#retrobrick

[pilferingapples]

LM 1.5.12 (retrobrick)

Hugo mentions in this chapter that "moustaches meant civilians, and spurs meant pedesetrians" , thus clearly setting up that , as spurs are meant to be for equestrian types, moustaches are meant to indicate military types, both signifiers misappropriated by the era's dandies.  So I went looking for more info on that, and found this delightful video on the great Paris Moustache Strike, which also gives fun Moustache History! It's good fun with a victorious strike, please check it out!

What a fun chapter, about moustaches!!

..okay, yeah. Time for This. 

The description of Bamatabois and all the political interest of that moment aside (though it would be so much easier to talk about aaugh these are gonna be short because I can't take these chapters) -

-It's striking how Fantine in this chapter matches so many signifiers of the convicts from the account of prison Valjean gave to Myriel. Her head is shaved, she's visibly dressed in a way to mark her out from everyone (and though it surprisingly doesn't say here, I would not be surprised if her ballgown ,like the convicts'  tunics, was red) she has had to endure the heat, the cold, a plank to sleep on, work even when sick- and now the lash, albeit only verbal right now. But the experience of having to just accept abuse for nothing , randomly and yet constantly, is clearly being echoed here. 

..and of course by the end, police are here too- one who was a prison guard at Toulon, yet. Fantine , unlike Madeleine , shows obviously that she recognizes Javert, and Javert in particular.  Has he been the one in charge of " inspecting" her sometimes, making sure she's up to Health Code (while starving to death)?  Or does she know him because he's been pointed out to her as THE police officer to avoid, the terror of the poor and homeless that he is ? Neither answer is happy!! 

More notes: 

-Fantine wears flowers on her head, in winter. I always forget this myself, and I've never seen any adaptation do it-- I assume they must have been artificial ones? 

- special 19C/Hugolian Gender Issues  Discussion corner : Bamatabois and his kind of dandy are a " neuter species; geldings" etc  (" de la grande espèce neutre; hongres," ) .  This ties in with Hugo's (not terribly uncommon for the time!) attitude , that gender is a role that has to be active-- women have to be domestic, mothers, wives, etc, or they're not women; men have to be protectors, active, decisive,etc-- and men and women both have to be sexual in appropriate ways.  People can transcend those roles in an admirable way, and be like Simplice (who we do not dare call a woman) or Valjean  (or so many of the Principled Virgin characters in Hugo's novels)-- or they can fail their roles, like Bamatabois and Tholomyes, or like   women who dare to be unattractive, or lack maternal inclinations, etc.    I am emphatically not saying I *agree* with this outlook;  but I see it now, after some time in the Canon Era Gender Studies mines , and  with that in mind, a lot of Hugo's weird  gender moves are coherent and more understandable, albeit not one bit more comfortable. 

[batanusantara]

Ready stok. Aneka jenis bata tempel. Call/wa 081311661325 #retrobrick #batatempel #jualbatatempel #bataexpose #desainrumah #rumahidaman #rumahmewah #desainrumahminimalis #rumahimpian #rumahkecil #rumahmodern #desaininterior #inspirasirumah #rumahminimalis #huniannyaman #hunian #denahrumah #rumahrumahunik #desaininteriorrumah #rumahfavorit #ruangtamumungil #shabbyhomelover #rumahtropis #desainrumahidaman (di Jakarta, Indonesia) https://www.instagram.com/p/B0NEWCWHfS6/?igshid=xn7oipw1g1wk

[fremedon]

Brickclub 2.3.5, “The Little Girl All Alone”

This is the chapter where Cosette is a werewolf; I liked @everyonewasabird‘s take on that.

Also, she sees ghosts. Literally: “She looked hard and heard the beasts moving in the grass and she distinctly saw the ghosts stirring in the trees.” I guess this is how she knows what kind of hats ghosts wear? I like that she’s matter-of-fact about them--there are ghosts, they’re terrifying, they are definitely there and just as real as the animals and the wind.

