Les Miserables: French pupils trash Hugo

Les Miserables: French pupils trash Hugo

 

 

Published: 19 Jun 2014 15:55 GMT+02:00

 

The Local

Photo: Wikicommons, Angry Teen.

 

 

Victor Hugo may be a national treasure in France, but he’s not appreciated by thousands of teens forced to write about his poems for the school leaving exam this week. In fact, they’ve taken to Twitter to bash the Les Miserables author, in the strongest terms.

 

 

 

French reporters spent the week musing and fussing about country’s annual rite of passage, the taking of the high school leaving exam called the Baccalaureat. However France’s youth were having their own heated discussion on Twitter.

 

 

 

The kids were decidedly hacked off about having to analyze and write about Hugo’s poem called “Dusk”, which is a discussion between life, as played by a piece of grass, and death, represented by a tombstone. The students were not impressed by the 19th century writer’s musings.

 

 

 

“I hate my life right now. F**k. Victor Hugo, man. That bastard Victor Hugo,” wrote @michansakuraba. While @mrhenri18 wrote “F**K YOUR MOTHER VICTOR HUGO”

 

 

 

One chuckling observer collected a selection of the tweets, which he then retweeted, with the comment: “The créme de la créme of Education National pay homage to Victor Hugo after the French Bac.”

 

 

 

The abuse didn't get anyone too excited as it was just students letting off steam after what was probably the most important test of their lives thus far. Not succeeding on the Bac can be a curse in a modern France where education is a byword for professional success.

 

 

 

Hugo may have even been proud of the online walloping he received. He was also not a big fan of the Bac. In fact, Slate dug up a passage from the author in which he trashed the age old French test.

 

 

 

“The masterpieces recommended for the Baccalaureat, the compliments in verse or in prose...all that, though the official and public education is saturated and filled with it, is the past.”

 

 

 

But not every student found Hugo annoying. He's got at least one fan of the teenage Bac takers. @Sorciermarocain wrote "We struggle we stuggle but victor hugo still had flow."