Reading the Chunksters discussion
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The Man Who Laughs
The Man Who Laughs
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The Man Who Laughs - Week One - Oct. 31 - Nov. 6
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Book 1Chapter I
When describing the bay of Portland, Hugo writes, We are wrong in saying, The night falls; we should say the night rises, for it is from the earth that obscurity comes...
I loved this line.
The misty gloom, usual at twilight, became thicker; it was like a growth of darkness at the bottom of a well...Dark figures were crossing and recrossing each other on this tottering gangway, and in the shadow some people were embarking
Nothing about these two lines sounds good for what is to come.
Chapter II
bedizen...bedizened I kept reading bedazzled, couldn't help it. :P
In the description of those who were on the hooker, Hugo writes, Another pulled down over his face a huge piece of felt, cut like a sombrero; this felt had no hole for a pipe, thus indicating the wearer to be a man of letters...
What is meant by "to be a man of letters?"
Chapter III
It would have been evident to any one who could have seen his astonishment unmixed with dejection; that in the group which abandoned him there was nothing which loved him, nothing which he loved.
Up to this day there had never existed for him any other men than those who were now in the hooker. Those men had just stolen away.
He felt himself put outside of the pale of life...He felt that man failed him...He was ten years old
These quotes, in reference to this new character, had me thinking for quite some time...He's a kid who is already emotionally compartmentalizing what has transpired for him overnight. He's a small kid who has already built inner defenses to a certain extent, and rightfully feeling as if "man failed him." What has he been through, prior to this moment, that has groomed him to be so?
To climb is the function of a man; to clamber is that of an animal-he did both.
I read this as an invocation to both Ursus and Homo here, there seems to be an unknown tie that binds?
A storm threatened in the air; the child took no account of it, but a sailor would have trembled. It was that moment of preliminary anxiety when it seems as though the elements are changing into persons, and one is about to witness the mysterious transfiguration of the wind into the wind-god. The sea becomes Ocean: its power reveals itself as Will: that which one takes for a thing is a soul. It will become visible; hence the terror. The soul of a man fears to be thus confronted with the soul of nature.
The sea becoming the Ocean with help from the wind, pushing and pulling at one another manifesting itself into a storm, into a whole other being having a soul...It's beautifully anthropomorphic. Hugo does something similar in the prelim. chapters when describing the junction between man and animal.
Chapter IV
The law of the protection of children had at first this strange result: it caused many children to be abandoned
Irony, or no?
To fly unencumbered in this time period, was it really worth the hassle...Must have been?
Chapter V
They had brought him there and left him there. 'They' and 'there'-these two enigmas represented his doom. 'They' were human kind. 'There' was the universe.
What a juxtaposition for a ten year old to think about....
On to This dead thing had been stripped. To strip one already stripped-relentless act..., and again when Hugo writes, In the vastness of dispersion he was wearing silently away. He had had blood which had been drunk, skin which had been eaten, flesh which had been stolen...
Could Hugo have beaten this already dead horse into even more of a pulp? I think so, at least it felt like it to me here.
Chapter VI
Another instant, the child and the dead, life in sketch and life in ruin would be confounded in the same obliteration...Aagh!
Two sides of the same coin. Hugo is ...Well, Hugo just "is."
Chapter VII
The apparition/confined dead man, taken in the arms of the wind finally breaks the child out of his trance like state...I can't believe he didn't take the prisoner's shoes as he went on his way running a quarter of a league (a little short of a mile, I think).
Hugo in this section paints a picture reminiscent of a piece of art from the baroque period...Extravagant overall, but once your eyes are able to process what they are being fed, you begin to notice how the focal point is completely surrounded by dark shadows and lurking ominous figures attempting to envelop and blow out the glimpse of light.
Seven chapters dedicated to the weather, a sailing hooker that has anchored off the coast, its questionable activity on the shore and what it left behind...Everything building, chapter after chapter, into a dark and dismal offering of a young shoeless child abandoned in the brink of a snowstorm.
Greg wrote: "All, I think this book has many descendents. Chapter five, for me, read just like McCarthy's The Road, and Hugo did that whole book in just a few pages! I couldn't help myself, I had to move on to ..."Hilary wrote: "Thanks so much, Ami, for the schedule update!"
You're welcome, Hillary. :)
@Greg: The Road
Great reference, and yes, it's so true...They did read similar! I really like Cormac McCarthy.
Ami wrote: Could Hugo have beaten this already dead horse into even more of a pulp? I think so, at least it felt like it to me here.Hahaha, I agree. It seemed over the top with the detail and description. Although I really like the way he writes. This is the first book I am reading by Hugo.