Cosette’s tininess against the darkness reminds me of the incredible description of the ship of the line a couple chapters back: “On the one hand utter darkness, on the other an atom.” The gamins in the next book will also be atoms--in both cases, the word is used of children to emphasize their smallness, but also that they are part of something. Cosette is not actually all alone, though she doesn’t know it yet.

I love the way Hugo writes about literal light and shadow. It’s always lush and evocative--but also, I love that he grounds his metaphors about light and darkness in passages of literal darkness. When Hugo talks about darkness of the soul--this is what he’s comparing it to, this utterly terrifying, real experience of a dark wood on a winter night.

As terrifying as it is, Cosette is more scared of going back empty-handed to Mme. Thenardier than of going on. As always in this book, nature might be dangerous, but its dangers are innocent. The worst threats all come from humanity.

“So violent was [Cosette’s] state of turmoil that her strength was three times normal.” Shades of Valjean lifting the cart, as if to remind us of him, just before he makes his entrance and lifts the bucket out of her hand.

[synteis]

2.1.13 - La catastrophe

After the "glory" of the suicide of the imperial guard, what is left is disorder and disaster. Now we've gone from "Vive l'empreur!" to "Sauve-qui-peut!" all the way to "Trahison!" We also get the mentions of "Vive le maréchal Ney" even as we know that he longed for a glorious death the previous chapter.

Here is a difference between Waterloo and the barricades. Because Enjolras is a far better man than Napoleon or Ney, he leads from the front with his men. They don't descend into this chaos and he doesn't yearn for death ahead of them because of the shame of failure. Perhaps this is why the barricades are sublime while Waterloo has moments but is not so in a general way.

Everything has fallen apart and there's now nothing that Napoleon can do even as he tries.

But there are others on the French side who are stil carrying on with courage in spite of their leadership. We get what Lobau tries to do at Genappe where they make barricades and recruit 300 men. The earlier French policies lead to even more terrible policies from the Anglo-Prussians including Blücher.

Ce vertige, cette terreur, cette chute en ruine de la plus haute bravoure qui ait jamais étonné l'histoire, est-ce que cela est sans cause? Non. L'ombre d'une droite énorme se projette sur Waterloo. C'est la journée du destin. La force au-dessus de l'homme a donné ce jour-là. [...] Waterloo, c'est le gond du dix-neuvième siècle. La disparition du grand homme était nécessaire à l'avènement du grand siècle. Quelqu'un à qui on ne réplique pas s'en est chargé. La panique des héros s'explique. Dans la bataille de Waterloo, il y a plus du nuage, il y a du météore. Dieu a passé.

At its heart, all this death is the work of the higher power who is Hugo's God. Napoleon didn’t stand a change even though Hugo’s spent the past ten chapters telling us about all of them. For him to fall so too did all those underneath him, good ones and bad.

[kingedmundsroyalmurder]

Retrobrick: 2.6.3

We start learning more about the convent school here. Given that Hugo handwaves Cosette's actual childhood, these descriptions are the only things we're going to get about her upbringing. And it's... not dreadful? I mean, it's pretty strict, but it sounds like the girls are allowed to be children. The nuns definitely recognize that those who have not taken vows cannot be held to the same standards as those who have, and you have to really mean it to become a nun here. Hugo talks briefly about the process of taking your vows, and it's a long-term, intensive commitment.

(I'm super intrigued by the 'novices taking their vows are dressed in finery and made up to look beautiful' thing. Where are they getting these nice clothes? Does the novice get to keep her own stuff until she takes her vows? Is there a convent-wide supply of hair products? What happens to the nice clothes once she takes her vows? Are you allowed to brush your teeth while you're still a novice? I have so many questions here, and Hugo answers none of them because Hugo thinks that women just sort of... happen.)

