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And now, we've made it to book 4: Tellmarch! Or Tellemarch, in one translation. Chapter 1.4.1, "Le haut de la dune," aka "The Top of the Dune." Talk away!

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From:

primeideal

This dune, levelled by an equinoctial storm, was exceptional in being ancient, and bearing on its summit a memorial stone erected in the twelfth century in commemoration of a council held at Avranches against the assassins of Saint Thomas of Canterbury. <- Heh, Thomas Becket. I had to read a play about him in rhyme class. “The last temptation is the greatest treason:/To do the right deed for the wrong reason.” Written way after this, of course, but at least there’s one tangential allusion I recognize. :P

"He was enjoying it; he was looking about; he was listening; to what? tranquillity. Even the cruel have their sad moments. Suddenly this tranquillity was not disturbed, but made more intense, by passing voices; they were the voices of women and children." So, in general, even cruel people have sad moments, but this isn’t really sad—the voices make him even more tranquil, and he just listens to everything without really reacting. I can’t tell whether this actually counts as happiness or what, but there seems to be some disconnect between the general claim about sadness Hugo wants to make, and whatever he’s actually doing here.

"You have weaned the greedy little thing, but you are always carrying her. A bad habit; oblige me by making her walk." In the first chapter we had the vivandière declare that the baby was too old to be nursing, and that Michelle needed to wean it. It sounds like Michelle has taken her advice by this point, but the vivandière still has more ideas about the proper, modern way to raise children, and Michelle has to work hard to keep up—literally and figuratively. Her shoes are new, too.

And then René-Jean and his offscreen sweetheart are adorable. <3

From:

thjazi

Yes! I love it so much that the adults WAITED to let the children play a little-- as far as they could, without turning their chores into a dramatic race against time. Such a sweet conversation all around!

From:

thjazi

I'M SO HAPPY ABOUT THE RETURN OF PEOPLE I LIKE I'M NOT EVEN CROSSPOSTING. I love how Houzarde and Flechard are just out on their own, taking care of whatever business they've got without apparently feeling any need for a guy to be with them. And they've gotten Flechard new shoes! And Houzarde is ASKING about them! Like, she's actively and constantly inviting Flechard to state her opinion about things! And Flechard is comfortable just walking along with her kids and they've just already become such great friends, geez, I want to just see them having Wacky Adventures (why are there never Wacky Adventures of women with kids? It's always DIRRRRRE. Wait, I know why.) .

Also, geez, could this get more ominous. From Marquis deLayedReveal's perspective, here's this nice peaceful realm all inviting for his plans. But swing the camera around and it's a lovely scene of domestic pleasantry with OMNIOUS BACKGROUND MUSIC as the women cannot see the doom lurking near. I am so fond of this scene, but I AM VERY TENSE.

From:

bobbiewickham

YES, I love the dynamic here between Michelle and Houzarde. Houzarde is constantly drawing her out, and Michelle is shy in the face of it, but not in a bad way--she's willing to be drawn and converse and they've developed a rapport, and it's adorable.

From: (Anonymous)

Yay, it’s the vivandière Houzarde, and Michelle Fléchard, and her little kids! I love Houzarde’s gruffness and aggressive good nature, it’s really quite endearing, though I can also see why Michelle would be a bit timid and taken aback in the face of it.

René-Jean comes off as such a lively, real little kid in his brief appearance. He “knows” a little girl who gave him insects (or animals?) because he played with her that morning.

But the faux-peasant has stood upon the dune by the old Roman boundary-marker was and surveyed the area and marked out the place where Houzarde and Michelle are taking shelter, and this cannot be good. No good can come of this. He’s heard them, too. Part of why he’s heard them is because of René-Jean being a lively little kid and Michelle chatting with Houzarde; he now knows that René-Jean has been running around playing with other little kids. Why do I suspect that René-Jean and Michelle and the other two kids will be the undoing of the Bonnet Rouge? I do not trust you, M. Hugo. I do not trust you one little bit.

A brief thought on something I said before, about Halmalo and the faux-peasant on the boat being away from civilization (http://club93.dreamwidth.org/5063.html?thread=28359#cmt28359), in a state of nature, away from the old hierarchies and conventions: it turns out that they weren’t. Because the conventions and hierarchies came with them, in their heads, in Halmalo’s head especially. Halmalo is away from the external constraints that would compel his obedience to his brother’s killer. He’s free to act on the primal urge for revenge against anyone who’s hurt his kin. But he’s still carried civilization with him. I can’t help reading this as a deliberate commentary on political theories about the “state of nature,” a statement that getting out of the physical grasp of civilization isn’t necessarily freedom from it. Some people in Halmalo’s situation might have shot the faux-peasant the second they were away from society’s raw power. But Halmalo had social hierarchies too deeply internalized for that.