectly from various people around me with more or less satisfactory circumstances, I felt that something was missing. These different voices were not yours: it was not you; that was not the outpouring of your joy and your sensibility. Your silence, so long kept since the receipt of a consent for which you had shown such sparkling impatience, left me somewhat uneasy: for the tenderness of fathers is as anxious as that of lovers. You are on the way to one day being able to experience and profess the truth of this provision or maxim. By kissing our dear daughter-in-law for us, tell her that we love her as much as you do. Reassure her about the embarrassment of her epistle; she will always have the eloquence of her heart next to mine when she tells me that she loves my son and that she is happy. Tell her that she has acquired a new family eager to emulate hers in everything that can contribute to her happiness and forestall her wishes. […]

After this follows a long silence, with one unpublished letter from Jean to Camille dated January 23 being the only (conserved) letter between the two until December 6 the same year. ”Our cousin Deviefville must have told you that I had reproached myself more than once for not writing to you,” Camille says on that date, ”my sentiments have not changed for you. I've always thought I'd right my wrongs by doing you some great service, but I don't know how to intrigue, or even ask.” Five months later, on April 3 1792, he writes Jean a letter about the current political situation, while also revealing that he and Lucile are going to have a baby. When said baby is born in July the same year, Camille writes to let his father know, who once again responds positively:

We share, my dear son, all the joy that the birth of a son, the first fruit of your love and of a dear wife, can give you. We learn with equal pleasure that the mother and child are doing well. I hope that the revolution, if it is consummated, will be happier for him than for you, and I do not really know whether I should wish him to be the successor to your popularity, which has made you, and in turn me, many enemies and few or no friends. For this revolution has been, I believe, to no one more fatal than to me in all respects, while I at the same time had to expect from it more than anyone the happiest effects. […] Embrace our dear daughter-in-law for us; renew to her all our eagerness to get to know her. When she has fully recovered from the birth, could you not steal a few days from your work in Paris to bring her to us and receive here the simple and frank caresses of your family and your relatives?

From the above cited part, we can however also see that Jean viewed the revolution more cynically and less as something completely good throughout than his son (which may very well have to do with the fact that he had lost his job as attorney-syndic and in turn most of his income because of it. We can see from the letter dated April 3 that Camille fruitlessly - and after having refused for a long time - tried to help his father out). Thoughts that only grew as the revolution further radicalised over the following months. On August 13, Camille told Jean about the insurrection of August 10 and his appointment as secratery-general — ”They have not cooled the filial love in me, and your son, who has become secretary-general of the department of justice and what was called secretary of the seals, hopes not to be long in giving you signs of it. Your people from Guise, so full of envy, hatred and small passions, are going to swell with gall against me.” Jean responded four days later by celebrating Camille’s new position while at the same time expressing his fears over the new direction the revolution had just taken:

I don't see it over yet and I still dread the consequences. According to the cries all around me, the events of August 10 have indisposed the provinces and the army against the Parisians and against the party of which you are believed to be one of the most ardent members. In the turmoil of all things around us, I would perhaps rather see you a peaceful possessor of my places and the first of our fellow-citizens in our native city than at the head of the ministry of a great empire already well mined, well torn, well degraded, and which, far from being regenerated, will perhaps be from one moment to another either dismembered or destroyed. Be that as it may, since you are second at the helm handed over to your friend M. Danton, for the part of justice, distinguish yourself there by the great qualities which are proper to this administration; add to your known popularity that spirit of integrity and moderation which you will often have occasion to develop there; strip yourselves of that party which perhaps raised you there, but which may not keep you there. With the uprightness that I know of you and the moderation that I preach to you, one goes a long way, even in the most scandalous position. Bring back your enemies by being fair with them and easily forgetting their wrongs; make as many friends as you can among the people of good people and always consult merit and talent in your choices.

Camille didn’t let his father rather sceptical tone affect him, and on August 26 he sent him his latest writings and expresses his hopes of being nominated to the new National Convention. Following this, we have two unpublished letters from Jean to Camille, one undated from somewhere in September, and one dated October 29.