It's interesting that the girls raised in the convent are raised, "with a horror of the world and the century." I expect this is something Cosette and Marius will have in common -- both of them were raised in places that really, really did not like the world as it was and tried their damndest to pretend it didn't exist. Sure, Cosette's post-Thenardiers childhood was way more benign than Marius', but she was still isolated and taught to regard things like progress and revolution with wariness, if not outright horror. It's something that, if I recall correctly, Hugo doesn't really dwell on, but I have to think it's something they bond over, at least a little. Especially since Cosette went from the convent to Valjean's house, and Marius... is Marius. It's not like either of them had the opportunity to really dive into the world when they emerged from their restrictive upbringings. There's cultural references they're missing and historical events that passed them by and novels everyone else has read and they've never heard of. They have stuff in common, is what I'm saying.

But regardless of that, the point is made pretty clearly that the convent school is... I don't know that happy is quite the right word, but it is not a miserable place. The girls are allowed to play and to enjoy themselves and, within some admittedly quite restrictive limitations, to see their families. It's definitely not the worst way to grow up.

(Sidenote: I love Hugo's conceit that part of how he's getting this information is from interviewing at least one of the former students.)

[everyonewasabird]

Retrobricking 2.6.7 ‘A few silhouettes in the shadows’

With the pairing first of Baptistine and Magloire and then Simplice and Perpetue, we were taught to get used to the pairing of a tall, thin, refined, genderless person of female sex who is spiritually dedicated almost at the expense of even having a body, beside a short, fat peasant who occupies a similar role much more earthily.

But Mother Innocent isn’t one of our known Nun Types.

She’s short and fat and cheerful, and as well-read and educated as anyone we’ll meet in this book until the students. She’s well-liked and democratically elected and brilliant and described as “rather more Benedictine monk than Bernardine nun.” Also she sings abysmally, which is really charming.

Hugo can’t sign off entirely on the whole convent thing, but he doesn’t undercut *her* in any way I can see yet. It feels like an admission that there can, possibly, be a life path for some women that isn’t one of the paths he’s admitted the existence of.

In short, Mother Innocent seems rad as hell, and I’m vaguely shocked Hugo came up with her.

[meta-squash]

Brick Club Retrobricking 1.2, 1.5: The Fall/The Descent

I had opened the Gutenberg Hapgood page in preparation to read tonight’s chapter because I like to read my FMA edition with the Hapgood as a supplement, and I was just vaguely staring at the chapter menu.

Book 1.2 is called “The Fall” (La chute) while Book 1.5 is called “The Descent” (La descente). The difference between the two, I think, is that 1.2 focuses entirely on Jean Valjean, while 1.5 is where Valjean and Fantine’s stories intertwine. Aside from the Grandfather and Grandson/Grandson and Grandfather parallel Book titles that focus on Marius and Gillenormand, these are the only two chapters that have similar names.

These two chapter titles denote the difference in Valjean’s “downfall” vs Fantine’s. Though Valjean lived most of his life growing up in poverty, it is a single act (the theft of the bread) that immediately throws him into the lowest levels, into prison. His downfall is swift; he doesn’t even manage to get the bread back to his family before he is caught. Fantine, on the other hand, drifts slowly into total despair. She starts in Paris, supported by Tholomyes, then abandoned, then making a living at the factory, then dismissed, then making almost nothing as a seamstress, then losing that as well, before becoming a sex worker, and finally dying in hospital without seeing Cosette.

“Falling” implies a sort of lack of any control or ability to right oneself. To fall is to let gravity freely take you. People don’t fall on purpose, and generally when one falls they don’t manage to catch themselves in time--otherwise it might be called a stumble. “Descent,” on the other hand, indicates something slower. It’s an act of moving downward, but often it denotes a slower downward progress (such as Dante’s descent into hell). A fall is an immediate drop. A descent is a gradual slope.

