grotius

[grotius]

I will never EVER fall for the Joseph Quinn is attractive propaganda. EVER!!!!!!!

[grotius]

the thing about modern les mis is that les amis would be women

[grotius]

the thing about modern les mis is that les amis would be women

[grotius]

is this ship popular because it’s legitimately compelling or is it popular because it’s the easiest to decontextualize and write college roommate AUs about?

[grotius]

Do you believe there were Russian bots active on Tumblr in 2018?

[grotius]

"jolene", but it's fantine begging javert not to arrest mayor madeleine

thanks to @bam-bo0zle for the inadvertent inspiration 😄

lyrics under the cut

Javert, Javert, Javert, Javert

I'm begging of you, please don't take the mayor

Javert, Javert, Javert, Javert

Please don't take him, Jesus hear my prayer

Your tiger’s smile, your falcon’s eyes

That pierced Monsieur le maire’s disguise

Your big black coat, your whiskers overgrown

I’ll beg; it won’t do any good, this

Whole town knows your heart’s of wood

And I cannot debate with you, Javert

He gives out alms, he feeds the poor

But your dark form fills up the door

In the name  of justice you have come, Javert

And I hate  the way you call him ‘tu’

There’s nothing that I wouldn’t do

To save him from your cuffs and chains, Javert

Javert, Javert, Javert, Javert

I'm begging of you, please don't take the mayor

Javert, Javert, Javert, Javert

Please don't take him, Jesus hear my prayer

If you could set aside the law

Forgive that saintly man one flaw

Without him there’s no hope for me, Javert

I had to have this talk with you

Montreuil-sur-Mer depends on you

And whatever you decide to do, Javert

Javert, Javert, Javert, Javert

I'm begging of you, please don't take the mayor

Javert, Javert, Javert, Javert

Please don't take him, Jesus hear my prayer

[grotius]

DO YOU HEAR THE PEOPLE SING?

[grotius]

Unfortunately people have misinterpreted my post as "people are not allowed to write or read fanfiction ever" so I pulled the plug. I can't stand this website.

[grotius]

i think it's extremely unfair for you to say the actors are spineless. the producers and directors, yes. but the actors were literally having their livelihoods and future career prospects threatened if they spoke out or refused to perform.

grennell, the president of the kennedy center said, “Any performer who isn’t professional enough to perform for patrons of all backgrounds, regardless of political affiliation, won’t be welcomed. In fact, we think it would be important to out those vapid and intolerant artists to ensure producers know who they shouldn’t hire - and that the public knows which shows have political litmus tests to sit in the audience. The Kennedy Center wants to be a place where people of all political stripes sit next to each other and never ask who someone voted for but instead enjoys a performance together.”

and, i want to point out, that acting in Les Miserables is a job, not a life commitment or a political statement.

I stand by what I said: every single person involved in putting on the Les Miserables Kennedy center performance was either a spineless coward or a Trump supporter, and they should ALL be utterly ashamed of themselves. They're an insult to the novel's legacy. I'm shocked people are defending it. I used to sometimes wonder whether Victor Hugo's actions-- speaking up against Napoleon III's attacks on democracy-- were genuinely that important. After all, it's not like Hugo literally shot Napoleon III in battle or raised barricades against him with his own two hands-- he just used his platform to publicly criticize Napoleon III's attacks on democracy, knowing that he was doing it at a great personal risk. And he was right about the risks-- publicly speaking against Napoleon III did radically change Hugo's life, it did radically alter the course of his career, he did lose a lot of the power he used to have, and he was forced into exile away from everything he knew.

