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‘Joseph Bara (30 July 1779 – 7 December 1793) was a young French republican soldier at the time of the Revolution. He was in fact too young to join the army but attached himself to a unit fighting counter revolutionaries in Vendée. After his death General J.-B. Desmarres gave this account, by letter, to the Convention. “Yesterday this courageous youth, surrounded by brigands, chose to perish rather than give them the two horses he was leading.”
‘The boy’s death was seized on as a propaganda opportunity by Robespierre, who praised him at the Convention’s tribune saying that “only the French have thirteen-year-old heroes”. But rather than simply being killed by Breton royalists who solely wanted to steal horses, Bara was transformed into a figure who denied the Ancien Régime at the cost of death. His story became that having been trapped by the enemy and being ordered to cry “Vive le Roi” (“Long live the King”) to save his own life, he preferred instead to die crying “Vive la République” (“Long live the Republic”).
‘News of Bara’s death reached Paris late in 1793, and under pressure to acknowledge popular feeling and protect his government, Robespierre insisted on full Pantheon honours for the boy. His remains were transferred to the Panthéon during a revolutionary festival in his honor. He became the subject of numerous paintings, sculptures, and works of statuary. Among the most famous artists to memorialize Bara, Jacques-Louis David, was also an impassioned speaker at times in the National Assembly. In speaking to the Assembly about the young boy named Bara, David said, “O Bara! O Viala! The blood that you have spread still smokes; it rises toward Heaven and cries for vengeance”.
‘Today, who can tell who Joseph Bara really was, what he thought, said, did? Or the pain and fear he may have felt in his last moments. Or how his mother and father took the news, or whether his comrades were haunted by what they saw and the memory of the friend they lost. Joseph Bara ceased to exist as a person. Yet he lives now in art. Is that even life? I understand why some people hate artists. It seems tragically ironic that the image of Joseph Bara’s death was used as propaganda to inspire more to kill and to die.’ — collaged
Jean Joseph Weerts ‘The Death of Joseph Bara’
Émile Edmond Peynot ‘Pro Patria (Bara)’
Unknown
Chéri Hérouard ‘Le jeune républicain Bara assassiné par des Vendéens’
Jacques Chauvet ‘Mort de Bara’
Unknown
Auguste Paris ‘Bara Mourant’
David d’Angers ‘Barra’
Unknown
Unknown
Jean-Jacques Henner ‘Bara’
Unknown
Unknown
Palaiseau ‘Monument de Joseph Bara’
Charles Bance ‘Mort de le Jeune Bara’
Unknown ‘Bara Mort 13 ans’
Fusain ‘Portrait de Joseph Bara’
Unknown
Unknown
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Charles Moreau Vauthier ‘Joseph Bara mort’
Noel Ruffier ‘Bust of Joseph Bara’
Jacques Louis David ‘La Mort de Joseph Bara’
Unknown ‘Joseph Bara, l’héroïque drummer boy’
Unknown
Ian Hamilton Finlay ‘Monument to Joseph Bara’
Palaiseau ‘Monument to Joseph Bara II’
Pierre Klossowski ‘Untitled (Joseph Bara)’
Chaslier ‘Mort de Joseph Bara, Soldat de 13 ans’
M.G. Sauton ‘Joseph Bara, drama historique’
Julien de Versailles ‘Le jeune tambour Joseph Bara, 14 ans’
Unknown ‘The soldier Joseph Bara falls into an ambush’
Joseph Agricol Viala ‘Joseph Bara Mortally Wounded’
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p.s. Hey. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi. Agreeing to disagree is one of the fundaments of anarchism. Definitely would love to see ‘Drunk’. I’ve never even heard of that one. ** _Black_Acrylic, Hi. I honestly would have included Leeds United’s work in the post if I’d come across it. Charmed. ** Tosh Berman, Thanks, Tosh. I’ve never liked alcohol much, but I do know what a buzz is. I only got plastered to the point of blacking out once a zillion years ago, and I sometimes think I’m still recovering from the hangover. It is interesting that Burroughs having shot his wife has never quite become a reputation-destroying scandal. The slack he has always been cut on that front is curious. ** Dominik, Hi, D! Thanks, buddy. If you find the magic button, let me know. I had never heard