Final thoughts on The Gods Will Have Blood, + first and last

I really wasn't sure I'd like this book and while I adore the taste of its publisher, Penguin Books, I have trouble reading their books, or rather, summoning the interest in reading them. Cheap paper and tiny, not particularly attractive fonts. My friend Thom remarked the paper quality was like an old Harlequin novel (which is true because I was quite the connoisseur of trash romances back around the age of 13.) I forgot all about the aesthetics once I started reading, which maybe is Penguin's devious master plan.

Of course, I floved the book which managed somehow to be both philosophically and emotionally engaging. Brotteaux's character, this sweet old man who makes marionettes for a living, just broke my heart. That scene of him carrying his dolls in the rain because the vendor wouldn't buy them (the authorities claimed they were caricatures of Robespierre) was so sad.

You couldn't help feeling sorry for that silly, frivolous woman Rochemaure who both got Gamelin his job and whose indiscretion got Brotteaux arrested. And her incriminating letter being handed over by Elodie's ex-boyfriend Henry who also was involved the the overthrow of the Jacobins. What was the message here? There were villains on both sides and some just got lucky? 

I'm a little confused by the Orestes references and I feel like I'm missing something obvious. I get that Evariste is committing symbolic patricide but Orestes murdered his mother (and Clytemnestra got a bum rap. I'd be pissed too if my husband sacrificed my daughter for favorable winds.) And why the comparisons between Elodie and Electra? He even calls her "sister" at one point. Maybe re-reading Euripides would clear this up. Also, Brotteaux makes me want to read Lucretius.

It's interesting to contrast the deaths of Brotteaux and Gamelin, who died in such similar circumstances riding in the tumbril to the guillotine. But while Brotteaux's is so moving, with Gamelin you feel relieved, at best. You can't even feel sorry for the poor schmuck because he rides to his death still thinking he was a great man and regretting he didn't kill more traitors. By 6 months later, Elodie is shacked up with his best friend Desmahis (this poor girl really needs to have better taste in men.)

The message of the perils of dogmatism are still as relevant as ever, unfortunately. 

First line:

Very early one morning, Evariste Gamelin-artist, pupil of David, member of the Section du Pont-Neuf, formerly Section Henry IV-was to be seen approaching the ancient church of the Barnabites, which had served for three years, since the 21st May, 1790, as the meeting place for the general assembly of the section.

Last line:

The last burnt-out logs were glowing in the fireplace. Elodie let her happy, tired head fall back again upon her pillow.

More great lines from The Gods Will Have Blood

Brotteaux again on religion:

He had noticed that religions are fiercest and most cruel in the vigour of their youth and that they grow milder as they grow older. He was anxious, therefore, to see Catholicism preserved, since though it had devoured many victims in its youth, it was now, burdened by the weight of years and an enfeebled appetite, content with roasting four or five heretics every hundred years. 

Gamelin's poor sister Julie returns to France with her husband and he gets arrested. She goes to her mother and asks if Gamelin will help and in the process makes this observation about why Gamelin is an unsuccessful artist:

"To be a good artist, a man must know how to feel tenderness. And he's incapable of that....There's his soul. You can see it in his paintings, cold and empty. Look at his Orestes there with those dull eyes and cruel mouth. That's Evariste to the life."


This being the Orestes painting, most specifically the head, that Gamelin is so proud of. 


Brotteaux is of course arrested along with Father Longuemare and Athenais the prostitute who yells "Vive le roi" at the guards when they are taking the men away rather than escaping, thus insuring she will be arrested with them. This while Brotteaux's neighbors do nothing and turn away. Here is Brotteaux's final exchange with Longuemare on the way to the guillotine which is the powerful and wrenching moment of the book:

"Father, I have let you see my weakness. I love life and I cannot leave it without regret."

"Monsieur," replied the monk very gently, "be mindful, then, of the fact that you who are a braver man than I, are more troubled by death than I. What does that mean, if not that I see the light which you do not yet see?"

"It could also mean," said Brotteaux, "that I regret leaving it because I have enjoyed it more than you, who have made it resemble death."

.........

"Monsieur," Father Longuemare said to the philosophical epicurean, "I ask you for one favour: this God in whom you do not yet believe, pray to Him for me.  It is possible that you may be nearer to him than I am myself: a moment and we shall know. Only one second, and you may have become one of the Lord's most dearly beloved children. Monsieur, pray for me."

