fifty frenchmen can't be wrong (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
some_stars) wrote2013-03-10 08:09 pm
some_stars) wrote2013-03-10 08:09 pm
(no subject)
I had some Les Miserables thoughts on Tumblr, which although they failed to cohere into meta were substantial enough to repost here, especially since I laboriously typed this quote up while holding my paperback copy open with a small statue and some very careful balancing:
In lieu of meta that I can’t figure out how to write, have the quote I was trying to write about:
"Courfeyrac recognized Father Mabeuf. […] Knowing the peaceful and more-than-timid habits of the old church-warden-bookworm, and astonished to see him in the midst of this tumult, within two steps of the cavalry charges, almost in the midst of a fusillade, bareheaded in the rain, and walking among the bullets, he went up to him, and the emeuter of twenty-five and the old man exchanged this dialogue:
“Monsiuer Mabeuf, go home.”
“What for?”
“There’s going to be a row.”
“Good.”
“Sabers, musket fire, Monsieur Mabeuf.”
“Good.”
“Cannon.”
“Good. Where are you going, you boys?”
“We are going to overthrow the government.”
“Good.”
And he followed them. From that moment on he had not uttered a word. His step had suddenly become firm; some workmen had offered him an arm, he refused with a shake of the head. He moved up almost to the front rank of the column, with both the motion of a man who is walking and the countenance of a man who is asleep."
--Les Miserables, 4.11.5, “The Old Man”
I want to figure out why exactly this feels so important to me—I mean, of course Mabeuf is important, he gets an entire third of “Where Are They Going?” along with two central characters. But I want to pin it down and I can’t. All I know is that for me it comes down to that one exchange: “We are going to overthrow the government.” “Good.” And it actually ties in with a lot of my thoughts on Valjean’s introductory chapters, the ones that talk about his time in prison. I’m kind of obsessed with those chapters. It has something to do with anger, with identifying an object for one’s anger, with the progression from unjust suffering to anger that’s so carefully anatomized in Valjean’s case, and how even though what Mabeuf is doing is committing suicide by barricade it’s still a distinct act from any other kind of suicide...but I can’t get at it. I miss when my brain used to work. Possibly this is a sign that I’m not ready to go back to school? …anyway, it’s a very nice quote.
In lieu of meta that I can’t figure out how to write, have the quote I was trying to write about:
"Courfeyrac recognized Father Mabeuf. […] Knowing the peaceful and more-than-timid habits of the old church-warden-bookworm, and astonished to see him in the midst of this tumult, within two steps of the cavalry charges, almost in the midst of a fusillade, bareheaded in the rain, and walking among the bullets, he went up to him, and the emeuter of twenty-five and the old man exchanged this dialogue:
“Monsiuer Mabeuf, go home.”
“What for?”
“There’s going to be a row.”
“Good.”
“Sabers, musket fire, Monsieur Mabeuf.”
“Good.”
“Cannon.”
“Good. Where are you going, you boys?”
“We are going to overthrow the government.”
“Good.”
And he followed them. From that moment on he had not uttered a word. His step had suddenly become firm; some workmen had offered him an arm, he refused with a shake of the head. He moved up almost to the front rank of the column, with both the motion of a man who is walking and the countenance of a man who is asleep."
--Les Miserables, 4.11.5, “The Old Man”
I want to figure out why exactly this feels so important to me—I mean, of course Mabeuf is important, he gets an entire third of “Where Are They Going?” along with two central characters. But I want to pin it down and I can’t. All I know is that for me it comes down to that one exchange: “We are going to overthrow the government.” “Good.” And it actually ties in with a lot of my thoughts on Valjean’s introductory chapters, the ones that talk about his time in prison. I’m kind of obsessed with those chapters. It has something to do with anger, with identifying an object for one’s anger, with the progression from unjust suffering to anger that’s so carefully anatomized in Valjean’s case, and how even though what Mabeuf is doing is committing suicide by barricade it’s still a distinct act from any other kind of suicide...but I can’t get at it. I miss when my brain used to work. Possibly this is a sign that I’m not ready to go back to school? …anyway, it’s a very nice quote.
no subject
There is something there, and I can't quite get at it either. But there's a whole fractal thing going on with Mabeuf and Marius and Eponine, who are all at the barricade to commit suicide; and with Javert's suicide, which is-- less productive? Less useful? Less directed?-- because he hasn't anatomized his anger, he hasn't figured out where it should be directed, except against himself.
no subject
I wish I could go back to school and major in Les Mis, there's so much STUFF there.