(no subject)

[skygiants]

So I keep wondering why Enjolras expects Marius to show up and be helpful in the Barriere du Maine scene; after all, we're told that after the Great Napoleon Debacle, Marius essentially storms off in a huff and never goes back to revolutionland again. Also, he is Marius. Myself, I can think of about four reasons:

1. Unreliable/ambiguous narrator: Marius had been hanging out with the gang before Napoleongate way more than the text implies.

2. Marius has not been hanging out with the gang, but Courfeyrac trusts him enough that he asks him to run errands sometimes when it would be useful to have an unfamiliar face show up, which he does because of the debt he feels he owes Courfeyrac, and Enjolras interprets this as Marius being way more interested in revolution than he actually is. This would actually be an interesting fic-premise -- Marius Pontmercies his way through a revolutionary errand he knows nothing about; hijinks ensue!

3. Enjolras really is JUST THAT DESPERATE. Maybe all the redshirt revolutionaries have gone home for the summer holidays. Or are dying of cholera.

4. Enjolras is not actually talking about our Marius at all, but about a friend of his named Jean or Pierre or Guifford Marius. Jean Marius has been very lax about showing up to meetings recently and we are VERY DISAPPOINTED in him.

Comments

[elsane]

(Oh hi I will spam your inbox by replying to half the thread)

Ha, actually, Combeferre is one of the people I have the hardest time imagining Marius hanging out with. Partly because Combeferre was the one who delivered the most devastating lines in Napoleongate, and partly because Combeferre doesn't strike me as having that much spare time and inclination to hang around being social. I can easily see Marius and Combeferre ending up both in a large party, and Marius kind of awkwardly avoiding Combeferre while Combeferre makes gentle friendly overtures until Marius settles down a bit; but I have difficulty imagining Marius actually interacting with Combeferre in smaller groups half as much as he interacts with Bossuet and Joly, say.

Marius' timeline is really vague, but it is four years from 1828 to 1832, so things don't have to be fixed entirely over that time; and in fact Hugo does deign to tell us that after 1830 Marius has cooled down about Napoleon. His finances also go downhill after 1830. I do agree that the Musain will always be awkward for him, and not a comfortable social environment for his taste! I think laughing at him, and being reminded of his own intense past sentiments, is probably the most embarrassing part of it - his politics have gone vaguely well-meaningly republican.

ETA: Here, when he's in a good mood (word to what you and melannen were saying about depression, below) and engaging with the world, he says: "'Have you read the paper? What a fine discourse Audry de Puyraveau delivered!"' so I googled Audry de Puyraveau and discovered he's a pretty hard left politician. I... am still not quite sure how to put all of these pieces together into a coherent whole arguably Marius is not either

But perhaps it's wrong to think about the meetings at the Musain as being critical to the Amis de l'Abaissé; it's an underground organization, it's not going to be about regular formal meetings. Marius' entire social circle being comprised of revolutionaries (and Mabeuf) and revolutionary meetings taking place as casual meetups in restaurants and cafés might be enough for him to seem like an honorary member. (I still can't argue myself around to making Enjolras anymore than wildly optimistic.)

OK I'M DONE WAFFLING BACK AND FORTH.