1.2.5-Fizzygingr

ClubNinetyThree 1.2.5: This Chapter is Symbolic
Someone pointed out last time that the cannon is controlled by nature, but not ultimately by God. I wasn’t sure what to make of it before, but now that I’ve read this chapter, WHOA YOU’RE TOTALLY RIGHT. If there was anything human about this, it’s gone. The cannon is a machine, an insect, an animal, with “a soul full of hatred and rage.” It’s set up as the antithesis of everything human. Both men, while fighting it, are called by no other identifier than “the man”; they’re not “the gunner”, “the old man”, “the peasant”, at least, not until after they’ve finished fighting. They become part of a battle that’s bigger than themselves.

The light symbolism is interesting here. The cannon is “now black in the light, now mysteriously white in the darkness. Suggesting, I guess, the deception of war or maybe the ambiguity of it. The battle takes place in semi-darkness (which makes the cannon gray, I guess), so I’m not sure what to make of that.

I guess that the rage and violence of the cannon, when controlled, can be used for something good. But that doesn’t make it good in itself. And I think the gunner’s mistake was trusting it. He speaks to it with affection, like a pet, and Hugo says that “perhaps he loved it.” He loves it so much that he forgets that things like that must be subdued and controlled by human wisdom and human compassion. Which, in the end, conquers.

(Also: a quick note about the conversation between Vieuville and Boisberthelot: Vieuville says that he believes in God “sometimes”, and now is one of those times. He’s a supporter of the Good, but only when that Good is convenient for him.)

Commentary
Kingedmundsroyalmurder Oooh, good catch on the continuation of the deception theme. I’d missed that.

Pilferingapples Agh the God thing bugs me SO MUCH— I’m not sure if they’re looking to God only when God looks like their only hope, or if they’re sort of looking at God as a dodge on their own responsibility, but either way it seems like a pretty shoddy way to treat a faith. And I mean— there ARE atheists in foxholes, so I don’t find that aspect of it humanizing (although Hugo maybe meant it that way? like, ‘acknowledgement of God is a universal drive, look these guys are still human enough to feel that’??), so much as I find it really dismissive of atheists. …And the idea of God. And also the actual humans who are going to have to deal with the mess. Basically IT ANNOYS ME IN EVERY LEVEL.

And thank you for tracking the light symbolism! I’m SURE it will become iimportant later on!