of Bimini Bon-Boulash until you mentioned them. Very striking in pix. I’ll go find out how they sound in a bit. I’ve never watched even one second of Ru Paul’s show. Weird, right? It’s like Proust. Alright, love looking and sounding exactly like (and having the non-existent acting skills of) identical twin actors Keith and Kevin Schultz who I was totally obsessed with when I was a kid and who are characters in ‘I Wished’, G. ** Bill, Take that drink, send me a selfie, and I’ll put you in ‘Drunks Part 2’. So, like, I hope the bed in thatAirBnB wasn’t a giant reclining KAWS sculpture with a sleeping bag spread on its stomach. ** Alexandrine Ogundimu, HI, Alexandrine. Lovely to see you! And thank you the beautiful if painful recounting. How are you? Are you working on anything? xo. ** Steve Erickson, Somebody needs to make that KAWS horror movie, clearly. Bieber is a huge KAWS collector, maybe he’d agree to star in it. Yes, RIP Chick Corea. His early ECM work and his time with Miles Davis were great. I almost never drink too, and it’s true that whenever I say that I always feel like I have to add that it’s not some kind of post-AA abstinence rule or something. No surprise about the Netflix Lam debacle. Oh, well. That incident was ripe for something pretty terrific. ** Brian O’Connell, Hi, Brian. You too? Yeah, I’ve never liked alcohol very much. It’s always just made me feel loagy. It was useful to take the edge off the drugs I used to gobble, but that was about it. I agree about ‘Pink Narcissus’. It’s always been a mystery why it’s director never made anything else. I liked ‘Equation to an Unknown’, as you probably know. There were a number of really arty, experimental gay porns back in the 70s, half-really interesting, half-ridiculous, but they’re mostly impossible to find nowadays. I liked Poe’s stories and ideas, but I found his prose to be kind of a chore to read. Baudelaire to the rescue. Purdy had a fervent fanbase among my writer/poet friends backing the 80s/90s. Tim Dlugos, Matthew Stadler, Brad Gooch, and many others revered him. I think his influence on a lot of interesting writers of my generation is very under-sung. Enjoy your long weekend to max, obviously. There must a way to do that. My Thursday was another productive but unexhilarating day. Got closer to finishing my assigned thing, Zoomed about the upcoming ‘home haunt’ event/ lecture I’m doing with my friends Zac and Sabrina, caught up slightly on emails. If today has anything extra in store, I’m determined to locate and exhaust it. You, yours? ** Okay. I’m thinking that you people outside of France don’t know about Joseph Bara and his lionisation by French artists in the past, and it’s kind of interesting, and that’s why I restored an old post I constructed in its regard. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
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Bara is indeed a new name to me and the fin de siecle is an endless source of delights. I will spend my Friday luxuriating in his story.
I got the Covid jab this very morning! Very quiet at the Leeds base, no pensioners coming down with hypothermia after waiting in an endless queue like in Scotland. Feeling happy that I’m now dosed up.
The new episode of Play Therapy is online here via Tak Tent Radio! Ben ‘Jack Your Body’ Robinson brings you Italo, Acid House, Japanese Minimal Wave and all sorts of miscellaneous other stuff besides that too.
Dennis, Ha! I wonder too if you hadn’t had that scenario in one of your novels/stories. Hmm. I’ll have to think about it.
I did find out that Family Guy had it once. They have a regular character who’s this old man who’s a pedo, and it seems that he did that in one episode. Got a boy in his house who was so fucked up that he was like, meh, get out of here.
Your friend’s story after the fact is harrowing. Reminds me of something that almost happened to me when I was 15. Because of my tennis skills, I always played with men. All were cool. They’d pick me up, we’d go play tennis, and they’d drop me off. Courts were only a minute or two drive from my house. Anyway, this one dude was from North Carolina and had moved up here recently. Guy named Gene. He was the youth minister at a local church.