.....

Beside him [Brotteaux], Athenais, proud to die thus like the Queen of France, gazed haughtily at the crowd, and the old aristocrat, contemplating with a connoisseur's eyes the young woman's white breasts, was filled with regret for the light of day.

Old Brotteaux, a gentleman and philosopher to the last, goes to the guillotine with his beloved copy of Lucretius in his pocket. Damn, this book was good.

Timeline for The Gods Will Have Blood

Here is a timeline of the French Revolution to aide in enjoyment of Anatole France's The Gods Will Have Blood. Mainly taken from Wikipedia.


·         1774: Louis XVI’s coronation
·         1789: Robespierre is elected to the Estates-General at the age of 30 and moves to Versailles.
·         July 14, 1789: Bastille Day
·         August 26, 1789: National Constituent Assembly publishes Declaration of the Rights of Man (proposed by Lafayette)
·         October 5-6, 1789: Women’s March/October Revolution. The Royal Family is forced out of Versailles by an angry mob. They move to the Tuileries, escorted by Lafayette.
·         July 12, 1790: The Civil Constitution of the Clergy makes all clergy employees of the state. By November, all clergy must swear an oath of loyalty to this. The Pope does not like it.
·         July 17, 1791: Champ de Mars Massacre. A crowd gathers to protest the National Assembly’s decision to create a constitutional monarchy. Between 12 and 50 people are killed by royalist troops under command of Lafayette.
·         August 27, 1791: Declaration of Pillnitz. The Holy Roman Emperor Leopold II and Frederick William II of Prussia call on European powers to intervene if Louis XVI’s life is endangered.
·         September 13-14, 1791: Louis XVI formally accepts constitution
·         September 30, 1791: Dissolution of National Constituent Assembly
·         October 1, 1791: Legislative Assembly meets for the first time with many young and inexperienced members.
·         March, 1792: Guillotine adopted as means of execution
·         April 20, 1792: France declares war on Austria.
·         April 25, 1792: First use of guillotine.
·         April 28, 1792: France invades Belgium (Austrian Netherlands)
·         July 30, 1792: Austria and Prussia begin invasion of France.
·         August 10, 1792: Paris Commune uprising. Royal family arrested. End of the Bourbon monarchy in France until the 1814 restoration.
·         August 19, 1792: Lafayette flees France, surrenders to Austria
·         August 22, 1792: royalist riots in Brittany, La Vendée and Dauphiné.
·         September, 1792: half of the Paris prison population is massacred. Many are clergy. Marie Antoinette’s close friend the Princess de Lamballe is torn apart by an angry mob.
·         September 22, 1792: first day of the Revolutionary Calendar (Napoleon will officially abolish in 1806)
·         1793: The first Bourbon king, Henry IV’s, tomb is ransacked and his corpse is decapitated (it was reinterred with his body this year.)
·         January 21, 1793: execution of Louis XVI
·         March 11, 1793: establishment of Revolutionary Tribunal, the court that try political offenders during the Reign of Terror.
·         April 6, 1793: Committee of Public Safety established. This will be France’s de facto government during the Reign of Terror
·         June 10, 1793: Jacobins gain control of the Committee of Public Safety
·         July 13, 1793: Marat assassinated
·         July 17, 1793: Charlotte Corday executed
·         July 27, 1793: Robespierre, a Jacobin, is elected to Committee of Public Safety
·         September 5, 1793: Reign of Terror begins
·         October 16, 1793: Marie Antoinette executed
·         October 21, 1793: a law is passed that allows execution of priests and their supporters on sight
·         October 31, 1793: 21 former Girondist leaders executed
·         March 24, 1794: Jacques Hebert, the editor of the radical left newspaper La Pere Duchesne, is executed for criticizing Robespierre for being too moderate
·         April  5, 1794: Georges Danton executed
·         May 7, 1794: Robespierre launches his new religion, The Cult of the Supreme Being
·         May 8, 1794: Antoine Lavoisier executed
·         July 27-28, 1794: The Thermidorian Reaction. Robespierre is arrested and guillotined without trial, along with other members of the Committee of Public Safety. Ironically, the end of the committee makes the public more safe. The Reign of Terror officially ends.
·         1799: Napoleon becomes First Consul of France
·         May 18, 1804: Napoleon crowned Emperor of France
·         April 6, 1814: Bourbon Restoration of Louis XVIII (Louis XVI’s younger brother)
·         March 20, 1815: Beginning of Napoleon’s 100 Days; Louis XVIII flees France
·         June, 1815: following defeat at Waterloo, Napoleon surrenders and is exiled from France for the second time to St. Helena where he will die in 1821. Louis XVIII returns to the throne.

