#The law was a schoolmaster

[igate777]

https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/isaiah-phillips-akintola/episodes/KEY-OF-DAVID-AND-THE-RESTORATION-OF-THE-TABERNACLE-OF-DAVID--PART-20-e20msaq

[wisdomfish]

[superbdonutpoetry]

Galatians 3

BUT NOW (DISPENSATIONAL TRUTH) Keeping the law cannot make you righteous. The 10 commandments can be posted in every school, court building and restaurant on earth, but adherence to them cannot save or make you acceptable in the eyes of God. Truthfully speaking, both adherence and non-adherence to the 10 commandments have the same conclusion. It’s a case of “damned if you do” and “damned if you…

[saintsenara]

okay, I'm super curious about your thoughts on when and how snape becomes a potions master. some people say he was still working on his mastery when he became a professor but i like to think he got it in early 1980 and he apprenticed with a potions master he was recommended to through his ~connections~ (cough malfoy cough).

although the idea of him teaching and grieving and also attempting to not fail at the one thing he knows he's good at does have its own angsty appeal

thank you very much for the ask, anon!

although i regret to say that i'm going to start the answer to it by being very pedantic...

the idea that masteries are something which exist in the wizarding world is complete fanon.

they have emerged as a trope due to a reading of the phrase "potions master" which does make perfect sense outside of the cultural context in which the books were written - by which i mean that it makes readers unfamiliar with the culturally-specific meaning of this bit of language think of masters degrees or other high-level qualifications - but which is nonetheless incorrect within context.

"master" [and the feminine equivalent, "mistress"] is just an alternative term in british english for "teacher". it doesn't imply anything about a level of qualification. "potions master" and "potions teacher" are synonyms.

the term is archaic - british people nowadays would exclusively say "teacher" - and it's very class-specific, in that it would have particularly been used to describe teachers in elite schools, whether fee-paying private schools or grammar schools [state schools which are academically selective].

as a result, it turns up in lots of the children's literature written before c.1980 - especially in boarding-school stories like malory towers and the worst witch which are explicit influences on the harry potter series. it's used in the text - especially in the earlier books - as part of worldbuilding which generally seeks to make the wizarding world feel whimsical by virtue of being very old-fashioned, which things like the fact that the most advanced technology wizards use is the radio and the steam train also hammer home.

that snape is the only teacher referred to as a master is connected to these genre conventions. because snape is so important to the full arc of the story, he's the teacher we spend the most time in the classroom with throughout the six books in which harry's at school. and he's therefore the teacher who - in the first few books - best fits a children's literature archetype which we would expect to find in any twentieth-century school story [with a magical setting or not] - the hated schoolmaster who is horrible to the child-protagonist and who every child reading can't wait to see get their comeuppance.

so snape is a potions master because he teaches potions. nothing more than that.

but that doesn't mean that it's not worth thinking about his training...

clearly, higher education of the type most of us are familiar with doesn't exist in wizarding britain - nor, i suspect, in wizarding europe more broadly.

and this makes perfect sense - not only because the magical population is so small but because the divergence of the magical and muggle worlds in 1689 takes place well before universities and university-level education look like anything a modern student might recognise. a seventeenth-century university education was still broadly generalist and aimed at trainee clergy, and careers which we would nowadays expect to require a degree - such as law, finance, medicine, science, and engineering - were generally taught by apprenticeship.

this is clearly how things continue to function in the wizarding world of the 1990s, since we know from order of the phoenix that healers are taught by apprenticeship [and, indeed, that hogwarts graduates all go straight into the workforce after they leave school].

potions - since it's analogous to chemistry - is nonetheless understood in-world as an academic discipline. but this doesn't mean - within the post-school educational structures we can suppose the wizarding world has - that it's a discipline in which one needs specific formal training in order to acquire a right to teach or publish about it.

the seventeenth century was a period - especially in britain - marked by a great expansion of scientific inquiry. this was - by our contemporary understanding of academic science - amateur. scientists wouldn't have been expected to have doctorates, to work at universities, or even to have attended them, and their experiments were often self-funded by personal wealth or dependent on a patron. the circles [often international] in which they debated, demonstrated, and reviewed theories and inventions were social ones - the gatekeeping line was class [with the level of education - and, primarily, of literacy - that this implied], rather than level of education itself.

these social circles often had a certain level of official standing - by which i mean they became, during the period, the learned societies, the most famous of which is probably the royal society. membership [or fellowship] of the learned societies requires a demonstration of some sort of contribution to the discipline they relate to - which means that the vast majority of contemporary fellows of such societies are university-based academics. but this wouldn't have been the case in 1689.

and we know that the wizarding world has its own equivalent of learned societies, because slughorn mentions one in half-blood prince - the most extraordinary society of potioneers.

which is to say, snape is probably a member of this society. he may very well publish papers in academic journals connected to the subject [as dumbledore does in transfiguration today], and he undoubtedly has a reputation among the wizarding world's men- and women-of-letters. but he doesn't need to have any formal post-hogwarts qualification in order for him to have acquired this reputation.

so what do i think he's doing between 1978 and 1981?

well... he's a death eater.

my theory has always been that snape comes to voldemort's attention - via lucius malfoy - because of his potions skills. the dark lord's operation would have needed potions - poisons to bump off enemies, healing potions because wanted criminals can't just turn up at st mungo's, potions to trade on the black market [as aberforth dumbledore tells us the death eaters do during deathly hallows], and so on - and voldemort would want to keep the production of these potions in-house, rather than risk hiring a private brewer [even a shady one] who might change their mind and go to the aurors.

