Retrobrick: 2.6.1
We open book 6 with an introduction to the physical space of Petit Pipcus. This not only gives us some initial context -- an establishing shot, essentially -- but it tells us how we’re going to approach this introduction. We’re starting at the door, both physically and metaphorically, and we will go deeper from here. Contrast this to, say, Waterloo, which starts at the end. There, the point was the conclusion, and tracking how we got there. Here, the point is the discovery.
So we get a lot of detailed descriptions of stairs and of wallpaper, of the way light falls through the windows and how that is deliberate in-universe light symbolism. We get glimpses of the intensity of these nuns, with the double grille and the passcodes and all, but just from this introduction we don’t know just how intense it’s going to get.
Although he does give us a hint of how he perceives convents in general, with the juxtaposition of an extremely evocative description of the darkness through the gate with the single sentence paragraph, “What you saw was the interior of a cloiser.” Given how tightly light has been associated with God up until now, it’s immediately notable that this house of God is nothing but darkness.
But there is a glimmer of light, and Hugo promises us that we, the privileged reader, will be able to take a look at it.