WTF Blogger?

So, it looks like my last two posts were erased somehow by last night's Blogger maintenance. How disenchanting. Things that are free should work without glitches. One of them at least I have saved, which is unusual. That one I can repost at least no problemo.

What I've looked up thus far for The Gods Will Have Blood

Gamelin mentions to his girlfriend Elodie that her slicing bread reminds him of a German novel where Werther admires a girl named Charlotte doing the same action. Elodie asks if they get married and Gamelin, ever charmless, says no, he died a violent death.

The novel he is referring to is The Sorrows of Young Werther by Goethe published in 1774 which is basically about a love triangle that Werther decides to resolve by shooting himself in the head. Unfortunately he fucks it up and doesn't die for 12 more hours.

I knew who Danton was, a moderate figure in the French Revolution who ran afoul of Robespierre in the end, but not when he was killed. April, 1794 which was tragically only a few months before Robespierre himself met the same end.

The book keeps referring to ci-devant aristocrats. This was a derogatory term used during the Revolution for aristocrats who had not mended their ways. Prior to the Revolution, it was also derogatory but meant an aristocrat who was broke, like someone out of a Fitzgerald novel.

I was curious what became of the Tuileries, briefly the home of the Royal Family after they fled Versailles and later turned into a government center during the Revolution. Then it was Napoleon's palace. It was burned down in 1871 during the Paris Commune uprising. Parts of the Louvre were also burned. They were restored but in the end the French government decided the palace was a symbol of the old monarchical ways and it was torn down in 1882. The Tuileries Gardens are what remain.

Here is what it used to look like:

Brotteaux mentions that he also works as an amanuensis. This basically means someone who works as a secretary or more accurately, one who takes dictation. You can see the Latin word "manu" within it.

After all the descriptions of the sans culotte uniform with the striped trousers, I wanted some kind of visual because I keep picturing clown pants. Voila:

Which still looks a little Big Top-ish to me.

There are so many debates on religion in the book and the most sympathetic character is the atheist and former aristocrat Brotteaux (although Father Longuemare is a modest, likable counterpoint), I was curious if Anatole France was himself an atheist.  Yep. He once wrote a satirical novel called Penguin Island about what happens when a blind missionary baptizes a flock of penguins, mistaking them for humans. And the ultimate proof he's in the club: Hitch included him in his Portable Atheist.

Unrelated to research, I was reading this the other night and Music Choice played Tracy Chapman's "Talkin Bout a Revolution" which went from vaguely inspirational to specifically creepy hella quick. You better free your mind instead, Tracy.

Great lines from The Gods Will Have Blood

A post I'll expand upon as needed and inclined.

The Gods Will Have Blood being a novel by Anatole France about the French Revolution. Not written from the aristocratic perspective, but from that of ordinary citizens. The main character, Evariste Gamelin, is an artist and student of David who can't sell any of his paintings. He is a fervent believer in the Revolution. He has occasional moments of kindness (like when he waits in line for hours for bread and then gives half of it to a young soldier's wife with a baby then tells his mother he ate half the loaf so she'll take the rest for herself) but most of the time, he's a dogmatic, humorless jackhole.

Here are Citizen Brotteaux's thoughts on fortune tellers, shared over a lunch made by Gamelin's mother to whom he has given the precious gift of a capon (poor Brotteaux, I wish I hadn't read the spoiler-ridden preface):

"Those who make a trade out of foretelling rarely grow rich. Their attempts to deceive are too easily found out and arouse detestation. And yet it would be necessary to detest them much, much more if they foretold the future correctly. For a man's life would become intolerable, if he knew what was going to happen to him. He would be made aware of future evils, and would suffer their agonies in advance, while he would get no joy of present blessings since he would know how they would end. Ignorance is the necessary condition of human happiness, and it has to be admitted that on the whole mankind observes that condition well. We are almost entirely ignorant of ourselves; absolutely of others. In ignorance, we find our bliss; in illusions, our happiness."

