Watch Your Tongue, Dr. West

Cornel West, a professor of religion and African-American Studies at Princeton University, is the latest in a long line of demagogues who have, over the past three centuries, bandied about the term revolution without realizing the gravity of the word. West winds up his 8/26 article with a sweeping gesture: “King’s response to our crisis can be put in one word: revolution,” and concludes by declaring: “Like King, we need to put on our cemetery clothes and be coffin-ready for the next great democratic battle.” (“Dr. King Weeps from His Grave,” New York Times [8/26/11], A23).
Excuse me, Dr. West, but perhaps you have forgotten what revolution looks like. Allow me to remind you. See the two images below, from the August 2011 revolution in Tripoli, Libya, and the July 1789 revolution in Paris, France. See the blood, the hurt, the intractable anger and the destruction.

A wounded Libyan fighter. Photo by Tyler Hicks, NYT

Death by hanging (three times) of Foulon, age 74

These facts form as much a part of our revolutionary legacy as the more palatable notion suggested in West’s article, that is, a “King-worthy narrative to reinvigorate the poor and working people.”

West makes some good points. The USA is in need of a reinvigorated public life that incites ordinary citizens to get involved in local affairs, support reasonable politicians, and contribute to public debate.

But please, people, watch your language. The problems we are facing are grave, but they are negotiable through deliberative democracy—another great American tradition. The resort to “life and death confrontations” should be the last resort. May these images remind us that battles have casualties. Dr. King did not preach gratuitous violence. And neither should Dr. West.

Dolce & Gabbana’s “Hot Baroque” line: Recreating Napoleonic Attitudes for Today? by Chris White

Here for readers of “A Revolution in Fiction” is a collection of the photos and the news release on the controversial “Napoleonic” line promoted by Dolce & Gabanna in 2006-07—a controversy which extended far beyond the world of haute couture to incur the wrath of the British publishing industry and an official censure (see Reuters 1/10/07). Check out the bottom ones in particular for evidence of homicidal tendencies…

During a search of Dolce & Gabbana on the internet some time ago, I discovered the original posting on this site (“Weird Liaisons,” May 31, 2009), saw that the photo posted there was actually from a Christian Dior collection, and sent in a correction. (That photo and posting have now been updated to correct the error. –Editor) After a bit of research, I was able to locate the real Dolce & Gabbana photos, which are somewhat hard to find due to the short-lived and sexy/violent/controversial nature of the campaign. I have posted the official news release below. The clothing is gorgeous, as we all must agree. But it is interesting that the news release does not mention the sensational violence used in the ad campaign, nor does it make connections between the actual events of Napoleon’s reign (such as the 500,000 Frenchmen who died in the Emperor’s catastrophic attempt to conquer Russia in 1812) and the cruel, misogynistic poses of the models…

According to the Dolce & Gabbana news release: “The sophisticated charm of royal beauties, the amazing allure of imperial feasts and the romantic style echoing Napoleon’s gliding parades are the essence of this Dolce & Gabbana fall/winter 2006-07 collection that played around the Emperor, his famous wives, and his well known lovers.

Short jackets with metal buttons and military embroideries, à la Imperial Army, complement perfectly designed coats and fitted jackets in new proportions, which are worn over high-collared shirts. Tight knickers and jodhpurs accentuate the silhouette and create a long line when worn with high boots. Romantic capes and empire-waist baby doll dresses create a feminine counterbalance to the androgynous Imperial side of the collection. The result is a juxtaposition of Napoleon versus Josephine that celebrates the two sensual sides of a woman – a woman who plays with the symbols of power but knows that her real force is always found within.

The color palette and detailed accents of the collection are what truly define and distinguish each look. Sable, chalk, ice, and canvas are the most important colors that compose this serene palette. Touches of royal blue, deep red and emerald green, strategically used throughout the collection, add a regal opulence to the show. Detailed accents of gold-brushed chains, Napoleonic bees and gold laurel leaves create a strong statement of luxury, refinement, and elegance. In addition, over forty-three different kinds of intricacies (from archives of the most prestigious and historical Parisian couture atelier) glisten on coats, jackets, and dresses.

The “Miss Waterloo” bag is shaped like an antique coin-purse, with a round buckle and a short leather and metal handle; the same fastening enhances the “Miss Lise” bag, in velvet and fine leathers. The “Gloriosa” bag is also in velvet (in lots of colours) or in leather, and has a dense DG embroidered logo with imperial laurel and gold chains. The bijou “Etoile” bags, in velvet and encrusted with pearls and feathers, complete the grand finale look; but the real “it-bag” for this season is the “Hot Baroque”, embellished with baroque buckles and gilt laurel leaves, produced in ostrich, eel or leather.”

