Les Miserables: Merde! (shit)

To balance my last several posts that talk about the dark side of refusing to surrender a shattered dream, I want to take a second to admire the stand of Cambronne and his use of the epithet “Merdre!” when faced with a chance to surrender. It’s a simple word, literally translating “shit” but probably closer in meaning to “fuck off” or “hell no” than anything else. Much could be said and has been said about the broader context here, but I want to zoom in on the idea of actually believing in something and committing to it as a “hill you’re willing to die on”.

First let’s quote the passage from Hugo because it’s worth seeing it in it’s context:

When finally only a handful of men was left, the heaped dead more numerous than the living, the flag in tatters, the ammunition-less muskets become no more than cudgels, a kind of superstitious awe assailed the victors and the English guns held their fire. There was a momentary pause. Those last defenders saw as though it was a gathering of spectres the dark figures of their enemy closing in on the,=m, men on horseback and guns outlined against the fading pallor of the sky, and over all the giant death’s-head which is the ghost that haunts all battlefields. They could hear the sound of the guns being reloaded and see the lighted fuses gleaming like the eyes of tigers in the dusk. In this final moment, when all was in suspense, one of the English generals, Coleville or Maitland, called out to them, ‘Brave Frenchmen, will you not surrender?’ Cambronne answered, ‘Merde!’

This was the last square, the final group of French soldiers on the battlefield. They could not have known the fate of all around them. Sure, there is a part of me that knows objectively there is no winning here. Surrender makes rational sense… but I would be lying if I said that I don’t think it’s bad ass to see Cambronne here respond in defiance. He has chosen his stand. This is it. There is no turning back.

Sometimes the question is not “Is winning possible?” Sometimes the real question is “Am I willing to die for this?” I talked previously about how living for something is much harder than the romanticized desire to “die for something”. That doesn’t mean that there isn’t a time to die. I don’t know if this was really one of those times, but I do take great delight in someone who really believes in something telling those who would see them recant to fuck off. Someone has to do it!