pro_patria_mortuus | (no subject)

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It's a fine autumn day: not too cold, with a light breeze and a clear sunny sky.

Also it's beautiful, or so Prouvaire has informed him with great certainty, although he sighed briefly over the lack of dramatically thunderous clouds. Enjolras is willing to take his word for it. He doesn't see the appeal of thunderous clouds, except that rain is necessary for crops, and so far as he can tell Prouvaire thinks nearly every day is beautiful in its own (sometimes dismal) way, but he has no particular opinions to the contrary.

They're walking arm in arm on the far side of the lake, not too far from the forest verge. It's a good day to walk with a friend. (They're both agreed that that, too, is true of nearly any day.)

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Yes, and newspapers are powerful tools. There's a great deal that can be done by and for and within a community with a free press.

"It's a good thought," Enjolras says slowly.

"With the involvement of the community... --How would you organize it?"

Jehan frowns. "I suppose the first step would be gauging interest from those outside our group. A sign posted on the board in the bar, perhaps."

Enjolras looks thoughtful.

"Free, I assume?"

He means free of charge; that a paper will be free of censorship and government restrictions is a given here, unlike at home.

"Certainly. There would be no reason to charge. And," Jehan laughs a little here, "I believe the challenge will be to induce people here to read it at all, even if they needn't pay."

Enjolras half-smiles, acknowledging the humor.

"Then a question is whether it's better to gauge interest in participation before beginning, or to put out an example and invite others to join in, or some combination of the two."

"Hmm, yes," says Jehan, "and I was thinking the latter would be a better idea? Frankly, I don't even know how to gauge interest in this place, and I feel trying to gauge interest would...simply evoke reactions of indifference and skepticism. Whereas putting out an entertaining but still useful paper would result in people taking it up, if only out of boredom while they drink their coffee...?"

He thinks it might find an audience, but his inherent shyness is always an obstacle when it comes down to the work of communicating with strangers. Never an insurmountable obstacle--he's been surmounting it since he was a child--but it's never shrunk into insignificance, either.

"Mm."

Enjolras is considering this seriously, and visibly so. (Whether the question of shyness in relation to publishing a paper has occurred to him, ever, in his life, is an open question. But he'd take it seriously too if it were under discussion!)

"To say 'a paper,' that's very broad even in our world. Here, who knows? Of course you'll want others involved, but I think you're right. It doesn't make sense to prioritize recruiting before people know what they're being invited to join."

Jehan nods, earnestly. "Yes, and I don't have a very clear or rigid idea of what sort of paper...but, well, if it's to be amusing, then surely Bossuet, Courfeyrac, Bahorel...they'd be excellent for that." He pauses. "I was thinking, something where people could write in with questions, and have the answers published, for the information of all."

Edited 2015-10-14 04:57 (UTC)

Enjolras nods: yes, they're all very skilled at amusing people. (As Enjolras and Prouvaire are not, or at least rarely intentionally so.)

He listens, and envisions such a newspaper -- specifically, envisions Bossuet and Courfeyrac and Bahorel in charge of answering questions from the Milliways masses, for the amusement and edification of all -- and his lips twitch.

"That would gratify them."

"Yes," Jehan says, with a quiet chuckle, "it would. And rightly," he adds, with wide eyes and a return of earnestness, "for they're so witty and sharp and insightful. Any answers they gave would be delightful as well as educational, and the paper would surely be read."

"Yes."

His smile has settled in, now, and shifted from the earlier faint amusement at his friends' imagined glee to earnest affection of his own.

"They're ideally suited for such an endeavor, if they wish it. All three of them. And they have a fine ear for when to give real advice, which will certainly be worthwhile, and when to be silly for entertainment."

Enjolras... is aware that many people consider silliness a very valuable thing! So they'll doubtless appreciate that too! Bahorel and Bossuet and Courfeyrac are all people who value things like silliness, which is a major reason why they're better than Enjolras at discerning when it's time to employ it.

Jehan Prouvaire values and exhibits silliness, but of a rather different kind from the sort deployed by Bahorel, Bossuet, and Courfeyrac when they so choose.

"Oh, yes," he says. "Their real advice would be...bracing. And practical, and generous, no doubt. And I know Bahorel, at least, is in favor of this idea." He pauses. "I'm not suited for such a paper, but I might...submit a poem, perhaps, if it seems to fit at any juncture." He feels a bit shy at the thought, truth be told. "Would you wish to publish anything?"

