#frondeurs

[lord-emerson]

For Os - Have any pets? Or, would you ever consider bringing one into your home? @serpentine-frondeur

I wouldn't dare call her a "pet", but I do cohabitate with a lamp-cat called Meteor whenever I'm on the Cassiopeia. When I purchased my ship, she was already its resident and did not show any desire to leave just because of a sudden change in ownership. In fact, I don't believe I've ever seen her leave the deck of the Cassiopeia, when docked or otherwise.

I try my best to keep her well-fed and satisfied because when she's not... Well. Generally speaking, I do not let myself believe all these superstitions that zailors are so fond of. But when you're out on the Unterzee, you're willing to do anything to boost your chances of survival, no matter how eccentric the idea may normally seem.

[toffee-biscuits]

observe the him, in his natural habitat, thriving! artfight for @serpentine-frondeur !

[July/2024]

[peliginspeaks]

Artfight attack #2 on @serpentine-frondeur 's Nico Fontana!

Scandal is rising...

[prosedumonde]

J’ai ancré l’espérance Aux racines de la vie Face aux ténèbres J’ai dressé des clartés Planté des flambeaux Des clartés qui persistent Des flambeaux qui se glissent Entre ombres et barbaries Des clartés qui renaissent Des flambeaux qui se dressent Sans jamais dépérir J’enracine l’espérance Dans le terreau du coeur J’adopte toute l’espérance En son esprit frondeur

Andrée Chedid, L’espérance

[zeebreezin]

For Bev - Where do you get the inspiration for your inventions, or do they tend to just come naturally? @serpentine-frondeur

“Oh, well! That’s quite simple, really.” Bev claps energetically, almost bouncing on his heels despite his rod-straight posture. “My inspiration comes from necessity - as it is for everyone, I’d say. People see a problem, things are made to solve it. Fuel is running out on long voyages? Design a better engine! My love finds it too cold to sleep? Find a way to keep him warm! Fall into the dark, cold and alone?” His eyes are shining. “Invent light. …it’s a basic principle, really.”

[amanofbeautyisajoyforever]

Gustave Moreau

« Jeune frondeur » Musée Gustave Moreau, Paris, France.

[tendreminou]

L’Espérance

J’ai ancré l’espérance

Aux racines de la vie

Face aux ténèbres

J’ai dressé des clartés

Planté des flambeaux

A la lisière des nuits

Des clartés qui persistent

Des flambeaux qui se glissent

Entre ombres et barbaries

Des clartés qui renaissent

Des flambeaux qui se dressent

Sans jamais dépérir

J’enracine l’espérance

Dans le terreau du cœur

J’adopte toute l’espérance

En son esprit frondeur.

Andrée Chedid

[the-noted-collector]

For Edward: What prompted you to start hosting a radio show? Is it a passion project or something of a necessity? - @serpentine-frondeur

'Why, in all honesty, it's entirely me living out my own dreams! I discovered the radio back when I was on the Surface, and had always been one for telling stories. I knew it could be used to do so on a scale the Surface would not impliment it for, and now, here I am! The show is entirely here for my and others' enjoyment, and is more often a cost then something that brings any actual profit. I make ends meet other ways.'

[viric-dreams]

For Roberts - Do you have a favourite outfit now that you're living your best life? Or a piece of clothing you love to wear? - @serpentine-frondeur

“Maybe? It was easier at some point, having a uniform and not having to worry about dress. Not that it’s not nice, it’s just a lot, and never something I paid attention to. “

[Two hours later she will realise the answer should have been the hat she was wearing during the interview.]

[generic-whumperz]

Hi, Aid dude,

We, um, we read your story, and holy hell, you really go through it…are you gonna be okay? 🥺

Sending hugs, and offers to whack Wyatt for you,

-the trio (Khaled, Julio, and Nico)

@3-2-whump

Uh, hi? How’d you get this server? My line is secure, and you’re using a non-traceable IP, right? Stupid question, of course you are. Are you guys with the resistance? Do you know Ty? I met their acquaintance last week. I saw the Frondeur insignia pinned on their shirt. [CROATOAN]

Maybe I shouldn’t get my hopes up, but here I am…with those hopes climbing high. I don’t have much time to respond. I snuck into the office to see this. They’ll be home soon.

I’m far from okay, but that’s the least of my problems. I have a feeling the worst is yet to come. They’ve been acting more suspicious than usual and been ordering a bunch of stuff (how are they even finding all this in post-war time?), and Vinny shoved a new camera in my face the other day. Wyatt seems…eager? Excited? Which means he’s devising some new way to torment me, great. Not gonna lie, I’m scared. I have a bad feeling about all this.