When the trial of the king rolled around, Jean once again became uneasy, and he wrote to his son on 10 December 1792 and 10 January 1793 to advice him to not vote for death. Like with the Insurrection of August 10, it would not appear he did this because he was particulary fond of the monarchy, but rather because he saw Louis’ death as pointless and was worried about the gravity of the situation and of what Camille might be getting himself into:

I would be inconsolable, my son, to find your name on the list of those who will vote for the death of Louis XVI. I do not foresee in this judgment any good for the country, and on the contrary I foresee disastrous consequences both for it and for those who will have wanted the death of the prince. If the revolution is accomplished as I presume it to be, the blood of Louis XVI is useless for its consumption; spilling it is to appear to fear that it will not be done, or to beat an enemy on the ground and disarm him, and to renounce the generosity and dignity which must characterize the true republican, the free Frenchman. You have a just and true means, my son, of sparing yourself this stain which would be a perplexity for me: it is to challenge yourself, because you are effectively challengeable, not only in the eyes of Louis XVI, but in the eyes of anyone who has the first principles of justice. You said your opinion as a journalist before the judgment. Driven either by your own opinion or by a foreign prejudice, you have denounced Louis XVI in a great number of your writings, which have perhaps had only too much influence, and you have treated him as an enemy. For this double reason, either of having been his denunciator, or of having proclaimed your opinion in advance, relative to Louis XVI, you cannot remain one of his judges without injuring impartiality, which must neutralize whoever is called upon to judge. […] The death of Louis XVI can add nothing to your triumph and can even stigmatize it in the fickle opinion of the multitude.

My son, you can still immortalize yourself, but you only have a moment left: this is the opinion of a father who loves you. This is more or less what I would say if I were you: "I am a republican by heart and by action, I have proven myself, I was one of the first and most ardent denunciators or accusers of Louis XVI, for that very reason I challenge myself. I owe it to the austerity of my principles; I owe it to the dignity of the Convention; I owe it to the glory of the nation; I owe it to the justice of my contemporaries and of posterity; in a word, I owe it to the republic, to Louis XVI, to myself.” I only say this for your benefit and for your peace of mind and mine, because I am your best friend.

Perhaps their dissensions severed the friendship once again, because no letters seems to exist between January 10 and July 9 1793. On the latter date, Camille writes to inform Jean about his Histoire des Brissotins. He also talks about his brother Sémery who he believes to have died in the war. Jean must however have replied that it’s possible for Sémery to still be alive, because in Camille’s next letter, dated August 1 (incorrectly August 10 in the published version) he writes: ”I eagerly grasp your doubts about his death to attach my hopes to them. […] I felt still more just now, on seeing my son, how much this blow must have affected your heart. My wife and I have been deeply touched by the interest you show for this child who is so lovable and whom we love so much that I have a horrible fear of losing him […] If we have peace and quieter weather, expect me and my wife to come embrace you.” This appears to be the last conserved letter we have from Camille to his father.

Despite Jean’s interest to get to know his grandson and daughter-in-law, Hervé Leuwers writes this wish was never fulfilled. However, I actually found the following part in Robespierre’s notes against the dantonists, which would suggest he did come to visit somewhere in December 1793:

At the time where the numbers of the Vieux Cordelier appeared, the father of Desmoulins who had strongly disapproved of the… rather tainted by aristocracy testified to him his satisfaction and embraced him with tenderness. Fabre, who was present at this scene, wept, and Desmoulins, surprised, no longer doubted that Fabre had an excellent heart and was consequently a patriot.

In the last letter we have between them, Jean informs Camille about the death of his mother:

My dear son, I’ve lost half of myself, your mother is no more. I always had hope to save her: this was what prevented me from informing you of her illness. She passed away today at noon. She is worthy of all our regrets; she loved you tenderly. I embrace very affectionately and very sadly your wife, my dear daughter-in-law, and little Horace. I can write to you more at length tomorrow. I'm forever your best friend.

We know Camille got the letter, since he mentions it in his second prison letter to Lucile (April 1 1794).

Farewell Lucile, farewell Horace, farewell Daronne, farewell my old father. Write him a letter of consolation.

He mentions his father in his very last letter as well:

Farewell, my Lucile, my dear Lolotte, my good wolf, say goodbye to my father. […] Farewell, Lucile, my Lucile! my dear Lucile! farewell, Horace, Annette, Adèle! Farewell, my father!