A little about Brotteaux. He is a former aristocrat and neighbor of Gamelin. Although his fortunes have changed significantly as a result of the Revolution, he is still a lovely, gentle man who now makes a living as best he can selling crafts. Here, from his introduction, he talks to Gamelin about some puppets he has made:

"You see here," he said, taking up again his burden, "some puppets I'm going to sell to a toy merchant in the Rue de la Loi. I've a whole village of people in there. They are my creatures. From me they have received a perishable body, free from joy and sorrow. I've not given them the power of thought since I'm a benevolent God."

Here's the thing: Evariste is such a sourpuss and prude that I can't understand why Elodie is after him, no matter how good he looks. Even given she's got limited options and (as France politely hints) she likes to swap her ponies out. I know the book will grow increasingly non-funny as it goes along but here is a great moment where Evariste goes book shopping:

At the Citizeness Tenot's stall, he leafed through various historical, political and philosophical works: The Chains of Slavery; An Essay on Despotism; The Crimes of Queens. "Splendid!" he thought. "These are true Republican books." And he asked the woman if she sold many of them.

"People only buy songs and romances."

She took a duodecimo volume from her drawer. 

"Here's something good," she said.

Evariste read the title: The Undressed Nun. 

Free Comic Book Day, 2011

I've been overly blog chatty today however I didn't want to miss the chance to point out that this past Saturday, as everyone surely knows, was Free Comic Book Day. In other words, one of the best days of the year. It was started a mere 10 years ago by a comics store owner in Concord, CA and is now an international phenomenon (caps lock implied here.) Well, most of my co-workers hadn't heard of it and didn't seem that excited when I told them-more for me, jive turkeys-but this article says it has spread to 40 countries so not too shabby.

The local paper's article mentions that Nicolas Brendon (Xander himself from Buffy) was at a local store which I hadn't realized. However, I see they also had a petting zoo and bounce house and the thought of all the screaming children in attendance is already making my uterus implode. I'm not sure what went on at the other local stores (including The Laughing Ogre, which is where I typically shop when the mood strikes) but the article mentions that one store only allowed 2 comics per attendee so I am glad that this year I ventured to Yellow Springs where Dark Star was permitting 5 per attendee (and with my friend in tow who doesn't read comics, that meant ten.) I then went to Super Fly and picked up two more after some guy there insisted that I had to read Atomic Robo.

I don't know if this really requires saying but I'm old so I don't really follow comics like I did when I was, say, 14. I just get the urge every now and then and kind of dip in and out. Trying to keep track of all the release dates and spin-off isues-feh, who has the time or inclination. But when I get in the mood I like the visual overload they provide. Plus, I'm a sucker for the hero's journey. It's our most ancient form of literature after all. I'm therefore, by my reckoning, honoring and continuing a literary tradition that goes back to Gilgamesh.

So out of the random stuff I picked up, a few notes:

• A free Green Hornet. Thanks DC!
• But from Marvel I got Spider Man and Captain America and Thor in an Avengers tie-in. I never got into the Captain that much (what good is he without Tenille? Hah, I crack my simple ass up) but I love Thor. Maybe it's the hammer. Alas, the art is just so-so.
• Speaking of Thor, Matt Fraction is rebooting that series which makes sense given the movie goings on so I picked up the first issue which has a Silver Surfer tie-in. I know, freaking cool right?
• I haven't read Richie Rich since I was 10 maybe. He's gotten a make-over which I don't care for and is some kind of techno crime-fighter now. Clearly I'm not the target audience but the old Harvey Comics version was far superior (this one is published by Ape.)
• The best art was in the Black Diamond Detective Agency offering from Eddie Campbell, Alan Moore's old collaborator, and The Darkness II.
• They still make Mickey Mouse comics, courtesy of Fantagraphics. Hooray! But not Donald or Scrooge McDuck. This is all a conspiracy that Christopher Nolan is at the heart of, I'm sure of it. George Lucas has admitted that his restaging of Carl Barks' images was an homage.
• Why the fuck did I grab something called Super Dinosaur and miss out on Ice and The Tick?