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Sunday, May 22, 2005Cicero's apparently been having a look at Les Mis. And at the early reviews. He found a good one from the Atlantic Monthly at gavroche.org.Hugo can be a hard one to puzzle and the reviewer has his problems. Certainly he misses the boat on what will become of Fantine's daughter, Cosette. Likewise, he goes to far in assuming all criminals are to be thought victims. Some are just plain bad. One cannot read the Thénardier saga without realizing this, without understanding that Valjean could have chosen another course, and that he would deserve only the worst had he done so. Contrary to the reviewer's assertion, Les Mis is not an effort to supersede Christianity. It is one expression of it. Valjean is not the new Christ and Fantine is not the lamb of God. They are both very fallen creatures who struggle back toward God and righteousness as best they can. They do not reveal any new truths, but merely remind a somewhat cold and cynical world to consider the value of souls that the society of the time was altogether too casual about losing. The short summary of the novel is that a lot of people make a lot of bad decisions, but those who act on their better natures make just enough good ones for their lives to have made a positive difference. Redemption, then, is available to all. But it isn't a given. In a sense, Les Mis foreshadows... Reagan! It is a call for a level playing field, for a world where everyone has a shot at living up to his or her best nature. But that is not the same as saying that everyone gets out of jail free or into heaven automatically, just that everyone has a chance. There are those on the left who celebrate Hugo as a true socialist. There are those on the right who abhorr him for the same reasons. They're both wrong. While Hugo felt a desire to help those in really rough circumstances, a desire that afflicts even the occasional free-market conservative, he was all for enterprise and innovation. Fairy tale or not, Jean Valjean didn't use his second chance to take up a vow of poverty and wander from village to village preaching on the need for alms for the poor. He opened a factory and employed people. Likewise, Hugo pushed hard to give patents, trademarks and unique designs the same protections as his fiction so that craftsmen of all sorts could earn a decent take off their creations. And his dream for a freer fairer society rested not on the end of property, but on everyone having a chance to acquire some. Marcus' reviewer has put together some interesting thoughts, then, based on the first book of Les Mis. And it's a delight to see them alongside the adulation the work normally draws. But for all its perceptiveness, the review ends by telling us less about "a man who thinks he's Victor Hugo" than it does about the reviewer's own hobgoblins. Still, good fun. Have a read. For thoughts on Hugo as a politician and a capitalist, visit our own The Hugo Pages and check out the essays. 
posted by gbarto at 1:54 AM |
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