capable-of-being-terrible

[capable-of-being-terrible]

idk if people have talked about this before but one thing that's really special to me about having grown up loving Les Mis is that I used to find it extremely hard to relate to Grantaire because I was an extremely idealistic leftist that didn't understand not having any ideals - but having been forced to realize just how hard it is to actually cause any change, I have gone through phases of deep pessimism that do not improve with the way the state of the world is going.

During those phases, I find myself understanding and sympathizing with Grantaire's psyche so much that I get a lot of serenity from it. And then I sympathize even more with his obsession with Enjolras, because he to me is the personification of idealism, so yes, I do venerate that version of myself, and I do believe in it even when it's hard to believe that change is possible.

I just love Victor Hugo's writing so much and this dynamic has been so helpful for me to work through my complicated relationship with activism.

[capable-of-being-terrible]

enjolras and combeferre have this quirk they inherited from eachother where they speak to animals like theyre people. i think combeferre has a slight bemused lilt to his words but enjolras has been known to ask pets deadly seriously about their current state of affairs.

'I hope you like this toy; I know the colour isn't an issue to you, but- ...yes, you seem to be satisfied.'

'boof'

'I don't understand, but I empathise.'

[capable-of-being-terrible]

Imagine you invite your roommate to hang out with you and your lefty anarchist friends and everyone’s having a great time until roommate starts talking how cool Bill Clinton was and how awesome the American military industrial complex is and how great it is that the American military is present in every country and now you’re the guy who brought the neoliberal to the anarchist meeting and also this guy has never once paid you rent.

Similar thing happened to my good pal Courfeyrac Les Misérables

[capable-of-being-terrible]

victor hugo weaponizing foreshadowing yet again

[capable-of-being-terrible]

eponine thenardier they could never make me hate you

[capable-of-being-terrible]

Just rediscovered potentially the funniest thing I’ve written in recent memory

[capable-of-being-terrible]

Anyone remember that one time instead of saying, "Here's to pretty girls who went to our heads," Jean Prouvaire said, "Here's to pretty boys who went to our heads"?? I think about it every day

And then joly emphasing girls when singing his part, with jehan saying "ah!" After 😭

[capable-of-being-terrible]

Enjoltaire painting study i made at class because that’s obviously very productive (i’ll never finish it so here you have)

[capable-of-being-terrible]

Enjolras était un jeune homme charmant, capable d’être terrible.

[capable-of-being-terrible]

one thing les misérables does so well but can be so agonizing to read is the extent to which certain things are just (deliberately) never resolved or left with their potential unable to be realized -- e.g. jean valjean never sees or hears from his sister or her children again (we're told this straight out) and has to spend the rest of his life half wondering. likewise his sister (presumably) never knew what happened to him. marius takes a diligence the morning after getting the letter instead of the night of & so misses any chance of seeing his father alive & anything they might have said or clarified to each other is just gone. nobody in the book ever understands javert's ultimate character growth or motivations for suicide (none of them even know his backstory!) & in fact they actively misunderstand it. the two little boys who get lost never find their way to where their mother told them to go and never find gavroche again after he dies and maybe never see their mother again. gavroche never makes the connection between the man he saw lecture montparnasse and the man he gave his letter to at the rue de l'homme armé and the man at the barricade. javert never realises that jean valjean was the man at the gorbeau house or how he got away into the convent. jean valjean never finds petit gervais again & can never make up for what he did. fantine dies with javert's revelation that madeleine is jean valjean but without properly knowing what that means or who he is. jean valjean's gravestone is written in pencil that eventually washes away, fantine's grave is never marked, there are bits of the story even the reader never gets to know

[capable-of-being-terrible]

Enjolras posing for Grantaires art is so dear to me

[capable-of-being-terrible]

Enjolras and his three character traits per his introduction:

Hot (yellow)

Will not fuck you (green)

Revolution (red)

[capable-of-being-terrible]

rip enjolras, combeferre, and courfeyrac you would have loved tony kushner's angels in america

[capable-of-being-terrible]

ok, little rant about a use of a leitmotif in les mis that i think has slipped under most people's radars!

so you the know the police leitmotif? the "tell me quickly what's the story/who saw what and why and where/let him give a full description/let him answer to javert!" tune that appears whenever somebody gets arrested?

now turn your ear to javert's suicide, specifically the "i am reaching but i fall/and the stars are black and cold" part. it took me a while to notice, but this whole section of the song is just a snippet of the arrest leitmotif:

but he never completes it. the snippet repeats and repeats. try as he might, he finds himself unable to sing the same old song of Justice and Law and Righteousness and Order. he's like a jammed cassette player spitting out the same second of music over and over and over and over again, unable to follow his old ways, but unable to let them go. he's stuck, but he will keep throwing himself against the walls of the cage.

javert is desperately trying to run on his old tracks of thought, but, as vicky h puts it, he experiences "the derailment of a soul, the shattering of an integrity irresistibly propelled in a straight line and dashed against God".