I’ve embedded my location coordinates and a locked zip file of the documents on the flash drive Ty slipped me in the root of this message.

Enter: 000000<fronde>000000

If you can help break me out, I’ll owe you my life and help however I can. Whatever you need, I’ll do it. Bring the calvary and let’s finish what I can’t on my own, we’ll whack this fucker once and for all. We take out Wyatt, Waylon will crumble soon after and neXcell & Co. along with him.

Viva la revolution

[flashbic]

Leur premier duel! Avec un petit bout de one-shot/machin sous le read-more, for funsies

“Monseigneur, est-ce que je ne pourrais pas plutôt m’entraîner avec d’Argenson?” Louis du Châtelet sourit, frondeur. “Ce serait plus aimable de laisser un nouvel élève combattre d’abord quelqu’un de moins expérimenté, peut-être.”

Le comte de Mansur, qui pourtant avait l’habitude de considérer avec intérêt les propositions de son élève le plus doué, rejeta cette demande d’un simple petit geste de la main. Préférant ne pas insister, Louis alla donc rejoindre le nouveau, de fort mauvaise humeur et anticipant déjà un entraînement sans le moindre intérêt. Jaugeant du regard son coéquipier, peu impressionné par sa mine blafarde et sa carrure mince, il dégaina son épée et salua.

“Tu as un nom?”

“Nero Falconi,” répondit le jeune homme d’une voix qui s’éleva à peine plus haut qu’un murmure, et il salua à son tour, ses longs doigts pâles se crispant sur la poignée de son arme. 

À cette réponse, Louis fronça les sourcils. Il ne s’agissait pas là d’un nom de noblesse. Ce nouveau venu, contre toute attente, n’était qu’un vulgaire roturier. Comment le Comte pouvait-il le juger digne de mettre les pieds à son école? Digne d’affronter la plus fine lame parmi tous ses apprentis? C’était là un manque de respect, décida Louis sur-le-champ. Nero Falconi, qui qu’il fut, n’avait rien à faire ici.

“Très bien, Nero,” répondit-il, prononçant ce nom ridicule avec dédain, “Ne t’attends pas à ce que j’y aille doucement pour te laisser une chance.”

Falconi lui répondit d’un simple signe de tête, ses yeux noirs fixés sur Louis et observant le moindre de ses gestes avec une froide intensité qui le laissa mal à l’aise. Son visage anguleux avait quelque chose de dur, et Louis comprit soudain que ces silences et cette voix douce n’étaient pas indicateurs de crainte ou même de nervosité, mais bien de confiance. Cet imbécile croyait avoir la moindre chance. Cela aurait été risible si sa situation n’avait pas été aussi pathétique.

Alors que Louis se mettait en garde, imité par son adversaire, il résolut d’en finir rapidement avec tout ceci. Il attaqua donc le premier, réduisant en un instant la distance entre lui et Falconi en s’avançant d’un pas, étirant le bras en une fente impeccable qui visait le cœur de son adversaire…

Avant même qu’il n’ait eu le temps d’ajuster son geste, la lame de Falconi déchira l'air et dévia la sienne. Le coup fut sec et si inattendu que ses réverbérations dans le poignet de Louis lui firent presque lâcher son arme, et c’est de justesse qu’il bondit en arrière pour éviter d’être touché par la pointe de l’épée de Falconi. Ce dernier, pas désarçonné le moins du monde lorsque son attaque ne toucha rien, se contenta de charger à nouveau, multipliant les coups et les parades avec une agilité qui laissa Louis déconcerté. 

Il se ressaisit et riposta, mais sans parvenir à retrouver son aisance habituelle, forcé à rester sur ses gardes jusqu’à ce que, enfin, Falconi s’avance en une fente rapide qui le laissa vulnérable. Saisissant cette opportunité au vol, Louis attaqua à son tour, exaspéré par ce combat qui s’était révélé plus long que prévu, prêt à en finir.

Leurs épées s’entrecroisèrent et, avant même que Louis ait pu saisir ce qui s’était passé, son attaque fut déviée et il se retrouva avec la lame de Falconi sous la gorge, pantois. 

Falconi eut l’audace de lui adresser un sourire victorieux. Louis se promit de le lui faire regretter.

[anotherhumaninthisworld]

Maybe you’ve answered this one before, but who lived at the Duplay’s and when were they there? Because I’ve spent time looking at those plans and there isn’t that much room.

