1.2.4-Pilferingapples

Ninety Three 4/25/14 1.2.4: Tormentum Belli
IT’S A PUN. As artificialities pointed out over on the DW comm, THE TITLE

of a chapter where FIVE MEN ARE CRUSHED SPINDLED MUTILATED AND SLICED IN TWO

IS A PUN.

I AM SO DONE WITH VICTOR FRIGGING HUGO AND HIS PUNS WHY DO WE LET THIS HAPPEN HOW CAN HE BE STOPPED, trick question he can’t, he is a like a cannon rolling around chopping people apart en masse THAT THEN MAKES WORDPLAY ABOUT IT HUGO YOU MONSTER.

Actually Hugo’s language here is really interesting all around? If I hadn’t been told one of the main themes of the book was The Inexorable I’d probably be wondering what the hoppin’ john was UP with it. Because, I mean, this is a nightmare scenario, sudden violence and blood EVERYWHERE and the ship being torn apart, and Hugo writes REALLY GOOD nightmare scenarios, and Hugo can do Detached Quiet Horror too, and he KNOWS what he’s doing, but this isn’t detached, it’s…weirdly depersonalized? Like, the cannon is being assigned all kinds of agency, but it’s being described in almost geological movement terms, or like a force of nature.

But then, that’s right, too, because what makes the cannon terrifying is that it’s not just out of control, but inherently beyond control at all. It’s not a force of nature; men made it, designed it, put it where they meant it to be; but the least nudge sends it all out control and then it’s just pure destruction against EVERYONE especially the people who meant to use it for their own purposes and especially the people who are in charge of using it against others GEE DO YOU THINK WE HAVE A WAR METAPHOR HERE?? BECAUSE I THINK WE MIGHT.

Super Subtle Metaphors aside, THIS IS A REALLY UPSETTING CHAPTER; I can joke about the metaphors and literary devices but WOW this is a no-joke gut-churning chapter, and there really is an excellent sense of desperation going on here with the unstoppable cannon tearing apart the men one by one AND the ship they all depend on and OKAY SERIOUSLY THIS METAPHOR THOUGH.

Commentary
Montagnarde1793 I’m keeping the Latin titles in my translation - with a footnote. Translating them outright ruins the fun. Or, you know, as much fun as you can have when murderous runaway cannons are involved.

Incidentally, I think there must have been a vogue for a while for just publishing the chapters about the cannon as a stand-alone - it was the only part of the book my grandfather had read, and it seems like an odd thing to skip to if you have the whole book.

Needsmoreresearch (reply to Montagnarde1793) Oh, yeah, the translation is in a footnote in my edition too.

That’s really interesting about reading this chapter as a stand-alone. I can see it, though. Particularly as, like, a high-school thing. HERE IS SOME PROSE BY VICTOR HUGO.

Kingedmundsroyalmurder (reply to Needsmoreresearch's reply) This is also Victor ‘all the promotional material for my 1500 page story about awfulness should come from that one Waterloo digression’ Hugo* so he may have requested that. Or, yeah, possibly a high school thing — the writing of these chapters is unbelievably good and enough happens that you can keep kids’ attention while still making them study Literary Terms.

* Not that I am arguing with that sentiment. Far from it, even. This is a pro-Waterloo blog and it genuinely is about everything and ties everything together and is one of my favorite parts of the book, but even I think that perhaps it’s not the most obvious choice for catching people’s interest in the rest.

Montagnarde1793 (reply to Needsmoreresearch's reply) Sounds legit. I mean, I wouldn’t have complained if I walked into a literature class in high school and the teacher had said “HERE IS SOME PROSE BY VICTOR HUGO.” Well, I might have complained when I found out we weren’t reading the whole thing…

Needsmoreresearch THE NOTES IN MY EDITION DESCRIBE THIS AS A “COQUETTERIE” ON THE PART OF VICTOR HUGO.

(Well, okay, he says that “titles in Latin are one of the coquetteries of Hugo the novelist,” and simply translates the title as “machine of war.” Coquetterie here probably meaning more in the line of “vanity” than “flirtation.”  But now I am reduced to picturing Hugo fluttering a fan in front of his face and whispering, “Once I wrote a chapter about a symbolic murdery death cannon tearing everyone to pieces, and I called it Tormentum belli.”)

Anyway, yes, The Cannon Is Symbolic.

Pilferingapples (reply to Needsmoreresearch) AUGH



HERE YOU CAN HAVE THAT IMAGE RIGHT BACK.

Needsmoreresearch (reply to Pilferingapples' reply) needsmoreforehead

and less HORRIFYING