: )

[capable-of-being-terrible]

I know thematically Grantaire standing up with Enjolras is supposed to be the middle class rising up but I’m confused to how he got there. Can you point out the chapter where Grantaire changes his mind and embraces revolution? I thought he just rants, falls asleep and wakes up in time to die with Enjolras.

That's the thing! Grantaire doesn't join in the fighting, or help with the barricade during the battle. He does just rant, fall asleep, and wake up in time to die with Enjolras. But Enjolras isn't the only moving piece here, so to speak.

Him waking up in time to die with Enjolras is him embracing revolution. But it's not just (or even primarily) because "oh Enjolras was there and Grantaire is in love with Enjolras and has an innate brain buzzer that goes off whenever Enjolras is in danger near him".

(Explanation under the cut for length)

When Grantaire falls asleep, he says "let me sleep here- until I die". This is another expression of his characteristic cynicism about the whole thing- at this point, the barricade is not in immediate danger and things are actually going quite well with its construction. There's no solid reason to assume any of them are definitely going to die... unless you're Grantaire, who thinks revolution is just doomed.

When he wakes up, things are entirely different. The barricade has been overrun. Many of the insurgents are dead. The government has not been toppled and the soldiers have breached the tavern. When Grantaire awakens, he is explicitly described as immediately perceiving what has occurred ("the drunkard... is aware of how things stand"). All at once, he comes to the realization that the government has just killed his very close friends.

Another quote in the OFPD sequence goes "The fuddle of drunkenness, a kind of vapour that blinds the brain, dissipates and gives way to the clear, obsessive, sharply defined claims of reality". This is about literal drunkenness, of course, but I believe also about the nature of Grantaire's philosophy. All of a sudden, the man who previously "had no strong feelings against this government" is seeing and acknowledging just how horrible it is, and how standing against it is a necessity, not merely foolishness.

Grantaire has every selfish reason (which Hugo has earlier derided as being a flaw of the same non-revolutionary inactive subsect of the populace that Grantaire is posited to represent) to just. continue not to act! He could quite possibly fake sleep and save himself and twist these circumstances to prove his worldview correct and justified (that revolution will always fail, that it's not worth the sacrifice, that nothing can change, etc.)

But he doesn't.

He stands up and says "Long live the Republic". Not long live Enjolras. Not even long live the ABC Society, or long live my friends, or anything referencing solely the 'personal' losses he's just incurred. No, he says "Long live the Republic"- the greater cause. The ideological cause. The abstract principle which the others fought for, and which he'd so frequently mocked. He's not even purely reactive to his circumstances in this instance! He has an actual political conviction!

And then he goes and stands and dies beside Enjolras (who, for his part, has been fully on board with this cause since his introduction). This is the scion of the apathetic, self-serving, mind-your-own-business portion of the populace, and he is standing beside the representative of the involved, committed, politically engaged, revolutionary portion of the populace. It's foreshadowing of a possible- probable- inevitable future in which all gain conviction and take a stand for the freedom and equality of humanity.

[capable-of-being-terrible]

I have seen a lot of Enjolras and Grantaire pairings over the years, but none have ever seemed more like boyfriends than James D. Gish and Connor Jones on the Les Misérables Arena Spectacular tour, and I need to talk about it.

James' Enjolras is so confident and is so committed to the revolution, but he is also very human and very soft with Grantaire and Gavroche. Througout the show they are seen together like a little family unit, and you can see that Enjolras cares for them both. He's conflicted throughout the show, and is very protective over them both.

Connor's Grantaire (and I say this every time I see him) is another level - he is so brick accurate and he portrays Grantaire with so much care. He's the usual drunken R, but he is so gentle and he feels things so deeply. He's anxious, and emotive and cynical, but he wears a mask and pretends to be okay. He's so aware of everything going on and he cares about his friends. And he cares about Gavroche; he's like the little brother that he never had. And he is so enamoured with Enjolras - he doesn't take his eyes off him for more than 2 minutes the whole time they're on stage. Connor Jones Grantaire will always be my favourite.

