Brick Club 5.2.5, 5.2.6
I would agree with Hugoâs estimation of the sewer, thatâs what it looks like today, at least if you take a tour down there and, call me radical, I think thatâs okay. I donât really need sewers to be dark, dank, dastardly places, except in my fantasy novels. âThe filth comports itself decently.â Which is a phrase I need tattooed on me yesterday. I particularly like the use of the word âcomportâ which conveys a level of physical movement on top of attitude and bearing which is really delightful since weâre talking about sewers, known conveyors of material of all physical and symbolic variety.
The language in this chapter is really just excellent. Hugo laments (actually I canât tell if heâs upset or just unimpressed) that âthe cloaca has now nothing of its primitive ferocityâ because now everything is in the style of âthe classic rectilinear alexandrine.â What a flurry of concepts. But, hold on! Thereâs been a revolution here too!
Iâll be honest, my eyes glazed over for the majority of this detailing of the geological and geographical nature of digging sewer yardage. Itâs no Transcontinental Railroad (âMerica). Iâm just very much unfamiliar with any of the places Hugo is referencing, I have no picture in my head. If youâre French or even European is this any more parsable?
Itâs genuinely astonishing that there werenât massive cholera epidemics constantly in Paris, being a disease characterized by its spread through contaminated water. And itâs a little surprising that Hugo only briefly mentions the major influence of the cholera epidemic on urban planning particularly in regard to sewage systems from 1832 onward.
