Bones

When I visited Rome, I visited the crypt of the Capuchin monks. The monks used their order's bones to create amazing patterns in a series of six rooms. It was creepy and yet fascinating. The motto that stuck in my head, which is listed on the Wikipedia page, is:

What you are now we used to be; what we are now you will be...

Now I'm reading up on the Paris catacombs. How did Hugo manage not to include these in Les Misérables somewhere?

Update: It would have tied in easily with the convent's burial rituals or the sewers, especially since IIRC the sewer chapter also ties into the now-abandoned mines below Paris, part of which had already been repurposed as the ossuary before Jean Valjean's release. Though I suppose the mines could have been brought up not in the book, but the podcast I listened to in 2018.

— Kelson Vibber, '2013-11-02T20:06:00-07:00'. Updated '2024-07-23T17:35:15-07:00'.

Thoughts and commentary on Victor Hugo’s masterpiece.