A Chambermaid’s Diary — To Monsieur Octave Mirbeau

By Octave Mirbeau (1900)

Entry 5911

Public

From: holdoffhunger [id: 1]
(holdoffhunger@gmail.com)

../ggcms/src/templates/revoltlib/view/display_grandchildof_anarchism.php

Untitled Anarchism A Chambermaid’s Diary To Monsieur Octave Mirbeau

Not Logged In: Login?

0
0
Comments (0)
Permalink
(1848 - 1917)

Anarchist Novelist, Playwright, Journalist, and Pamphleteer from France

: By 1890 his political commitments were clearer: he showed a clear preference for the anarchist left, and became friends with Jean Grave and Camille Pissarro. He wrote at length on Impressionism, believing it to be the beginning of a cultural revolution in France. (From: Sharif Gemie Bio.)
• "...each turn of the government machinery grinds the tumbling, gasping flesh of the poor..." (From: "Ravachol," by by Octave Henri Marie Mirbeau.)
• "Capitalism is insatiable, and the wage system compounds the evils of ancient slavery. The shops are packed full of clothing, and there are those who go about completely naked; the indifferent rich are puking up food, while others perish from hunger in their doorways. No cry is heeded: whenever a single, louder complaint penetrates the din of sad murmurs, the Lebels is loaded and the troops are mobilized." (From: "Ravachol," by by Octave Henri Marie Mirbeau.)
• "The patience of the downtrodden and the dispossessed has lasted long enough. They want to live, they want to enjoy, they want their share of all the happiness and sunshine." (From: "Ravachol," by by Octave Henri Marie Mirbeau.)


On : of 0 Words

To Monsieur Octave Mirbeau

I offer you my sincere apology for mutilating your brave and admirable work. In publishing it in English, I have omitted certain portions, much against my inclination. Perhaps you, who live in a land that enjoys a greater freedom of the press than we know in the United States, will wonder why I was forced to do this. Let me, then, explain to you that the men whose ugly souls your Célestine does not hesitate to lay bare are types, to a greater or less extent, of most of the men whom we place in our halls of legislation to make our laws, in our halls of administration to execute them, and in our halls of so-called justice to interpret and enforce them, and that among the laws which they have made are some, aimed ostensibly at the suppression of obscene literature, that are really intended to protect from exposure their own obscene lives and those of others of their ilk, and to protect from attack the social evils and political institutions upon which they thrive. These lawless law-givers hope, by obscuring the sufficiently sharp line that divides the vulgar appeal to eroticism from the earnest narrative of the honest thinker and the truthful picture of the conscientious artist, to brand both with the same condemnation, and thus secure immunity for those who, by all the various forms of exploitation, deal, as Célestine bluntly says, in human meat. This is why it is unsafe to publish in the English language those portions of her diary which I have omitted. But, if, as I hope and believe, the portions that are here printed shall do something to change the public opinion that sanctions the claim of these law-givers to legislative power, I am sure that you will excuse a liberty which under other circumstances would be an inexcusable act of vandalism.

BENJ. R. TUCKER.

From : TheAnarchistLibrary.org

(1848 - 1917)

Anarchist Novelist, Playwright, Journalist, and Pamphleteer from France

: By 1890 his political commitments were clearer: he showed a clear preference for the anarchist left, and became friends with Jean Grave and Camille Pissarro. He wrote at length on Impressionism, believing it to be the beginning of a cultural revolution in France. (From: Sharif Gemie Bio.)
• "The press is mistaken. There are certain corpses that walk again, and certain voices that won't be stifled. And the void is filled with terrible enigmas." (From: "Ravachol," by by Octave Henri Marie Mirbeau.)
• "The patience of the downtrodden and the dispossessed has lasted long enough. They want to live, they want to enjoy, they want their share of all the happiness and sunshine." (From: "Ravachol," by by Octave Henri Marie Mirbeau.)
• "Capitalism is insatiable, and the wage system compounds the evils of ancient slavery. The shops are packed full of clothing, and there are those who go about completely naked; the indifferent rich are puking up food, while others perish from hunger in their doorways. No cry is heeded: whenever a single, louder complaint penetrates the din of sad murmurs, the Lebels is loaded and the troops are mobilized." (From: "Ravachol," by by Octave Henri Marie Mirbeau.)

(1854 - 1939)

American Father of Individualist Anarchism

: An individualist Anarchist, Tucker was a person of intellect rather than of action, focusing on the development of his ideas and on the publication of books and journals, especially the journal Liberty: Not the Daughter but the Mother of Order... (From: Anarchy Archives.)
• "If the individual has a right to govern himself, all external government is tyranny. Hence the necessity of abolishing the State." (From: "State Socialism and Anarchism," by Benjamin R. Tu....)
• "Even in so delicate a matter as that of the relations of the sexes the Anarchists do not shrink from the application of their principle. They acknowledge and defend the right of any man and woman, or any men and women, to love each other for as long or as short a time as they can, will, or may. To them legal marriage and legal divorce are equal absurdities." (From: "State Socialism and Anarchism," by Benjamin R. Tu....)
• "The evil to which this [tariff] monopoly gives rise might more properly be called misusury than usury, because it compels labor to pay, not exactly for the use of capital, but rather for the misuse of capital." (From: "State Socialism and Anarchism," by Benjamin R. Tu....)

Chronology

Back to Top
An icon of a book resting on its back.
1900
To Monsieur Octave Mirbeau — Publication.

An icon of a news paper.
January 9, 2021; 5:06:37 PM (UTC)
Added to http://revoltlib.com.

An icon of a red pin for a bulletin board.
January 17, 2022; 3:18:20 PM (UTC)
Updated on http://revoltlib.com.

Comments

Back to Top

Login to Comment

0 Likes
0 Dislikes

No comments so far. You can be the first!

Navigation

Back to Top
<< Last Entry in A Chambermaid’s Diary
Current Entry in A Chambermaid’s Diary
To Monsieur Octave Mirbeau
Next Entry in A Chambermaid’s Diary >>
This is the last item.
All Nearby Items in A Chambermaid’s Diary
Home|About|Contact|Privacy Policy