#lm 5.3.9

[secretmellowart]

"Marius seems dead, to someone who is a good judge of the matter."

I've been obsessed with Jean Valjean and Javert's final encounter in the original novel for a while; Les Mis adaptations like the musical generally portray it as a tense shouting match, but in the book it's more quietly sad and melancholy. Javert helps Jean Valjean take Marius home and then leaves without a word. [prompted by @valvertweek]

[secretmellowblog]

Javert gives a “brief report” to the police after returning from the barricades, and that would be an extremely funny missing scene to write. Guy staggers in from the destroyed barricade with no food or sleep but tons of Valjean-instigated mental dissonance, eyes bloodshot, clothes disorganized, collar askew, like “something lgbt just happened to me”

[lmchaptertitlebracket]

Round 2, Matchup 98: V.i.8 vs V.iii.9

[ruedesfillesducalvaire]

for us it's the awkward carriage ride

but for javert it's

[cliozaur]

I find the interaction between Javert and Valjean here so intense and intimate: “Who are you?” “I.” “Who is ‘I’?” “Jean Valjean.” But this verbal confession is not enough, so Javert literally jumps on Valjean to see it for himself: "Javert thrust his bludgeon between his teeth, bent his knees, inclined his body, laid his two powerful hands on the shoulders of Jean Valjean, which were clamped within them as in a couple of vices, scrutinized him, and recognized him. Their faces almost touched. Javert’s look was terrible."

[dolphin1812]

We’ve reached the world’s most awkward carriage ride! The poor driver must have had so many questions.

The description of Valjean exiting the sewer is full of beautiful, poetic descriptions of nature that certainly merit a read. As beautiful as they are, though, it’s important to note that it’s twilight. Hugo touches on the literal importance of this – the cover of some darkness makes escape easier – but there’s a symbolic aspect as well: twilight is an in-between. Valjean is in between freedom and confinement, and in between escape (lying to Javert) and his conscience (surrendering to him – even if his conscience is really questionable here). Marius is between life and death. Javert, too, is at a crossroads, between the law and reform. This is the first time he makes a concession to someone, as much as it pains him to do so, and that’s significant. All of these characters are in a state of flux, just as the light is as the sun sets.

We now explicitly learn that Thénardier’s goals weren’t noble, as we could have assumed. I’m still most puzzled by Javert being alone, though. I continue to wonder if the police were trying to get rid of him, sending him first to the barricades and then on patrol by himself when other officers were moving in groups in case of danger.

Javert confirming Valjean’s identity is hilarious in its intensity. He did not need to put his bludgeon in his mouth and get that close to him, but Javert is nothing if not dramatic.

It’s also funny for him to be described as “a spy of the first quality” when he’s actually such a disaster as a spy.

Then there’s this:

“Besides this, Javert possessed in his eye the feline phosphorescence of night birds.”

Javert! Feline! (And twice in a chapter, since he’s also compared to a lynx pinning down a lion)! His choice to make this concession is, through animal comparisons, made an act of rebellion from a character who never rebels. The unease he felt at the barricades still seems to affect him.

And once again, what a carriage ride! I feel like working with/for Javert must be odd in general, but this seems particularly rough.

[wanderinghedgehog]

I am having such an insane day. Since I am in a constant state of thinking about Les Mis, the tone of a chapter I’ve recently read will occasionally coordinate with my mood. This is one of those days. Generally, I don’t follow les mis letters, but I really like today’s chapter, so yeah. I can’t tell if I’m happy because people are talking about this chapter or sad because… this chapter.

[everyonewasabird]

Brickclub 5.3.9 “Marius seems dead to one who is a good judge”

Everyone else is focused on the dawn, but for Valjean the truly liberating time is dusk. What does that MEAN? Like, this book doesn’t mess around when it comes to light symbolism: dawn is a huge symbol, light is a huge symbol.. and so is night. We had that hugely symbolic scene where Cosette and Valjean saw the Cadène, and before that moment, Valjean was refusing to look at the dawn.

But he’s able to appreciate the evening, or at least he is today, after his latest transformation. And based on Hugo’s writing, this evening is meant to be appreciated: this is Hugo being beautiful and atmospheric about his environmental prose.

