Oh yes, I feel like such a sheep, but I'm having way too much fun to care! And I'm so happy to be reading it while people are interested in discussing it.
Yes! Education and a basic living standard for all! And along similar lines, though he's not great about women or The Masses or foreigners, every single person in the book is a human being first and foremost. It's hard to get overly upset with someone whose single guiding star is basic human dignity. (not to mention the special eminence of France, but, y'know: oh, Hugo.)
Hugo's sweeping abstractions strike me like a mallet to a gong. Great sweeping abstractions are my kryptonite; I am terribly vulnerable to them, especially when they're stated like poetry. Though I don't think I would make it through if it were all great sweeping abstractions; I find the characters amazingly human and sympathetic. (I'm starting to suspect I'll even find Marius sympathetic this time around. This feels like a betrayal of my teenage self.)
(ah I am not yet even to this point in the book and already I am dreadfully wistful that the long midquel about Les Amis fighting in the 1830 revolution and reacting to its aftermath does not exist. woe.)
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Date: 2013-03-06 06:01 am (UTC)Yes! Education and a basic living standard for all! And along similar lines, though he's not great about women or The Masses or foreigners, every single person in the book is a human being first and foremost. It's hard to get overly upset with someone whose single guiding star is basic human dignity. (not to mention the special eminence of France, but, y'know: oh, Hugo.)
Hugo's sweeping abstractions strike me like a mallet to a gong. Great sweeping abstractions are my kryptonite; I am terribly vulnerable to them, especially when they're stated like poetry. Though I don't think I would make it through if it were all great sweeping abstractions; I find the characters amazingly human and sympathetic. (I'm starting to suspect I'll even find Marius sympathetic this time around. This feels like a betrayal of my teenage self.)
(ah I am not yet even to this point in the book and already I am dreadfully wistful that the long midquel about Les Amis fighting in the 1830 revolution and reacting to its aftermath does not exist. woe.)