Which feels to me to be in line with a lot of Hugo’s weird sort of opinions and implications about working women. The slightly differing chapter titles seem to imply that Valjean was powerless to do anything but fall, while if Fantine had done [x] thing she might have not ended up at the bottom where she was. Which Hugo seems to say, at least a little bit, when he expresses disapproval at the fact that she didn’t take various job opportunities in Paris because of Tholomyes, or that she rented her rooms and furniture on credit in Montreuil-sur-Mer, or even the mention that she did not dare visit Madeleine after her dismissal. So often he seems conflicted as to whether he wants to blame society for the downfall of women, or certain behaviors of women themselves.

Also, Valjean is able to recover from his “fall;” Fantine does not recover from her descent. Interesting as well that Valjean’s symbolic death in M-sur-M is in a fire, and Fantine spends all of her time in hospital up to her death with a terrible, raging fever. His fire is quick, hers is multiple months long. Valjean is the opposite of Fantine in certain aspects: he is extremely observant of his surroundings and able to quickly adapt, she is not; both of their downfalls are caused by societal failure, but Valjean’s is his own action caused by that neglect while Fantine’s downfall is caused by others pushing it upon her. Perhaps this is why he survives and she does not: his own actions caused the majority of his free fall into the mire of prison, which means his actions are what pull him out. But Fantine’s fall into abject circumstances was caused by others’ actions towards her, which means their hands are still holding her down and she’s unable to get up again.

Again, I wish I knew more about religion and christianity in a more detailed way, because I get the sense that “descent” vs “fall” have different religious connotations and associations that I don’t catch due to my lack of knowledge.

I’m just really interested in Hugo’s decision to title these two Books in such similar ways. They’re not exact parallels, like the “Grandfather/Grandson” chapters, but they’re close enough that it feels like a deliberate comparison.

[adspexi]

brickclub 1.1.10 retrobrick

I never made a proper 1.1.10 post because by the time I got done annotating the chapter I had a monster on my hands, but I’ve been thinking more and more about the conversation between Myriel and G---, and especially about what it means that Myriel never got an answer from G--- when he begged for a blessing. 

Because honestly, I don’t know how to come across with an ethical response for G--- to give. Simply put, if G--- were to bless Myriel, a royalist, a bishop appointed by Napoleon who refuses to accept G---’s arguments as valid, G---’s arguments would lose all their validity. He has stood by his principles even as the rest of his country abandoned them; he shouldn’t be forced to bend in his final moments just to make a tool of the state feel better. But on the other hand, if G--- refused to bless Myriel, Hugo’s readers might see it as petulance. Rejection of the hand Myriel has offered. “So much for the tolerant Left,” 1860s edition. 

Ultimately, I think, whether or not G--- would have blessed Myriel isn’t the point. The point is that Myriel, our morally upright royalist who still prickles at being called “monsieur” and not “monsignor,” asked for that blessing in the first place.

Hugo puts huge stock in religious humility. Fundamentally, the Myriel chapters show that the duty of a priest is to serve on a level with the common people, to believe that all are welcome in God’s kingdom, and that priests aren’t deserving of more than those they serve. Pope Francis (yeah, him again, bear with me) gave a homily last year which I think gets at the heart of what Hugo was trying to say with this chapter: “There is a sign, a unique signal: accepting humiliation. Humility without humiliation is not humility. The humble one is he or she who is able to accept humiliations like Jesus, the great humiliated. “

If Myriel lived in his self-enforced poverty, traveling among brigands and giving silver to thieves, but did it all with the belief that this makes him special and uniquely godly, then he wouldn’t be truly humble. He would be on the level of the hypocrites Jesus admonishes in Matthew 6- performing lowliness to be seen, and known as holy for it, rather than for the sake of it. Myriel could have gone to G--- and ignored all his ideals in favor of a conversion attempt, and felt holier for it. But he didn’t. He engaged in an open, honest discussion with a man who was instrumental in destroying his livelihood. A man who refuses to address him with his title. I checked the French, and G--- doesn’t tutoyer Myriel, but I feel like he’s tutoyering him on a spiritual level. 