Jean did try to intervene in the trial against his son. On April 4 he wrote to public prosecutor Fouquier-Tinville (who, sidenote, was a distant relative of the two and actually had Camille to thank for his job) the following letter. It’s written way too late to have arrived on time, and even if it had, it doubtless wouldn’t have changed anything.

Citoyen compatriote, Camille Desmoulins (that’s my son), I'm speaking to you from my intimate conviction, is a pure republican, a republican by heart, by principle, and, so to speak, by instinct: He was a republican in soul and by taste before the fourteenth of July 1789, he has so been in reality and deed ever since. His perfect disinterestedness and his love for the truth, his two characteristic virtues, which I have instilled into him from his cradle , and which he has invariably put in practice, have kept him on a level with the loftiest aspirations of the Revolution. Is it likely, is it not even absurd to suppose that he has changed his opinion, that he has renounced his character, his love for liberty, for the sovereignty of the people, his favourite and beloved design, at the moment when it has succeeded so brilliantly, at the moment when he had opposed and defeated the cabal of the Brissotins; at the moment when he had unmasked Hébert and his adherents, the authors of a deep conspiracy; at the moment when he believed the Revolution accomplished, or about to be so, and his Republic established by our victories and triumphs over our enemies without and within? Are not these improbabilities sufficient to remove from my son even the shadow of suspicion? And yet he lies under the weight of an accusation as grave as I believe it to be calumnious. Confined to my study by my infirmities, I was the last, owing to the care that was taken to hide it from me, to hear of this event, which is calculated to alarm every true Republican. Citizen, I ask of you but one thing, in the name of justice and of our country - for the true Republican thinks of nought besides to investigate and to cause the examining jury to investigate the conduct of my son, and that of his denouncer, whomsoever he may be; it will be soon known which is the true Republican. The confidence I have in my son's innocence makes me believe that this accusation will prove a fresh triumph, as well for the Republic as for him. Health and fraternity from your compatriot and fellow-citizen Desmoulins, who until now has held himself honoured in being the father of the foremost and most unflinching of Republicans.

We don’t know how Jean reacted to the death of his son and daughter-in-law. However, he was not to survive them for much longer, as he passed away on 14 October 1795, just three days before his seventieth birthday.

As a final note, it can be observed that Camille and Jean always adress each other with vouvoiement rather than tutoiement… Although as far as I’m aware, that business is much more complicated than ”if you’re close with someone you use tutoiement, if not you use vouvoiement,” so perhaps this doesn’t have to mean much…

[claudehenrion]

Samuel Huntington ( I ) : Le choc des Civilisations

Les tristes péripéties du drame lamentable que nous offre une fange de pseudo-étudiants, tant à Science-''Pipeau'', ici, qu'à Columbia ou à Harvard –entre autres-- aux Etats-Unis, m'ont amené à refaire un plongeon dans mes jeunes années, lorsque, en 1968-69, j'étais ''Exchange Professor of computer sciences'' dans ces deux (et quelques autres) universités, alors aussi admirées par le monde entier qu'elles sont grotesques et méprisées en ce moment... Une question me revient, lancinante : ''Que penserait le grand Samuel Huntington de ces bacchanales malfaisantes ?''.

Car j'ai eu , dans un seul mouvement, la chance de connaître Samuel Huntington jeune, et la malchance de ne pas deviner qui était ou qui allait devenir cet immense visionnaire : j'étais alors grisé par le fait de côtoyer les ''dieux'' du management de l'époque, les Jay Forrester (''la Dynamique des systèmes'') ou, à Chicago, Milton Friedman et George Sultz, futur ''Secretary of State'', le seul avec lequel je me sois lié d'amitié et que j'ai retrouvé 40 ans plus tard comme Président de ma chère Fondation Eisenhower. Mais dans les années 68-70, Huntington était un jeune professeur, et je suis donc passé à côté du rêve qu'aurait été de fréquenter assidûment un des plus beaux esprits des années '90... Sic transit gloria mundi !

Cette faute de goût ne m'interdit pas de vous raconter que je viens, avec quelque retard, de relire son formidable ''Choc des Civilisations'' (1993) qui a été réédité en collection de poche le 14 décembre 2023, comme un superbe cadeau d'anniversaire pour moi, mais il a fallu que je sois bien malade pour enfin trouver le temps de me replonger dans ces pages incomparables : avec une trentaine d'années d'avance, ce génie avait prévu, annoncé et presque daté la totalité des malheurs qui sont hélas devenus notre quotidien.