[this is also presumably what voldemort - undoubtedly at snape's request - tries to recruit lily to do.]

i have never believed that snape was taken on as a death eater in the expectation that he'd perform a combat role - there is a clear implication throughout the series that the only person he ever directly kills is dumbledore, and that he gets along badly with death eaters [such as bellatrix] who did take more violent roles in voldemort's terrorism.

so i presume that, when he leaves school, he ends up working as a personal brewer for voldemort - on a stipend presumably paid, at the dark lord's request, by either lucius or abraxas malfoy. i also presume that, outside of work voldemort specifically requests, he's given free rein to brew for other clients, study, experiment, and publish as he wishes.

and i further presume that if he trains with anyone, then that person is voldemort himself.

voldemort claims, in goblet of fire, to be interested in experimenting with potions. he appears to invent the potion made from nagini's venom which sustains his half-body prior to his resurrection - and i think the implication of the text is that he also invents the potion guarding the locket-horcrux. voldemort also evidently encourages snape's interest in the dark arts, and he also appears to have some influence over snape's comportment - the teen snape we see in order of the phoenix is extremely rough around the edges, in a way the adult snape, who both speaks and moves in canon very similarly to the adult voldemort, isn't.

voldemort taking such an interest in snape would - obviously - largely be a grooming tactic. snape clearly becomes a death eater because the organisation offers him a chance to belong and succeed which his class-background would ordinarily make impossible for him within wizarding society, and voldemort must therefore massively indulge his belief that he's never given the respect he deserves for his intellect. voldemort's obvious contempt for slughorn - who matters so little to him that he doesn't even bother to kill him - would, i imagine, also win snape round.

and by training snape in an academic rather than a combat sense, voldemort gains a valuable tool - someone he can place at hogwarts as a teacher to spy on dumbledore.

we can assume that voldemort was having dumbledore tailed throughout the first war - and, indeed, that this is what snape is doing when he overhears the prophecy - but that he couldn't watch him at all times because he didn't have a spy among the hogwarts faculty.

it is clearly voldemort who tells snape to apply for a teaching job in early 1980. he must also tell him to apply for the defence against the dark arts post [which we know snape canonically applied for first] - which means he must expect to be imminently victorious in the first war, since snape would only be able to stay in the position for a year...

the prophecy, which snape hears c. january 1980, obviously derails this belief slightly... and snape famously does not get the defence against the dark arts job for the 1980-1981 academic year.

how do we know this? because he tells us in order of the phoenix that he's been teaching at hogwarts for fourteen years. he says this right at the beginning of the autumn term in 1995 - so he clearly means that he's been teaching for fourteen previous academic years and the 1995-1996 year is his fifteenth. so... he started teaching at hogwarts in the 1981-1982 academic year.

voldemort settles on harry as the child the prophecy refers to after harry is born [so, after 31st july 1980]. we don't know how quickly he does this and we don't know exactly when snape defects to the order.

but, clearly, at some point during the 1980-1981 academic year, dumbledore hires snape to begin teaching from september 1981 onwards. he presumably tells snape to tell voldemort that his change of heart was because he didn't think snape was qualified to teach defence against the dark arts but that he does think he's qualified to teach potions [pointing, perhaps, to publications snape got out under voldemort's tutelage], and that slughorn's announcement that he intends to retire means that there's a position available. he then undoubtedly also tells snape to convince voldemort of the same pretence they'll use throughout the second war - that he's a loyal death eater passing information on dumbledore's movements to his master.

which is to say... when lily dies, snape has been in his job for at most nine weeks.

just imagine how miserable that must have been!

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

“The Law, from the beginning, is made use of as a schoolmaster to bring men to Christ.” – Jonathan Edwards

[syrupsyche]

In honour of our favourite group of men finally entering the story, I'll fish out 1-2 quotes I love about each man from this chapter.

Enjolras

"Enjolras was a charming young man, who was capable of being terrible [...] One would have said, to see the pensive thoughtfulness of his glance, that he had already, in some previous state of existence, traversed the revolutionary apocalypse."

Best introductory line to any character in literature by far, if I say so myself. I also like the reincarnation implication in the second half, framing Enjolras not as a person but rather the recurring phenomenon of revolution.

Combeferre

"He read everything, went to the theatres, attended the courses of public lecturers, learned the polarization of light from Arago, grew enthusiastic over a lesson [...] He declared that the future lies in the hand of the schoolmaster, and busied himself with educational questions."

I adore the fact that he strives to educate himself on everything, and that he loves the process of learning as well. And I agree wholeheartedly that the future is in education! My dream man.

Jean Prouvaire

"His name was Jehan, owing to that petty momentary freak which mingled with the powerful and profound movement whence sprang the very essential study of the Middle Ages [...] He spoke softly, bowed his head, lowered his eyes, smiled with embarrassment, dressed badly, had an awkward air, blushed at a mere nothing, and was very timid. Yet he was intrepid."

I love his little Middle Ages hyperfixation, go Jehan! And of course, we get a slight foreshadow of his fate at the end of his description, where he is said to be brave, despite everything.

Feuilly

"[Feuilly] had but one thought, to deliver the world. He had one other preoccupation, to educate himself; [...] The protest of right against the deed persists forever. The theft of a nation cannot be allowed by prescription. These lofty deeds of rascality have no future. A nation cannot have its mark extracted like a pocket handkerchief."

Feuilly's description is really similar to Enjolras' (minus the waxing about his looks), and I find it interesting Hugo adds the last part under Feuilly rather than anyone else's. Someone smarter than me can probably give a better analysis as to why.

Courfeyrac

"Beneath the apparent similarities of the exterior mind, the difference between him [...] There was in Tholomyès a district attorney, and in Courfeyrac a paladin. [...] Enjolras was the chief, Combeferre was the guide, Courfeyrac was the centre. The others gave more light, he shed more warmth"

Hugo loves his parallelism and so do I. Courfeyrac as a nice Tholomyès is a good way to efficiently describe him, and the last part of his description is so iconic to our triumvirate characterisation that I had to put it in.

Bahorel

"Every time that he passed the law-school, which rarely happened, he buttoned up his frock-coat,—the paletot had not yet been invented,—and took hygienic precautions. [...] In reality, he had a penetrating mind and was more of a thinker than appeared to view."

Bahorel is so funny; I too want to live my life as a student for 11 years without the need for graduating. I like that Hugo points out his intelligence too, its easy to reduce him to just a comic character, but theres a reason he's in this group, guys!

Bossuet

Bossuet was a gay but unlucky fellow. His specialty was not to succeed in anything. As an offset, he laughed at everything. At five and twenty he was bald. [...] He was poor, but his fund of good humor was inexhaustible. He soon reached his last sou, never his last burst of laughter.

