#Antithesis in Les Mis

[fruity-pontmercy]

Les Mis adaptations and apolitical appropriation

I think it's no secret on this blog that I love the original Les Mis 1980 concept album in French, and that I also love comparing different versions of the stage musical. I've noticed that Les Mis seems to get progressively more vaguely apolitical as time goes on, not only in the way it's viewed in our culture, but in the actual text as well.

It's natural for specifics to be lost in adaptation. It's easier to get people to care about 'the people vs. the king' in a relatively short musical rather than actually facing the audience with the absolute mess that were 19th century french politics (monarchist orleanists vs monarchist legitimists vs imperialist vs bonapartist democrats vs every flavour of republican imaginable). Still, I feel that as time goes on, as more revivals and adaptations of the stage musical come out, the more watered down its politics become. Like, Les Mis at it's core is just meant to be a fancily written, drawn out political essay, right?

In a way I feel that the 1980 concept album almost tried to modernise it with its symbols of progress. Yes, through Enjolras' infamous disco segment (and other similar allusions to the ideals of social change), but perhaps most interestingly to me, through one short line that threw me off when I first heard it, because it seems so insignificant, but might actually be the most explicitly leftist line of all of Les Mis.

"Son coeur vibrait à gauche et il le proclama" (roughly "His heart beat to the left and he proclaimed it" i.e: he was a leftist) Feuilly says, while speaking of the now dead général Lamarque in Les Amis de L'ABC.

What's that? An actual mention of leftism??? in MY vaguely progressive yet apolitical musical??? More seriously, this mention of leftism, clashing with the rest of the musical due to it's seeming anachronism, is interesting not because it's actually more political than anything else in Les Mis, rather, because it's not scared to explicitly name what it's trying to do.

But we've come a long way from the Concept Album days, it's been 43 years, and Les Misérables is now one of the most famous and beloved musicals in the entire world. It's been revived and reimagined and adapted in a million ways, in different mediums, in different languages and countries, and it's clear that it's changed along with it's audience.

On top of pointing out a cool line in my favourite version of the musical, I wanted to write this post to reflect on the perception of the political message of this work. We as a Les Mis fandom on Tumblr are very political, I don't need to tell you that, however, I feel that because this very left leaning space has sprung out of a work we all love so much, we oftentimes forget to revisit it from a more objective point of view.

Les Misérables has a history of being misrepresented, this has been true since it's publication, since american confederate soldiers became entranced with their censored translation Lee's Miserables. However, with it's musical adaptation, this misinterpretation has been made not only more accessible but also easier. As much as I love musical theatre and I think it is at it's best an incredible art form able to communicate complex themes visulally by the masses for the masses, I think it'd be idealistic to ignore the fact that the people who can afford to go see musicals regularly are, usually, not the common folk. Broadway and the West End are industries which, like most, need money to keep them afloat, and are loved people of all political backgrounds (and unfortunately, often older conservatives) not just communists on tumblr. We've seen the way Les Miz UK's social media team constantly misses the mark regarding different social issues, and the way Cameron Makintosh has used the musical to propagate his transphobia, and most of us can agree that these actions are in complete antithesis with the message of Les Misérables as a novel.

But I must ask, how does Les Mis ,as a West End musical in it's current form, actually drive a leftist message, and how are we as a community helping if every time someone relating to the musical messes up if we just claim they "don't get it"?

I'm thinking in particular of incidents like last october, where Just Stop Oil crashed Les Mis at the West End. Whether you think it's good activism or not is not the question I think, this instance is interesting particularly because it shows that, outside of Les Misérables analysis circles and fandom spaces, it is not recognised as an inherently leftist, political or activist work, and instead of just saying they completely missed the point of the musical, I think it'd be interesting to take a step back and look at what the musical as it stands actually represents in our culture today.

I don't pretend to have all the answers, so I won't try to give one, but I do hope we can reflect on this a bit.

[thevagueambition]

A concept I'm obsessed with, and which makes a substantial appearance in Enjolras' barriacde scenes, is the concept of moral martyrdom

The ends don't justify the means, but that does not mean that awful means are never not to achieve just goals. The powerful do not give up their power on a whim. All that the people has, the people has fought for.

If natural law can judge all existing law only in criticizing its ends, then positive law can judge all evolving law only in criticizing its means. If justice is the criterion of ends, legality is that of means. Notwith­standing this antithesis, however, both schools meet in their common basic dogma: just ends can be attained by justified means, justified means used for just ends. Natural law attempts, by the justness of the ends, to "justify" the means, positive law to "guarantee" the justness of the ends through the justification of the means. This antinomy would prove insoluble if the common dogmatic assumption were false, if justified means on the one hand and just ends on the other were in irreconcilable conflict. Critique of Violence, Walter Benjamin

When Enjolras liquidates Cabuc for killing a civillian, Enjolras does the necessary and in so doing condemns himself.

"Citizens," said Enjolras, "what that man did is frightful, what I have done is horrible. He killed, therefore I killed him. I had to do it, because insurrection must have its discipline. Assassination is even more of a crime here than elsewhere; we are under the eyes of the Revolution, we are the priests of the Republic, we are the victims of duty, and must not be possible to slander our combat. I have, therefore, tried that man, and condemned him to death. As for myself, constrained as I am to do what I have done, and yet abhorring it, I have judged myself also, and you shall soon see to what I have condemned myself." [...] "In executing this man, I have obeyed necessity; but necessity is a monster of the old world, necessity's name is Fatality. Les Mis 4.12.8

If the uprising had become a revolution and if said revolution had succeeded in making the world Enjolras was imagining, Enjolras would not think he had a place in that world. Achieving the just would not wipe his hands clean of what he has done with them to build it. What he has done is horrible and doing horrible things is the purvey of necessity -- not of the righteous future he glimpses from the barricade's horizon.

