Victor Hugo is best known for his novels Les MIserables and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Though it’s probably more accurate to say that he is best known for going off on extremely long tangents in said novels. Such as the infamous twenty six pages about the Paris sewer system. Though really, the eighteen chapters about the Battle of Waterloo are more egregious. But today we’re talking about Victor Hugo and science. And not just because he was really not planning on anyone reading the line “Who can calculate the course of a molecule?” and responding with “Ooh! Ooh! I can!”
This post will go on considerably fewer tangents
Asteroid 24601
There are a lot of asteroids in our solar system. For the most part, they just have numbers rather than names. But there’s no rule saying that you’re not allowed to name them. And when Lubos Kohoutek reached number 24601, he saw his chance and he took it. When you’ve reached that iconic prisoner number, you’re practically obligated to name it Valjean.
Valejan at least we see each other plain.
And since at least half my readership is probably wondering, no, it was not announced with “There… out in the darkness… an asteroid floating.” Presumably because the discovery happened in 1971 and thus the musical did not yet exist to reference like that.
Agra eponine
On the other hand, when Terry Erwin named this Costa Rican beetle, he absolutely was referencing the musical. There are a lot of beetles out there that need naming, and as we’ve seen before, literary references are a great way to take care of that.
In any version of Les Miserables, Eponine is certainly a tragic figure. But it’s the musical that gave her the association of tragic beauty, mostly by giving her a way better song than Cosette (sorry Cosette, you’re really not the best developed character in the show). The name is intended as a reference to the plight of the beetle’s habitat.
The Quasimodo Gene
Is anyone surprised to see a fruit fly gene on here? Fruit fly geneticists are well known for having a great deal of fun with their gene naming. The Quasimodo gene codes for a protein involved in the effect of light on cicardian rhythm. On the surface, the link between that an a hunchbacked bellringer is less than obvious. Most genes associated with cicardian rhythm are named things like “timeless” and “period”, creatively enough.
He’s a distinctive looking guy as seen in this painting by Antoine Wiertz
I suppose one could make a case for the name coming from ringing bells to mark time. Of course, the real explanation is that mutations in the Quasimodo gene lead to a deformed thorax. Almost making them look like they have a hunched back. Speaking of which…
Assorted Quasimodo Species
Some characters just have such distinctive physical characteristics that scientists can’t resist naming multiple species after them. I’ve talked about Yoda and Gollum before, but it should be no great surprise that there are also a lot of species named for Quasimodo. Anything that has that sort of curved back shape that makes people think of the character. Including a snail, a sea creature, a millipede, a wasp and a spider. While the list is mostly assorted creepy crawlies, there is even at least one plant.
That’s probably even better recognition than having the greatest Disney villain song of all times in the adaptation.
For the record, while I think that it’s right and proper that Hugo’s work has been honoured in this way, I still have not forgiven him for Waterloo.