"The marquis rose and went in the direction Tellmarch had pointed out to him." Well at least he's able to follow directions. That's a skill.
"He remembered that there was something at the bottom of the placard which he could not read the evening before because the letters were so small, and there was so little light." Is there something he's expecting, beyond "let's totally find this Lantenac guy and guillotine him"? We see later in the chapter that curiosity is a natural motivation, but maybe there's something else blended in with the curiosity here.
"He stopped in deep amazement" So he hadn't been expecting this?
The foliage was, as it were, soaked in light. All nature rejoices deeply in the morning.
Suddenly, the landscape became terrible.
Boom, immediate transition from natural beauty to human destruction. I guess we didn't really get that with the ocean, that was more natural terror versus human...incompetence?
Then a long paragraph of "hmm, could it be the republicans? maybe?" No actual narration about the scene in question, just mentioning similar incidents and pointedly asking if there happened to be a parallel. Maybe? Possibly? Kind of?
"The execution, if it were an execution, must have been cruel, for it was short. Like all brutal things it was soon over. The atrocity of civil warfare admits of such cruelties." Specific brutalities can be short. Wondering if there's a larger-scale point about "the violence of 1793 was, in the grand scheme of things, relatively short" or "because it took so long, it couldn't have been that brutal"?
"While the marquis, multiplying his conjectures," you know I'm a math person because I get excited about him and his conjectures--they showed up in 1.4.3 too, haha. Realistically, how many possibilities are there though? "The republicans found this farm, executed some people who didn't help them, and burned stuff down? Alternatively, something else happened." I don't feel like there are too many possibilities at play here, or maybe the narrator just really wants us to focus on one specific possibility.
I do think it's important to have this chapter where it is, with its very heavy stress on the idea that this is something the Republicans do. It's a reminder of why people are even willing to consider sticking with the Ancien Regime, and all, beyond any idealogy.
But if there's any moral aspect to it from the Marquis' side, well, it's apparently only the idea that it's fine to break your own stuff, but anyonwe else doing it is a vandal. Those are HIS people, in the sense they're the Crown's people; like his clothes are HIS clothes. HE gets to use and wreck them, him and the other Right People.
This Gauvain guy is important judging by Lantenac’s reaction. His son, perhaps? Well, I also knew he was important because the only characters I’d heard of before starting this book were Gauvain and Cimourdain, though I have no clue who they are.
The landscape was terrible. It was beautiful and peaceful when Lantenac set out from Tellmarch’s abode, and then it became terrible, like the orchard at Waterloo, like the forest of La Saudraie. There has to be a point at which this oft-repeated writing trick stops being effective. But this is not that point. It still hurts.
And of course I wonder who is responsible for the fight or massacre or whatever it was. Lantenac seems to think it’s the republicans punishing uncooperative peasants, which could be true, but doesn’t square with Tellmarch’s statement that the neighborhood welcomed the republicans. It also doesn’t square with them running up to him shouting his name and title, with no “ci-devant” prefix or orders to surrender. I remain dubious about what’s going to happen next.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2014-05-08 05:05 pm (UTC)"He remembered that there was something at the bottom of the placard which he could not read the evening before because the letters were so small, and there was so little light." Is there something he's expecting, beyond "let's totally find this Lantenac guy and guillotine him"? We see later in the chapter that curiosity is a natural motivation, but maybe there's something else blended in with the curiosity here.
"He stopped in deep amazement" So he hadn't been expecting this?
The foliage was, as it were, soaked in light. All nature rejoices deeply in the morning.
Suddenly, the landscape became terrible.
Boom, immediate transition from natural beauty to human destruction. I guess we didn't really get that with the ocean, that was more natural terror versus human...incompetence?
Then a long paragraph of "hmm, could it be the republicans? maybe?" No actual narration about the scene in question, just mentioning similar incidents and pointedly asking if there happened to be a parallel. Maybe? Possibly? Kind of?
"The execution, if it were an execution, must have been cruel, for it was short. Like all brutal things it was soon over. The atrocity of civil warfare admits of such cruelties." Specific brutalities can be short. Wondering if there's a larger-scale point about "the violence of 1793 was, in the grand scheme of things, relatively short" or "because it took so long, it couldn't have been that brutal"?
"While the marquis, multiplying his conjectures," you know I'm a math person because I get excited about him and his conjectures--they showed up in 1.4.3 too, haha. Realistically, how many possibilities are there though? "The republicans found this farm, executed some people who didn't help them, and burned stuff down? Alternatively, something else happened." I don't feel like there are too many possibilities at play here, or maybe the narrator just really wants us to focus on one specific possibility.
no subject
Date: 2014-05-09 03:23 pm (UTC)But if there's any moral aspect to it from the Marquis' side, well, it's apparently only the idea that it's fine to break your own stuff, but anyonwe else doing it is a vandal. Those are HIS people, in the sense they're the Crown's people; like his clothes are HIS clothes. HE gets to use and wreck them, him and the other Right People.
...I do not like the Marquis very much.
no subject
Date: 2014-05-17 05:09 am (UTC)The landscape was terrible. It was beautiful and peaceful when Lantenac set out from Tellmarch’s abode, and then it became terrible, like the orchard at Waterloo, like the forest of La Saudraie. There has to be a point at which this oft-repeated writing trick stops being effective. But this is not that point. It still hurts.
And of course I wonder who is responsible for the fight or massacre or whatever it was. Lantenac seems to think it’s the republicans punishing uncooperative peasants, which could be true, but doesn’t square with Tellmarch’s statement that the neighborhood welcomed the republicans. It also doesn’t square with them running up to him shouting his name and title, with no “ci-devant” prefix or orders to surrender. I remain dubious about what’s going to happen next.