"What a pity!" said Combeferre. "What hideous things these butcheries are! Come, when there are no more kings, there will be no more war. Enjolras, you are taking aim at that sergeant, you are not looking at him. Fancy, he is a charming young man; he is intrepid; it is evident that he is thoughtful; those young artillery-men are very well educated; he has a father, a mother, a family; he is probably in love; he is not more than five and twenty at the most; he might be your brother." "He is," said Enjolras. "Yes," replied Combeferre, "he is mine too. Well, let us not kill him." "Let me alone. It must be done." And a tear trickled slowly down Enjolras' marble cheek. At the same moment, he pressed the trigger of his rifle. Les Mis 5.1.8

The sergeant is Enjolras' brother, his comrade, his neighbour -- he is another human being whom Enjolras would prefer to treat with the care and dignity all human beings ought to be afforded. He is not the opressor class, but simply a tool of them -- a young man similar to Enjolras in all but ideology.

There is literal martyrdom, where one dies for the cause, and there is moral martyrdom, where one sacrifices one's clean hands, one's peace of mind, for the cause. Enjolras does both.

"I've given up all chance at inner peace. I've made my mind a sunless space. I share my dreams with ghosts. I wake up every day to an equation I wrote 15 years ago from which there's only one conclusion, I'm damned for what I do. My anger, my ego, my unwillingness to yield, my eagerness to fight, they've set me on a path from which there is no escape. I yearned to be a savior against injustice without contemplating the cost and by the time I looked down there was no longer any ground beneath my feet. What is my sacrifice? I'm condemned to use the tools of my enemy to defeat them. I burn my decency for someone else's future. I burn my life to make a sunrise that I know I'll never see. And the ego that started this fight will never have a mirror or an audience or the light of gratitude. So what do I sacrifice? Everything!" One Way Out, Andor

[alias-milamber]

Today I completed a Blades in the Dark campaign

Lessons learned:

Blades in the Dark isn't great for a short story-focused campaign

BitD works well for a single-session or a long campaign with the territory/growth rules it defines, less well for short campaigns

Even when I think I'm making a short campaign, it might last a year.

Full improvisation is fun, but if you don't take notes you'll goozle yourself.

"Your Theorycrafting about the nature of the plot is entirely correct" is a vicious Devil's Bargain

As is "I'm not going to tell you, but it gets you two dice"

Write a vague prophetic dream, and use the details later to make them pay attention when you need to.

You can build an entire year long arc on the stupid pun "the bad guy is called Carson. He wants to turn everyone into crabs"

"He wants the whole world in his claws, the shellfish bastard"

A shop full of monkeys-paw magical artifacts that you improvise on the fly is like catnip to players.

Keep a list of random threads you haven't looped back to. Don't bother to check them off, things can mean two things.

If in doubt, add more cultists.

If in doubt, venetian masks.

If in doubt, add an NPC's mirror-verse twin.

"Everyone gets nightmares about being shelled and covered in Mary-rose sauce."

Three handouts:

A Dream Of Seafood

(after a player has eaten of the sacred flesh, disguised as a prawn vol-au-vent)

The world is cold and wet, and you like it that way. The sandy floor below you, the stars above, as it has always been and will always be. In the distance you hear the song of the leviathans, cutting through the ocean water like bagpipes over a mountain hillside. The words mean nothing to you, their song as alien as yours would be to them.

You do not sing your song, sound isn't what you're made for. You are, you see, you feed, you eat.

You obey.

The sandy floor rises up below you in ribbons - you never even process the net that has caught you. Your life flashes before your eyes, hits this moment, and goes beyond into the future.

You see the world above the ocean briefly, before darkness. The smell of wood and others for a long time, and a long descent into clean water. The water scalds and burns, and the life life leaves you, without your presence going with it.

You haunt the flesh of yourself as your shell is peeled back from you. A bath of pink sauce and a bed of puff pastry. Music, and strange people.

A mouth, and darkness.

And despair.

A Dream Of Shellfishness

(The first character to atune to a sacred artifact)

Within your dream you awake. You are underwater, and this seems oppressive and terrifying until you realise that you're breathing the water without difficulty, and then it just seems oppressive and differently terrifying. You breathe in brine, it fills your lungs and then you breathe out again, and beyond your initial panic, a deeper worry sets in.

You are surrounded by stars, refracted by a perfectly clear sea. Above and below you, constellations unrecognised, twinkling gently in the pitch black night. A moving black patch above you can only be a leviathan, its gigantic form gliding through the pitch black sea like a bird of prey. Behind it, the keel of a hunting ship disrupts the surface with its infernal motorised screw engine spinning to try to keep up, but the monstrous creature swims away with no apparent concern. Around you is a barnacle encrusted cage, glowing runes engraved on a wooden frame that you somehow know cannot be broken, even by you.

That's no mean feat, you discover, as a sense of scale kicks in and your perspective shifts. You realise that you could hold that leviathan in the palm of your hand, should you be able to break the cage that surrounds you. You beat against the bars soundlessly, unheard and imperceptable.

A voice, a sound like the antithesis of music, and you see one of the glowing runes go dark on your prison.

Vengeance will be won.

The Crab God's Shanty

(To the tune of the work song from Les Mis)

We sit, we row. Fourty fathoms low. We sail, wind blow, Forty Fathoms Low.

We load cargo, Forty fathoms low, We lift, we stow, Forty fathoms low

The stars, they glow, Forty fathoms low, The tide will flow, Forty fathoms low.

The deep, plateau, Forty fathoms low We see, he know Forty fathoms low.

The undertow, Forty fathoms low, Will make us go, Forty fathoms low

He speaks, bestow, Forty fathoms low, We feed, he grows, Forty fathoms low.

Our life, forgo, Forty fathoms low, The world will know, Thirty fathoms low.

Give up, let go, Twenty fathoms low, He rise shadow, Now ten fathoms low.

He rises slow, Just five fathoms low, Yo ho, heave ho. Claws at your ship bow.

[annachum]

Cosette and radical gentleness

So there is a bunch of variations of ' radicalism ' in Les Mis - radical martyrdom from Fantine, radical Rebellion against injustices from Enjolras, radical redemption and survival from Eponine, etc

But what about radical gentleness?

What about the one thing that Cosette chose to be radical about despite all that that has happened to her?