This is such a fun and vivid character description, Hugo really manages to bring Bossuet to life. I love a man who can laugh at himself and while it's sad to see him be used to his unfortunate circumstances, I admire his humour about it all.

Joly

"What he had won in medicine was to be more of an invalid than a doctor. At three and twenty he thought himself a valetudinarian, and passed his life in inspecting his tongue in the mirror. He affirmed that man becomes magnetic like a needle [...] Otherwise, he was the gayest of them all. All these young, maniacal, puny, merry incoherences lived in harmony together, and the result was an eccentric and agreeable being"

He and Bossuet have the most fun descriptions ever, I'm jealous. The magnetism part is hilarious and I love that Hugo makes a point in saying that despite it all, he is still a happy-go-lucky man, similar to the unlucky, but jovial Bossuet.

Grantaire

"Grantaire was a man who took good care not to believe in anything. Moreover, he was one of the students who had learned the most during their course at Paris; he knew that the best coffee was to be had at the Café Lemblin, and the best billiards at the Café Voltaire [...] However, this sceptic had one fanaticism [...] it was a man: Enjolras. [...] No one loves the light like the blind man. The dwarf adores the drum-major. The toad always has his eyes fixed on heaven. Why? In order to watch the bird in its flight. Grantaire, in whom writhed doubt, loved to watch faith soar in Enjolras. [...] their name is a sequel, and is only written preceded by the conjunction and; and their existence is not their own; it is the other side of an existence which is not theirs. Grantaire was one of these men. He was the obverse of Enjolras."

This is embarrassingly long. But look, I LOVE how contradictory Grantaire's character is, even in his own, third-person omniscient description. He doesn't care about anything, but he knows and loves Paris so intimately that he learned of it the most. He doesn't believe in anything, but he believes wholeheartedly in one man. And like Jehan, his fate is foreshadowed at the end. He only exists if Enjolras exists. Without the latter, there is no former, and vice versa.

[scotianostra]

The educator Alexander Sutherland Neill passed away on September 23rd 1973 in Ipswich, he grew up being call Ally by his family.

The second of today's anniversaries and all round good guy, I mean Ivor Cutler worked for him so he has to be!

And another name you are familiar with, but A.S. Bell, as he was known, was a pioneer, or indeed a rebel against the conformists views of the era in education

The son of a schoolteacher, Ally graduated from the University of Edinburgh with an M.A. degree in 1912 and became headmaster of the Gretna Green School in 1914. He recorded his initial teaching experiences in the autobiographical novel A Dominie’s Log and wrote several sequels to this work, with some of them being reprinted in 1975 as The Dominie Books of A.S. Neill, dominie being an old Scottish word for schoolmaster, it derives the Latin domine.

Neill and others founded an international school near Dresden., in 1921. The school was moved to Sonntagberg, Austria, three years later but was soon closed because its unconventional curriculum and teaching methods were opposed by the local authorities. In 1924 Neill moved the school to Lyme Regis, Dorset, in England, and named it Summerhill after the building he had leased for its quarters. In 1927 he moved the school to its permanent home in Leiston, Suffolk. Summerhill School became internationally known for its self-governing student-teacher body and its flexible curriculum that emphasizes the student’s own motivation to learn. Neill drew considerable criticism for his permissive attitudes toward academic discipline, but by the 1960s his school had become popular for its progressive approach to child rearing.

Neill’s principal book about his educational methods, Summerhill: A Radical Approach to Child Rearing, stimulated debates about alternatives to conventional schooling. The book was more influential in the United States, West Germany, and Japan than in the British Isles

His other books include The Problem Child, The Problem Parent, The Problem Family, The Free Child, and an autobiography, Neill! Neill! Orange Peel!

In the early 1960s Neill joined Bertrand Russell on a sit in demonstration for CND ( Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) at Holy Loch against the Polaris missile. Neill was taken by the police and spent a night in jail.

In 1973 his health declined and he was admitted to Ipswich Hospital. Later he was taken to the small local hospital where he died peacefully on September 23rd 1973.

In 1999 The Government sought to close Summerhill.= and the case ended up in the Law Courts, where a judge dismissed the case against them. Summerhill celebrated 100 years of teaching last year.

Neill’s daughter daughter Zoë is the Principal of Summerhill School which continues to thrive.

[janeeyreofmanderley]

Alternative career for Richard Sharpe?

Sometimes I wonder, what Richard Sharpe's life would have looked like had he not been born a bastard and a whoreson in the purely descriptive sense of these terms, but instead had been welcomed by a loving family.

Like let's say he had been the much desired and much loved eldest son of a Reverend (like Catherine Morland's father in Northanger Abbey) and so had been member of the middle class/ gentry.

As a first son of a Reverend joining the Army would not have been the logical career for him and certainly not encouraged by his parents. In fact I can imagine it would not even really come up.

Given that he tends to get attached to friends I can totally see him being (to a certain extend) considerate to family's wishes and expectations.

So what do you imagine, which career would a Richard Sharpe have pursued if not born in the gutter and forced to fight every minute of his life for survival, but growing up comfortably and loved in the middle class?

( I picked classes that Cambridge university offered in the late 18th century, there may be others but I couldn't find good information on that topic and am procrastinating too much with this question as it it is)

[dolphin1812]

Boulatruelle is one of the ways Valjean could have ended up if he hadn’t met the bishop. Like Valjean then, he’s “too respectful“ to everyone around him, “trembling and smiling” around soldiers; as we can assume he was in prison as well, these behaviors are likely part of the same trauma response we saw in Valjean when he reached Digne. He was exceedingly polite to everyone regardless of how scornful they were towards him, and to this day, he is very respectful of law enforcement even as he’s terrified of them, as we saw with his attitude towards Javert when he came to arrest him by Fantine’s bedside. As an ex-convict, he also struggles to find work, further encouraging this meekness and isolating him from society and a chance at recovery. His alcoholism is likely a way to cope with his past trauma and his current suffering. Moreover, as we saw with Valjean, it’s pretty easy for this constant desperation and stress to fuel further “crimes” (Boulatruelle’s robbery is less blatant, since he’s seeking to take something buried in the ground rather than in someone’s house, but it is another parallel to Valjean).

