#4.12.2

“Courfeyrac! Courfeyrac! Hohée!”

Courfeyrac heard the shout, caught sight of Bossuet, and advanced a few paces into the Rue de la Chanvrerie, shouting: “What do you want?” which crossed a “Where are you going?”

“To make a barricade,” replied Courfeyrac.

“Well, here! This is a good place! Make it here!”

“That’s true, Aigle,” said Courfeyrac.

The Momes on the Barricade cane be found in LM1998

Grantaire drinks a mixture of beer, whiskey, and absinthe can be found in the brick at: 4.12.2

PROPAGANDA:

Momes on the Barricade:

This is one of the Choices I remember most clearly from '98. I was so excited to see the Momes with Gavroche, and then. THEN they ended up being on the barricade. And seeing their big brother die. WHO MADE THIS DECISION I JUST WANT TO TALK

Grantaire drinks a mixture of beer, whiskey, and absinthe:

“The two friends lived together, ate together, slept together. Everything was in common with them, even Musichetta a little.” Even Joly’s head cold.

We get some excellent banter, Grantaire proving he wouldn’t know ellipsis if it was lobbed at his head point blank. This is a man who always has to get the last word in. If I may say, these three seem pretty unconcerned for members of a revolutionary group intending to take to the streets in rebellion this very day, they aren’t even in the vicinity of the planned spark point, the funeral procession. It seems to be a morning much like any other. Even after receiving the unexpected call to action from Enjolras, the three hang around for hours yet before the barricade literally forms around them.

Grantaire tries to muddle his way through an allegorical complaint about the state of society. “Brennus, who takes Rome, is an eagle; the banker, who takes the grisette, is an eagle.” This seems like a flawed comparison and I’m not sure what Grantaire believes he’s revealing. That, given the chance, people will seek ownership over things? That the strong prey on the weak? To the winner go the spoils? He might have a point but this isn’t a particularly earth shaking revelation and together his examples are pretty weak. Is he talking about the inherent nature of human greed or the cyclical nature of power and oppression? Both? I’m vaguely inclined to chalk up this entire argument to a misdirect, something that Grantaire does constantly, to the point that I can’t really tell how much of what he says should be taken at face value. Or what parts of it, rather.

“A revolution, what does that prove? That God is hard up. He makes a coup d’etat, because there is a solution of continuity between the present and the future, and because he, God, is unable to join the two ends…I suspect God is not rich.” It always does take Grantaire a bit to work up to what he really is upset about, and this is where he gets into it. If anyone but Grantaire was saying this, I’d infer a more positive read: God needs us to take action to progress into the bright future he has waiting! However, Grantaire sees this more like God throwing humanity breadcrumbs, trying to convince us to keep moving despite there being no ultimate reward. What if God was one of us? By which I mean a powerless individual struggling fruitlessly against oppressive structural power, unable to affect any real change. I think this is more the core frustration Grantaire is trying to express.

Grantaire, ostensibly, dislikes the constant disruption of his comfortable status quo by riots and calls for progress. What’s the use? This revolution will only tide us over until the next great disruption, and it’s only the lull between that’s worth the bitch of living. The universe doesn’t change, only teases us into believing it can. I’d double down on calling Grantaire a cynic rather than a genuine skeptic, like I did in 3.4.4, except he doesn’t think this is necessarily a bad thing (or at least he claims not to). As he tells it, life might be fine if only we weren’t caught up with the notion of revolution and change: “they are going to fight, all these idiots, to get their heads broken, to massacre one another…when they might go off with some creature under their arm.” If we take this at face value, Grantaire is just another privileged bourgeoisie whining about all this messy violence, but given what we’ve heard from him before (and the fact that I very much want to give him the benefit of the doubt), it’s just as, if not more likely that he’s very much afraid of what consequences the revolution might bring. Just like in 3.4.4, Grantaire can’t accept anything less than a complete success, otherwise the entire endeavor is a waste and he’s finally proven right—that humanity is beyond saving. This makes him wary of systemic change to the point that he’d prefer to avoid it altogether, better the devil you know, right?

Another point in this direction is that this line of thought doesn’t bring Grantaire any degree of comfort, despite him pretending otherwise. He isn’t happy with the way things are, he doesn’t like Louis Philippe, and he also isn’t happy being cynical about it. But, since he can’t bring himself to risk revolutionary sentiment or hope, he turns to drinking and emotional repression, “The blackness of a fearful drunkenness yawning before him, far from checking him, drew him on.”

The problem with Grantaire is that 90% of what he says and does is affectation, meant to deliberately obfuscate his genuine fears and concerns. He can hardly stand to be taken seriously so we only see the slightest glimpses into the true depth of his thoughts through the layers of misdirects he hides behind. All the allusions, the purple prose, the self deprecation, it’s all junk that needs to be sorted through to get at his real feelings. The only time anyone has managed it so far was Enjolras in 4.1.6 and we saw how long that lasted. It makes breaking down his points incredibly difficult by design which, consequently, makes him easily dismissible if you aren’t willing to parse through the bullshit.