Cosette chose to be radically gentle as a way to help her heal from traumas, as a way to be an antithesis of the hate and cruelty Monsieur and Madame Thenardier stand for, as a self defense armor from chaos around her

Radical gentleness can literally be a powerful tool of self defense especially in tough times

But please do not mistake gentleness for weakness - some of the gentlest people one may ever meet are actually amongst the strongest. I mean, look at Cosette and Sansa, for starters

Cosette becomes an epitome of Silk Hiding Steel, and her calm energy not only gives a sense of solace to several others, it reminds several others that there is more to life than just barricades, that there CAN be peace even within chaos.

That there can be hope Even in darkness.

[nature-antithesis]

Welcome to Nature Antithesis!

This is a blog dedicated to my project called Nature Antithesis. I'll share here any updates, drabbles, ideas, WIPs and finished chapters, as well as art related to the project and character designs C:

Genre: Sapphic fantasy. Status: WIP. Started: January 2024. Synopsis: A wandering elven druid arrives to a sacred forest during her travels. Townsfolk tell her the forest has been sick for a while and decides to stay until she can help cure it. And then she'll have a fateful meeting with the keeper of the forest, another elven druid, who has been living there for centuries. She's already been looking for a cure for some time already. Will they manage to fix the problem together?

About page with more info.

The story and all updates will be in both English and Spanish. Different posts will be made for writing centric posts, but art posts will have only one. Feel free to mute the one for the other language.

Bienvenide a Nature Antithesis!

Este es un blog dedicado a mi proyecto llamado Nature Antithesis. Postearé aqui cualquier actualización, drabbles, ideas, textos en progreso y episodios terminados, además de artes relacionados con el proyecto o diseños de personaje.

Género: Fantasia sáfica. Estado: En proceso. Empezado: Enero 2024. Sinopsis: Una druida elfa ambulante llega a un bosque sagrado durante sus viajes. Los habitantes de un pueblo de los alrededores le cuentan que el bosque lleva enfermo durante un tiempo y decide quedarse hasta que pueda ayudar a curarlo. Y allí tendrá un encuentro predestinado con la guardiana del bosque, otra druida elfa, que ha estado viviendo en el bosque durante siglos. Ha estado buscando una cura durante un tiempo. Conseguirán solucionar el problema juntas?

Pagina about con más info.

Todos los posts de la historia se harán tanto en inglés como en español. Se harán posts diferentes para cada idioma cuando sean con foco en la escritura, pero los de arte tendrán solo uno. Silencia el tag de la otra lengua si lo prefieres.

🍃 Personal blog: @eirasummers || 🔥 Art blog: @eirasummersart

[distortedplatinum]

Yu-Gi-Oh! OC Week - Day 4: Relationships

Akane's closest relationship is Bruno. They met on accident, but they formed immediately a strong bond because of their similar circumstances.

Bruno is the one that named her Akane since she had no memory. It's meaning is "deep red", and he gave it to her as a joke because she hit a streetlight with the head so strong that her nose started bleeding all over her face.

The first picture comes from chapter 5 and it's also Akane's phone wallpaper. The other one is from chapter 7 and it's the first time she and Antinomy met.

A suo malgrado, cedette e si fece condurre fino all'ascensore, ormai aveva capito che non l'avrebbe lasciata andare tanto facilmente. Ma quali erano le sue intenzioni? Se lo domandò mentre i piani scendevano. Si era andata a cacciare nell'ennesimo guaio ed il seguirlo era l'equivalente di entrare nella tana del leone, oppure nelle sue azioni non vi era alcuna malizia? Lo guardò, era appoggiato contro al muro con le braccia incrociate, il volto era di profilo. Probabilmente sentendosi osservato, girò la testa in sua direzione, facendola sussultare. - Ti faccio paura? La sua espressione estremamente seria si trasformò in un ghigno ed in quel momento le porte dell'ascensore si aprirono. Grazie, pensò. - Non sono qui per farti del male, che tu mi creda o no. Detto ciò, si voltò nella direzione opposta ed entrambi uscirono, ritrovandosi nel parcheggio sotterraneo da cui Akane era arrivata con Carly. Il silenzio era tombale ed ora che si guardava intorno, quel luogo sembrava l'ennesimo spazio liminale che tanto le metteva ansia. Uno dei neon sfarfallava ed i musi delle moto, tutti rivolti verso la strada, sembravano creature dagli occhi malvagi intenti ad osservarla, ad aspettare che facesse un passo falso per attaccarla. Senza rendersene conto aveva accelerato il passo facendo un gran rumore con le scarpe; infatti l'uomo si fermò all'improvviso e sembrò lanciarle un'occhiataccia -che in realtà non vide a causa degli occhiali-. Akane si congelò, tremendamente in imbarazzo. Ecco, si stava rendendo ridicola per l'ennesima volta!

Bruno would do anything to keep her safe, even risking his life. At some point in the story, Akane has a big bounty on her head (for reasons), so she and Bruno escape to Satellite, but Bruno got shot in the shoulder by some thieves and started malfunctioning, yet he still never stopped to protect her because she became very weak (for other reasons). Also during that part Akane is disguised as a man and uses the name Akira.

Akane sees him as her only secure pillar, but feels guilty about that.

After Bruno got shot in Satellite, he suddenly remembers something important and asked himself a question: "What happened...? Why are you a walking corpse, Antithesis...?".

@ygoc-week

[bichaels]

3, 8, and 16 for the violence :shaddab:

this post uses general pronouns throughout! and untagged and slashed because im a coward 😇

3. common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

TNCWII ISNT A BAD GAME!!!!!! like okay its probably one of the weakest, but it has a bad wrap. if you even scratch the surface of the game you'd see its really solid. it had a lot of potential that just... didnt work out because of thq fuckery - look on the wiki, you'll see all the concepts and work that just never saw the light of day. im biased on a few fronts, but trust me, its worth a second chance, play it on dolphin using a keyboard. i really wish it was canon or at least had Respect.

8. screenshot or description of the worst take you've seen on tumblr

this might not be the WORST, but the first that came to mind was this graph. i dont care for the other media but HOW CAN YOU SAY RW/BY HATES WOMEN? what VERSION of rw/by did you WATCH? like im inclined to think the only perception of rw/by you have is from bad-faith RW/DE critiques.