Maybe this is something like: morning was our first choice for symbols, but Valjean’s strength at this point is that he thrives on something different than other people do. We were thwarted in getting the dawn today, but not all hope is lost: Valjean in the evening comes into his own.

Javert has lost his ability to recognize Valjean because of Valjean’s latest transformation. (Okay, fine, in a literal sense it’s the sewage. But I think it’s also the transformation.) Valjean, who’s transcended above the whole running away thing, I guess, supplies him with his name.

Javert sure is having a day.

Really wish I knew how Valjean expects Cosette to live if he’s dragged off to jail. Like yes, sure, I realize you’re Aslan submitting to the White Witch and Deeper Magic From Before the Blahblahblah or whatever, but my dude you literally have a kid at home.

Valjean reprises the thing where he asks Javert for a little grace in order to save somebody--this is what prompted Javert to the mockery that killed Fantine last time. This time, Javert doesn’t refuse.

And: Javert thinks Marius is dead.

What?

It’s important. It’s the name of the chapter! And the chapter title points out that Javert really should know by now how to tell if someone is dead.

Possibilities:

- Javert is seeing death everywhere at this point. He can’t perceive hope.

- Javert is very, very good at turning a blind eye to things that would make him argue with his superiors if he noticed them. He’s spent a career bending his perceptions to see what his superiors want him to see. And now, as evidenced by the new vous-ing, he considers Valjean his superior. As is his his habit, he perceives a dead man, because taking a dead man home isn’t anywhere near as bad as taking a live insurgent home.

I’m inclined towards the latter, and it’s fascinating. The thing that Javert has to offer in the end is the fruit of his gradual corruption over the past several decades. God, that’s depressing, but it does feel about right.

And we end with the awkwardest carriage ride eve,r and three grim archetypes:

Chance seemed to have brought together in grim confrontation three tragic immobilities, the corpse, the spectre, and the statue.

I don’t know what to do with it, but it feels like the three bad transformations people can have in this book. Statues and Specters are semi-supernatural catastrophic transformations that befall people, and of the two, I would have said the Specter (like Eponine) was worse, which here is represented by Valjean. And the Corpse--lots of characters die in this book, but whether or not we really see them as corpses depends on how they die; a good death doesn’t leave horrifying remains, which surely is yet another way in which Hugo is extremely culturally Catholic.

But, it’s also an illusion. Marius isn’t really a corpse at all, Javert has only declared him one. I have no idea whether Valjean-as-Specter is equally illusory--or, at least, equally escapable if Valjean chooses to escape it.

Javert really has become a statue, though. In fact, he’s been one for decades.

[marjorierose]

- Que faites-vous là ? et qu'est-ce que c'est que cet homme?

Il continuait de ne plus tutoyer Jean Valjean.

I always fail to notice when people switch between vous and tu in this book, so I appreciate how often Hugo points it out.

[secretmellowblog]

In love with how Victor Hugo just casually drops that Javert has Night Vision and then doesn't explain any further

Javert possessed in his eye the feline phosphorescence of night birds. He deciphered the few lines written by Marius,

Victor Hugo: Javert has semimagical night vision so he can basically see in the dark like an owl. anyway moving on--

[secretmellowblog]

In the musical, Jean Valjean and Javert's final confrontation is a climactic shouting match. But in the book it's different? Javert is obviously ridden with doubts from the moment he sees Jean Valjean, doubts he can't live with-- he's hesitant, uncertain, and passive. He speaks "as if in a dream," he dutifully asks the questions he's supposed to ask of criminals but doesn't hear any of Jean Valjean's answers, his mind is obviously wandering elsewhere, and he doesn't even verbally threaten to arrest Jean Valjean at all. He never says 'yes' to Jean Valjean's requests for favors, but he also never says 'no." It's like he's in so much confusion he's forgotten how an arrest is supposed to work. It's fascinating how much Jean Valjean "takes the lead" throughout their final confrontation. Javert is busy short-circuiting like a malfunctioning robot, while Jean Valjean walks him through the "script" for how arresting criminals is supposed to go, reminding him of how arresting people is supposed to work, while Javert primarily just passively follows Jean Valjean's orders. Their conversation is literally just: Javert: who is there? Jean Valjean: it's me Jean Valjean Javert: *Computer fans whirring, overheating, Windows error noise* Jean Valjean: You are going to arrest me. Javert: *bluescreen* Jean Valjean: I am going to come quiety. Javert: *404_file not found* Jean Valjean: But first we are going to take Marius home Javert: 01000001 01001000 01001000 01001000 01001000 01001000 01001000 01001000 00100000 01001001 00100111 01101101 00100000 01101000 01100001 01110110 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101111 01110101 01100111 01101000 01110100 01110011 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01100110 01100101 01100101 01101100 01101001 01101110 01100111 01110011 00100000 01100110 01101111 01110010 0010