Of course, there are still differences between them. With Valjean, we saw moments of anger and frustration that simply aren’t visible in Boulatruelle. It could be that we’re not seeing them now because we’re spending less time with him, but it could also be that, after all of these years, that anger has been drained out of him. Rather than the “violent criminal” alternative Valjean viewed for himself when he robbed Petit Gervais, Boulatruelle represents a life of hopelessness and aimlessness that comes from being denied opportunities to seek a better life after being thoroughly rejected by society.

It’s also interesting to see how vulnerable Boulatruelle is because of this? Valjean was offered kindness first by the marquise, then by the bishop, both of whom were genuine in their compassion. Boulatruelle is met by Thénardier and Montfermeil`s schoolmaster. We know Thénardier is horrible already, but watching the way these two casually joke about torturing him for information is especially revolting. Their “hospitality” doesn’t compare to the bishop’s, as it just consists of trying to get him drunk, but given how people avoid him, it may have felt like kindness to him even though there intentions are actually awful. After being scorned for so long, it may be difficult for him to tell when people are manipulating him because he never expects any form of kindness or decency; he might not reach the point of contemplating their intentions if he’s shocked to receive company at all. Valjean, for instance, hadn’t been able to comprehend the bishop’s hospitality, even trying to prove why he didn’t deserve it. If Boulatruelle is like him - and everything we know so far indicates that he is - then he’s very vulnerable to Thénardier not because of his alcoholism (drink might have loosened his tongue, but he barely speaks even when intoxicated), but because his ability to judge people has been skewed by abuse.

[olympic-paris]

THIS DAY IN GAY HISTORY

based on: The White Crane Institute's 'Gay Wisdom', Gay Birthdays, Gay For Today, Famous GLBT, glbt-Gay Encylopedia, Today in Gay History, Wikipedia, and more …

August 15

15 Août *Assomption * Assumption

1857 – Montague Druitt (d.1888) was one of the suspects in the Jack the Ripper murders that took place in London between August and November 1888.

He came from an upper-middle class English background, and studied at Winchester College and the University of Oxford. After graduating, he was employed as an assistant schoolmaster at a boarding school and pursued a parallel career in the law, qualifying as a barrister in 1885. His main interest outside work was cricket, which he played with many leading players of the time, including Lord Harris and Francis Lacey.

In November 1888, he lost his post at the school for reasons that remain unclear. One newspaper, quoting his brother William's inquest testimony, reported that he was dismissed because he "had got into serious trouble", but did not specify any further. It has been speculated that he had homosexual tendencies which caused him to molest his students.

Others, however, think that there is no evidence of homosexuality and that his suicide was instead precipitated by an hereditary psychiatric illness. His mother suffered from depression and was institutionalised from July 1888. She died in an asylum in Chiswick in 1890.[ His maternal grandmother committed suicide while insane, his aunt attempted suicide., and his eldest sister committed suicide in old age. A note written by Druitt and addressed to his brother William, who was a solicitor in Bournemouth, was found in Druitt's room in Blackheath. It read, "Since Friday I felt that I was going to be like mother, and the best thing for me was to die."

One month after he disappeared his body was discovered drowned in the River Thames. His death, which was found to be a suicide, roughly coincided with the end of the murders attributed to Jack the Ripper. Private suggestions in the 1890s that he could have committed the crimes became public knowledge in the 1960s, and led to the publication of books that proposed him as the murderer. The evidence against him was entirely circumstantial, however, and many writers from the 1970s onwards have rejected him as a likely suspect.

1920 – Officials at the Boise City Traction Company catch two men having sex in a restroom, having installed a spy hole from above. The men are convicted of sodomy. Officials had tried to cover the glory hole with wood or metal, but the coverings always 'came off.'

1921 – A bill in England to outlaw 'gross indecency' between women is defeated in the House of Lords on the ground that women do not know of such things. The sponsor of the bill makes the understatement of the year: '...it is a well-known fact that any woman who indulges in this vice will have nothing whatever to do with the other sex.'

1927 – John Cranko (d.1973) was a choreographer with the Sadler's Wells Ballet (which later became the Royal Ballet) and the Stuttgart Ballet. Born in Rustenburg in the former province of Transvaal, South Africa, as a child, he would put on puppet shows as a creative outlet. Cranko received his early ballet training in Cape Town under leading South African ballet teacher and director, Dulcie Howes, of the University of Cape Town Ballet School.

John Cranko choreographed the comic ballet Pineapple Poll, based on Gilbert and Sullivan's operettas, in collaboration with Sir Charles Mackerras, for a British Festival, following the expiration of the copyright on Arthur Sullivan's music in 1950.

Estranged from his mother his parent's acrimonious divorce, Cranko's father, Herbert, a balletomane, spent a great deal of time with him in London.

John Cranko wrote and developed a musical revue Cranks, which opened in London in December 1955, moved to a West End theatre the following March, and ran for over 220 performances. With music by John Addison, its cast-of-four featured singers Anthony Newley, Annie Ross, Hugh Bryant and dancer Gilbert Vernon then transferred to New York. Cranko followed the format of Cranks with a new revue New Cranks opening at the Lyric Theatre Hammersmith in 1960 with music by David Lee and a stellar cast including Gillian Lynne, Carole Shelley and Bernard Cribbins, but it failed to have the same impact.

John Cranko took the moribund tradition of the full-length narrative ballet and, with dazzling productions of Eugene Onegin and Romeo and Juliet, gave it new life. And he brought, to a world of dying swans and sighing swains, a puckish humour that found expression in comic ballets like Pineapple Poll and Jeu de cartes.

But his energy and humour were not without a darker side. A biography by John Percival paints a portrait of a man capable of great friendship but unable to sustain the stable romantic relationship he felt essential to his well-being. The whirl of one-night stands and brief homosexual affairs seems not to have been enough, and his unhappiness was manifested in bouts of drinking and depression.

Cranko choked to death after suffering an allergic reaction to a sleeping pill he took during a transatlantic flight. His mother, Grace, who was divorced from Herbert and lived in what was then Rhodesia, heard about his death from a radio broadcast.