16. you can't understand why so many people like this thing (characterization, trope, headcanon, etc)

HAREM JAU/NE. HAREM JAU/NE. HAREM JAU/NE. its as if we didnt watch the same fucking show. to me his character is like... the antithesis of "harem fodder". you see the man traumatized by the people he's lost and had to kill, especially pyr/rha, being fundamentally changed to the point where he's previously tried to commit combative-suicide, and you think "ah yes. this man would be a serial womanizer that has 47 girls hounding on his dick at any given time". maybe im a bit biased, ive loved him with all my heart for years and years now. he had his brief little macho personality for like 2 volumes max, its like so many people have never seen past his growth after the fact. i wouldnt even be this annoyed if his tag is almost exclusively harem content, or if this content was tagged. good LORD. its all nsfw and untagged and unavoidable. i dont mind seeing nsfw, but it being untagged is a problem to me.

bonus tangentially-related thing: "jau/ne is just a mi/les lu/na self insert" claims are so stupid. not even entertaining this one. cant believe people are still saying this in the year of our lord 2024. leave mil/es "duracell bunny" lu/na alone pleaseee!!!!

[pilferingapples]

Tell me more about Marius and Montparnasse being mirror images of each other :3c

Since you ask, Nonny! But this will be a Long Post:

they really do get the same physical description: 

Marius was, at this epoch, a handsome young man, of medium stature, with thick and intensely black hair, a lofty and intelligent brow, well-opened and passionate nostrils...As his mouth was charming, his lips the reddest, and his teeth the whitest in the world, his smile corrected the severity of his face, as a whole. At certain moments, that pure brow and that voluptuous smile presented a singular contrast. ( 3.6.1, Hapgood translation)

A lugubrious being was Montparnasse. Montparnasse was a child; less than twenty years of age, with a handsome face, lips like cherries, charming black hair, the brilliant light of springtime in his eyes; he had all vices and aspired to all crimes. 3.7.3

--both got that Snow White thing going on:P   Hugo doesn’t bring in physical descriptions a lot in Les Mis; when he does, it’s for reasons beyond just painting a visual--generally to evoke a Type and/or some hefty Symbolism (always Some Symbolism, tbh, it’s Hugo).

More importantly, though, Hugo sets up Marius and Montparnasse as being different sides of the same virtue/vice.  Marius gets chapters talking about Heroic he is and how his poverty actually improves his nature because Marius overcomes it by working . Montparnasse, by contrast, is led into a life of violent crime because he wants to be idle.

There is like... a World of Concepts to delve into there, but in contrast with Montparnasse , it’s clear what specific fate Marius is being saved from by his time of poverty. He is, by choosing to refuse either debt or the safety of his family wealth, essentially refusing to become the kind of wealthy asshole that Bamatabois and Tholomyes are. It’s a life that would be very easy for Marius to have-- a life that Gillenormand is even sort of pushing him towards, though Gillenormand would doubtless find Tholomyes sorts to be impossibly dull and classless. It’s a life Montparnasse is willing to kill for , literally. And it’s a nice damn life! --If you don’t mind being the absolute worst sort of person, a person who cares for nothing but image, and who lives at a self-imposed distance from everyone else; someone who helps no one and wouldn’t know where to start if they wanted to, but hurts a lot of people and never cares, because caring is ever so uncouth.

Hugo really does see idleness as massively dangerous, at best--a soul-destroying thing. It’s portrayed as an injustice that Valjean can’t get work , not just that he just can’t have food because Humans Need Food. Part of the wrong Tholomyes commits against Fantine is taking her away from the habit of work ; it’s an important part of her Hope Spot in M-sur-M that she gets to enjoy Honest Work again, and earning her living by labor. To force Idleness on to another, or lead them into a Lack Of Work, is treated in  Les Mis as a moral wrong. For working people to not have work available is a condemnation of the system!  Again, it’s not about money (though Hugo definitely thinks work should pay enough to live on), the work itself is treated as something essential. For someone to choose idleness for themselves by that logic is...what, practically moral self-harming?,and a kind of deep depravity.

(Hugo does not like this ideal of the dandy. He does like flâneurs, though! That’s definitely something I want to get into more later, given how often the two are conflated....)

Anyway, Montparnasse is damned by the exact vice that Marius saves himself by avoiding--a vice that is, in Hugo’s moral universe, a very  big deal (as I try and fail to reckon with here).  This makes Montparnasse the crucial Example A for Hugo’s insistence on the valorization of Marius’  decision to work through his poverty! Work redeems Marius from the dangers of Idleness--and for Hugo, those are real and desperate dangers, that really do lead to crime.

BUT WAIT THERE’S MORE!

Even before the Gorbeau raid, Marius is always vulnerable to the damnation of Idleness. He’s prone to slip from thinking into daydreaming; he veers away from work when he thinks it might cut into his independence and Reverie Time. The narrative is not entirely negative about this with Marius, but it is  treated as a potential weakness-- something fine while, and only while, it’s kept in check by his habits of work and thought.

Because, post-Gorbeau mansion, Marius  really does  start to fall to the Demon of Idleness!  He stops working altogether; he goes into debt,  Gasp!; he loses the habit of work , he loses focus, he spirals into depressions and goes into pointless, directionless obsession with Cosette and starts spending all his time in The Field of The Lark, a field famous, though Marius doesn’t know it, for being the site of a murder .  Murder most Romantic, yet, committed over a passion. Marius is, at this point, symbolically mixing the role of lover and killer; as Montparnasse also does, rather less symbolically. 

And hey, why is Marius spiraling into The Hell of Idleness? 

Because of A Girl. Or rather, because of the Ideal Future he’s projecting off his interactions with that girl.  What was the Start of Darkness for Montparnasse, again? 

The first grisette who had said to him: “You are handsome!” had cast the stain of darkness into his heart, and had made a Cain of this Abel. (3.7.3, Hapgood)

Now obviously the grisette who complimented Montparnasse isn’t responsible for his murders, any more than Cosette is responsible for Marius pining his life away in The Field of Dramatic Murder Symbolism. I don’t think Hugo means to genuinely blame the women for the men’s behavior at all-- but both Marius and Montparnasse do  start their downward slide in pursuit of the elaborate head-canons about their own futures that a woman’s attention inadvertently sparked.

BUT WAIT !! THERE’S MORE! 

