We're at The Convention! And there's no more chapter titles until we leave! I don't often say this, but wow, I hope everyone feels like discussing politics!
PSA to Wikisource readers: we’re covering one “subchapter” at a time, so twelve of them appear on the same page. No titles, just short takes on The Convention. (This might be good for catchup purposes (what I’m using it for), not being drowned in a wall of allusions on one day…
And I think this gets us closer to 93 chapters, because numerology.
There will be another super-chapter later on, divided into subsections, by the way. The republicans have this building to talk about, but there are other people revering other architectural and political structures, elsewhere in France…*foreshadowing*
2.3.1 (.1): The Convention is like a mountain. There’s also a Mountain party, so this makes sense. It was “made to be contemplated by eagles,” like Cimourdain (and Enjolras, for that matter).
"Its grandeur was exactly what escaped the contemporaries; they were too much frightened to be dazzled." In this particular case, grand sublimity is linked with a frightening side—the violence of the revolution is what scares the common people. Mountains can also kill you—suddenly, in a fall from favor, or just by leaving you in thin air, looking down on everyone else and isolated in even more rarefied heights. It’s a niche hobby.
I will now proceed to bring back the only Tumblr post I made about this book the first time through. Amid all my potential feelings about Michelle Fléchard, Cimourdain, booing Lantenac, being confused and annoyed by all the allusions, this chapter was what made me comment.
Wow, that’s a lot of names and a lot of description and a lot of information.
Hugo talks about how people at the time of the Convention didn’t comprehend its sublimity, how they could only be worried and afraid, including those who were part of the Convention. This resonates with how, at the end of the descriptions of the various camps of the Convention, Hugo turns to the “dregs”—who are ultimately the deciding force, and who will attack anyone who appears to be stumbling. They don’t see the grandeur or importance of what they’re doing. They’re out to be on the winning side and cling to whoever seems confident and dissociate themselves from anyone who seems otherwise. The worst and pettiest of the lot are also the most decisive.
The narrative proclaims that revolution is the product of forces beyond the control of any individual—forces that Hugo attributes to “God,” but God working through the People. Here’s that mystical pantheism of his again. And since he identifies God with The People, it’s no wonder that he appears to share his RPF Robespierre’s view (amusingly, also shared by the Bishop of Digne) that atheism is for aristocrats.
![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2014-05-18 09:47 pm (UTC)And I think this gets us closer to 93 chapters, because numerology.
There will be another super-chapter later on, divided into subsections, by the way. The republicans have this building to talk about, but there are other people revering other architectural and political structures, elsewhere in France…*foreshadowing*
2.3.1 (.1): The Convention is like a mountain. There’s also a Mountain party, so this makes sense. It was “made to be contemplated by eagles,” like Cimourdain (and Enjolras, for that matter).
"Its grandeur was exactly what escaped the contemporaries; they were too much frightened to be dazzled." In this particular case, grand sublimity is linked with a frightening side—the violence of the revolution is what scares the common people. Mountains can also kill you—suddenly, in a fall from favor, or just by leaving you in thin air, looking down on everyone else and isolated in even more rarefied heights. It’s a niche hobby.
I will now proceed to bring back the only Tumblr post I made about this book the first time through. Amid all my potential feelings about Michelle Fléchard, Cimourdain, booing Lantenac, being confused and annoyed by all the allusions, this chapter was what made me comment.
no subject
Date: 2014-05-19 01:55 am (UTC)Wow, that’s a lot of names and a lot of description and a lot of information.
Hugo talks about how people at the time of the Convention didn’t comprehend its sublimity, how they could only be worried and afraid, including those who were part of the Convention. This resonates with how, at the end of the descriptions of the various camps of the Convention, Hugo turns to the “dregs”—who are ultimately the deciding force, and who will attack anyone who appears to be stumbling. They don’t see the grandeur or importance of what they’re doing. They’re out to be on the winning side and cling to whoever seems confident and dissociate themselves from anyone who seems otherwise. The worst and pettiest of the lot are also the most decisive.
The narrative proclaims that revolution is the product of forces beyond the control of any individual—forces that Hugo attributes to “God,” but God working through the People. Here’s that mystical pantheism of his again. And since he identifies God with The People, it’s no wonder that he appears to share his RPF Robespierre’s view (amusingly, also shared by the Bishop of Digne) that atheism is for aristocrats.