On the way home once, he asked me if I wanted to come over for a “spaghetti dinner.” I was like, nope, my mom is fixing dinner. He dropped me off and thought nothing about it. About a year later, dude got arrested for molesting/raping all these boys at the church. Pretty obvious after the fact what his intentions were when he asked me over for dinner. Eek!
That Joseph Bara’sdeath became a nationalistic fetish — rather than a Dennis Cooper delight — is quite interesting.
Until quite recently James Bidgood, the auteur of “Pink Narcissis,” was posting on Facebook. He’s well into his 90s and I hope he’s ok. He’s a great gay artist and a very nice man. As towhy he didn’t cotinue, inspirations like Bobby Kendall don’t come long every day.
Never heard of Joseph Bara! What an amazing iconic French figure. Thanks for the introduction. With regards to the Lam Netflix show, I think I’m going to pass on it, even though I’m curious to know what exactly happened to her and how it happened. I talked to Ms. Lam at the Last Bookstore on the night I believe she disappeared. For me, it is such a sad ending, and what I remember is that I didn’t want to talk to her. I had to leave that side of the store to avoid her. The weird thing for me is that I paid some attention to the story of her disappearance, but it wasn’t until I saw a close-up photo of her face that I realize I talked to her that night. I did call the police to let them know of the interaction because there were some reports that she was quite normal at the time, but in my opinion, there was something bad or wrong going on. There are so many disturbed people in that neighborhood of Downtown. And yes, the Burroughs case is odd.
Hi!!
I’ve never heard of poor Joseph Bara. His death seems to have inspired quite a few artists fond of immortalizing wounded, pretty creatures…
Yeah, I’m… pretty ridiculously obsessed with Bimini right now, haha. I always watch Drag Race, not really because I’m a fan of the show itself (I don’t like reality TV) but because I find some of the competing queens and their art entirely fascinating.
Now, I can say it right back: I’d never heard of Keith and Kevin Schultz until you mentioned them! I’ll go and investigate right away. (I cannot wait for “I Wished”!!) Love accidentally using superglue instead of lube during his first ever live cam show, Od.
Dennis, yo, boss! God, I’m such a terrible froggie. Not only do I know sweet FA about drunkenness, I also did not know about that cute Bara kid (about whom I’m sure nothing at all is remotely apocryphal). I might need to surrender zee passe-pawr. That’s my plan, but I need another one first.
Did you see that MUBI is showing the If It Were Love documentary on Crowd? Have you seen it? Is it any good? Should I watch it or will it get in the way of my memories of the piece itself? Are you in it? Why did the chicken cross the road? And so forth.
This is quite a historical nugget, Dennis. It cannot be easy leading horses while naked, but I trust the artists on this. Wow.
My KAWS experience was less obnoxious, mostly small nauseatingly cute objects (just reproductions and ripoffs, I’m sure) in the apartment.
Wow, I didn’t know Chick Corea passed. I loved his brief foray into free jazz in the early ’70s (mostly with Dave Holland, some on Blue Note), but can’t stand most of the rest. I remember giving a jazz piano class presentation based on that sliver of his discography; mine was easily the most avant grade in the class, haha. Let me dig out my vinyl…
Bill
BTW, the first 3 episodes of Adam Curtis’ new series CAN’T GET IT OUT OF MY HEAD dropped on YouTube yesterday, posted by “Kylie Minogue.”
It’s funny how Norman Mailer’s reputation has dropped so much farther than Burroughs, based on being a macho asshole. His murder attempt wasn’t successful, while WSB actually did kill his wife! (Although I also think Burroughs was a much better novelist.) But it feels like young people have a much more intersectional view of queer lit than gay readers did in the ’90s.
How long till KAWS directs a music video for Biebz? He has played an oil worker and boxer in his recent clips, which is kinda repulsive. I prefer his entitled frat bro period to his new Christian wife guy “sincerity.”
I’m well, thanks for asking. Reading Detransition, Baby and slutting it up on Grindr.
I’m currently working on a short story based on Valerie Solanas’s SCUM Manifesto and a second novel about, among other things, death gods, codependency, recovery from addiction, infidelity, eschatology, and lesbians. Based on my short story Coyote. Both are slow going (for me) but I hope to get back to work soon. My first full-length novel is looking for an agent.