Marius and Montparnasse are both romantic interests for Eponine (and both are dead ends, with Marius representing a healthy future that she can’t have and Montparnasse representing the doomed future she doesn’t want). Both of them try (ineffectually) to act as guides and friends to Gavroche. Both of them do feel a certain duty to Thenardier, not so much for his own sake--neither of them owe him squat-- as because of an existing sense of duty to others. Both of them do  have a sense of loyalty to their friends, -- just as they share a potentially damning vice in Idleness, they both share a real virtue in their sense of loyalty and duty to comrades.  Note that this is a real  sense of duty and loyalty for Montparnasse as well as for Marius--he really does take a risk to free the rest of the Patron Minette!  But Montparnasse has given that loyalty to horrible people for a horrible cause. 

Also-- while they do  both have a  real sense of loyalty to their groups (groups where they are the junior members), they are also both prone to getting distracted from those friends and their goals by romantic interests-- Marius may be far more serious in his love for Cosette than Montparnasse in his flirting with Eponine, but they do both have this tendency to romantic distraction! That Marius, at the barricade, overcomes his to take his post again , while Montparnasse toooootally flubs his role in P-M’s Gorbeau scheme because it’s Flirting Time, is another manifestation of the Curse of Idleness, really. 

So yeah: Two dark-haired fresh-faced young Romantic beauty types, sharing in common a (potentially) Fatal Flaw and a (potentially) saving Core Virtue, sharing similar relationships to their relative social groups and  to specific characters. Both Very Good At Violence; both set into a new course of life by the sudden awareness of their potential future, prompted by a woman’s attention. --And I didn’t even get into the importance they both put on presentation (though in very different ways, again reflecting their crucial divergence)!   

Montparnasse is who Marius might easily have become if he’d been willing to Coast on his money and status-- oh, Marius would have been a murderer in the way Tholomyes and Bamatabois are murderers, then, not likely the hands-on style Montparnasse has (though then again, Marius is  prone to passionate overreaction...) .  But, as the narrative links between Montparnasse and those two emphasize, it’s really not such a great difference.  Montparnasse is the shadow haunting Marius, a reminder of why his dedication to work and independence is so crucial. And the ways Montparnasse and Marius diverge from each other are a constant, complicated combo of choices and circumstances changing very similar people into two utterly different lives. 

[transrevolutions]

I realized something interesting today.

Almost every major character in Les Mis is an archetype, an allegory for something else.

Of course, the most obvious example of this is Javert. He ‘is’ the law, the relentless, unforgiving, unyielding law. He personifies the almost inhuman side of the law, the one which condemns people to worse fates than the crimes they committed just because a document tells them to. He is the epitome of a cop.

Then there’s Jean Valjean, who’s the archetype of lawless morality. He does his best to do what’s right, even if it means breaking the set-in-stone laws that Javert adheres his moral code to. Jean Valjean is a paragon, a man who chooses, each day since his release, to do the morally right thing, or at least he does his best to do the morally right thing.

Thenardier is the embodiment of capitalist greed and selfishness. Much the way Javert is the dark parallel to Valjean’s good side, he’s more-or-less the dark parallel to Valjean’s bad side the only-living-for-survival, criminal, bitter side. He’s a con man, a swindler, and he is abusive and dishonest- everything Valjean could be but chooses not to. He’s also very much a product of the system he attempts to manipulate.

Fantine is the victim, the mother, the naïve and innocent one, who is the one the world has done unfairly dirty. Forced to grow up too fast, abandoned by her lover, and forced to give up her own daughter to survive, Fantine is rightfully angry but also genuinely soft-hearted and kind. Then she dies early on, of course, fully cementing her as the foremost victim of the story, as well as the catalyst for the remaining segments of the book.

Cosette, however, is the example of peacetime, of hope, and of simple joy. She’s a little bit naïve as well, and although she grew up as one of the ‘miserables’, by luck and by fate she has risen above her beginnings- perhaps the opposite of Fantine in that way, who started so high and fell so low. She is everything peaceful, good, and pure in the world.

Marius is foolish youth and young love. He’s the epitome of the awkward teen (young adult? Same thing). He is confused, grew up sheltered, and lacks strong moral convictions at first due to this. Gillenormand (who isn’t important enough to get his own segment but is the representative for conservativism) is partially the cause of this. He’s also strongly emotional- he follows his heart, not his head. Which explains how immediately and obsessively he is attracted to Cosette, because Marius, like many young folks, never does things halfway.

Enjolras represents the fight, but the positive fight. He’s basically the ‘hero’ in every children’s book, with a one-track mind and a perceived duty to fulfill. He’s untouchable much in the way that Cosette almost is, because he also represents the ‘good’ in the world, but rather than the already-there good (Cosette), he embodies the fight for good, and the hard-won good. 

Grantaire is literally skeptical philosophy and nihilism condensed into a person. He’s the opposite of Enjolras in that Enjolras believes to the point of self-destruction and Grantaire disbelieves to the point of self-destruction. He’s in love with Enjolras because Enjolras completes him (and in their last scene together, Enjolras realizes somewhat that Grantaire completes him as well). He’s also a metaphor for the people of Paris, who sleep but eventually, someday, rise up. He’s not especially likeable, he’s extraordinarily irritating, but he’s there, and he’s important all the same.

Gavroche is freedom. He’s also childhood, and the two are often one and the same. He does what he wants to, has free reign of the streets, and takes absolutely zero shit from anyone (you go little dude). He’s also an example of how the good in human nature prevails even through difficult and hard times- Gavroche is that little kid in everyone who just wants to run around and be free. He’s also a little snark, even to people like cops who could hurt him for it. Life lesson- be like Gavroche.

Now there’s one exception to this unstated ‘rule’- that each major character represents a quality- is an ideal rather than simply a person. That exception is Eponine.

Which is really interesting, in a lot of ways. Eponine is hard to pin down. Eponine is somewhat morally grey- she does hide Cosette’s letter and bully her as a child- but she is also kind in her own way, and will do anything for who she cares about. She’s a little awkward- not Marius-level awkward, but insecure and unsure of herself. She’s lonely in a world of strangers, but she finds a little joy in her friendships. She’s described as ragged but beautiful, which is an interesting use of antithesis by Hugo.

