#1.1.10

[thelunarchronicles-daily]

Cinder was the only full-service mechanic at New Beijing’s weekly market.

[jelepermets]

Okay reading 1.1.10 and I love the detail that M Myriel was “still slightly shocked at not being called Monseigneur”. Like yes the bishop has advocated for (in my opinion) a very radical form of charity and kindness. Yet there’s still this unease with the lack of the old order that he is so familiar and comfortable with. Much like the spoons, he cannot give everything up.

[dolphin1812]

The Bishop in the Presence of an Unknown Light is here!!

I’m going to be honest: this is one of my favorite chapters in the whole book, partly because it contains one of my favorite quotes:

“‘I will weep with you over the children of kings, provided that you will weep with me over the children of the people.’”

It is a tragedy that the king’s son died, because he was a child and didn’t cause any of the problems that led to the French Revolution. But it is also a tragedy that countless children died of poverty, violence, or other factors relating to the monarchy and its policies and are not given the same status because their deaths were not as publicized (or were not recorded in as much detail). I’m not super familiar with the historiography of the French Revolution, so I’m not going to go into the biases/perspectives that may affect how it’s narrated today, but in historical narratives/writing, it’s often easier to sympathize with (or at least understand) those in power because they leave the most records behind. Of course, historians often work against this and try to read sources creatively, or seek out alternative sources; there’s plenty of works that try to describe the lives of the French peasantry, for instance. But in this situation, where the death of a child outside of the nobility would at most be recorded in a death register or in a personal diary within the family, it’s impossible to compare that to a death that was publicized across Europe.

Aside from that line, I love how we get to see the bishop’s discomfort in this chapter. He loathes this man for being a revolutionary (which makes sense, given his background) and has to sit in the tension between hating him and sharing his desire to help the people. I like how he’s deeply moved by this encounter, but in an unspecified way. I think that it would actually be unsatisfying if the bishop were completely convinced by this man’s arguments, given his history, but this conversation being a cause for reflection? Connecting to someone over God after thinking there was nothing they could share? Thinking about this moment and changing his actions afterwards, but not really speaking of it? That’s a really powerful way of showing its impact on the bishop while letting him not be perfect, but working towards becoming a better person.

I also like that the chapter ends with a note of humor:

“One day a dowager of the impertinent variety who thinks herself spiritual, addressed this sally to him, “Monseigneur, people are inquiring when Your Greatness will receive the red cap!”—“Oh! oh! that’s a coarse color,” replied the Bishop. “It is lucky that those who despise it in a cap revere it in a hat.””

The bishop really is funny.

[stargazypie]

I LOVE the scene with G its one of my faves for real

[lesmiscollageproject]

“G--- went on: “Let us return to the explanation you asked me to give. Where were we? What were you saying to me? That ‘93 was an outrage?” “An outrage, yes,” said the bishop. “What do you think of Marat applauding at the guillotine?” “What do you think of Bossuet chanting the Te Deum during the persecution of the Huguenots?” The response was severe, but it reached its target like a dagger. The bishop was staggered, speechless; it shocked him to hear Bossuet spoken of in that manner. The best men have their blind spots, and sometimes they feel almost crushed at how little respect logic can show them.”

[umeed-e-sehr]

1.1.9-1.1.10

1.1.9

Not much to say about this chapter, really. I like this chapter more for the little hints of inner life that Baptistine has been given rather than for anything else. I like that Baptistine has friends to write letters to, although her letter is not as interesting as Mademoiselle Maupin’s letters, but then Baptistine is older and less of a character, the way Hugo has written her.

I do like the bit of detective work Magloire has been up to and the mentions of the table and the paintings, though really someone should buy Magloire that sofa and Baptistine that mahogany table. Still, it is wonderful to see that they are busy and occasionally have children over, I love that little anecdote.  

Everything else about the bishop is something we already knew, so I would have been happier if we had had more insight into Baptistine, instead of the ‘special genius that women have of understanding a man’ line, which just makes me cringe, but eh, I guess that’s what the fanfics are for.

 1.1.10

There is a lot to say for this chapter. One thing straightaway is so interesting to me is that there would be people reading Les Miserables in 1860s who would have memories of the Convention and of having lived through those years, and the introduction seems to be acknowledging that. G seems to be based on a real person, though the details are fudged up.

We go back to the ideas of what is spoken about men is often more important. G is talked about a lot in his little town of Digne and not favourably as can be expected. I also like Hugo’s metaphor about him with the vulture signifying that he supported the death of the king, and also Hugo’s shorthand for not presenting someone favourably is to say they are an atheist, which, is kind of sketchy but we are going to go with this.

We do get another glimpse of the bishop’s weakness, he wants to bring the Conventionist into the fold, like a good shepherd but he also has very strong biases against the conventionist, the black sheep. 

Our bishop is a royalist, he was ruined by the Revolution, so some of it does make sense from his point of view but it is still a lot more bias than he has shown through this story so far through his hesitation, his putting off the visits many times. Hugo, at this time as a supporter of the French Revolution, or as someone at least realising the necessity of it, writes them as flaws, the bishop goes even as far as to think that a member of the convention who had been responsible for killings did not deserve charity, which is pretty harsh coming from him, given what we know of him and also his needing and wanting to be addressed as Monseigneur when he eschewed all forms of formal address.

