(clapping). Well said. I just finished Part 2: Cosette. I've never read Les Miserables or seen any performance of it. And I feel like such a lucky duck . I'm astounded by its richness. Tolstoy made demands of my heart, and Dostoyevsky my reasoning, but Hugo is demanding the most of me, my conscience where all of me intersects. I've studied bits of Judaism and a term that resonated with me time and again is "moed." To my understanding it means an appointed time of God (correct me if I'm wrong). Every event in this story that Hugo is weaving leads us from appointed time to appointed time in Jean Valjean's life, in everyone's life really. Every word /action, every moment is relevant, even when we don't understand. I must say, I was especially slammed by Book 7 in Part 2: Parenthesis. I'm still reeling. One of my favorite quotes Of Part 2: "We have a duty: to work on the human soul, to defend mystery against miracle, to adore the incomprehensible and reject the absurd, to admit as inexplicable only what we must, to purge disbelief, to cull religion of superstition. To decontaminate God."

@ami1649

10 ай бұрын

Thank you so much for this comment and thank you for joining me in this book! Is it okay with you if I share this comment on my community page? Your understanding of moed and the connection you make to Hugo's writing is pure-gold and touches on an aspect of the book I haven't seen articulated until now. I also loved the chapter Parenthesis and I now I feel a strong temptation to make a video on it 😬(low-key Hugo's chapter names are always a little hilarious). I especially love the connection Hugo draws between the convent and the prison: "And in these two places, so similar yet so unlike, these two species of beings who were so very unlike, were undergoing the same work, expiation."

@leilastackleather9927

10 ай бұрын

@@ami1649 Absolutely. And please make a video on Parenthesis. I would love to hear your thoughts. And the comparison Hugo makes between the convent and the prison is especially poignant. Painfully true and beautiful. His ability to make connections between what appears to be disparate ideas... his conceptual understanding and ability to narrate is amazing. I'm so happy to be reading this book. Thank you so much for inviting us.

What's your favorite Swedish pop-song about Waterloo?

@thegrimmreader3649

10 ай бұрын

The history book on the shelf Is always repeating itself

@stealingsugar

10 ай бұрын

🤣

This was great! Could not the meteorological imagery point to Hugo wanting to conceptualize these events as belonging no longer directly to the realm of God, but rather to the realm of science? (and therefore man?) Even in the last quote on the one hand he seems to be evoking some kind of all seeing deity, but he does so by referring to aphids, i.e. adopting a sort of biological perspective to make his point.

@ami1649

10 ай бұрын

Yes! I know Hugo held all sorts of spiritual beliefs, but one of the things I love about him (and the reason he was able to write so brilliantly about Christianity and the reason his characters of the clergy are so controversial and nuanced) is that he lived his life proudly and defiantly not-a-Christian. I can't say I know what Hugo's really believed (nor do I care to know) but this gives me all the "permission" I need to read Hugo's God as a Spinozian God where God is equated with nature and visa-versa.

@leilastackleather9927

10 ай бұрын

But could God and science be one and the same?

@ami1649

10 ай бұрын

@@leilastackleather9927 💯