Myriel has been disrespected on every possible level, debating a man whose beliefs contradict his own on every subject, finding new points of personal pride he didn’t even know he had, and what does he do with this infuriating revolutionary? He kneels at G---’s feet. Myriel acknowledges that he has been wrong, and begs for a blessing from a man to whom he is diametrically opposed. That’s true humility, and that is what (at least Hugo thinks) we must aspire to. 

[pilferingapples]

LM 1.5.6 (Retrobricking)

Enter my favorite Les Mis Old Guy !

A peasant and a notary, someone who once had enough money to buy (and store, and maintain) a horse and cart even though apparently he didn't need them for business back in the day, he's the one person in town besides Javert who actively dislikes Madeleine (and for very bad reasons, but arguably better than Javert's reasons).    And Yet: he still protests for Madeleine to save himself , he's still willing to die to save a guy he's spent who knows how long working up a hate for, and that's before  he has any kind of big conversion.  

(Actually certain people, introduced in the last chapter, could take some dang lessons from Fauchelevent on how to healthily respond to finding out someone you thought was Bad is Good Actually. Ahem.) 

The very well-argued and stated Symbolism of the Cart-and-Horse combo (as put forth especially eloquently by @fremedon  in various posts, and summarized poorly here by me)  as Society and the workers/abased who actually do the work of keeping society adds to the complexity of Fauchelevent's role here for me!   He's not like the carter we saw back in Paris, whipping his horse to death-the accident that causes the death of the horse nearly kills him too, and he shows no anger towards the horse about it. But he was the carter, here, which suggests was his choice to overload the cart that put him in so much danger from the accident.  But then, he's a carter-- maybe overloading his cart is part of how he's keeping up a half-decent living now, as workers of all stripes so often do have to press past sensible limits.  And then again, his social status has been ambiguous; he's a carter now, but he was a notary, and apparently doing fairly well. Unlike Fantine, he's not purely disposable manual labor to society--but he's not far from it. And he's one of the people arguably "driving" the cart-- but not so securely that it being overturned won't hurt him almost as badly as the horse.  Which is, symbolically, where so many working and lower-middle-class people sit, not charged with the roughest work of moving that cart, not fully in charge of the cart, but first to get crushed when it collapses. 

Jean ValMadeleine's inability to save Fauchelevent alone , but absolutely essential example in getting the community to work together, is too clear to be fun analyzing , even though it makes me yell YES THIS  every time.  So nothing else to add except that I think it's interesting that this is NOT the point where Javert attempts to turn Madeleine in, despite having some pretty strong potential evidence...

ETA: Assorted Thoughts

-this is the first time it's really occurred to me, but: even with Fauchelevent being able to go out and socialize at the convent, that job must have been incredibly lonely for such a social and sociable person.   The convent is shelter, the convent is safety, the convent is always a form of rescue--but it's never entirely great for the people we see forced to go there, even now, when we don't know anything about it yet. 

- Fantine doesn’t make much because she’s not a super fast or efficient worker, which makes me wonder if there’s any kind of wage “floor” at Madeleine’s factory...

[pilferingapples]

LM 1.5.5 (retrobricking)

"Il se nommait Javert, et il était de la police."

FMA: His name was Javert,  and he was one of the police. 

Rose, Donougher: His name was Javert, and he was with the police. 

Hapgood: His name was Javert, and he belonged to the police.

They're all decent , but I think Hapgood's has some real poetry to it, esp. given how often Javert is compared to/flat out called a dog.   

Almost everyone has deeper thoughts and feelings on Javert than me, and I'm eager to read them, so I'll confine this to a couple points. 