Enjolras reflects on that.

"It depends on the shape it takes. I'm certainly not opposed."

If it's mostly meant for community entertainment... well.

"Yes, I think we'll need to discuss it more with the others before having any clear idea of what shape it will take...but I look forward to finding out."

Jehan pauses, looking around at the undisturbed, unchanging stillness of the forest. "And it will be something of use to do."

A fox ambles across the path before them at a slow, easy pace, his ears perked up. He cocks his head to scrutinize Jehan and Enjolras, before deciding they're of little interest, and continuing on his way. The fox likely doesn't worry about having things to do. But no doubt his existence holds other struggles. All of nature, all of growth, is a hard-fought struggle. Even the seemingly tranquil trees have their battles to fight. Perhaps the trees, if they were conscious, would envy humans who need only find occupation, and who needn't strive towards the sunlight.

Jehan's thoughts easily drift off along this well-traveled path.

Sure. Hello, random woodland creature. (Yes, he does know enough to identify a fox. But it's Enjolras's experience even pre-Milliways that woodland creatures just wander over to stare at you sometimes, and certainly in Milliways they seem to have relatively little fear of humans.)

"Yes."

That's a little wry again.

More earnestly: "And it will be a valuable service, if it catches on. We've spoken before of the fragmentation of this community. More types of popular communication can only help."

"It's a pity we can't make movies, for common viewing and discussion," Jehan says, seriously, "but I haven't the technical skill. And I suspect reading material will be more successful anyway. The sort of thing one might skim in a desultory fashion."

"What's required for making movies?"

It occurs to him that he has no idea.

Well, Combeferre has talked some about some things that -- he thinks might be somewhat related? Possibly. He didn't entirely follow, and he doesn't entirely remember all the details.

"For poor quality movies, it's easy. One can even do it with one of those phones Bahorel likes to use to take pictures, or else with a tablet or laptop. But for better quality, there's...equipment I must confess I know nothing about." Jehan laughs quietly.

"But oh, even with poor quality, it's...magical. The things one can do, the effects of light and color and shadow one can create, all with the press of a button on a tiny phone..." He sighs.

Enjolras is smiling again, very small but fond.

"Imagine a world where anyone can create a record of an event, just by pressing a button on a common device."

Of course he's read about such worlds, and the future of their own world: the benefits of such technology, and the pitfalls, and the ramifications. But still. To live surrounded by such wonders of human ingenuity, to think them unremarkable; just imagine. Even after months at Milliways, it still strikes him.

Jehan presses his arm. "We needn't imagine. We live in such a world, Enjolras. And I do believe we need to start thinking of it as a world, rather than as a...a way-station of sorts."

Enjolras glances at him, taken aback.

He -- hadn't thought about it like that. Not of Milliways as a world, a real world, true as any other.

(He's not sure that he agrees. But it's a startling phrasing; he hadn't thought about it like that.)

Jehan sees the expression on his face. Understandable. He smiles faintly.

"Doesn't concerning ourselves with its community imply it's a world? Doesn't the fact that we seem to be stuck here? Why should we care about the justice or the community of...of..." He searches for the right analogy and fails. "...oh, the stop of a diligence on a journey?"

"Justice ought to hold in an isolated inn, as much as anywhere else."

It's not exactly disagreement.

He's thinking still, turning it over in his mind; holding Prouvaire's logic up against his reflexive disagreement, and scrutinizing that disagreement for its source. He's quiet a moment.

"I see your reasoning. But on the other hand, compare this to our world, to any world people speak of here."

(To France.)

"Yes, of course," Jehan says, his faint smile broadening, "though most injustices would be less dire if all in the inn could and did easily leave, and spend no more time than they wished there. But when one can't leave...that drives home the necessity of justice, and of building a society to make justice a reality."

He sighs, as Enjolras talks of their own world. All other worlds are at their fingertips. But their own France, their own Paris, are as out of reach as shapes in mist. "I will not. It does not compare, I can't deny that."

Enjolras presses Prouvaire's arm with his free hand, briefly, and for a few moments silence falls between them.

"I do see your logic. And maybe you're right."

He means that. Prouvaire is wise, insightful, clear-eyed. It's entirely possible that his heart is wiser than Enjolras's on this subject.

"But... I find it difficult to think of Milliways as a living world, a place that could be a home to people."