Chapter 3
Volume 3: 3: Marius · Book 1: 1: Paris Atomised I
3: He is Agreeable
Chapter 3Visible text2 paragraphs
IN the evening, by means of a few pennies which he always manages to scrape together, the homuncio goes to some theatre. By the act of passing that magic threshold, he becomes transfigured; he was a gamin, he becomes a titi. Theatres are a sort of vessel turned upside down with the hold at the top ; in this hold the titi gather in crowds. The titi is to the gamin what the butterfly is to the grub; the same creature on wings and sailing through the air. It is enough for him to be there with his radiance of delight, his fulness of enthusiasm and joy, and his clapping of hands like the clapping of wings, to make that hold, close, dark, foetid, filthy, unwholesome, hideous, and detestable, as it is, a very Paradise.
Give to a being the useless, and deprive him of the needful, and you have the gamin.