1963 – Waide Aaron Riddle was born in Kingsville, Texas. Raised in Houston, Texas, Riddle eventually moved to Los Angeles where he worked as a barber and in various jobs in the entertainment industry. Beginning in the mid-1990s, Riddle began writing poetry and short stories. His first poem, "Two Men Kissing," won the National Author's Registry Honorable Mention in 1996 and the Registry's President's Award in 1997.

Riddle went on to self-publish two books of poetry: All-American Texan, in 1999, and The Chocolate Man: A Children's Horror Tale, in 2002. In addition, his short stories and articles have been published in anthologies and magazines, and he has won a number of awards in poetry competitions.

All-American Texan is a collection of Gay poetry with cross-over appeal to a broader audience. Included are several award winning poems and works displayed in the Simon Weisenthal Center Library/Museum of Tolorance, and the University of Southern California Gay and Lesbian Archives and Library.

1964 – Michael Berresse is an American actor, dancer, choreographer, and director.

Born in Holyoke, Massachusetts, but reared primarily in Joliet, Illinois, Berresse's father was a chemical engineer and his mother is the artist and author Cynthia Berresse Ploski. A nationally competitive gymnast and diver from age eight, he went straight from high school to a stint performing in Walt Disney theme parks in Orlando and Tokyo before moving to New York and making his Broadway debut in the 1990 revival of Fiddler on the Roof. In 1992, he appeared on Star Search in a dance group called "The Boys Back East", winning the title of Best New Dance Group and a shared prize of $100,000.

He has appeared on Broadway in many shows.

Berresse was the director and choreographer of the Broadway musical, [title of show] for which he was nominated for a Lucille Lortel Award and a recipient of off-Broadway's Obie Award and which starred and was co-created by his partner Jeff Bowen.

He made his film debut as the Stage Manager in Spielberg's A.I. Artificial Intelligence, played an assassin in State of Play, starring Russell Crowe, and recently appeared in The Bourne Legacy, with Jeremy Renner.

1977 – Stefan Maysztowicz creates the micro-nation of the Gay Parallel Republic (GPR) on 308 square miles near Quebec, centered on the city of Sherbrooke.

2013 – Sweden issues the first family-based visa for a same-sex partner’s spouse. It is a direct result of the June 2013 decision of the US Supreme Court to expand recognition of same-sex marriage to the federal level. This allows the husband of Ambassador Mark Bezezinski to now travel to the United States as a fully recognized spouse.  Brzezinski is an American lawyer who served as the United States Ambassador to Sweden from 2011–2015.

[igate777]

THE LAW WAS A SCHOOLMASTER. AN APOSTOLIC BLUEPRINT FOR KINGDOM CULTURE.

There are several things we have overlooked or bypassed during our salvation and spiritual development that have become problematic in our dealings with the Spirit, or have allowed us to identify certain errors carried out in the name of God and his Church. The reason for this note is not to debate the theological or doctrinal purpose around the law of Moses, but to explore why the law was given…

[secretmellowblog]

@pilferingapples Boulatruelle is the most underrated Les mis character and he did NOTHING wrong! At least That’s my Boulatruelle Fan Theory #BoulatruelleFansRiseUp.

(Ok I’m joking. But still.)

OK SO (for people who haven’t read Les mis in a bit.) Boulatruelle is a minor character who is an ex-convict, like Valjean. He sorta represents what might’ve happened to Valjean if Valjean hadn’t gotten Myriel’ed/committed identity fraud.

Boulatruelle works as a road-mender outside Montfermil, getting paid starvation wages. When we first see him we’re not (iirc) explicitly told if he’s done anything criminal since leaving prison but— like Valjean in Digne— everyone in town already hates him for being an ex-convict. It doesn’t matter if he’s “guilty” or not, they’d hate him either way. And also like Valjean in Digne, Boulatruelle is overly submissive/deferential to all the bigoted people around him because he has to be in order to survive. The threat of being returned to prison is always hanging over him.

He was subjected to certain police supervision, and, as he could find work nowhere, the administration employed him at reduced rates as a road-mender on the crossroad from Gagny to Lagny. This Boulatruelle was a man who was viewed with disfavor by the inhabitants of the district as too respectful, too humble, too prompt in removing his cap to every one, and trembling and smiling in the presence of the gendarmes,—probably affiliated to robber bands, they said; suspected of lying in ambush at verge of copses at nightfall. The only thing in his favor was that he was a drunkard.

When Valjean buries his money in the woods, Boulatrelle attempts to figure out where he’s hidden it. Which yeah, i guess it sucks he’s trying to steal or whatever, but hey he’s having a rough time. And stealing things from a saintly dude worked out for Valjean so

But here’s the thing— Boulatruelle KNOWs Valjean! He recognizes him from Toulon! We’re told he’s a “comrade from the galleys” and recognizes him in sight! He could give away Valjean’s identity!

People in the town—especially Thenardier— begin to get suspicious about Boulatruelle digging in the woods. They realize he must’ve seen someone bury money there and attempt to get the information out of him .

And because he’s a “drunkard”— or really, an alcoholic— Thenardier decides the best way to manipulate him is by getting him drunk. This is explicitly compared to another person’s suggestion that they torture the information out of him:

One evening the schoolmaster affirmed that in former times the law would have instituted an inquiry as to what Boulatruelle did in the forest, and that the latter would have been forced to speak, and that he would have been put to the torture in case of need, and that Boulatruelle would not have resisted the water test, for example. “Let us put him to the wine test,” said Thénardier.

But even with all that, Boulatruelle never gives up Valjean’s name. He stubbornly refuses. That makes it seem like…he really does have a conscience, at least at first?

Idk to me it seems that Boulatruelle starts out like Digne Valjean — but gets corrupted utterly as the story goes on. In his first chapter it’s implied he still can occasionally be driven by his conscience (not giving up Valjean’s name even under duress)…. but by the end of the book that’s sorta gone. We only get a couple very brief flashes of his life, but to me he seems like an alternate universe version of Valjean who wasn’t helped by the bishop, and instead was manipulated by someone who took advantage of how desperate and isolated he was.

