(Ooooh. Possibly the Bishop figures' play to draw the outsiders back in is a different post, yes, but I'M INTERESTED IN THAT POST TOO.)
I really like all this, and I think you're dead on about the structural similarities. Right down to the MONKS, WHO NEEDS 'EM?? PASS THE WINE THANKS bit.
One thing I'm turning over in my mind is that the Corinthe breakfast is really a sort of earthy calm-before-the-storm transition to two things. One is, as you mention here, the Outsider thing, and Grantaire's plotline. But the other is that it's the transition to the barricade scenes, which are a different kind of transcendent change for everybody involved. Some of them are at the meal and most of them aren't, but, I dunno, maybe it's significant that that's the place where they all gather? Or maybe that's just significant in the ways we've already talked about, where it's the earthy party crowd observers who pick the spot where the more Abstract Plane-oriented folks settle down too, once the Significant Meal is over. (And particularly Bossuet, the walking plot nexus -- and, wait, isn't it Grantaire who introduced them all to the Corinthe in the first place?)
I dunno, I'm writing this on a mini-break from work and my attention's all split, but this is super interesting to me!
Re: communion meals
I really like all this, and I think you're dead on about the structural similarities. Right down to the MONKS, WHO NEEDS 'EM?? PASS THE WINE THANKS bit.
One thing I'm turning over in my mind is that the Corinthe breakfast is really a sort of earthy calm-before-the-storm transition to two things. One is, as you mention here, the Outsider thing, and Grantaire's plotline. But the other is that it's the transition to the barricade scenes, which are a different kind of transcendent change for everybody involved. Some of them are at the meal and most of them aren't, but, I dunno, maybe it's significant that that's the place where they all gather? Or maybe that's just significant in the ways we've already talked about, where it's the earthy party crowd observers who pick the spot where the more Abstract Plane-oriented folks settle down too, once the Significant Meal is over. (And particularly Bossuet, the walking plot nexus -- and, wait, isn't it Grantaire who introduced them all to the Corinthe in the first place?)
I dunno, I'm writing this on a mini-break from work and my attention's all split, but this is super interesting to me!