#and i think that implies that he sees marius as a teacher AND a father in addition to everything else

[feedingicetothedog]

also the Implications™ of armand telling louis that claudia didn't love him like lestat loved him or like armand loves him......

[zevlogofamiserable]

Meta #2: Courfeyrac, Marius and what are aristocrats anyway?!!

Hey, here are some of my reflections about how to update Ze Vlog’s characters Courfeyrac and Marius. Both being aristocrats... but not really.

The historical literary approximative shenanigan

Not a specialist or anything here but still... in France there are still royalists and aristocrats who believe in lineage and bullshit like that, they’re a minority now and Les Mis takes place at a historical shift around that. 1789′s revolution switched nobility for bourgeoisie kinda and as said when Courfeyrac is introduced in the novel: people felt the need to abdicate their “de” (the onomastic particle being sometimes a sign of aristocracy). Hugo‘s snarky comment made it ambiguous to me whether Courfeyrac is from an aristocratic family and abdicates his “de” because he doesn’t want a monarchy with nobles and shit (which is echoed to me by his eloquent speech about not wanting a king in the fourth book of the third part’s chapter : L’arrière-salle du Café Musain.) or if he is simply from a bourgeoise family with a random particle and decides to abdicate it to not be associated with aristocracy whatsoever. I think it’s the latter but the point is: Courfeyrac could be associated with the aristocracy but it contradicts his beliefs and so he gets rid of the “de” in front of his name. During the restoration, nobles were getting some privileges back (their lands... basically) but had to compete with the Napoleonian noblesse d’empire and bourgeoisie so there were tensions.

As for Marius, the lad is raised by a bourgeois grandfather... who is a royalist but the lad switches to being a Bonapartist because of his father. Tensions ensue between grandfather and grandson. And Marius ends up with a baron title... which makes little sense at the time? or it’s the last moment in history where it has a bit of a meaning (what’s important is that he has moonneeeey Ka-ching!) I dunno... XIXth century literature still has remains of literary topos about the sanctity of blue blood and you know the last-minute reveal of the nobility of that random pure innocent angel girl who was the hidden daughter of a noblewoman all along and so now she can marry the princedude. But for Marius story, his noble title is acquired in a battle by his father, it’s recent, his estate comes from a grandfather who‘s not a noble from what we know but an Ultra royalist, and what gets in the way of his wedding with the commoner-sex worker’s daughter-but-now-bourgeoise-Cosette is not the blue blood shenanigan. So, what does his title mean in the end...? mmh. I bet many academics have answered this question, but it bores me already to think about checking, tbh. I guess I can answer without taking too many risks with: times are changing, but Hugo is still a bit nostalgic about some past shit and also, for Marius, it’s not an homage to a regime, it’s a way to keep a symbolic connection with his father.

Now, what do we do with it if we wanna update this?

I had no idea at first because like... the kind of dramas we saw with Marius and his grandfather makes little or no sense nowaday. And Courfeyrac “de” story... well... have a personal anecdote: part of my family is blue blood (with a particle but I don’t have one cause the genitor was a commoner LoL!!) and so my cousins with particles sometimes received comments from (traditionnally leftist) teachers who assumed from their names they were rich privileged bourgeoises. So there’s still this idea that the particle means money in France even though it’s really dated.

Courfeyrac ranting abouth catholics in ZeVlog

What a particle/and noble aristocratic ancestors often imply for real though is being catholic. And catholics (some of them, there are chill progressive catholics of course. They exist but we’re talking about their scary group), no matter what we pretend in France, still have a scary power through their dated networks and stuff. They still marry each other, stay in the community, etc. American viewers, I think the equivalent would be the Gilmore scary stuff from Gilmore Girls. Add scary mass with incent and tacky decoration and you have a sense of it.

So that’s why my Courfeyrac is super anti catholics. It all comes from the “de” story from the book. Also, it’s said in the book he’s super charming and I think it’s also the case of ZeVlog’s Courfeyrac...

As for Marius, have another personal story: my grandfather (from the blue blood side) once said he shocked all his royalist cousins by saying at a dinner that he was Bonapartist. So first: part of my extended family is constituted by weird creepy royalists (WHY guys?! WHY?!), second, Bonapartism... was still a thing when my grandfather was younger? (like around the 50s, 60s?) I dunno, maybe he said it as a joke.

Anyway, thing is, that kind of debate happens in very specific places. Who cares about Napoleon anymore? I had to update the reason why Marius is kicked out of his/her home in ZeVlog... and actually, the very strong opposition the gay marriage encountered among the catholics gave me my answer: ZeVlog’s Marius has been kicked out by her grandfather because she’s gay.

Marius explaining her past to Grantaire in ZeVlog.

Also, voting Hamon after a Macronist phase when you come from a Fillon’s family (so many names ending with “on”, they must be impossible to pronounce for you English-speakers, I’m sorry) seemed like a kinda? similar journey to becoming Republican after a Bonapartist phase when you come from an Ultra royalist family. 

Those were my reflections anyway. Love you’all! See you soon for sunday’s chapter and Monday’s new vlog!