The next time we see him is during the Gorbeau House ambush. It’s years later, and he is now part of Thenardier’s gang. That’s depressing but it makes sense— he made so little as a road-mender, everyone hated him, and if he was attempting to live even Somewhat “honestly” it wasn’t working. In that intro chapter scene with we’re shown that Boulatruelle is surrounded by people who want to send him back to prison and have him tortured— but Thenardier acts like his “friend” and easily manipulates him with alcohol.

But like …during the Gorbeau house ambush it sorta looks like Boulatruelle’s heart isn’t in it?

Boulatruelle is so drunk he barely knows what’s going on. (Which again, feels related to the earlier scene where Thenardier manipulates Boulatrelle to keep drinking more than he should in order to make him behave the way he wants.)

At the trampling which ensued, the other ruffians rushed up from the corridor. (Boulatrelle), who seemed under the influence of wine, descended from the pallet and came reeling up, with a stone-breaker’s hammer in his hand.

Iirc he makes no indication that he recognizes Valjean—hmmm— but is very easily defeated after receives a punch in the face from Valjean when Valjean is trying to escape, and is knocked out/sleeps through the rest of the ambush. Again it sorta feels like he doesn’t particularly care about any of it.

That’s unlucky for Thenardier because again, he’s the only dude there who could’ve told him who Valjean actually was. Idk it’s funny that if Thenardier had set basic rules like “don’t show up to the important ambush blackout drunk” he might’ve actually had an upper hand against Valjean— if Boulatruelle had been willing to share his knowledge this time, anyway.

(There’s also a line in a later chapter where he says “this prowler of patron-Minette has his reasons,” while talking about how he needs to find out where Valjean has hidden his money. I’m not sure if that line is referring to himself as the “prowler,” Or if it’s meant to imply he knew Valjean was the one Patron-Minette had ambushed and just hadn’t told anyone.)

(AND SIDE NOTE: we all talk about how Valjean is paranoid about the police in the Gorbeau House scene, but I’m just realizing he must’ve been so paranoid about Boulatruelle too?? Because in the chapter where Boulatruelle talks about him he makes it sounds like Valjean would also recognize HIM on sight. I think it’s also interesting that when Valjean is trying to escape by force in the first couple minutes, Boulatruelle is the only one he knocks out. It feels deliberate. Sure; Boulatrelle is so drunk he just kinda falls asleep after being punched. But it’s also not hard to see why Valjean would be especially afraid of him.)

But yeah Boulatruelle literally sleeps through the whole ambush! He’s like, the Anti-Grantaire. Drunkenly sleeping through the big event because he genuinely doesn’t care. He’s not being actively evil as much as he’s letting himself get dragged along.

He’s also the Anti-Grantaire in that, when all his allies get punished by authority, he’s spared punishment because he drunkenly slept through the whole thing. He doesn’t wake up to stand by them and accept punishment by their side, he’s totally cool with not going to prison while they do.

In the meanwhile, the agents had caught sight of the drunken man asleep behind the door, and were shaking him:—

He awoke, stammering:—

“Is it all over, Jondrette?”

I wonder if the weird barricade parallels are another relic of that earlier draft of the book where Patron-Minette were a bigger thing.

…and Interestingly, it’s only after the rest of Patron-Minette gets arrested that Boulatruelle seems to really become fully corrupted?

The last we see of him is a callback to his first chapter. He’s no longer with Patron-Minette or Thenardier— they were arrested and he was not— so he’s alone and a road-mender again.

Only now, everything is Even Worse? Hes no longer described as trembling and smiling and deferential, but as openly breaking things and robbing people. We’re no longer told that bigoted townspeople assume he’s robbing people with no proof other than “he’s an ex-con,” we’re told that he IS robbing people openly at every opportunity. We’re told that he drinks even more than he used to. The first time Boulatrelle saw Valjean (in his first chapter) he had considered following him, but later refuses to reveal his identity; this time, he follows Valjean with a weapon and an intent to kill.

…..however i do admit there is a possibility I’m overthinking this. XD I’ve mentioned before that I feel like the side Patron-Minette characters are often the weakest part of the book, and feel like relics from early drafts (because they are.) It’d be incomplete to talk about Boulatruelle without admitting that his alcoholism/state of constant drunkenness is often played for comedy. His final scene where he discovers Valjean has dug up his money, and angrily shrieks that he’s a Thief, is also played for comedy. There’s something really interesting about the way he’s set up as a foil for Valjean, but if I’m being honest I don’t think Hugo follows through on it completely.

It’s like he’s set up as a character foil for Valjean, a “what if Valjean had fallen in with Thenardier instead of Myriel” —but yeah while I do think that’s there, I also think Hugo doesn’t seem as interested in exploring that idea as I am XD. Like a lot of the side members of Patron Minette, Boulatruelle feels a bit incomplete.

But there’s really a lot of potential in a character who represents the Corruption Arc Valjean might’ve had without the bishop? To me it seems like Boulatruelle first chapter focuses on the tragedy of being newly released from prison in ways that pretty explicitly echo Valjean’s — the way he’s isolated, a victim of bigotry and all these systemic barriers, “trembling and smiling” in the presence of the police. But in Boulatrelle’s case all the bigoted things the townspeople say about him in his introduction end up being true— he does end up affiliated with “robber bands,” he does plan to ambush Valjean in a dark forest at night. And I feel like it’s in large part as a result of falling in with Thenardier as a “friend.”

Idk I feel like the point is supposed what Valjean says earlier— “there are no bad plants and no bad men; there are only bad cultivators.” Boulatrelle ended up kinda sucking as a person, but he didn’t have to.

I sorta wish he managed to attempt to rob Valjean that first time, because Valjean might have been to Boulatruelle what the bishop was to him? And In AU where he redeemed himself it would be Good for Valjean to develop some kind of healthy friendship with someone who was dealing with the same “ex-con” struggles as him? Maybe the reason I stan Boulatruelle is because Valjean needs a friend and I want him to be redeemed for Valjean’s sake? And anyway that’s my fixit fic, thank you for reading XD.