I love the way the scene is set, the conventionist G smiling, while viewing the dying sun go down- which is also literal, the conventionist is dying himself, the image is simple, out in the countryside, in his wheelchair, looked after by a shepherd boy. I also like the shepherd’s boy who is just there with the conventionist, perhaps because he was kind to him, perhaps out of a natural duty, we will never know.

G’s physical descriptions definitely do seem to show that Hugo is in sympathy with him, his death seems to be something he wishes, relating it to freedom and he is imbued with an aura of brightness and majesty and Hugo does that with characters across his novels.

“I mean man has a tyrant. Ignorance. I voted for the end of that tyrant. That tyrant begot royalty, which is authority falsely understood, while science is authority rightly understood. Man should be governed only by science.”

“And Conscience.’ Added the bishop.

It is the same thing, Conscience is the quantity of innate science we have within us.”

I love this dialogue so much, this sums up the conventionist chapter’s ideas pretty well and also is a nod to Joly and Combeferre and their love of science leading to progress. It also talks about the three things that the book is concerned with, the slavery of men (Valjean making a mistake and then having to atone for it over and over, the society not letting him forget he was a convict), the prostitution of women (Fantine) and the end of benightedness for children (the Thenardier children and also gamin generally).

I wish we had more insight into the bishop’s feelings and thoughts after this episode, but it makes sense that his coming round to at least some of the ideas that the Conventionist mentions would be gradual and take time or may not happen because the bishop is set in his ways, or maybe deliberately not part of active politics, even though he is a Royalist.

I love that the conventionist has a reply to everything that the bishop can come up with and his emphasis on the people and their suffering is good to read, I especially loved the mention of the Huguenots, the Protestants in the 17th Century and a callout against Louis XIV.

There are so many other quotes that I love from this scene as well,

“The brutalities of progress are called revolutions. When they are over, what we recognise is this: that the human race has had a rough time, but it has advanced.” 

I love Hugo giving the conventionist these words especially since he talks about that in detail during the digression on revolutions. Also, the single tear rolling down the face is suitably dramatic, oh Hugo.

I also find it interesting that the Conventionist who Hugo has chosen has not gone towards ruthless progress. He has not been in favour of voting for the death penalty, which given the circumstances would have been justified, but it is interesting that Hugo’s opinions about death penalty and killings are pretty strongly evident here as well as is his opinions about atheism and therefore the conventionist believes in God in a vague sense of believing in the Infinite. 

One question, does the tearing of the cloth from the altar refer to the fact that the church and the Royalty were closely associated in the form of The First Estate, and that going against one was equivalent to going against the other? Or is there more history to it?

The bended knee metaphor towards the end is also wonderful, it shows that the bishop has at least accepted the conventionist G’s words, as @pilferingapples so eloquently mentioned in one of her posts, the symbolisms around the bended knee, so this is very poignant end to their meeting, with the conventionist raised to a sublime figure.

I have been glancing at Kathryn Grossman’s book and she mentioned that Hugo frequently mingles the sacred with the politics and this seems to be a pretty clear example of a place where he does it, although the bishop would not be as deeply affected as to change his entire viewpoint, something has definitely struck him, it seems that he has been changed, he spends more time in contemplation, more time in his method of charity to help as many people as he can.

Grossman also mentions the parallels between Myriel and Conventionist who have both been following the same ideals through different paths and both have been reduced to poverty through that. She even mentions that they might be two sides of the same person working towards the love for his country, which is interesting.  

I do find it interesting that in the very next chapter Hugo specifically says that Myriel is not a philosopher, maybe that means he does not find the ideas of Enlightenment and French Revolution to his liking, though he does try to be even kinder to everyone.  

I love this chapter a lot for the turn of phrases, the snarky reply at the end was so very bishop Myriel, and for Hugo slowly building up his ideas about revolutions and progress. This is one of my favourite chapters, I just really love seeing the bishop clash with the conventionist and the bishop’s worldview shaken a little bit.      

[jelepermets]

The contrast between what M Myriel and Conventionary G see as ignorance is so interesting

“He was indulgent towards women and the poor, upon whom the weight of society falls most heavily. He would say, ‘the faults of women, children, and servants, and of the weak, the indigent, and the ignorant, are the faults of their fathers, husbands, and masters, of the strong, the rich, and the wise.’ Or he would say, ‘Teach the ignorant as much as you can [...]’”

- Les Miserables, Book One, Chapter IV

vs

“I meant that man has one tyrant, Ignorance. I voted for the abolition of that tyrant.”

- Les Miserables, Book One, Chapter X

[The addition of ignorance in bold typeface is mine]

To M Myriel, the ignorant are passive. It is the job of their betters to be kind and charitable and take care of them and educate them. And though that is a very nice sentiment and is very progressive considering the times he’s living in, it also robs the ignorant of their own power. Meanwhile Conventionary G believes that the only way to save the ignorant is to give them back their own power and the freedom that has been robbed from them through their ignorance. And that is a much more radical belief than M Myriel’s.

Conventionary G believes his actions gave people a voice. M Myriel is not concerned with the ignorant being allowed to speak.

[jelepermets]

Love going from singing M Myriel’s praises yesterday to examining his limits today. Complexity my beloved.

Also again amazing addition to the complexities with which Hugo sees God, religion, etc. Here we see the darkness of it, the hypocrisy that resides even in the noblest members of the Church. And yet, Hugo still seems to see good in it too - I mean if he hadn’t M Myriel wouldn’t be the character he was. I just love how messy and self-contradictory it is.