- Javert is described--among many other descriptions here-- as "Brutus in Vidocq".  And that is an absolutely fascinating and baffling  comparison to me? Because while his Vidocq qualities are obvious to anyone who knows about Vidocq, his Brutus qualities are...I will say highly debatable! Yes, there's the obvious connection with Brutus killing his sons...but that Brutus killed his sons for trying to restore the monarchy.   There's the now-more-famous Brutus  who killed someone many considered his friend, out of honor and duty...but the friend he killed was Caesar, and at least as a matter of popular concept he did that  to  prevent Caesar being made emperor.  What I'm saying is that I cannot find any way that "Brutus" is not a profoundly, intensely anti-absolute-authority kind of comparison,a  deeply republican  symbol to invoke.   And Hugo is absolutely bringing that symbolism in here on purpose! He would have had fleets of historical figures to call on if he'd wanted someone austerely and selflessly dedicated to authority /monarchy/emperors!  But he picked Brutus, for M. "respect for authority and hatred of rebellion",  and I have no IDEA what to do with that. 

- going with that-- Hugo says Javert is made up of "two sentiments, very good in themselves" (or whatever a given translation does with that phrase)  "respect for authority and hatred of rebellion".  And the first two times I read it! I totally took Hugo at his word that these were being presented as Good Things! And every time I see this passage quoted it's unironic, as if those were totally meant to be Good Things...

but there's no way, is there??  There is no way  that Victor Hernani Hugo ever  thought rebellion didn't kinda rock or that authority should be beyond question. Even Baby Monarchist Hugo  was ready to fight his teachers and Spiritual Advisors, and to harbor attempted assassins . He was not good  at it but he was willing!  

So uh. Yeah.  "he rendered them almost bad, by dint of exaggerating them" is deep, deep sarcasm, huh.   They're bad by exaggeration bc they are bad in any degree, every single line of not just this book but everything else Hugo ever wrote  argues that , I was a naive fool the first couple times I read this and I am still only beginning to appreciate the absolute Marianas Trench depths of sarcasm on that line. 

- Okay one more thing: I am highly entertained that Victor "This symbol is symbolic" Hugo says that de Maistre would have seen a symbol in Javert, as if Hugo hadn't just spent the whole chapter making Javert a symbol. Amazing. 

[pilferingapples]

LM 1.5.10 (retrobricking)

Oh, okay, it was the end of winter when Fantine got fired, so I guess it as actually early 1820. All right then. 

That is the only Neutral Mood I've got in this chapter. 

So I try to not get too into personal stuff in these , but, well.  The first time I read this book, I'd been unable to find work for over a year.   So, because Money Can Be Exchanged For Many Foods and Services, I , like so many people who need money, had enrolled in a medical study.   Lots of poor women in that study. Lot of blood, too.

*reads about the whole Dentist event * 

*stares out the window for an hour* 

..I really want this book to stop being relevant.  

Anyway!!

 Capitalist Body Horror aside, what stands out to me in this chapter is Fantine's increasing displays of bravado. It started last chapter, but here is where it really ramps up. She gets fired and she walks by her critics with her head high; she sells her hair, and she starts singing as she walks.  She laughs more in misery than we ever saw her laugh when she was happy and in love and thought she was safe. This whole process-- making more of a display of pride and confidence to counter social condemnation, reflecting disdain by Aggressively Not Caring-- is a particularly well observed bit of social behavior from Hugo. And it will come up over and over, with the gamins, with Eponine, arguably even with the barricade.  It's cheer as a weapon, and especially a defensive one--but potentially an aggressive one, too.   

Besides all the pain and physical violation, this is also the point where Fantine has given up all the little beautiful things she loved, including the beauty that was literally part of her own body; something this book holds as maybe even more essential than the useful, and she can't have it.  

And I think this chapter is also where she's come to believe she'll never have Cosette with her again. She talks about it--but she laughs, the same way she laughs and sings to show she's not ashamed.  It's a hard, brutal joke, the idea of having Cosette with her again.  Now she's not working for her future; now she's just paying money to a hostage taker.  Because she has to know, by now, that the Thenardiers, who constantly threaten to turn her child out, aren't being loving foster parents, can't even be trusted to be using the money for Cosette-but she doesn't see that she has a choice.  She's given up on her own future, but there's still something for her to fight for. 