Joly and Laigle, who often live together and who share almost everything, including a girlfriend, go out to breakfast at the Corinthe on June 5. While they are waiting to be served, Grantaire appears and begins drinking two bottles of wine. Joly has a bit of a cold.

Grantaire launches suddenly into a rant about a woman getting engaged to an ugly banker and being happy about it. Then he starts complaining about the fact that it looks like there’s going to be another revolution and that, if he were God, he would let history progress more smoothly. He says that the fact that there are revolutions and misery on earth must mean that God is actually poor up in heaven. 

When Grantaire stops, Joly brings up the fact that Marius is apparently in love. 

As Grantaire begins his second bottle, a young boy appears and asks for Bossuet. The boy tells Laigle “ABC” and leaves to rejoin the procession. They know that the message is from Enjolras about the funeral, but they decide to stay at the Corinthe because it’s raining and Joly doesn’t want to worsen his cold. But then Grantaire gets melancholy again.

“Enjolras disdains me,” he muttered. “Enjolras said: ‘Joly is ill, Grantaire is drunk.’ It was to Bossuet that he sent Navet. If he had come for me, I would have followed him. So much the worse for Enjolras! I won’t go to his funeral.”

They stay until two o’clock, drinking a lot and trying to cheer Grantaire up. 

“Who has been unhooking the stars without my permission, and putting them on the table in the guise of candles?”

Preliminary Gayeties. :)

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This is my favorite chapter in that it’s the most we see of Joly and Bossuet and Grantaire together. It’s really the only on-page bini content we get--Joly doesn’t spend much time with Marius, so when we see Bossuet he’s usually hanging out with Courfeyrac. And other than the cat remark at the barricade, the most we otherwise see of Joly is his dominoes game with Bahorel.

Between the monk remarks here, the cannon talk with Combeferre later, and the ‘daughter of five louis’ pun, I’m convinced that Bossuet is a history nerd.

And then we have two full pages of Grantaire’s unhappy monologing. I honestly have a draft saved from last year about the Floreal anecdote, because it bothers me in a way that I really need to spend some time unpacking. That being said, Grantaire’s mockery of Marius-in-love is spot on with Hugo’s very serious characterization of the same, so I feel some sympathy with the character.

I also can’t figure out how acquainted with Les Amis Gavroche actually is. He seems to be meeting Bahorel, if not the rest, for the first time back in 4.11.4, but here Navet seems to expect JB+G to know Gavroche by name. And he’s been coordinating with someone (if not Les Amis de l’ABC) about disrupting the procession.

And then there’s JB choosing to breakfast at the Corinth, and did Enjolras know to send the message there because they’re always breakfasting at the Corinth, or because they planned this in advance, or did a second message get sent to the Musain to ensure that they got one of them...

Anyway, the large-and-impromptu parade headed by Enjolras &co passes by without entering the Rue de la Chanvrerie, and only start setting up shop after Bossuet and Courfeyrac exchange pleasantries through the window. I know things are getting serious, but I still really enjoy the contrast between that seriousness and the levity of ‘’it’s raining so let’s stay inside drinking / hey, why not make the barricade here?”, the latter shouted through a window. 

It was the best of chapters, it was the worst of chapters...

Bossuet and Joly are sort of very much my favorite Amis.* I love their wordplay and gaiety. This is the longest interaction/info drop we really get with them. Yay! Everything gets real and Vicky's about to kill all the characters. Not yay. 

Grantaire is in a mood. And has possibly been wandering all night getting upset about his friends' immiment life-endangering plans. As much as I feel bad for him (for all of them), the Floreal rant really doesn't sit well with me. Will need to revisit that when I'm awake.

The guys gossiping about Marius is a nicely mundane moment, and a reminder that he's a friend of theirs. It is interesting how Grantaire's snarky comments so closely parallel the narrative's very serious descriptions of Marius and Cosette's interactions in the garden.

I also wonder how often Bossuet and Joly take breakfast at the Corinthe, since Grantaire happened upon them there, and Enjolras sent the message. In the intro, it was indicated that the Corinthe was convenient to the working men who were part of Les Amis de l'ABC, while the Musain was closer to the students. Joly and Bossurt are/were the latter (and thus probably live nearer the schools and Musain), but it's the Corinthe they chose today. Intentionally planning to be near the parade route and/probable riot zone? Have they, perhaps, relocated for political reasons like Courf?

Speaking of The Center, I love Bossuet and Courfeyrac's conversation. Why not there? The tone is just so casual, contrasting with the deadly earnest activity they're about to undertake. 

For those keeping track at home, over the 5-hour breakfast, Grantaire just drank almost 3 francs worth of wine, ie, Feuilly's whole day's wage.

And remember, always tip your message-gamin.

[The guys address eachother, and little Navet, with 'tu'; Grantaire also uses the informal for Mere Hucheloup, though I'm not sure whether his familiarity is warranted--he's sort of being a jerk in that line anyway.]