I’ve spent some time looking things over, and all people claimed to have lived with the Duplays that I’ve found so far are the following: the Robespierre siblings, Couthon, Dom Gerle, Branche, François Nicolas Anthoine and Compte de Broc. You’re absolutely right in that there isn’t enough room in the map over the house for them to have lived there all at once. Élisabeth Lebas too only mentions two guest rooms when describing the house in her memoirs (the first is the one on the second floor titled ”Robespierre’s room,” the other is on the first floor and, confusingly enough, titled ”atelier.” In order to find out who lived where when, let’s go over things cronologically.

First proven to have been in contact with the Duplays out of the people listed above are Dom Gerle and Branche, whom the minutes for 1789-1790 of the Jacobin Club list as living on Rue Saint-Honoré 366 during said years. Branche I couldn’t find anything about at all, other than the fact that he was a lawyer. As for Dom Gerle, according to the one biography I found over him, he stayed in Paris during the rest of the revolution, but it would appear most likely that he moved out before 1791 when Robespierre moved in, seeing as he would claim that the two lost sight of one another for a year and a half after the closing of the National Assembly.

For Robespierre, the story, as told by his sister and Fréron, goes that he took refuge at the Duplays on the day of the Massacres on Champ-de-Mars (July 17 1791) after which he decided to move in there permanentely. However, on August 9 the same year Robespierre still gave his adress as being on 30 rue de Saintonge, so, at least formally, he can’t have moved in with the Duplays until after that date.

Couthon came to Paris a month later, on order to take a seat in the Legislative Assembly. Not long after his arrival, Robespierre left the capital for a trip to Arras. On October 16 he wrote to Maurice Duplay, asking him to ”remind me of Lacoste and Couthon.” A logical explanation to why both Robespierre and his host had become close with Couthon so quickly would be that the latter had moved in under the same roof as them, but that idea is broken by the fact that Couthon, in the first letter he writes after arriving in Paris (September 29 1791) says he’s found lodging on rue Saint-Honoré, not with Duplay but with one M. Girot. The almanach royal for 1792 also gives Couthon’s address as 343, not 366, rue St. Honoré. 

Someone else who doesn’t seem like a probable lodger for the year 1791 is François Nicolas Anthoine, mayor of Metz. I only know he lodged with the Duplays because the historian J.M Thompson so claims in his biography over Robespierre (1935). The minutes for the Jacobins 1789-1790 says Anthoine lived on rue du Mail during those years, and on rue des Frondeurs in 1791. In March 1793 he was sent out on a mission, and  five months later he died from illness in Metz. If he lived at Rue Saint-Honoré 366 it must have therefore been somewhere between January 1792-March 1793.

As for the compte de Broc, Robespierre’s doctor Joseph Souberbielle attested that he too moved into the house in 1792:

”I may add that I have heard a Norman gentleman, M. de Broc, tell how in 1792, being forced to go into hiding with his wife and two children, he took lodgings in the house of one Duplay, under a fictitious name. He very rarely ventured out, and then only at night. Robespierre lodged in the same house. He was fond of children and took kindly notice of M. de Broc’s little ones whenever he met them. This brought about an acquintance with the parents. The Compte de Broc found him most agreeable.”In spite of the injury he inflicted on several members of my family,” he went on to say, ”and in spite of his opinions which I execrate, I can never forget what he was to me at that time.” 

I’ve not find any more information regarding him, however, given the fact that we know the house got new guests in the fall of 1792, it seems most likely for de Broc’s family to have moved into the ”atelier” earlier that year, and then moved out before Robespierre’s siblings arrived.

Back to Couthon, we have the following anecdote from the deputy Jacques-Antoine Dulaure:

”During the first three months of the session of the National Convention, the members of the Puy-de-Dome deputation fraternized and dined together once a week. Couthon then never ceased to pour out invectives against Robespierre. Once I told him that I thought Robespierre an intriguer. ”What do you call intriguing,” he answered me with vivacity, ”I regard him as a great scroundel.” I heard him, in the presence of several of my colleagues, one day when the deputation was summoned to his house, say: ”I no longer want to live in the same house as Robespierre, I am not safe there; every day we see a dozen cutthroats coming up to his house to whom he gives dinner. I do not know how he managed to meet these expenses before being elected to the Convention, while my allowances are barely enough for me to live with my family.”

Thus, if Dulaure’s anecdote is to be believed (it’s from right after thermidor, so it should be treated with caution) Couthon lodged with the Duplays since at least the beginning of the Convention. On 9 August 1792, Robespierre wrote a letter to Couthon in which we learn the latter was sick and away from Paris, so maybe he settled with the Duplays after his return (as a sidenote, in said letter Robespierre displays much affection for Couthon — ”My friend, I anxiously await news of your health. […] We miss you. May you soon return to your patrie and we await with equal impatience your return and your recovery.” — so it’s pretty hilarious if what Dulaure says is true and Couthon detested Robespierre in response.)