And Les Miserables was the product of that sacrifice. it is the novel he wrote from exile, and it is thematically about his exile. It is a novel that was written as a defense of the principles of a democratic republic, and as an encouragement for people to speak truth to power and stand against tyrants even when it came at great personal risk. But like... I'm honestly starting to respect Hugo's sacrifice a lot more now that multiple people have reached out to me claiming that it's ridiculous to ask that people starring in a musical adaptation of Victor Hugo's novel accept any level of personal discomfort to stand up to a modern dictator. I'm obsessed with the idea that Les Miserables shouldn't have to mean anything-- that these performers can cosplay as revolutionaries Risking it All to stand Up to Powerful People, while also being spineless cowards claiming they can't accept any personal discomfort/risk whatsoever to stand up to an actual modern dictator. Even when- again!-- they are starring in a story that is literally the product of Hugo's personal sacrifice standing up against Napoleon III! No, I wouldn't care as much if it were some piece of hollow corporate trash like "Back to the Future the musical" or some other garbage. I wouldn't' even care as much if it were another hollow "stick it to the man musical" like Wicked, where all the revolution theming is just hollow window dressing. I do care when it's Les Miserables, because the original novel was written by a man who WAS willing to make that personal sacrifice, and wrote the novel ABOUT that sacrifice. I care that now these people are making their living off of Victor Hugo's legacy-- but start crying about how "they're just poor smol beans who can't do anything uwu" when asked to make even a fraction of the sacrifice that he did, the sacrifice that Les Miserables is about, the sacrifice it exists to encourage. Thousands of people were out on the street demonstrating this weekend to send a message to Donald Trump-- and when this group of artists had a direct line to make a statement to him, the thing thousands of people are out on the streets trying to get, they cowered in fear and refused. Instead they sang to make him feel good, like he was the Hero of the musical--something he already believes-- all while playing pretend as brave revolutionaries making big risks. A democratic lawmaker was shot to death this weekend, but asking a performer to care about the meaning of the art they're profiting off of is "too big of a sacrifice." give me a break. Despite everything, I do think art means something. I think art is more than "a job," I think art is more than a hollow corporate product and vehicle for profit. Les Miserables means something, and it's important that it means something.

But that means it's also important to call out the shocking hypocrisy of what the story has been warped into. The novel does have meaning and even the musical does have meaning-- and that's why I am so outraged that people are dismissing that meaning as irrelevant. It's like Orwell's description of art in dystopia as being a simply "a commodity that had to be produced, like jam or bootlaces."

Honestly, if the actors wanted to sing songs about how it's ridiculous to ask them to take any personal risks or sacrifices to speak truth to power.... they shouldn't be in Les Miserables. Instead they should just get onstage and sing this song from The Sound of Music about compromising with Nazis for three hours:

[grotius]

The Les Mis performance for Trump just reminds me of how utterly hollow, toothless, and meaningless all “political” broadway musicals are. It’s especially weird because the original novel Les Miserables was an extremely specific and radical leftist political statement when it was published, and still is radical in many ways today— the musical has just sanded away all its rough edges into toothless hollow platitudes that anyone can consume and feel like it validates them. It’s frustrating how such a relevant political work has been converted into something so empty, so determined not to say anything. All the novel’s systemic criticism/satire of the police is eliminated, the rebellion is made generic and non-specific, the politics sanded away into nothing. The original novel was written as a call to action against Napoleon III, a “president” who declared himself emperor and began dismantling democratic institutions; the modern musical is written so that a president who is doing the same things can watch it and feel that he is the hero.

People criticize Hamilton, but at least when Hamilton did a performance where Mike Pence was in attendance in 2016 they stopped to address him directly and urge his administration to have compassion for immigrants. Hamilton might be liberal or “not leftist enough” but that’s radical in the extremely conservative billionaire-funded world of Broadway, where every musical is carefully designed to be utterly devoid of any coherent political statement.

And the actors, artists, and everyone involved in the performance were too spineless to even address Trump directly, the way that the Hamilton performers did. They make so much money off the shallow aesthetic of revolution while ignoring even the fundamental basics of the political statement that the original novel was written to send.

I don’t know how these performers do it—- the cowardice and hypocrisy would eat me alive.

[grotius]

the way I WISH there was an illustration of éponine, azelma and gavroche at the theatre together, crammed into the balcony à la les enfants du paradis (pictured above) !!!

[grotius]

here at the end of all things

[grotius]

ask and ye shall recieve

also to those who dont know, this radio drama changes courfs name to "paul" for some reason. yeah idk why dont ask

[grotius]

And only Marius and Jean-Valjean failed to die, pfff fucking losers

[grotius]

Barricade Day in Real Time: June 6, 11am

Death of Gavroche. Marius and Combeferre retrieve him and his basket of ammunition. Courfeyrac bandages Marius’s head wound with his cravat. Jean Valjean refuses his allotment of 15 cartridges. Combeferre tends the wounded. Bossuet and Feuilly prepare more cartridges with Gavroche’s gunpowder. Courfeyrac arranges his weapons. Joly checks his tongue in a mirror.

[grotius]

Permets-tu? LES MISÉRABLES (2012) dir. Tom Hooper

[grotius]

It's June 5...