#5.1.21

I'm in love

These are also all cute moments

Unfortunately Miu barely existed in these chapters

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“When the condition of affairs was not ripe, when the insurrection was not decidedly acceptable, when the mass disavowed the movement, it was all over with the combatants.” I really hate the argument that ‘people aren’t ready for change’ because it’s never more than an excuse to dismiss entire movements with no reasonable basis. A better (correct) way to say it is ‘some people don’t want things to change’ and why should they since they already have power and money and whatever. “‘What do these people want? They are never contented.’”

“A people does not allow itself to be used.” Don’t they? Because if they aren’t being used to further social justice and wellbeing, then they’re being used to suppress it. Sorry, but that’s just true! You don’t get to pretend there’s a third option, like Hugo so often does. These are the “madmen of moderation.” I’m not at all in the mood to hear Hugo’s platitudes that Progress will always rise again. What I’m waiting for is not Progress, it’s for those people to stop thinking it’s always too soon for change, because they’re the actual opposition. “[Utopia] compromises her heroism by a violence of opportunity and of expediency, contrary to principles, and for which she is fatally punished.” Only, there will never be a right time and opportunity to some people and, if that weren’t the case, it wouldn’t ever take an insurrection to propel change. People die and suffer now and it’s apparently still too soon to change things. If any of this was true, there would be no successful revolutions and all progress would take place peacefully and steadily and never regress. Hugo’s on the right side of things but, as always, his methods leave a lot to be desired in my opinion. I haven’t forgotten his recommendation from 1848 that the wise should actively suppress revolution if they believe it isn’t the right time in order to save the masses from themselves. “No violent remedy is necessary. Study evil lovingly, determine it, then cure it. To that we urge.”

I think this next bit is Hugo trying to make some questionable sweeping claims about art, culture, and…trade? He says, “Art, which is the conqueror, must have its fulcrum in science, which is the mover” and “hieratic and or mercantile absorption diminishes the radiance of a people.” This is a little bit complicated because Hugo is functionally advocating imperialism while not understanding that imperialism is the driving force for the materialism he decries. Carthage is bad because it trades goods, but Athens is okay because it…conquers other peoples for access to their material goods? Art and science as vehicles for imperialism is an uncomfortable thought, but the reality is art and science are neutral concepts, not inherent sources of sublime progress as Hugo seems to indicate, and can be used to glorify and justify any agenda. For every palace of Versailles there’s a Liberty Leading the People. This framework of Hugo’s wades a little too far into undiluted philosophy for my taste; he errs too heavily to the side of art is how I could phrase my reservation with his final thesis.

“On both side equal resolution. Bravery there was almost barbaric, and was mingled with a sort of heroic ferocity which began with sacrifice.” And Marius is doing some stellar heroic sacrifice. I’ve soured a lot on the glorification of sacrifice as a trope very recently, particularly where it’s used as a shorthand to convey heroism without any other consideration for context (thank you to a very specific show for ruining that for me). Marius is being brave and heroic, sure, but he’s also desperately hoping to be killed and this bravery is just the thinnest veneer over wanting his death to at least be in service of something, anything. He isn’t really being brave because he believes the cause is worthy of his bravery. He does want to protect his friends but that was barely a thought in his mind when he joined the barricade to begin with. How heroic is your sacrifice when you’re already suicidal? In the words of Quentin Coldwater, who was recently treated to this trope: “Did I do something brave to save my friends, or did I finally find a way to kill myself?”

The fact that Marius survives is...something, but it also carries a load of other thematic implications that are questionable at best and completely antithetical to the point of this book at worst. Again, the use of heroic sacrifice is highly contextual and needs to be employed thoughtfully.

“There are some people who observe the rules of honor as we observe the stars, from afar off.” I want to do the rhetoric gymnastics to connect this to Javert and stars and rigid lawfulness and resistance to change but I think I just did it right there.

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