#lm 4.11.6

[dolphin1812]

This will be brief, since it’s a short chapter.

Courfeyrac hates the aristocratic “de” so much! And who could this mysterious, ambiguously gendered person looking for “M Marius��� be?

The openness of the rebellion was both a strength and a weakness. As Courfeyrac said, if the rebellion is predicated on the notion that the streets belong to everyone, then anyone can show up. On the other hand, coordination and safety for groups like Les Amis relied on secrecy and trust, which isn’t as present with new people. This mysterious person and the stranger at the beginning, then, raise both of these issues.

[cliozaur]

The last snippet before our group reaches their base (and chapters will become extremely long). Some mysterious tall man joined them near the Rue des Billettes. To be fair, Hugo describes him quite neutrally, and nothing in this description reveals specific features of Javert (being tall and having hair turning grey is not the most distinct of his characteristics). But it’s important to stress that he does attract attention because at least three of Les Amis notice him. That’s not good for a spy.

Courfeyrac went home to get a coffer of munition under his dirty linen. Wow! The man was preparing for the revolt, wasn’t he? And on his way back, he had to stop and go to the portress’ lodge to meet someone. Éponine, already disguised as a man, “pale, thin, small, freckled” (! that’s adorable) was waiting (for more than an hour!) for Marius or anyone who could say where he was. After finding out that no one is home, she tries to be helpful. Why is she always like this? She offers a grown-up, healthy man to carry his coffer! Good for Courfeyrac that he just ignores this proposition. Then she proposes something else — to accompany him to the barricades. Well, it’s a free country, so soon, “the young man” joined the group as it found itself in the Rue Saint-Denis. Oof, I’m already sad.

[everyonewasabird]

Brickclub 4.11.6 ‘Recruits’

We continue with the short chapters and the increasing tempo.

They’re joined by

a tall man, who was turning gray, whose rough and bold bearing Courfeyrac, Enjol­ras, and Combeferre noticed

And wow, Javert really could not be less suited to spying could he. He’s going to be much, much worse at it than this, but being the most noticeable guy in a crowd of hundreds already wasn’t a good start.

We’re told explicitly that Gavroche doesn’t see him, which is useful for both plot and foreshadowing reasons--then Hugo uses this opportunity to reiterate that Gavroche’s pistol is “dogless.”

I can’t tell exactly how the pun links up, but mouchards are dogs and Javert is always a dog, and Gavroche has no dog. And Gavroche has, we know, a special ability to identify mouchards, and also there’s no dogness in Gavroche’s soul at all.

It’s all doing SOMETHING.

Courfeyrac makes the thinnest excuse imaginable “I need to get my hat” (no one in the crowd has a hat) to go pick up a case of ammo. I love @fremedon‘s point about the contrast between his opsec and Bahorel’s, who basically screams in the street “HEY FRIEND THROW ME DOWN AS MUCH AMMO AS YOU CAN”

We’ve seen over the course of three chapters three totally different responses from Courfeyrac to people wanting to join up. In this book of people who have very codified and limited ways of relating to others, Courfeyrac is socially flexible and runs the full range of possible responses:

- Gavroche he yells “Come on” the instant he sees him.

- Mabeuf he tries to turn away on sight.

- disguised!Eponine he gets weirdly evasive and uncharacteristically neutral (”go where you like, the street is free” when she asks to join the barricade) even though there surely isn’t much secret about the whole barricade plan at this point.

And he volunteers where he himself is going pretty easily.

But he has no idea whether Marius is coming to the barricade or not (he must be assuming not), and he has no idea what Marius has been doing staying out all night these past few months.

And the portress at his newish apartment seems to be decidedly unsatisfactory--not only is she not getting with the revolutionary program of dropping the particle from his name, she’s letting wildly suspicious people sit in her lodge for a whole hour to wait for him.

I think he’s is doing FOR Marius here what Valjean’s porter once did TO Marius, and refusing to say a word to somebody who’s acting like a cop.

Because, unlike her brother, Eponine really is a dog.

But that’s only for Marius’s secrets. The barricade surely isn’t really a secret at this point, and much as Courfeyrac doesn’t really want this suspicious person there, he’s not in a position to stop her.

[fremedon]

Brickclub 4.11.6, “Recruits”

A short and very straightforward chapter--straightforward enough that I don’t really have anything to say about it--in which the Amis’ group picks up Javert and Eponine and, somehow, misses Saint-Merry.

Courfeyrac has lost his hat--he’ll have another knocked off by a cannonball at the barricade. He ducks into his building when the procession passes it to get another. The Amis have already been introduced as “hatless, cravatless, breathless”--no one is dressed for a funeral anymore--but this gives him an opportunity to retrieve a large box of cartridges he’s been hiding in his dirty laundry. Everyone is already armed, but ammunition is heavy.

But also, everyone is already openly shouting about barricades, but Courfeyrac still uses the ruse of the hat to go and get the cartridges. Bahorel was shouting to the bearded Ami to throw down cartridges from his window a few chapters ago--I like the contrast in their security habits. Courfeyrac’s notion of opsec would probably be fairly different from Bahorel’s--Bahorel is openly Republican and Romantic, with his rash waistcoats and scarlet opinions; Courfeyrac can go stealth.

Though he does, when the “young workingman” won’t buzz off, tell him that he’s going to man the barricades; the time for stealth is over.