Ok, so I've discovered the point of Les Mis. It seems to me, that it is actually a book about the author's vision of French History and philosophy. So there are long passages about war (Waterloo, revolutions, insurrections, riots, etc...). There are long descriptive passages about Paris, other towns, cities, neighborhoods, etc....and what they were like "then and now". There are long discourses by characters on different philosophical points, ranging from freedom to the revolution to monarchy to wine to girls/love to everything else. These various components are occasionally interspersed with a plot line. Sometimes they relate (like the Waterloo section, which really does relate much MUCH later), mostly they don't. And the point seems to be: da dah duh daaa! that there are loads more poor (materially, spiritually, or psychologically) people than we usually notice, that they lead lives somehow related to all this philosophy, and that miserable people have lives too. They live and die for the same ideals the masses of un-poor do...but it is infinitely more complex for a variety of society-imposed reasons, all of which suck. So there you go.

It's actually quite well done, intimating how disparate things (and people) often link together to form a life, a situation, a context...it's just that the plot disappears for hundreds of pages at a time.

I still have 200 pages to go.

In other news, it's slightly cooler this evening. I watched the New York City fireworks on TV. My friend kari and i sang along to the Messiah while watching a George Washington documentary with the sound off. I bought Frappucino bars, but my freezer won't keep them frozen. My apartment is a mess. I did laundry, and got three excellent emails today from good friends. The friend I was mean to is, I think, still very unhappy. I may actually have stuff to do tomorrow! And there's Taize tomorrow night at two different churches in town. yay!

and now, it may in fact be time for bed, as I am being so random that i am not even sure what all that was about or why it may or may not have been related....

mmm..frappucino bars...