But she’s been fighting for years now, and  finally she’s lost even the weapon of her laughter. She’s down to her last stand. 

[pilferingapples]

Brickclub Retrobrick: LM 1.1.5, 1.1.6

BY GUM I AM GOING TO DO THIS, even if I have nothing especially major to say about these chapters!

1.1.5 

...I'm guessing the "Hugo, Bishop of Ptolemais" that is mentioned in this chapter is Charles Hyacinthe Hugo? (Donougher's footnotes agree with me!)  As far as I know, this isn't actually a relative to our Ever Humble Author. But did he know? did he care? Debatable!    Apparently Bishop Hugo kiiiind of skirted on the edges of really ticking off the royal family of France; I can see why Author Hugo would feel particularly inclined to think it was a relation at this point. 

..I wonder if the Bishop's note on the names of God (and the best one being Compassion!) in the margins of a book of correspondence between generals is really unrelated after all. I can definitely see some rails for that train of thought--how his studying of all those battle plans (and surely all those generals hoping for or assuming the blessing of God)  might have led him to reflect on the divinity of compassion. 

HOUSEPLAN TIME!

1.1.6

Not really the point, but the former hospital honestly sounds like a charming building, and a very good home for three people!  And probably a lot easier on Mme. Magloire to keep clean than the great big mansion that they're supposed to live in (none of which makes it okay that the Bishop changed their living plans without warning, but it does seem charming!). 

A side note about the Bishop's open-door policy:  I have lived a good chunk of my life in the sticks, where I am not very concerned about *people* breaking in; but I still lock my dang doors, because there are such things as *animals*, and without a good lock I am liable to have Visitors at any point.    I know Myriel's household isn't up against the bloody-minded cleverness of raccoons, but do stray dogs and foxes and whatnot never nose their way in to the Bishop's house??

[pilferingapples]

LM 1.2.8 (retrobricking)

[ID:  black and white photo of Victor Hugo, in his older bearded years, doing the Hugo Head Lean. text on image reads “I know writers who use subtext, and they’re all cowards” in Caslon Antique typeface) 

[batanusantara]

Ready stok. Aneka jenis bata tempel & bata expose. Call/wa 081311661325 #retrobrick #batatempel #jualbatatempel #bataexpose #desainrumah #rumahidaman #rumahmewah #desainrumahminimalis #rumahimpian #rumahkecil #rumahmodern #desaininterior #inspirasirumah #rumahminimalis #iderumah #rumah2lantai #properti #rumahbaru #huniannyaman #hunian #dijualrumah #denahrumah #rumahrumahunik #desaininteriorrumah #rumahfavorit #ruangtamumungil #shabbyhomelover #rumahtropis #desainrumahidaman #inspirasirumahmungil #rumahfavoritku #ruangkeluargaminimalis #desainrumahsederhana #rumahidamankeluarga (di Jakarta, Indonesia) https://www.instagram.com/p/B0ND-hfHtvP/?igshid=1ekihqq7mlmxd

[fremedon]

Brickclub I.6.2, “How Jean May Become Champ”

--Ecce Homo alert: “The same age, fifty-four, same height, same manner, in short the same man, it’s him.”

--Hat-tip to @meta-squash for pointing out another runaway cart--this time, one that narrowly misses running down a woman and child. Madeleine’s hands are still on the reins of the town; the cart is careening, but it’s avoiding disaster and the near-misses are being dealt with. But it’s a reminder that the minute Madeleine leaves, the cart is going to come crashing to a halt. And we’ll see that literalized on the road to Arras.

--It is kind of hilarious watching Javert go on about what a cool and cunning character Jean Valjean is while Jean Valjean is just nodding and going “Uh-huh.”