Eponine is tough, hardened, and sharpened by years of abuse and life on the streets. She’s also soft-around-the-edges and has moments of genuine, almost childlike innocence, like when she’s so happy to learn how to read. Eponine’s motives are equal parts selfless and selfish, hard and soft. 

So as far as I can tell, Eponine is a paragon of humanity. She’s the humanest of humans, not an ideal nor a vice, but a complex, easily-forgotten, beautiful, ugly, beloved, unloved human. That’s what makes her so different from the others- she’s the prism amid all the colors. And then she dies too, and in time is almost forgotten, just as so many humans are. 

But she’s vital- her little actions, like finding Cosette, saving Marius’s life, stopping the robbery at Rue Plumet- had impacts. Though few of the characters recognized it, without Eponine, the story would’ve ended very, very differently.

[adamsvanrhijn]

Les Mis makes me very mean which is in some ways the antithesis of the novel but like, most of these people haven’t even read the novel, so how would they know that for sure?

[elbiotipo]

Yo empecé a ver Big Mouth con?? No se estaba en la secundaria cuando empecé, pero la verdad que si tienen esas escenas súper bizzaras y humor tipo de shock. Tipo no creo que un adulto que lo mire necesariamente sea pedo, pero si creo qué hay momentos que los chistes pasan al asco (en especial comparando las últimas temporadas (que son un asco) con la primera, lo que es una cagada por que los temas que tocan ahora son importantísimos, y no deberían arruinarlo haciéndolo tan burdo).

Aun así me parece muy inteligente porque básicamente es el antithesis de South Park, tipo esta hecho para que los adolescentes tipo pre púber que están a esa edad que estas buscando contenido “edgy” para ver que tenga chistes subidos de tono y cosas que tus padres no les gustarías que veas (por eso yo creo hay gran parte de esas escenas exageradas y asquientas). Y yo de una prefiero que un chico de esa edad termine viendo Big Mouth que South Park, así ve los mismos chistes pelotudos pero al menos aprende algo.

Hmm, no sé porque no lo miré y creo que ya dije que no tengo intenciones de hacerlo :v pero me parece que si tu serie ya de por sí es más famosa por los “chistes” asquerosos que tiene que por su trama o mensajes o lo que sea... me parece que ya fracasó en tratar de esos temas importantes...

O sea ni voy a pretender que todo lo que consumo es intelectual o con mensajes sanos, yo he mirado y disfrutado muchas cosas con humor de cuarta, tramas edgy, fanservice, etc... pero por lo general nunca pretenden ser algo más que eso ni te quieren “educar”, como que no me cierra la idea de “sí esta serie tiene un humor asqueroso y toca temas de una forma super turbia, pero TAMBIÉN ENSEÑA BUENOS MENSAJES Y VALORES” la verdad...

Igual si hay gente a la que le gustó no le voy a decir que le deje de gustar, no es mi problema tampoco. Para mí hay series, libros, películas, etc. que tocan mucho mejor esos temas de la pubertad, depresión, ansiedad, etc. sin necesidad de ese humor turbio (y mejores estéticamente también), pero que sé yo...

[actually-2000-mice]

Can we please

CAN WE PLEASE

CaN We PlEaSe

talk about how fucking gorgeous the finale of les mis is

Like these isnt a single part of this song that isn’t just amazing

I particularly love “take my love for love is ever lasting, and remember the truth that once was spoken to love another person is to see the face of god” like if that isnt the most beautiful gorgeous shit ever then what the fuck is. Like just this whole musical is amazing and I love it with all my heart and I just every single character is amazing and essential to the story and just fuck man. 

I also think it is also very interesting because now you finally see Valjean just.. tired.. He has lost everything, then gained everything, then lost everything again over the course of his life. He is tired his life has been hard and difficult and honestly I think this adds so much more meaning to the words “come with me where chains will never bind you, all your grief at last at last behind you, lord in heaven look down on him in mercy” Up until the end he is constantly on edge that he is going to be sent back to prison in his mind the law is always chasing him and he is waiting for it to catch back up to him because honestly in the end I don’t think he still fully believes he deserves to be free and that’s why he is willing to give himself up to Javert as soon as he makes sure Cosette and Marius are okay and that Cosette is going to be safe. He doesn’t stay out of jail because he believes that he is a good man who deserves to be out of jail he stays out of jail because Cosette needs him an he loves Cosette. In death he is being freed by this fear of going back to jail and fear that he deserves to go back to jail as Fantine extends out her hand with this offer of come with me, come to a place where chains will never bind you. She then goes on to say “ all your grief at last at last behind you” His whole life has been full of grief from the very beginning, I mean he stole bread to help his sister and then his sister fucking abandoned him, although he wasn’t super close to Fantine he genuinely cared about everyone and losing her was a pain in itself especially cause he blamed himself (or at least probably blamed himself for this loss) he was there when all the barricade boys died, he thought he lost his daughter and son in law. She is once against extending this hand to allow him to put away his pain his grief his fucking hard as fuck life and go be happy finally and truly I mean this poor man. I then find the line “lord in heaven look down on him in mercy” then continued by him saying “forgive me all my trespasses and take me to your glory” fascinating because like idk maybe this just is me not understanding something about mainstream Christianity cause turns out my cult was a bit different but in the end Valjean was a fundamentally good man even down to the reason he was in prison, he might not believe it but his whole life was centered around helping other people, he didn’t care for his own life he wasn’t selfish even before jail, did jail harden him a bit yes but the bishop melted away that hardness and you see this amazing selfless man who just wants to help other people emerge and I think thats amazing. I don’t really see what needs forgiving and this might be coming from the same person who didn’t understand why we needed to repent every single day but I don’t think he really has anything that needs forgiving he was the literal definition of a g o o d person. Idk if anyone made it this far in this post and understands that line feel free to explain it.

