(cross post it to the comm, really? It would be great to have a Marius discussion but we're already having one, and there's already a digression discussion going -- I could wait? Also, by the way, do you actively want fic links posted to the comm, or would you rather have it as a discussion/resource zone?)
And yes, exactly about Marius! The thing that really chafes me about him is not that he screws up and is depressed and full of fail, it's not even that he's stunningly self-absorbed and unobservant, it's that Valjean and Eponine and Javert and Mabeuf and the Amis suffer and die with the end result that Marius can prosper without even a dim understanding of the deeper issues behind their sacrifices; his story is one of unearned grace, and it chafes when put up against stories of unearned suffering. There's nothing in his story line that isn't entirely thematically fitting (history, after all, being impartial), but it rubs the wrong way when he's the protagonist. (I'm annoyed at him already and I haven't even gotten to the bit in the brick where he drives Valjean away, at which point I strongly suspect I will break out in seethes.). He handwrings while plot happens around him, and it's only through the intercession of plot that he's able to be happy.
I recognize that there's an important symbolic point to be made here: that Marius is the flip side to the suffering, Marius and Cosette are the hope of the future, and if suffering is unearned so too sometimes is happiness, and we should not despair, and we should keep moving forward. But the foregrounding of Marius just does not work for me, he's nowhere near active enough as a protagonist.
And, like you say, it's not like his life is great, he's hugely relatable and very sensitively drawn -- and yes, Courfeyrac tries so hard and the Cafe Musain is so overwhelming for him, yes. The poor kid! Your sketch of him is dead on, and I would feel so much more for him if he weren't stuck with the narrator in his pocket.
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Date: 2013-05-22 10:28 pm (UTC)And yes, exactly about Marius! The thing that really chafes me about him is not that he screws up and is depressed and full of fail, it's not even that he's stunningly self-absorbed and unobservant, it's that Valjean and Eponine and Javert and Mabeuf and the Amis suffer and die with the end result that Marius can prosper without even a dim understanding of the deeper issues behind their sacrifices; his story is one of unearned grace, and it chafes when put up against stories of unearned suffering. There's nothing in his story line that isn't entirely thematically fitting (history, after all, being impartial), but it rubs the wrong way when he's the protagonist. (I'm annoyed at him already and I haven't even gotten to the bit in the brick where he drives Valjean away, at which point I strongly suspect I will break out in seethes.). He handwrings while plot happens around him, and it's only through the intercession of plot that he's able to be happy.
I recognize that there's an important symbolic point to be made here: that Marius is the flip side to the suffering, Marius and Cosette are the hope of the future, and if suffering is unearned so too sometimes is happiness, and we should not despair, and we should keep moving forward. But the foregrounding of Marius just does not work for me, he's nowhere near active enough as a protagonist.
And, like you say, it's not like his life is great, he's hugely relatable and very sensitively drawn -- and yes, Courfeyrac tries so hard and the Cafe Musain is so overwhelming for him, yes. The poor kid! Your sketch of him is dead on, and I would feel so much more for him if he weren't stuck with the narrator in his pocket.