--

Beyond that--oof. Where to even begin with this one. This is the chapter where Javert is at his most admirable--for those of us with a long-standing fascination with the character, this is where it starts. Everything Javert believes is terrible, and also wrong. But he believes it completely, and he’s not only willing but absolutely insistent on being judged by the same cruel and absurd standards he uses for anyone else. 

And his mixture of pride--both pomposity and a justified pride in meeting his own standards--and absolute abasement and self-abnegation remains one of the kinkiest things in literature (and, for those of us with a long-standing Valvert OTP, this is also where it starts).

But this time through--I’m writing this three days after the invasion of the U.S. Capitol by a MAGA lynch mob--the thing that’s really jumping out is Javert’s metatext. Javert proceeds from a rather more honest answer to the same question that produced Ainsley Hayes on The West Wing: WHAT IF a conservative authoritarian, except that they actually believe their bullshit.

Because that is why Javert is SO weird--so unique that he seems a lot more admirable than he is. Because people who believe what Javert believes never, in real life, swallow their own stories to that extent. People who believe in hierarchy as a positive moral good always, always, have some reason why they and those closest to them should be spared the consequences they’re happy to dish out to others.

There are no Javerts in real life, and here we begin to see why--because you can’t live that way. It will destroy you. Massive hypocrisy and sanctimony isn’t good, but it is psychologically sustainable. Javert’s deal is not, and we see here all of the fault lines on which he’s eventually going to crack.

Many of Javert’s other character traits--his repression of imagination, the way he can talk himself out of noticing things contrary to his worldview--are keenly observed and they are the ways that people with his values avoid noticing the things that would cause a cognitive dissonance spiral. But his insistence on submitting himself to his own harsh judgement is pure thought experiment. Just as, in his professional behavior, the book is asking whether a cop who is the best, most honest, most incorruptible cop ever could do good (answer: Nope), in his personal philosophy, it is asking whether a belief in Authority, if pursued with perfect sincerity and integrity, could ever be good. And the Nope is resounding.

The sincerity and the integrity are still oddly impressive, though.

[fremedon]

Brickclub 3.5.5, “Poverty A Friend of Misery” and 3.5.6, “The Substitute”

I’ve fallen behind again and I am once again going to be lazy and mostly say what Bird said about 3.5.5, with a couple of addenda:

1.) Once again, Grantaire is coming off much better than Marius--Marius he had finally come hardly to look at anything but the sky, the only thing that truth can see from the bottom of her well.” Grantaire is the toad who looks up and sees the eagle in flight. Marius is only seeing the sky--not actually truth, just what truth sees. He’s being exposed to things he could put together into some sort of truth, but he’s not doing the math.

2.) Hugo introduced the July Revolution for the first time in the last chapter, in the context of its effect on M. Mabeuf’s book sales. He mentions it again here, in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it aside. He’s eventually going to backtrack and give us a whole book-length digression as the opening to Tome IV--A Few Pages of History, the equivalent of Paris Atomized and Waterloo. But right now, we get

All passions except those of the heart subside in idle musing. Marius’s political fanaticisms were dispelled in this way. By satisfying and calming him, the 1830 Revolution had helped in this. He remained the same, without the anger. He still had the same opinions; only, they had mellowed. Strictly speaking, he no longer had opinions--he had sympathies.

While we’ve been watching Marius look at lettuces, there has been an entire revolution, and Marius didn’t bat an eye and neither did the narrator. 

I’m not sure if that’s more damning of Marius or of Louis-Philippe, but. It’s pretty bad.

I have very little to say about 3.5.6, where Aunt G tries to replace Marius with Theodule and the graft doesn’t take. Gillenormand wants a fight, and Theodule amiably gray-rocks his way through a three-page rant and refuses to give him one.

I am really appreciating Theodule’s ability to visit his elderly relatives and make pleasant conversation without getting even a little bit drawn into their shit-stirring drama. Seriously, well done Theodule.