1.2.5-Marsmeadow

Club Ninety-Three 1.2.5: Vis et vir
…if this turns out even remotely coherent, I’ll be surprised.

I have to start somewhere, so it’ll be with this. When there’s armed ideological conflict, it feels like a tremendous cop-out to say that violence is blind and war is hell. That’s not an answer; that’s an evasion, a lax compromise.

In this chapter, though. We’re back to murky, stormy ambiguity, having spent a brief conversation with some straight-forwardly unlikable figures. We’re in the midst of chaotic, tumbling violence, in the face of which the nobles turn irresistably human. And the evasion turns back into an important truth. (Not that I think Hugo won’t go further with this theme! But so far, this is what I’m getting.)

I still feel this catastrophe is a miniature of the revolution/counter-revolution/civil war, as seen from a royalist perspective. The former slave is running rampant, threatening to destroy all. To them, it’s incomprehensible, incoherent rage and destruction.That is terrifying. And reminds me why I don’t like La Vieuville or the Peasant, just like the false assignats reminded me of the ship’s rather shady mission.

Commentary
Pilferingapples Ooh, good catch about the assignats! But I confess I don’t really know just what the deal is there; can someone give me a place to start studying up on what the assignats represent?

Lifeisyetfair (reply to Pilferingapples) Assignats were paper money created by the French government during the revolution. They had to keep printing more and more as the crisis got worse, leading to inflation and the assignats becoming worth less and less. The British forged assignats in order to make the inflation crisis worse (in the process screwing over ordinary people whose money became worth less, which is probably why Hugo refers to it as villainy. Also it’s sneaky and dishonorable!).

Here’s a good quick article that goes more in depth on what the assignats were.

Pilferingapples (reply to Lifeisyetfair's reply) Ah, thank you!:D