Memoirs of Terror: a new spin on the cause célèbre

My recent reading has uncovered an interesting connection: memoirs of the Reign of Terror (1793-94) are clearly indebted to and sometimes written by the same people who penned the famous causes célèbres of the Old Regime judiciary. One writer who lived in both worlds, and achieved a certain literary fame right after the end of the Terror in what is called the Thermidorian period, is Pierre-Anne-Louis de Maton de La Varenne (1761-1813). A well-respected lawyer and member of the Parlement de Paris, Maton de La Varenne gained early fame during the Revolution for his espousal of civil status for the family of the executioner Sanson, but was arrested during a purge of suspected royalists and imprisoned in La Force right before the massacres of September 2-3, 1792. Maton de La Varenne’s memoirs, published in 1795, focus primarily on the grisly events of September 1792 when the Jacobins, under orders from Marat and Robespierre (according to Maton), orchestrated the mass slaughter of thousands of clergy and royalist sympathizers being held in Paris prisons.
Like the mémoires judiciaires penned by the author during his former life, his memoir uses the literary technique of dramatic suspense and revelation in the service of political persuasion. Minute by minute and paragraph by paragraph, the reader relives the prisoner’s anguish as he hears the shrieks of the dying amid the metallic clink of axes falling, and cringes at the heavy tread of the guards outside his cell. When his own turn arrives, the author dexterously shields his royalist tendencies from sight, citing the personal integrity he had developed through years in the legal profession as proof of his innocence to a dumbfounded judge and awe-struck crowd of murderers. His narration of leaving the make-shift tribunal stages a melodramatic coupling of Good and Evil that is mirrored in the gory frontispiece to the book (See illustration):

I cringed in horror at the sight of an enormous pile of naked cadavers lying in the gutter, filthy with blood and mud, upon which I had to take an oath. … I was saying the words they demanded from me, when one of my former clients fortuitously passed by. He recognized me, swore for me, embraced me a thousand times, and even brought the killers to my side. (1)

Note how the good lawyer avoids sullying his honor by sidestepping the oath, and how he is saved by a symbol of his former power (a satisfied client of the royal court). Right and Wrong, Good and Evil are clearly legible in this text, and reveal its debt to the mémoires judiciaires.
That genre, as Sarah Maza has noted, deftly employs the melodramatic mode to go beyond an obvious appeal to readers’ or viewers’ hunger for strong sensations: it works to visualize and simplify morality. (2) The stark juxtaposition of a weirdly calm Marat pontificating in front of his murderous butchers, while the cautious lawyer picks his way out of the fray, build upon the melodramatic urge to assign unambiguous moral labels to situations fraught with political complexity.
Les Crimes de Marat went through three editions in 1795; most interesting to us are the successive editorial changes Maton de La Varennes made to his book, because they reveal how a death threat, and the alarm it spawned, were employed to confer authenticity and political urgency on his work. Psychological manipulation of readers was widely and effectively employed in Thermidorian fiction; it may explain for some of the upsurge in novel reading after the Terror. Maton de la Varenne claims that one person was so enraged on reading the first edition of Les Crimes, and seeing the name of a friend amid the list of ignominious deputies who egged on the September massacres, that she announced: “I will be for the author another CHARLOTTE CORDAY.” Although he suppressed G…’s name in this edition, and admits taken precautions against his would-be assassin’s “pretty project,” Maton de la Varenne also enlists the reader on his side, and cites a stirring quote from Montesquieu’s Esprit des lois to defend their freedom of speech from persecutors. Dire threats raise book sales, as we know. The death threat against the author may very well have revved up sales of his other two books advertised on the inside cover of Les Crimes…

(1) P.A.L. Maton de La Varenne, Les Crimes de Marat et des autres égorgeurs, ou Ma résurrection (Paris : Chez André, An III (1795). (available on-line via Gallica, catalogue of the BNF, Paris)
(2) Sarah Maza, Private Lives and Public Affairs : The Causes Célèbres of Prerevolutionary France (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1993).

Weird liaisons: 18th-century fashions today (updated 2/25/11)

This ad is one of a series sponsored by Christian Dior in 2004, which appears to be aiming to exploit the “Dangerous Liaisons” look for the modern Valmont (perhaps a hedge-fund manager?)  A similarly perverse campaign was promoted three years later by Dolce & Gabbana (see posting of February 25, 2011): it was censored in the UK for the violent content.  According to a report from Reuters (1/10/07), one of the ads showed two men threatening a man in a chair while another lay on the floor with a head wound.  (It was printed in October 2006 next to an article about knife crime; a move that seems particularly tasteless, given the widespread concern over the level of violent assaults in Britain.)  A second advertisement featured two men supporting a wounded woman holding a knife.  The fashion label said the ads, which appeared in newspapers and magazines around the world, were heavily stylized and were meant to mimic early 19th-century art.  The pictures were designed to evoke the Napoleonic period of art, “emphasizing the theatrical effects of that genre.”  Seems like this theatricality should have been tempered by a bit more absorption with good taste…

Cobbsian Historiography Takes on the Revolutionary State

Douthwaite review essay of Joseph Clarke, Commemorating the Dead in Revolutionary France (Cambridge U Press, 2007) and Howard G. Brown, Ending the Revolution (U Virginia Press, 2006), in Eighteenth-Century Studies 42, 3 (Spring 2009): 468-471.