The song then segments into some of my favorite lines in the entire show “take my hand and lead me to salvation, take my love for love is ever lasting, and remember the truth that once was spoken to love another person is to see the face of god” Now part of what is so fascinating about these lines is who says them The first line and second lines are said by Eponine and Fantine and the third line is said by Valjean, Eponine, and Fantine. Now I find this fact particularly fascinating because If you think about it Eponine and Fantine both lived lives that were God damn hard and might even be seen as bad lives or get them marked as bad people by others but in the end they were fundamentally GOOD people who both were given a terrible hand in life and died young. Fantine probably died around 23 ish the brick is really unclear on it but she was young she couldn’t have been older then 17 when she had cosette she was basically the equivalent of some teen who “falls” for a college dude gets knocked up and dumped but on top of that she also was an orphan living on her own. She then needed to provide for her child whom she had living with other people to avoid stigma and she loved her child so deeply that she was willing to give her life to help her child potentially have a better one. She ends up wrongfully getting fired and has to turn to prostitution in order to help her child, she didn’t want to turn to prostitution but she had no other choice this is a 21-22 year old CHILD we are talking about here. She ended up dying without ever seeing her child again even though she desperately wanted to this was the child she gave her life for and she never got to see her again and she was only about 23. Now there’s Eponine Eponine appears to be the antithesis to Cosette, where cosette had a childhood but a good life 8+ Eponine had a relatively good childhood but a terrible life after about the time cosette left. there lives parallel each others in a way but not really at the same time but what makes it that she only appears to be the antithesis to Cosette is the fact that she is a very good person who genuinely cares about the people that she loves very much like cosette. They show the audience and reader how how and where someone was raised really determines so much in their life and in the end compliment each other rather quite lovely if you think about it.   But Eponine was handed a very bad hand in life a hand that led to her dying at no older then probably about 16-17 (I don’t remember is her exact age is if stated) to an outside viewer she was a scammer and a thief when in fact she was a good caring person in a bad situation being abused by her father and just doing what she had to in order to survive and in the end she ended up dying with no one to really truly remember her with in a few years. Now this makes the fact that the two of them are the ones who are saying “take my hand and lead me to salvation, take my love for love is ever lasting” very very interesting because of two reasons 1) because “lead me to salvation” they’re both people to who outside people look like beyond saving I mean you have a prostitute and a thief most people will look at that and judge and think they can’t be saved but here they are looking out to salvation looking to make it to salvation who will make it to salvation because they’re at heart really good people and were doing what they had to in order to survive and help the ones they love 2) “take my love for love is everlasting” Love is all they had to give its all they had to offer but they obviously loved fiercely because thats all they have to give but it is everlasting and is what really really matters in the end. Look at Fantine and Cosette and Eponine and Azelma and Eponine and Marius. Love is all they really had to offer those people but they gave every ounce of love they had and they did everything in their power to help those people cause they loved them dearly. I think it is also very important that it is the two of them saying it cause it gives these words so much more meaning then if literally any other character had been saying it because of their extremely specific life circumstances and how they ended up living and dying. Now we get to the third line “and remember the truth that once was spoken, to love another person is to see the face of God” This is said by all three of them if I ever get a phrase fucking tattooed on me its gonna be this one because h o l y f u c k okay so like Valjean pitches into this one. these three characters have arguably gone through the most out of almost every single other character in this story their lives have been thing after thing after thing gone wrong and hardship after hardship. Now I would say it means more that valjean stayed out of the last one because he had money he had the ability to give more then just love even though he did give so much love it gives the words more meaning that thats all the other two really had to give. But with this line he pitches in to love another person is to see the face of god, the highest best thing you can do is to love another person. In loving another person you see the face of god himself, it is the closest you can get to seeing god’s hand in all of this and I find that beautiful. These three loved with all their might they saw the face of god through all the pain all the suffering because they loved. It speaks to the importance of love because in the end this story would not be the same without the love that is intertwined throughout it, the love that shown through the suffering. In the end honestly I would say this can be applied to our own lives because love trumps all and that’s something I feel like the world has always failed to see love can and will win in the end and you really see this with this beautiful musical.

So then (sorry y’all thought I was done but nope bitch I’ve got more to say) the music transitions to the kinda reprise of do you hear the people sing. “do you hear the people sing lost in the valley of the night it is the music of a people who are climbing to the light. For the wretched of the earth there is a flame that never dies. Even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise. They will live again in freedom in the garden of the lord. They will walk behind the plow shed they will put away the sword. The chain will be broken and all men will have their reward. will you join in our crusade who will be strong and stand with me somewhere beyond the barricade is there a world you long to see, do you hear the people sing say do you hear the distant drums it is the future that they bring when tomorrow comes. will you join in our crusade who will be strong and stand with me somewhere beyond the barricade is there a world you long to see do you hear the people sing say do you hear the distant drums it is the future that they bring when tomorrow comes” Okay oh boy oh boy oh boy do I have stuff to say about this part. Okay so theres a lot to this and I doubt y’all want to hear another 2000 words from me but lets start from the beginning of this. What I find so cool about this is that it really connects the little blurb at the beginning of the brick  “So long as there shall exist, by reason of law and custom, a social condemnation which, in the midst of civilization, artificially creates a hell on earth, and complicates with human fatality a destiny that is divine; so long as the three problems of the century - the degradation of man by the exploitation of his labour, the ruin of women by starvation and the atrophy of childhood by physical and spiritual night are not solved; so long as, in certain regions, social asphyxia shall be possible; in other words and from a still broader point of view, so long as ignorance and misery remain on earth, there should be a need for books such as this.” to the musical because it really is a call to action to us now. They don’t end the musical with Valjean dying to they choose to reprise do you hear the people sing they don’t let the story end because the story isn’t fucking over. Nothing ever got solved in the book because it is a story about the miserables, about the poor, about the disadvantaged, the hurting the people of france. There are no “bad guys” in the book because all of them are suffering and there is no clean ending to it all because they were all still suffering and still are. Thats why this story drags in so many fans even now over 100 years later because all of this still largely holds true today because there are still injustices people are still hurting and need help and we need to fucking do something. That future is still on the horizon it is still coming and we need to do something about helping it bring it to past. I could do deeper analysis on each of these lines and the connections in les mis but that would easily be another 2000 works and so I will spare y’all this time. Sorry for the long post I hope y’all enjoy it. 

[myupostsheadcanons]

i’m like 80% through Les Mis book, and like all the hype all the adaptations done between the rivalry of Jean Val Jean and Javert are totally over blown. Jevert worked like 99% of his job not giving two shits about Jean Val Jean. Jean was That Guy he kept running into, and he had a job to do. 