[nietzschey]

Complete Works

Franz Kafka

Before the Law

An Imperial Message

Description of a Struggle

Wedding Preparations in the Country

In the Penal Colony

The Judgement

The Metamorphosis

The Village Schoolmaster

Blumfeld, an Elderly Bachelor

The Warden of the Tomb

- Continue when read

Dostoevsky

The Brothers Karamazov

Crime and Punishment

Demons

- All works

Agatha Christie

- All works

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle

- All works

Philosophers:

Nietzsche

The Birth of Tragedy

The Gay Science

The Genealogy of Morals

The Twilight of the Idols and the Anti-Christ: Or How to Philosophize with a Hammer

Thus Spoken Zarathustra

Beyond Good and Evil

God is Dead. God Remains Dead. And We Have Killed Him.

Schopenhauer

The World as Will and Representation

The Wisdom of Life

The Two Fundamental Problems of Ethics

Studies in Pessimism

Camus

The Myth of Sisyphus

The Stranger

The Fall

The Plague

The Rebel

The First Man

Between Hell and Reason

Kant

Introduction to Logic

Groundwork for the Metaphysics of Morals

Critique of Pure Reason

Religion Within the Bounds of Bare Reason

Dreams of a Spirit-Seer

What is Enlightenment?

Hegel

Introductory Lectures on Aesthetics

Phenomenology of Spirit

Absolute Spirit

Science of Logic

Lectures on the Philosophy of History

William James

The Principles of Psychology

The Varieties of Religious Experience

Essays in Radical Empiricism

Philosophies

Moral Nihilism

The Moral Fool

The Evolution of Morality

Ethics of Ambiguity

Beyond Morality

Essays in Moral Skepticism

Abolishing Morality

Morality: The Final Delusion?

Metaphysical Nihilism

The Overcoming of Metaphysics

Metaphysics and Nihilism

Existential Nihilism

Existentialism is a Humanism

Existentialism from Dostoevsky to Sartre

Macbeth

Being and Nothingness

Political Nihilism

An Introduction to Political Philosophy

Political Philosophy: Responding to the Challenge of Positivism and Historicism

Positive Nihilism

The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos

A Tale for the Time Being

John Dies at the End

Epistemological Nihilism

Nihilism's Epistemology, Ontology, and Its God

Absurdism

The Trial

Nausea

Slaughterhouse Five

Waiting for Godot

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

Fatalism

Tess of the D'Urbervilles

Wide Sargasso Sea

No Longer Human

Sapiens

Cat’s Cradle

Antinatalism

The Denial of Death

The Human Predicament

Every Cradle a Grave

Better Never to Have Been - The Harm of Coming into Existence

Misc.

Medieval Philosophy

Classics

The Catcher in the Rye

The Grapes of Wrath

The Picture of Dorian Gray

The Great Gatsby

The Crucible

The Bell Jar

The Yellow Wallpaper

A Clockwork Orange

A Room of One's Own

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

One Thousand and One Nights

Of Mice and Men

As I Lay Dying

For Whom the Bell Tolls

Where the Red Fern Grows

Flowers for Algernon

Lolita

Lord of the Flies

Wuthering Heights

Moby Dick

Little Women

Death of a Salesman

Beloved

Don Quixote

Diary of a Madman

Jane Eyre

Pride and Prejudice

I, Robot

Catch 22

Religious

The Apocrypha

The Summa Theologica

The Divine Comedy

The Epic of Gilgamesh

City of God

Angelology

The Occult

Books to reread

The Odyssey

The Strange Case of Doctor Jekyll and Mr. Hyde

The Scarlet Letter

The Time Machine

The Invisible Man

The Secret Garden

To Kill a Mockingbird

Ten Thousand Leagues Under the Sea

Alice in Wonderland

Gulliver's Travels

Dracula

Frankenstein

Books I’ve completed

The Screwtape Letters

The Art of War

Animal Farm

Fahrenheit 451

1984

[newprophets]

Embracing Christ's Law The Profound Message of Galatians 6

"Time Travelers in Galatians 4: Understanding Our Spiritual Heritage"

Imagine stepping into a time machine, not to explore the dinosaurs or the future, but to travel back to the early days of the Christian church. Welcome to Galatians 4, where Paul gives us a front-row seat to the spiritual drama unfolding in Galatia. This chapter is like the ultimate family reunion, with Paul reminding the Galatians (and us!) of our true identity as children of God, not slaves to the law.

Paul starts by comparing the Old Law to a "schoolmaster" – think of it as that strict teacher who wouldn’t let you sneak a cookie before lunch. But now, thanks to Christ, we've graduated! We're no longer students under supervision; we’re full-fledged family members with God. To spice things up, Paul throws in an allegory about two women, Hagar and Sarah, representing two covenants. It's like an episode of a biblical soap opera, highlighting the drama between living under the law versus being free in the Spirit.

As we zip through this chapter, Paul’s frustration is palpable—he’s like a concerned parent watching his kids forgetting they’re royalty and playing in the mud. He's urging the Galatians not to trade their crowns for chains again. So, buckle up in our time machine as we learn from the past to live better in the present, embracing our freedom and inheritance as God's children. And remember, no more playing in the mud!

[mybeautifulchristianjourney]

Glorious Liberty

by Charles Spurgeon

Our Father, we bless Thy name that we can say from the bottom of our hearts, “Abba, Father.” It is the chief joy of our lives that we have become the children of God by faith which is in Christ Jesus and we can in the deep calm of our spirit say, “Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name, Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as in heaven.”

Lord, we thank Thee for the liberty which comes to our emancipated spirit through the adoption which Thou hast made us to enjoy. When we were in servitude the chains were heavy, for we could not keep Thy law. There was an inward spirit of rebellion. When the commandment came, it irritated our corrupt nature and sin revived and we died.

Even when we had some strivings after better things, yet the power that was in us lusted into evil, and the spirit of the Hagarene was upon us. We wanted to fly from the Father’s house. We were wild men, men of the wilderness, and we loved not living in the Father’s house.

O God, we thank Thee that we have not been cast out. Indeed, if Thou hadst then cast out the child of the bondwoman Thou hadst cast us out, but now through sovereign grace all is altered with us. Blessed by Thy name. It is a work of divine power and love over human nature, for now we are the children of the promise, certainly not born according to the strength of the human will, or of blood, or of birth, but born by the Holy Ghost through the power of the Word, begotten again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, children of the Great Father who is in heaven, having His life within us. Now, like Isaac, we are heirs according to promise and heirs of the promise, and we dwell at home in the Father’s house and our soul is satisfied as with marrow and fatness, and our mouth shall praise Thee as with joyful lips.