Completely unfamiliar with Bara but glad to learn. Fascinating how some of these images show him on his feet, some prone. Makes me wonder about tragedy versus heroism. Unrelated, perverse fact: Bara is the term for a genre of gay pornography in Japan. It’s the first thing that comes up when you Google the word.
Hope you’re well.
Hi Dennis,
Yeah totally ignorant American here about Bara. But not anymore, good sir! The prints here are spectacular.
So stoked about I Wished! Preordered, naturally.
Random question – Do you know of the musician Lingua Ignota? Her music is just stunningly beautiful, gut-wrenching, black metal/industrial/classical/torch song/indescribable. I’ve been on a serious jag for her. Check out “Caligula.” I feel like it’s up your alley.
B
Hey, Dennis,
RIP to this boy martyr for liberté, égalité, and fraternité who was ghoulishly posthumously preserved as a propaganda tool and aesthetic object. I think I may agree with your citation’s sense of tragic irony. I guess that’s a pervasive question with all art about death. Still, a beautiful array of works, despite the uneasiness. I may like the Peynot and Vauthier best.
Ah, interesting that you’re not a fan of alcohol either. I mean, I’m not opposed to it, I’ve never even tried it, it just doesn’t have any draw for me. Seems overhyped or something. I think Bidgood was so mad about “Pink Narcissus” getting yanked out of his hands by the producers (the final version was cut together without his consent because he was taking so long to make it) that he sort of foreswore filmmaking for a while. And then there was also a general cultural shift to hardcore, macho-oriented pornography, which was never his scene, and he kind of fell through the cracks of the culture for a long while. That’s what I read somewhere, anyway. He still lives in virtual poverty in New York, I think, which totally sucks. Yes, I think I heard about “Equation to an Unknown” through you, or we’ve talked about it or something. Of course it’s good to know it has your seal of approval. I shed a tear for the many lost arty gay porns that will never resurface. Yeah, I get that about Poe. He can be very purple. Wow, didn’t know Purdy’d had such an impact on some of your coterie, cool. “In a Shallow Grave” arrived in the mail today, so I’m primed for a deep dive.
Productive but unexhilarating seems to be the norm for lots of us lately (when we’re being productive, anyway). Sorry it didn’t have any fun surprises, although talking to friends sounds nice. And what is this “home haunt” thing? A lecture on haunted houses? Color me intrigued in any case. I had off today, so I went to the Barnes & Noble and what should I see but Brontez Purnell’s “100 Boyfriends”, which I remembered from this site a few days ago and sort of impulsively snagged on the spot. I’ve been blowing through it today and it’s pretty great. Yay. Also I got to see some friends in the evening. We did a triple “grim animated movie” feature of “The Plague Dogs” (first time watching; bleak, depressing, excellent), “Ringing Bell” (weak, overblown, interesting mostly in a parable-type way but otherwise unremarkable), and “Grave of the Fireflies” (second time watching, and I think it might have solidified itself as a favorite). That was great. So I had a good Friday as they go. And you? Happy weekend!
Hey Dennis, I wrote a Lunar New Year’s letter for family and friends and made a photo collage. I would like to send them to you if you provide your mailing address via my email. Happier Year of the Ox.
Guilty, yes, ’tis I! Apologies its taken longer than it should to respond.
I’m woefully unfamiliar with Houellbecq, mainly because last I looked into his work, most of it was untranslated (this must have been around 2010-2012). I know him more through the reviews/critiques of others, which isn’t ideal but it’s a sight better than my French!
That aside, things are alright I suppose. Work and home, with not much in between thanks to the wholly-unsurprising inability of modern America to handle a public health crisis. At least it seems that my severe creative block has been downgraded to “vexing” at this point. Trying to get leftover releases from last year into the light of day, slowly building up new works, plus several collaborations, I think my book is coming out sooner than later? Time has lost all meaning lately, so I bury myself in endeavors with the hopes of defining my existence more tangibly!