My main take away with Javert was that he was born in poverty but has no sympathy for the impoverished. He wanted to prove himself better than where he came from and actively worked against them. Pretty much the same message given today about why people don’t trust the cops, even the ones that say are just like you (authority figures that are from minority groups being a good example) but in fact those people are not your friends and are only helping maintain the status quo of the privileged.

Jean is the antithesis of his character, not so much a rival. He was born poor, went to jail for trying to feed his sister and her children, ended up with 14 years added to his sentence for escape attempts. He got out at the end of his sentence, found faith after hitting rock bottom, changed his name, started anew, and became wealthy, but did not keep more than he needed and chose to better the lives of the people around him instead. (basically the ideal wealthy person). He would’ve continued to live like that for years if he didn’t turn himself in to save another man mistaken as himself. And still he continued to give away as much as he could and live as sparsely as possible.

As for many of the social commentaries. Hugo did not equate capitalism with progress. Progress to him was the enlightenment of every human being, that free education and providing living wages will reduce crime and poverty. He did not want to call it Socialism, and he did point out the flaws in Communism. He did, however, go into length that if opportunities were open for upward advancement for all social levels society as a whole will “pull itself out of the muck” sort of speak. Mainly that everybody has a right to have a job and that job should pay fairly.

[bbclesmis]

All hail David Bradley, the standout star of Les Misérables

The veteran character actor has stolen the show in the glossy BBC adaptation 

If you’d told me a few weeks ago that the most moving part of the BBC’s lavish adaptation of Les Misérables would be the relationship between Marius (Josh O’Conner) and his grandfather, a character so unimportant he doesn’t even exist in the Les Mis musical, I wouldn’t have believed you.

If you’d let slip that Marius’ grandfather was played by the 76-year-old David Bradley, however, I might have given you the benefit of the doubt. For years veteran character actor Bradley has brought warmth, nuance and a sense of fun to his roles, and among starrier turns in the latest Andrew Davies bodice-ripper he’s done some great work (full disclosure – we’ve also met for an interview in the past, and he was very nice).

When we first meet Gillenormand, Bradley’s French nobleman and grandfather to Marius, he’s an out-and-out villain. Powdered, bewigged and caked in makeup, he’s the antithesis of Marius’ clean-cut and heroic father, whom Gillenormand banishes from his household while cruelly promising to ruin the elder Pontmercy in the eyes of his son.

As the episodes go on we see Gillenormand continue to rubbish Marius’ father to the young boy, much to the chagrin of his live-in housekeeper and even a few of Gillenormand’s royalist friends, who cast an eye askance over his actions. Surely, we think, this is a man about to receive his comeuppance.

And that comeuppance does arrive speedily, as you might expect. What you might not expect is how much pathos Bradley brings to Gillenormand’s reaction when Marius spurns him. Eyes wavering and swimming with emotion as he blusters and berates his errant grandson, Gillenormand’s pride (and prejudice) barely hold firm against the torrent of love and affection he has no idea how to express.

Somehow, Bradley found incredible pathos and humanity behind this monster – and in the series’ final episode, as a wounded Marius calls Gillenormand “Father”, I found myself more moved than I was when watching any of the more operatic central relationships established over the last six episodes.

As I say, none of this should be a surprise. Bradley is a master of portraying craggy older men with a soft side, most ably demonstrated during his BAFTA-winning turn in the first series of Broadchurch (nearly six years on, I occasionally still choke up when thinking of a scene where his character, dressed in full Sea Scout regalia and facing an angry mob, realises none of his troop are coming to their meeting) but also in superficially less complex roles.

As Harry Potter’s Argus Filch, arguably his most famous part, during short appearances Bradley gave the surly caretaker more heart than he’d ever had in JK Rowling’s novels. Playing both William Hartnell and his First Doctor in Doctor Who-related projects, he brought warmth from beneath a chilly exterior – and in a long and storied career, these are just a few recent examples. Frankly, it’s a travesty that no-one has cast him as Scrooge over the years.

Of course, Bradley gives good villain as well – his turn as Game of Thrones’ irredeemable Walder Frey was a lip-smacking triumph – but even within that he’s brought in some fascinating extra layers. The first scene of Thrones’ seventh season starred Bradley playing Maisie Williams’ Arya Stark as she impersonated the late Lord Frey, a performance within a performance that still stands as a highlight of that action-packed year for the fantasy series.

But stealing the show from the likes of Dominic West and David Oyelowo in Les Misérables, while playing a character who was only even a small part of Victor Hugo’s original novel, might be his most impressive achievement yet. All hail David Bradley – the true master of scene-stealing.

(x)

[kcrabb88]

combeferre

replied to your post

“An older guy in my fencing class: So your favorite book is Les Mis,...”

if he isn't french and just lived there for a while then i could maybe understand but like, this is the antithesis of being french and i'm concerned and also sorry you had to interact with him

I don’t think he was French! He had no accent at all, in any case. I think he just lived there as a kid, though I didn’t catch why. He was annoying me already and then he said THAT and I was like Gotta Go!

[padfootagain]

I will definitely read it at some point now!! It’s absolutely Enjolras. Hands down. But I also have a soft spot for Grantaire. He’s so flawed and basically the antithesis of Enjolras but his admiration and veneration of this golden haired Saint-Just balances him out beautifully. But yeah, Enjolras is probably my favorite character from any fandom too. He’s just??? Incredible?? I love him so much.

YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!! 

EEEEEEEEEEENNNNNNNNNNNNNJJJJJJJJJOOOOOOOOLLLLLLLLLLLRRRRRRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAASSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!

I love him so damn much…

I like Grantaire too, you’re right about him. But I have a soft spot for Combeferre rather than Grantaire.

Tbh, I regularly re-read all the bits about the barricades, but not always the rest of the books... just because the barricades are so awesome, and Enjolras’s speeches are… I used to copy them on my schoolbooks in High School, on the front page and covers. One of my teacher eventually noticed that I was doing that instead of listening to his lesson but I got away by speaking for at least 5 full minutes about how much I loved Enjolras and Les Mis and Victor Hugo in general and he just gave up and let me be a fangirl while he resumed speaking about bacteria :D