Thompson has the following footnote in his Robespierre (1935):

”Couthon seems to have lodged with the Duplays for a time in the summer of 1792 (v.1/292 n.)”

However, I can’t seem to understand what the source he’s linking to is. If anyone has any idea, feel free to share it.

Thompson also writes that on October 4, Couthon wrote a letter to Roland from the Duplays’ address, saying he was under notice to leave his present quarters within a week, and asking for rooms in the Tuileries, where he would be able to more conveniently attend the Manège. Roland refused (October 8), on the ground that the Tuileries was being prepared for the Assembly, and Couthon found lodgings in the Cour du Manège (where it then would appear he stayed from then on) instead. I found the letters mentioned here in neither Roland nor Couthon’s correspondence, however, October 4 does seem like a logical date for Couthon to leave, seeing as Charlotte and Augustin just would have arrived.

As for those two, we have the following document, and it seems likely for it to have been written the same day they came to Paris (seeing as Augustin was elected to the Convention on September 16 and is first listed as a speaker at the Jacobins on October 5):

”Duplay has rented to Robespierre the older and the younger for the term and from the first of October 1793, old style, the small apartment at the back where we are, fully furnished, as well as an unfurnished apartment in the main building on the Rüe, all for the sum of one thousand pounds per year and without a lease, all for the sum of thousand pounds per year and this without a lease.”

We know that Charlotte eventually convinced Maximilien to move into an apartment on Rue Saint-Florentin instead, but that he soon enough fell ill and returned to the Duplays. Unfortunately, Charlotte gives no date for when these two things happened in her memoirs, so it’s impossible to know exactly. Being interrogated after thermidor, Simon Duplay revealed that the siblings had the Saint-Florentin apartment since at least December 1793, as Augustin went to live there after his return from the army of Italy. According to Mauricé-André Gaillard’s memoirs, Charlotte told him that all three siblings were living together at this point, which to me implies she got Maximilien to move somewhere in late fall 1793, after her return from the mission in Nice, and that the period of illness during which he went back to Rue Saint-Honoré was the one stretching from February to March 1794. Gaillard, speaking to Charlotte two months after that, claims she told him that she too had returned to the Duplays at this point, which suggests they didn’t give the ”atelier” away to a new guest after she moved out. Augustin however, appears to have returned to the apartment on Rue Saint-Florentin when returning to Paris in the summer again, as a letter to him from Charlotte dated July 6 1794 reveals.

[philippesollers]

Le divin Philippe Sollers

Par Alexandre Folman (La Revue des Deux Mondes)

MAI 18, 2023

Avec la disparition de Philippe Sollers survenue le 5 mai 2023, c’est une certaine idée de la littérature qui s’en va. Philippe Sollers y voyait une affaire  à prendre très au sérieux, même la plus importante qui soit.

Il tenait la littérature pour la plus secrète matrice de notre monde, celle qui transcende les contingences du présent et éclaire les mystérieuses ruelles escarpées et zigzagantes de l’esprit humain, forcément vénitiennes pour cet amoureux de la Sérénissime et du Tintoret. Sollers considérait que « l’existence est une illusion d’optique : la littérature est là pour la renverser. »Il avait compris mieux qu’un autre la valeur heuristique du roman. Elle l’habitait. Il y a consacré sa vie.

C’est-à-dire qu’il considérait vraiment la littérature comme le lieu de la vérité de l’être, au sens le plus heideggérien du terme qui soit, absolu, sans voile, tel qu’à lui-même. En ce sens, Sollers était donc déjà d’une certaine façon à lui tout seul un personnage de roman, parlant depuis et avec les livres.

En y repensant, c’est d’ailleurs l’impression fascinante qu’il pouvait donner parfois par son style extrêmement libre, d’une virtuosité constante dans son usage du langage. L’air madré et exégète, il semblait en permanence être détenteur d’ésotérismes jubilatoires ou d’apocryphes précieux. Il paraissait appartenir à un infra monde et arpenter ses lignes de force en voyageur du temps.