O God, we would not change places with angels, much less with kings of the earth. To be indeed Thy sons and daughters—the thought of it doth bring to our soul a present heaven and the fruition of it shall be our heaven, to dwell forever in the house of the Lord and go no more out, but to be His sons and His heirs forever and ever.

Our first prayer is for others who as yet are in bondage. We thank Thee, Lord, that Thou hast given them the spirit of bondage and made them to fear. We are glad that they should be brought to feel the evil of sin, to feel the perfection of Thy law, to know something of the fiery nature of Thy justice, and so to be shut up unto salvation by grace through faith. But, Lord, let them not tarry long under the pedagogue, but may the schoolmaster with his rod bring them to Christ.

Lord, cure any of Thy chosen of self-righteousness. Deliver them from any hope in their own abilities, but keep them low. Bring them out of any hope of salvation by their own prayers or their own repentance. Bring them to cast themselves upon Thy grace to be saved by trusting in Christ. Emancipate them from all observance of days, weeks, months, years, and things of human institution, and bring them into the glorious liberty of the children of God that Thy law may become their delight, Thyself become their strength, their all, Thy Son become their joy and their crown. We do pray this with all our hearts.

Lord, deliver any of Thy children from quarrelling with Thee. Help us to be always at one with our God. “It is the Lord; let Him do what seemeth Him good,” and blessed be His name forever and ever.

God, bless our country, and the sister country across the flood, and all lands where Thy name is known and reverenced, and heathen lands where it is unknown. God, bless the outposts, the first heralds of mercy, and everywhere may the Lord’s kingdom come and His name be glorified. Glory be unto the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost; as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be, world without end. Amen.

[childofchrist1983]

Many at Galatia had been influenced by the "Judaizers" - Jewish Christians, or at least Christians in name - who sought to be justified through keeping the Law of Moses. But Paul tells them that the true function of the Law was not to save, but to be a "schoolmaster" or "teacher" to bring them to Jesus Christ. Once they saw the impossibility of keeping the Law and the great culpability of breaking it, they would see their need to be saved by faith alone.

God's Holy Word that revealed our constant need of Father God Almighty and the LORD Jesus Christ, our LORD and Savior, is still teaching us and revealing to us our shortcomings. As love is the fulfilling of the God's Law of Love, and to love God first and love our neighbor is the sum of it, we see that God and His Holy Word and Spirit as a helpful guide for Christian conduct. May God continue to use it to teach and humble us and show us our flaws, then turn us to Him and His Word and Spirit by grace to the keeping of it through our love for Him and His will and ways.

May He help us encourage one another as we continue our walk with Him and our duty to Him daily. Thank Father God Almighty and the LORD Jesus Christ for being present for all our new beginnings and all our lives. May He redirect any anxiety we feel as He provides countless opportunities for growth and change. May we humble ourselves before God always, asking Him to forgive our sins and make our hearts and lives anew through His Holy Word and Spirit. May He help us make Him and His Holy Word top priority, so we can grow spiritually and grow in our relationship with Him as we apply it to our daily lives. Thank God that we can focus on Him and everything about Him, for that is what keeps us sane and at peace. May our words and actions always be a reflection of Him and His Holy Word and Spirit and will for all our lives.

Everyday, we must remember to thank Father God Almighty and the LORD Jesus Christ for the grace that He poured out for us on the cross at Calvary. He has freed us from the burdens of sin and guilt. May He help us to always walk in His grace and Holy Spirit, not by our own measure. May He give us the humble humility to know that our freedom and eternal salvation is found only in Him, so that His grace may sustain us, and we may never lose sight of His love and light and mercy. Thank Father God Almighty and the LORD Jesus Christ for calling us to Him and to serve Him. May He equip us to do all that He has called us to do so that as He works through us, He may use us to produce fruit, to reach others, and to encourage all brothers and sisters in Christ. May He work all of these things in us and through us for His Kingdom and His glory. Thank Father God Almighty and the LORD Jesus Christ for all His creation, for His miraculous ways and for everything He does and has done for us! Keep the faith and keep moving forward in your walk with Jesus! He loves us and He knows what is best for us. Seek, follow and trust in Him - Always!

Thank Father God Almighty and the LORD Jesus Christ for His Holy Word and for sending His Holy Spirit so that we might have His grace, not only to awaken us and transform our hearts in our spiritual rebirth and guarantee our eternity with Him, but to also call upon Him whenever we are in need. Thank Father God Almighty and the LORD Jesus Christ for all the reminders of His love and mercy and faithfulness within His Holy Word. He is bigger than any challenge or circumstance in our lives. Knowing this within our minds and our hearts, nothing can deter our faith in Him and His Truth. May we all accept Him and His eternal gift of salvation and ask that He would transform our hearts and lives according to His will and ways. Thank Father God Almighty and the LORD Jesus Christ for His Holy Spirit who saves, seals and leads us. May we always thank Father God Almighty and the LORD Jesus Christ for His almighty power and saving grace. For He is our strength, and He alone is able to save us, forgive our sins and gift us eternal salvation and entry into His Kingdom of Heaven.

May we make sure that we give our hearts and lives to God and take time to seek and praise Him and share His Truth with the world daily. May the LORD our God and Father in Heaven help us to stay diligent and obedient and help us to guard our hearts in Him and His Holy Word daily. May He help us to remain faithful and full of excitement to do our duty to Him and for His glorious return and our reunion in Heaven as well as all that awaits us there. May we never forget to thank the LORD our God and our Creator and Father in Heaven for all this and everything He does and has done for us! May we never forget who He is, nor forget who we are in Christ and that God is always with us! What a mighty God we serve! What a Savior this is! What a wonderful LORD, God, Savior and King we have in Jesus Christ! What a loving Father we have found in Almighty God! What a wonderful God we serve! His will be done!

Thanks and glory be to God! Blessed be the name of the LORD! Hallelujah and Amen!