I wish I was obsessed with normal things

Is this an art blog? Not really.

Do I have 19,990 unfinished drafts on various interesting topics (imo)? Naturally.

Is there an unfinished Bonchamps in the room judging me? Of course there is.

Did I spend 50 minutes sketching what I choose to believe is Lucille in charcoal because I randomly found an old charcoal set? Of course I did.

OMG we finally finished chapter 4 omgggg it only took over a year 😭 A friendly reminder that you can buy vol 1 of Incorruptible here, both the print version or a pdf if you want to pay whatever price you want for it~

Also...lol a comment @anotherhumaninthisworld made before, made me wanna add this:

Here’s to the ones who deliberately step outside the ranks and ignore categorization. Here’s to the revolutionary who contradicts Newton based on experimental evidence on the diffraction of light; to the journalist who describes eye diseases; to the doctor who advocates for prison reforms; to the lifelong skeptic of lofty pretensions who is turned into a symbol before his blood has clotted.

Here’s to refusing to turn away from the fear and the violence and the treachery and the war; to claiming the guard-post, though armed with words alone. Perhaps, just enough to protect the shared ideals. Perhaps, too much. Perhaps, insufficient; history may have the answer, but how could one know that, when one is in the process of making the history happen?

Here’s to hard decisions made unflinchingly; to cutting through the rush of a new republic like a soldier escaping a siege, decisively and with full understanding of the inevitable defeat; and to words that continue to ring true as we offer complacency to the twin hydras of poverty and injustice in hope that it will be enough to escape them, just this time.

"...que la société humaine y prenne garde, on ne tuera Marat qu’en tuant la misère ; Charlotte Corday n’a rien fait ; tant qu’il y aura des misérables, il y aura sur l’horizon un nuage qui peut devenir un fantôme, et un fantôme qui peut devenir Marat." - Victor Hugo

Happy birthday, Marat.

because I've been tearing apart Robespierre's speeches for two days & kept coming across more and more examples that, to me, demonstrate not viciousness but consistency, commitment to equality, and efforts on behalf of the common people, and it is worth sharing with the class 😊 (+thank you to @anotherhumaninthisworld & @montagnarde1793 for even more quotes I hadn't found!!)

November 5, 1792

"The sensibility that groans almost exclusively for the enemies of liberty is suspect to me."

December 3, 1792

"I asked the assembly, which you still call the Constituent Assembly, to abolish the death penalty, and it is not my fault if the first principles of reason seemed to them moral and political heresies. But if you never thought of claiming them in favor of so many unfortunate people, whose offenses are less their own than than those of the government. Why, of all people, do you in the government, by what fatal twist of fate, remember this only to plead the cause of the greatest of all criminals? You demand an exception to the death penalty for this man alone who can justify it?"

"...a people whose freedom is still being contested, after so many sacrifices and struggles; a people among whom the laws are still inexorable only for the unfortunate; a people among whom the crimes of tyranny are subjects of dispute, must desire to be avenged; and the generosity with which we are flattered would too closely resemble that of a band of brigands dividing their spoils."

"...We are tender towards oppressors because we are heartless towards the oppressed."

"...Let us beware lest, through excessive scruples, we render ourselves criminal; let us beware lest by showing too much indulgence toward the guilty, we place ourselves in their stead."

December 28, 1792

"Sensitivity that sacrifices innocence to crime is a cruel sensitivity; clemency that compromises with tyranny is barbaric."

February 5, 1794

" "Indulgence for the Royalists!" cry certain people. "Pardon for the scoundrels!" No: pardon for innocence, pardon for the weak, pardon for the unfortunate, pardon for humanity!"

~~~

I wouldn't be surprised if there are more; once I started looking for this particular theme/reasoning, it seemed to crop up everywhere!

You can definitely argue over how things play out in practice. E.g., what do you do when powerful people use "the unfortunate, "the weak", "the oppressed, who will end up getting caught & taking the fall while the ones behind the curtain get away & keep operating? What about where the line between oppressor/oppressed isn't so clear? (An impoverished royalist? A revolutionary aristocrat? People manipulated by misinformation?) But his belief, and what he demonstrably keeps fighting for, is far from cruel or dictatorial. How is what he says any different from out own modern anger when people in power keep getting away with hurting others, when they are allowed to carry on or are given minuscule consequences that don't even slow them down, while regular people are condemned for much tinier offenses?

Imagine finding out you have 90 minutes to tie up a love story that's developed over thousands of years. You create something beautifully in character and completely on point for the plot. You pay homage to the original writer's legacy in a fitting and poetic way and create an ending that not only shows the depth of two people's love for each other but the wider love they have for the thing that brought them together in the first place.

And then you go online to find the loudest outcry is that everyone hates it and "THEY DIDN'T EVEN KISS!"

Joyeux anniversaire, Robespierre. Wherever you are, thank you again and here's to another year.

idk which version I like the most so I'm posting both 🦆