(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]

I HAVE BEEN WONDERING EXACTLY THE SAME THING.

It makes no sense. Mind you, I have been in the habit of mentally dialing back several of Hugo's more hyperbolic statements (for example, the one about Enjolras never having kissed anyone, literally anyone, before the corpse of Mabeuf), but this rather beggars plausibility. I think Hugo wants something vaguely along the lines of number 1 to be true (*cough* I er may or may not be currently flashing up a fic trying to reconcile Marius' timeline wrt the revolutionaries which postulates Marius being coaxed back AFTER Napoleongate), but Marius goes into at least 2 months of distraction and decline regarding Cosette, doesn't he? Enjolras must be awfully optimistic.

There are plenty of redshirt revolutionaries on the barricades a week or so later.

I personally subscribe to 5. Mary Sue syndrome strikes again, but I would kill to see a fic about number 2.

Number 4 actually makes a lot of sense! Enjolras refers to everyone else by their last names! He is clearly referring to some hitherto unknown student named Jean Marius* who has sadly been struck down by cholera! If he meant to refer to OUR Marius he would have said Pontmercy. Or "our Pontmercy friend".



* everyone's first name is Jean it's a law. Actually, this is extremely annoying. Courfeyrac calls everyone by their last names except Marius. Why Hugo why. If they're going to be on first name bases, please give us more first names. :<

[elsane]

*writes fic where everyone tutoies Marius and Marius obliviously vousvoyes back*

*writes fic where aliens occupy Paris and Marius only notices that the price of bread has gone up*

*writes fic where a revolution happens and Marius doesn't notice OH WAIT*

[lannamichaels]

*falls over laughing*

[cahn]

I so want to read these! Oh wait, I did read that last one, and it was great, although soooo depressing. ;)

[skygiants]

*LOLS FOREVER*

I mean, Les Miserables is basically Hugo's Marius-insert fanfic of the-book-formerly-known-as-Les-Miseres ANYWAY

[miss_morland]

I would kill to see a fic about number 2.

Me too! Almost as much as I want someone to fill that kinkmeme prompt about Marius accidentally joining Patron-Minette. *g*

[genarti]

I have been wondering SO MUCH why everyone refers to Marius by his first name! Seriously, if anyone has any insight at all into an IC justification for this, I would love to hear it.

I could see Courfeyrac doing so once the guy is his roommate; you would think in that case that Marius would reciprocate, but Marius is an oblivious awkward turtle, so I find it plausible that he wouldn't think to. I could also see Marius tending to introduce himself with his first name and expect others to call him by it, because he didn't grow up having a lot of socialization with peers or watching young men interact with each other; he grew up as a kid alone with a lot of old people, so I can completely see him expecting to be called by his first name even in contexts where other people would find that odd. But I don't understand why all the others -- Enjolras, Courfeyrac, all the guys who call their canonical dearest friends by last name -- would do the same, unless Marius were flat-out insisting that he strongly preferred that or something. (And why would he?)

I can fanwank it in my brain as one of those things that just sticks that way, so that no one is totally sure why he's Marius and Jehan is Jean/Jehan Prouvaire (at least some of the time, or anyway at least that one time Enjolras is talking about a hostage trade) instead of just Prouvaire, he just is. But I would really love it if anyone can offer cultural context to make it make more sense.

[skygiants]

I still offer the possible explanation that everyone is just annoyed by the BARON PONTMERCY thing, and as soon as they receive one of his poncy aristocratic business cards they start calling him Marius in protest.

[elsane]

*snicker* ALL TOO PLAUSIBLE.

[elsane]

So I just came across this bit from 3.5.5: "It was during one of his strolls that he had hit upon the Gorbeau house, and, tempted by its isolation and its cheapness, had taken up his abode there. He was known there only under the name of M. Marius." So maybe he is trying to avoid the "Pontmercy"? But, why? His father's name is still engraved in his heart, why would he shed it when it's such a key part of his sensitive construction of identity? I don't get the sense from him that he is ashamed of living in the Gorbeau house or of making his own way in the world, so it's hard for me to argue that he is worried about sullying the name? I feel like I'm missing some important piece of character logic here...

Interesting point about how growing up as the only child in adult circles might be playing into this.