pontmercysamis

[pontmercysamis]

goth enjolras propaganda

not enough enjolras headcanons let him actually enjoy things

-i think he’d have fun with goth challenging all the aspects of societal beauty standards that he fits into, like i think he’d enjoy not dressing “as he should” as a way of having control over his appearance and the way others perceive him

-he has a mullet

-goth fashion is all diy/thrift/small business based, gives him a hobby and doesn’t participate in fast fashion

-i think he’d like vision video, a lot of deathrock, let him listen to loud music (im working on a playlist)

-his fixation with death/entering a tomb flooded with dawn -> gothic iconography/symbolism

-i also just think he’d like horror

-the joining of individuality and community

-androgyny

[pontmercysamis]

Nothing dystopian about performing Les Misérables in the Israel state? We're not going to mention how fucking crazy that is? During Nakba? In Tel Aviv? Nakba? Nakba? Genocide? To zionist audience? K.

Only dystopian when performing in front of fascists in the USA? K.

[pontmercysamis]

[pontmercysamis]

marius and cosette are so similar in their thoughts and feelings and traumas but marius seems more stoic and aloof because hes adapted to not let himself feel his feelings and is stunted in how to express them and cosette seems more bubbly because she was never socialized and didnt learn how to interact with other people and is used to pretending to be happy to put other peoples feelings before her own

[pontmercysamis]

another thing with the whole kennedy center mess is that like. “do we fight for the right to a night at the opera now” is an actual, real line from the musical. what the hell is happening over there. i know unfortunately the musical is basically apolitical at this point but also can we have media literacy please

[pontmercysamis]

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:

[pontmercysamis]

shoutout to @fifibobeefy for the idea

[pontmercysamis]

Hello! Do you enjoy my content about Asian stuff to do with Les Mis?? Please check out this account, @asian-les-mis-week, for a whole week of celebration from the second week of July!

Please join in if you like Shoujo Cosette, Arai's manga, Kundan, and many, many other works. Also join in if you want to submit a whole new fiction or non fiction work by you!! <33

If you want inspiration, you can go to my pinned post to see any content that can spark your memory or inspiration!

I have been treated very well by the fandom so far, and I'm thankful for the community I have here. So please join me on my endeavours of creating Asian shenanigans.

I hope to see you on that week!

[pontmercysamis]

imagine ur Marius and ur life was just saved by ur future father in law who so tenderly cared for you and even referred to you as “son” but the moment u became fully conscious he’s decided he barely even knows you and can’t even look you in the eye even though all you ever wanted was a father

BUY @medium-observation ‘S VIDEO WHEN THIS COMES OUT YALL

[pontmercysamis]

Les Mis quotes for Protest Signs

Not being heard is no reason for silence

You ask me what forces me to speak? a strange thing; my conscience.

There is nothing like a dream to create the future

The future has several names. For the weak, it is impossible; for the fainthearted, it is unknown; but for the valiant, it is ideal.

There is always more misery among the lower classes than there is humanity in the higher.

If you wish to understand what Revolution is, call it Progress; and if you wish to understand what Progress is, call it Tomorrow.

Let us sacrifice one day to gain perhaps a whole life

There comes an hour when protest no longer suffices; after philosophy there must be action; the strong hand finishes what the idea has sketched.

To lie a little is not possible: he who lies, lies the whole lie.

The brutalities of progress are called revolution

There are accepted revolutions, revolutions which are called revolutions; there are refused revolutions, which are called riots.

Let us fear ourselves. Prejudices are the real robbers; vices are the real murderers. The great dangers lie within ourselves.

The guilty one is not he who commits the sin, but he who causes the darkness

Revolutions are not born of chance but of necessity

No army can stop an idea whose time has come

[pontmercysamis]

grantaire when marius in love at last:

[pontmercysamis]

natalie goodman post coming i promise. les amis headcanons coming. url change coming. the brain. the time.

[pontmercysamis]

in relation to a similar post I made about this

[pontmercysamis]

"i asked chatgpt" well i calculated the number of the beast. it is napoleon. six hundred three score and six. and i will kill him one day. he's no great man, none of us are great men, we're caught in the waves of history. nothing matters; everything matters, it's all the same. Oh, if only I could not see it, that dreadful, terrible, it.

[pontmercysamis]

a lot of iterations of marius pontmercy really don’t resonate with me. so many vacuous flanderizations of my pookie. book marius is actually so rad and there are so many things about him that i love sooo much that don’t come across at all in most interpretations of him that i see, esp with fanon.

like marius is deeply untethered. he has a screw loose. he has anxiety. he has daddy issues AND granddaddy issues. his daddy issues are actually why he gets so attached to bonapartism, and after listening to courfeyrac and the amis talk about politics and getting KO’d in the first round by combeferre when he tries to debate them he has an entire dark night of the soul surrounding his beliefs. he also has no friends other than bestie courfeyrac (adorable) and bestie mabeuf (old ass man, also adorable).

he’s also hella emo. he goes on hot girl walks in the middle of the night. he wears all black and sulks. his grandpa calls him a blood-drinker. when he finds out cosette is leaving he goes to the barricades hoping he’ll die. he even writes weird awesome prose about her in his lil diary likeeee im telling you marius pontmercy walked so pete wentz could run.

no but yeah he’s definitely just that milquetoast straight friend no one likes… just some loser… a total normie… okay…

[pontmercysamis]

Actual quote was like, "He should have been dancing at the Chaumière, as young people have a moral obligation to do."

One more late contribution to Barricade Week. I think M. Gillenormand is one of my favorite characters from the book. He is not a very good guardian, but everything he does is so funny. I had to pause at the end of this chapter to draw this.