On Finishing Simon Schama's Citizens

[poliphilo]

On Finishing Simon Schama's Citizens

So the revolution achieved nothing?
No, Simon, emphatically no!
It achieved itself. 
It was theatre. It was performance art-
Red caps, rhetoric, the sound of clogs on cobbles-
And it inserted into the timeline a number of remarkable years when things did not run as usual-
When the likes of Talleyrand (amiable man that he was) did not entirely prosper.
It bequeathed us one very good song, one very good painting
And the aspiration (of a green-eyed promenader on Les Champs Elysees)
That the state might be virtuous.

Comments

[steepholm.livejournal.com]

This reminds me of a fantasy I had in which the Roman Empire was run as a kind of Arts Council, and would-be invading generals had to apply for grants, justifying their invasions in aesthetic terms. ("The Britannia installation will be so striking! I'm thinking blood on woad as a colour scheme.")

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

What a delightful idea.

[sovay]

It bequeathed us one very good song, one very good painting
And the aspiration of a green-eyed promenader on Les Champs Elysees
That the state might be virtuous.

I like that.

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Thanks.