During Look Down, James' Enjolras is so confident. You can see how much the cause matters to him, and you really believe in him. And he's so human in Red & Black - he's clearly a little bit nervous, but when he looks to Grantaire and sees that he is smiling at him, he gets a boost of confidence. It's really sweet, and I've never seen that before. When he sings "don't let the wine go to your brains", he's poking fun at Grantaire and offers him a cheeky smile, which makes Grantaire laugh too.

Connor's Grantaire holds his wine bottle up to the roof in reply, laughing, and is reprimanded by another student. He, playfully, stands to attention and listens to Enjolras again following that. He goes towards Enjolras once he finishes singing, but immediately stops when Marius walks in and takes to teasing him. Enjolras speaks to the other students and intervenes before they can tell Grantaire off and tells them he will sort it. But he can't help himself but laugh at him when he's teasing Marius. He pulls himself together and continues with the song, keeping his eyes on Grantaire to make sure he's listening and he looks so proud of himself when he realises he's getting through to him.

Until Grantaire and Marius start up again, and then he looks so defeated but, again, can't help but smile. He's rolling his eyes but he's laughing because he just can't help it when he's watching Grantaire. It was so sweet.

It really was as if he was torn between upsetting Grantaire, and upsetting the rest of the Amis. And it worked really well. He was so relieved at the end of the song when Grantaire stopped joking around. He verbally said "YES" when Grantaire said "give me brandy on my breath and I'll breathe them all to death".

THESE TWO. They are such boyfriends.

Grantaire looks so concerned when Gavroche tells the Amis that Lamarque has died, and he runs straight over to him to make sure he's safe as the students prepare. He takes such a big drink of his wine and forces a smile onto his face for Enjolras. Enjolras constantly looks at Grantaire during the song, and Grantaire is doing the same but with so much love and pride in his eyes. James' Enjolras is so confident in what he believes in, but he is so soft with Grantaire and I really love that choice. While Grantaire stands with Gavroche, Enjolras is constantly seen walking over to them both and they really do seem like a little family. 

As Grantaire sings "let's give them a screwing they'll never forget", Enjolras looked at him with so much pride and smiled so wide once the words processed in his mind. 

After Èponine died, Enjolras was looking behind himself like a lost puppy and Grantaire stumbled forward and offered him his hand with so much desperation to try and help the man he loves. But Enjolras pulled away from the hold when Valjean clambered onto the barricade, leaving Grantaire holding his arm out. Gavroche gave him a little nudge but R looked so broken and upset. He literally growled the "a volunteer like you" line through gritted teeth.

After Enjolras shoots down his "so the war is won" line, he shakes his head and rolls his eyes as he walks to the back of the stage. It's at this point that you can see that Grantaire is really understanding that they're all going to die. He drinks some more and sits with Gavroche as Valjean and Javert have their confrontation.

At the start of Drink With Me, Grantaire stumbles (again) to the front of the stage, looking around at his friends and taking in what they're saying. He holds his arms up and then a few of the Amis stand up and storm towards him as he sings his part (with such a broken voice). But before they can get to him, Enjolras pulls them back and pushes them away from Grantaire, and they both look at each other on the "will the world remember you when you fall?" line, with Enjolras placing a comforting hand on Grantaire's shoulder.

But Grantaire pushes him away in his hurt and frustration, and Enjolras looks so concerned and upset. He looks around at the other students to see whether they're all watching too before just staring at R with so much sadness. He tries again to comfort him, putting both of his hands on his shoulders and leading him away as Gavroche runs up to them and throws his arms around him.

AND THE LOOK ON ENJOLRAS' FACE. OH MY GOD. IT SAID SO MUCH.

He wanted so much to be the one to hug Grantaire, you could tell. He was trying so hard not to cry, and it was gut-wrenching. He looked so sad, and so broken, and let out such an exasperated breath (he looked like he was going to have a panic attack, I'm not exaggerating) before forcing a smile onto his face for the other students.

The death scene is staged a little differently in the Arena Spectacular, but Grantaire still holds Gavroche and he still looks around for Enjolras and Enjolras gives him a small nod before they're both killed (do you permit it? vibes).

During Empty Chairs at Empty Tables, Enjolras, Grantaire and Gavroche stand together at the top of the stage like the little family that they are, and are together at the end for the finale too.

In conclusion, I love them, your honour. James D. Gish and Connor Jones will go down in history for their ExR. I hope we get an official recording with this cast, or I hope they do a stint in London in the future.

They ARE Enjoltaire.

[capable-of-being-terrible]