Joueur et rieur, il aimait les masques

Sollers naquit Joyaux, ça ne s’invente pas.Il incarna cinquante ans durant, en tant qu’écrivain et éditeur, la figure radicalement solaire de l’homme de lettres germanopratin, érudit en diable et à l’élan vital débordant. Deux traits de caractère foncièrement imbriqués pour celui qui s’était choisi pour pseudonyme quasi homophonique « tout entier art » en latin. Cela annonçait donc la couleur : chatoyante et intelligente, celle d’Éros et d’Hermès, des Lumières étincelantes du XVIIIe sa seconde patrie. Sollers ou le perpétuel hymne à la joie, donc Mozart. Sollers ou le gai savoir, donc Nietzsche. Et tant d’autres : Dante, Voltaire, Casanova. Joueur et rieur, il aimait les masques et être où on ne l’attendait pas.

Cela avait démarré avec ses deux improbables parrains à tout juste 20 ans, et pas des moindres, Mauriac et Aragon, pour Une curieuse solitude, premier roman qui marqua son entrée en littérature. L’Église et le Parti. Sollers d’emblée Janus, tout à tour maoïste puis ultramontain. Brouiller les pistes, toujours. L’art de la dissimulation, de l’esquive, du clair-obscur était chez ce lecteur averti des Jésuites, une seconde nature. Sa profession de foi. La guerre de Sollers, celle du goût comme il l’avait nommée, se voulait souterraine et subversive, à la fois patiente à travers l’édition dont il fut le condottiere au Seuil puis à « la Banque centrale » Gallimard, soudainement éclatante et gentiment machiavélique à travers les médias dont il fut l’enfant chéri (Apostrophes, Le Monde des Livres).

Mais une guerre qui était aussi et surtout exigeante. Sollers a été un véritable stakhanoviste. Et pour cette raison, son œuvre restera. Il a publié et fait publier plusieurs centaines de livres. Il y eut bien sûr aussi les revues, fondamentales. D’abord Tel Quel avec Jean-Edern Hallier au Seuil. Haut lieu expérimental de rencontre entre l’avant-garde et les classiques qui fédéra notamment Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Francis Ponge. L’époque qui s’y reflétait était au maoïsme, à la psychanalyse et au structuralisme. Puis vint L’Infini chez Gallimard avec ce même souci d’exploration esthétique, frondeur et précurseur au risque de fréquenter les infréquentable. La moraline ce n’était pas le genre de Sollers. Il eut le courage de regarder en face certains astres noirs de la littérature, qu’il s’agisse de Céline, de Sade, d’Artaud, de Bataille et d’autres antimodernes. Certainement pour mieux voir le monde ? Pari réussi.

Sollers fut à lui seul le centre de gravité de la vie littéraire et des idées des cinquante dernières années. Ce n’est pas rien et ce n’est pas si fréquent. Vite, la Pléiade pour le divin Sollers !

[roger-rockette-remixes]

Françoise HARDY (née le 17 janvier 1944)

Anniversaire...et hommage...

Sa première télévision, en 1962, au Petit Conservatoire de Mireille. (à noter le petit détail, à la toute fin de la vidéo, révélateur de l’esprit frondeur de F.H., au-delà de sa timidité)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SByMAUM1nd0

Photo #1 credit : ???

Photo #2 credit :  Gilles-Marie Zimmermann

[histoireettralala]

A young and brave rebel

Vauban, who was all his life to be a loyal servant of Louis XIV, yet began his military career as a rebellious Frondeur. It must be said that the young Le Prestre joined the rebellion more by accident than by conviction. In the Fronde army, Vauban, who had a little knowledge of fortification, already manifested a predilection for the work of military engineering. He took part in the early 1650s in the design of the defenses of the town of Clermont-en-Argonne in Lorraine, and distinguished himself during the siege of Sainte-Menehould. His gallantry was rewarded by the rank of cavalry master. Vauban then saw action in different operations during which he was wounded several times.

In 1652, the Parisian rebels were beaten after the intervention of Turenne's royal troops. The cardinal of Retz, the principal chief of the Fronde revolt, was arrested, and Louis XIV triumphantly made his entry in Paris and firmly imposed his authority. The Fronde was defeated […]

In spring 1653, Vauban was captured by a royal patrol, but still mounted on his horse and with his loaded pistol in hand he negotiated the conditions of his surrender. Mazarin, to whom the anecdote was told, was amused and summoned Vauban. It did not take long for the cunning cardinal to convince the young and brave rebel to enter service in the army of the legitimate king.

Jean-Denis G.G. Lepage- Vauban and the French Military under Louis XIV- An Illustrated History of Fortifications and Strategies

[coulisses-tv]

« Les frères Vergès, frondeurs de la République » dimanche 20 octobre 2024 sur France 5

http://dlvr.it/TFW0Rv