Chapter VII
"If he could have fled from all things, he would have done so. But children know nothing of that breaking from prison which is called suicide"
Reading that quote made me shudder. It shows how scared the child was. How fear and dread can grip a person. How misfortune, wrongful acts and unlucky events can wear a person down to such a level. Yet this boy is only ten. We don't know anything about his past. Where he was born. How he got where he is.
On another note. I found this quote interesting too.
Chapter I
"There were eight of them, and there were seemingly among them one or two women, hard to recognize under the rags and tatters in which the group was attired-clothes which were no longer man's or woman's. Rags have no sex."
Hugo seems rather vague as to who these people are, but he basically tells us they are are most likely comprachicos.
The quote also shows how poor they were. Although they are capable of fleeing the country.
JJ wrote: "Ami wrote: Could Hugo have beaten this already dead horse into even more of a pulp? I think so, at least it felt like it to me here.Hahaha, I agree. It seemed over the top with the detail and des..."
Hahaha, I agree. It seemed over the top with the detail and description. Although I really like the way he writes. This is the first book I am reading by Hugo.
Ha! I love the way he writes as well, maybe the "over the top" approach is to continue to cement how absolutely macabre and dire this moment upon seeing the carcass of a man must be for a young child?
Hugo seems rather vague as to who these people are, but he basically tells us they are are most likely comprachicos.
The quote also shows how poor they were. Although they are capable of fleeing the country.
This quote had a different effect on me, JJ. I was thinking more along the lines of man or woman, gender was irrelevant when it came to accomplishing what they must. Even the women, who are naturally assumed to be caretakers of children, in this instance they were void of any natural inclination to help this child and just went on their merry way with or without the child. I didn't think they were poor either, I thought they maintained the appearance of vagabonds in spite of being rich...No?
I too thought book 1 a bit "over the top". Until I read book 2.
Dan wrote: "I too thought book 1 a bit "over the top". Until I read book 2."Hugo is flowery, to say the least! :)
He's a total drama queen , before his time!
Dianne wrote: "He's a total drama queen , before his time!"What does this mean, "before his time..." As in there were no other notable men/women(?) with a flare for dramatic writing before him?
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Ami wrote: "Dianne wrote: "He's a total drama queen , before his time!"What does this mean, "before his time..." As in there were no other notable men/women(?) with a flare for dramatic writing before him?
."
Oh I am sure there were. Probably many more than now, given the endless sources of entertainment these days! but I think the phrase itself is more recent.
I find the book a bit stilted by the translation - and it is possibly the version I'm reading. I do sense the awkwardness in the phrasing and the dynamic border of the English-French interface. I have this inner urge to hear/read Hugo's French voice rather than the stream of English in front of my eyes. The first two sections were peculiar. The introduction of Ursus and Homo made a lot of sense and has been discussed quite a bit already (and presumably will continue). The section with the lineages seemed bizarre in my eyes - what was all that about?
And, of course, the section of the folklorish tribe of mutilators certainly caught my attention. Like Ami I was relieved that this was an entity that was coined by Hugo. At first I actually believed the practice as history certainly unveils bizarre rituals and traditions on a continuous basis.
Besides, it was not too long ago that circuses harbored "freaks" (i.e. people with odd deformities and/or mutations in terms of body size, head shape, hair growth etc) as a form of entertainment in a similar fashion to where Hugo is heading. The film "Freaks" is a classic but can be hard to watch as it displays a strange side of humanity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJVXT...
Ami wrote: "Haaze wrote: "Greg wrote: "But my big question is this: I've read a ton of books in the past 60+ years, and I read a little bit of everything. Why have I never heard of this book? I've never heard ..."Ami, for me, "Man Who Laughs" is far better than Hunchback or Les Miz. I couldn't engage emotionally with the latter two at all.
Haaze wrote: "And now there is a MUSICAL!!!!!Be careful about possible spoilers in this article.....!
https://www.theguardian.com/stage/201...
"Haaze, thanks for all the information!
JJ wrote: "Well, I ordered the book a week or so ago, but it's coming from the UK, so it probably won't get here for another week. However, I did get a PDF off the web. Plus, I got a little behind my own read..."JJ, I've always thought that the term "heal" might indeed be the passing into another realm, say, for example, if a person has a terminal illness. So I'm with Ursus, I get what he is saying. But I don't think he would ever advocate actually harming someone intentionally.
Reading the Chunksters
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The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (other topics)
A Game of Thrones (other topics)
oooh that totally makes sense that he could be ursus! because he thinks death is better than life, and he is condemning people by curing them? I could totally see that being the case. We will see!