Retour sur images : avant de comparer notre temps aux ''vistas'' perforantes que contiennent ces 12 chapitres (ce qui sera l'objet d'un second éditorial, à paraître demain), rappelons de quoi nous parlons ici : l'ouvrage ''Le choc des civilisations'' est un des ''best-sellers'' de la fin du XX ème siècle, traduit en trente-huit langues. Il contenait tant de vérités difficilement contournables qu'il a été attaqué de toute part par les habituels sectateurs de Gauche, dont beaucoup, pour changer, ne l'avaient jamais lu (les critiques émises le démontrent !). Il voyait le monde tel qu'il fallait le voir, éclaté, alors que la doxa de l'époque le voulait ''de plus en plus interdépendant''. Les attentats du 11 septembre 2001 aux Etats-Unis ont démontré qui avait raison, et qui, tort ! (NB : Huntington avait alors déclaré : ''Les événements donnent une certaine validité à mes théories. Je préférerais mille fois qu'il en soit autrement''.)

D'après lui, les relations internationales s'inscrivent désormais dans un nouveau contexte. Aux débuts de l'Histoire, les guerres avaient lieu entre des princes qui voulaient étendre leur pouvoir. Puis elles ont eu lieu entre Etats-Nations constitués, jusqu'à la Première Guerre mondiale. En 1917, la révolution russe a imposé un bouleversement sans précédent, en imposant des idéologies comme ''ultima ratio''. Les causes de conflits ont alors cessé d'être géopolitiques et liées à la conquête et au pouvoir, pour devenir idéologiques. Cet entendement des relations internationales avait trouvé son point d'aboutissement dans la guerre froide, qui était un affrontement entre deux modèles de société. Mais la fin de cette ''guerre froide'' a entraîné un nouveau tournant dans les relations internationales., et certains utopistes ont même rêvé alors d'une ''fin de l'Histoire''.

Huntington, pratiquement seul contre tous, a alors compris que les conflits se penseraient, demain, en termes non plus idéologiques mais culturels (Je cite : ''Dans ce monde nouveau, la source fondamentale et première de conflit ne sera ni idéologique ni économique. Les grandes divisions au sein de l'humanité et la source principale de conflits sont culturelles. Les États-nations resteront les acteurs les plus puissants sur la scène internationale, mais les conflits centraux de la politique globale opposeront des nations et des groupes relevant de civilisations différentes. Le choc des civilisations dominera la politique à l'échelle planétaire. Les lignes de fracture entre civilisations seront les lignes de front des batailles du futur''). Pour paraphraser le célèbre titre de Robert Jungk (1953), ''le futur avait déjà commencé'' !

Samuel Huntington définit les ''civilisations'' par rapport à une culture et une religion de référence (christianisme, islam, bouddhisme…), et il tire huit civilisations de ce ''tri'' : les civilisations Occidentale (Europe de l'Ouest, Amérique du Nord, Australasie, etc.), Latino-américaine, Islamique, Slavo-orthodoxe (autour de la Russie – NDLR : Nous verrons demain où est il met le point de séparation, en Ukraine), Hindoue, Japonaise, Confucéenne (sino-vietnamo-coréenne) et Africaine.... auxquelles il ajoute, potentiellement, une civilisation Bouddhique, dont l'extinction en Inde et la capacité à se fondre dans des modèles préexistants ne permettent plus de faire une référence dominante pour le futur.) 

C'est sur ce socle que, poursuivant ma lecture, non pas dans l'état d'esprit qui était le mien lorsque je l'ai lu pour la première fois (et les 5 ou 6 fois immédiatement suivantes : je ne me lassais pas de dévorer ce livre !), mais en homme d'aujourd'hui, qui sait ce qui s'est passé depuis 1993, et qui ouvre les yeux sur l'immensité des catastrophes qui semblent s'abattre sur nous, et j'ai découvert ce qui m'avait échappé vers 1993 : ce livre est à ranger dans la catégorie des visions prémonitoires, mais de celles qui ne se trompent pas, celles qui se découvrent vraies et vérifiées au fur et à mesure que le temps passe... (à suivre).

H-Cl.