[secretmellowblog]

Today in @lesmisletters is one of my favorite chapters in the novel— Jean Valjean and Javert’s meeting after the barricades!

I love how Spaced Out both of them are. The musical frames this as Shouting Match Confrontation, but in the novel you really feel the state of “hallucinatory exhaustion” that Hugo mentioned Jean Valjean being in earlier. Neither of them are in their right minds: they’re both fatigued, spaced out, and struggling exhaustedly to follow the script for how this criminal-police interaction is meant to go.

Jean Valjean is just sufferin. Imagine you go through a barricade and the entire Paris sewers and thenardier and just when you think you’re free, this deranged furry cop reappears. And you have to exhaustedly gather enough brain cells to put on your “politely speaking to cops” voice again. Poor creature

[lmchaptertitlebracket]

V.iii.9 Marius fait l’effet d’être mort à quelqu’un qui s’y connait

Denny trims this to “Marius Appears to be Dead”.

The third option is again supposed to end with "Dead" but ran up against the character limit again, alack!

Marius Seems To Be Dead To One Who Is A Good Judge: Wilbour, FMA

Marius Appears Dead To A Connoisseur: Wraxall 

Marius Produces On Some One Who Is A Judge of the Matter, the Effect of Being Dead: Hapgood

Marius Appears To Be Dead To One Who Is A Good Judge: Gray

Marius Appears to be Dead: Denny

Marius Looks To Be Dead To One Who Knows: Rose

To the Expert Eye, Marius Looks Dead: Donougher

[lmchaptertitlebracket]

Round 1, Matchup 121: II.viii.4 vs V.iii.9

[secretmellowblog]

Happy “awkward carriage ride” day to all those following Les Mis letters!

[cliozaur]

I love this chapter so much! It's incredibly intense, and I'll try not to delve into unnecessary details.

It seems that Hugo has exhausted his knowledge of sewers, freeing Valjean, Marius, and the readers to breathe "the pure, healthful, living, joyous air." Amazingly, the day isn't over yet—the sun sets, and it is still possible to read outside.

As soon as Valjean emerges, his first act is to tend to Marius. He approaches it "as though the sentiment of duty had returned to him," handling it "gently." Then, he senses another presence.

Valjean immediately recognizes Javert, who, in turn, fails to recognize Valjean, so that he has to explain who is ‘I’ (it’s time for a joke about his broad shoulders and muscular figure, something Javert failed to recognize – such is the reality of the Brickvert!) But this verbal confession isn't enough for Javert; he insists on confirming it with his own eyes. This scene feels wild, insane: “Javert thrust his bludgeon between his teeth, bent his knees, inclined his body, laid his two powerful hands on the shoulders of Jean Valjean, which were clamped within them as in a couple of vices, scrutinized him, and recognized him. Their faces almost touched. Javert’s look was terrible.”

And then Javert also recognizes Marius from the barricade and recalls his name, yet he doesn't remember him from the Gorbeau affair (fair enough—it was over four months ago, and their interaction was brief). Here Hugo describes Javert as “a spy of the first quality, who had observed everything, listened to everything, and taken in everything, even when he thought that he was to die; who had played the spy even in his agony, and who, with his elbows leaning on the first step of the sepulchre, had taken notes” – seemingly without irony, despite Javert’s past failures as a spy. And after checking Marius’ pulse, Javert declares him dead. Is it due to the weak pulse, or is Javert's perception impaired after nearly 48 hours without sleep?

Hugo emphasizes Javert’s change in attitude towards Valjean. Now he addresses the old man only with "vous" and he is ready to make a concession.

And it’s time for the most awkward ride in history: “the corpse, the spectre, and the statue.” It's almost a constant that Hugo likens someone to a statue just before their imminent demise.