1.2.7-Takethewatch

Quatrevingt-treize, 1.2.7, QUI MET A LA VOILE MET A LA LOTERIE
I don’t even care about these guys anymore, I hope they all die.

I mean, okay, yes, the book goes on, let’s see what happens.

I do kind of like Gacquoil’s attitude—he seems like a pretty quiet, calm, “take life as it comes” kind of guy. And I don’t know if he was trying to be snarky here or not, but he takes a straightforward question from Vieuville and answers with a metaphor:

—Où sommes-nous, pilote? demanda-t-il. Le pilote répondit: —Nous sommes dans la volonté de Dieu.

(“Where are we, pilot?” he asked. The pilot responded: “We are in God’s will.”)

Also, the moment when the clouds lifted up was kind of cool:

Le ciel avait comme un couvercle de nuages; mais les nuages ne touchaient plus la mer; à l’est apparaissait une blancheur qui était le lever du jour, à l’ouest blêmissait une autre blancheur qui était le coucher de la lune. Ce deux blancheurs faisaient sur l’horizon, vis-à-vis l’une de l’autre; deux bandes étroites de lueur pâle entre la mer sombre et le ciel ténébreux.

This whole thing with the dark sea and sky above and below and lights in the east and the west (but different kinds of lights) is probably all kinds of symbolic, but I’m not really sure what it would symbolize so I’ll just say it’s a really cool image and leave it at that.

That’s pretty much all I’ve got except OH GOOD NOW YOU’RE TRAPPED BETWEEN TWO EXTREMES YOURSELF, HOW DO YOU LIKE IT, ASSHOLE?