#115th

[highlanddrums]

[blue-eyed-boss]

115th Boston Marathon

[cuteclaycritters]

115th Boston Marathon

[fdelopera]

On 22 September, 1909, the Parisian daily newspaper, Le Gaulois, ran the advertisement pictured above, announcing the serialization of Gaston Leroux's new novel, Le Fantôme de l'Opéra.

Leroux's novel premiered on 23 September, 1909 — 115 years ago today. It ran for 15 weeks, and it was segmented into 68 sections, each section covering roughly half a chapter's worth of content.

To celebrate 115 years of Le Fantôme de l'Opéra in print, over the next 15 weeks I will be posting all 68 sections of the Gaulois publication of Phantom to my blog. These posts will correspond with the original dates of publication.

Here is a link to Le Gaulois for 22 September, 1909. The advert for Phantom is in the middle of the page.

And in case you are wondering what the text of the advertisement above says, here is my translation:

Weary of purely psychological novels, the public awoke one day with a great desire to hear stories. Straightaway, these stories were served up — tales of bandits and policemen — assuredly quite amusing, but which soon grew tedious in their turn, yet without appeasing the public's thirst for mystery and magic. This is why the Gaulois has requested from one of the public's most rightly beloved authors, M. Gaston Leroux, a novel which, while departing from the genre dear to the Conan Doyles of the Old and New World, is still replete with the delectable inquietude that will give a thrill to the beguiled reader. More than once, this irresistible anguish will conjure in the minds of some of our female readers the dreadful, terrifying, ghostly, and sorrowfully human image, despite all of the illusion that surrounds it, of The Phantom of the Opera. We need not introduce our readers to M. Gaston Leroux, whom it is generally agreed is in possession of the most astonishing suppleness of imagination of which one can conceive, but we would indeed like to say that The Phantom of the Opera is worthy of achieving even greater success in the Gaulois than that which was attained in the Illustration by The Mystery of the Yellow Room and The Perfume of the Lady in Black, by the same author. Tomorrow, this Thursday, in the "Gaulois," read: The Phantom of the Opera by M. Gaston Leroux

[thorneswife]

like, what is THIS??

“TANNED SKIN”

when did Cinder lose her skin color? it’s missing in all the official book art 😔 it’s just makes me so sad man

[dimdiamond]

You know, what really strikes me with Tintin in Tibet is at the beginning, when Tintin gets Chang's letter, Haddock has no idea of who this boy is. Normally, we would expect, considering how important is for Tintin his friendship with Chang and vice versa, that Tintin would have talked about Chang at least once to Haddock and yet it seems like he hasn't. Understandably, our first thought is to be weirded out and kinda disappointed with Tintin and blame Herge for not handling his cast properly. But, I read this as how Tintin's character is.

I don't know how often Tintin and Chang exchange letters and how they keep in touch but it seems that it's not that often, or even if it is, Tintin doesn't get into the trouble to explain Haddock (hiding it from him is another explanation but I don't think it's that possible, considering Tintin's and Haddock's friendship and characters and how, if this was the case, Tintin wouldn't explain to Haddock from who the letter is and what it says). However, we see Tintin being really excited to receive Chang's letter and thrilled to meet him again after so long. So, the possibility of Tintin not cherishing or remembering his friend is nonexistent, especially if we take into consideration what happens to the rest of the book. Then why Tintin hasn't talked about Chang to Haddock? Has he even told him about his previous adventures, before meeting him?

I believe that this scene shows exactly Tintin's character and how he handles opening up to others. Simply he doesn't if he doesn't see any reason to do so. He tends to be secretive not from malice or anything bad, but because he isn't comfortable with being the centre of attention. Yeah, ironically, the famous journalist prefers to be a spectator and a listener than be on the scene and talk. Certainly this has helped to his job and his fame, as, even we, the readers, can't help but want to know more about him and see him. Tintin doesn't aim for this attention though and that's what it makes him appealing as a character.

Back to our topic, Tintin rarely talks about himself and when he does is because it just happened, not planning or intending to do so, and even then he gives so few information about him and his life (for example "I interviewed a pilot" and then never mentions it again). It is possible that Tintin has mentioned his trip to Shanghai or something of his adventure there but never went to the details. And this is the interesting part where Haddock hasn't asked for more details. More than once, Haddock has shown his respect to Tintin and his limits and never pressured him to anything. This is how their friendship, and most of their friendships with others, go. They accept each other for who they are now and their past won't change their opinion on them (actually they focus too much to the present but this is another topic). So, if this applies to both of them, why the need to say more?

My point with all this is that, instead of seeing Tintin's lack of mention of his friend (and any other irl person's to be frank) as something bad and mean, we should see it as how Tintin is and this doesn't diminish his feelings and his care and his bonds with others. For Tintin (and even Haddock) not talking about someone or something doesn't equal to dismissing it. He doesn't feel the need to say out loud something that he knows and feels already. If it happens to be mentioned he will talk and he won't lie. If it doesn't happen to be mentioned, then he won't initiate the talk. And for this exact reason I believe that Chang knows about Haddock and Calculus and maybe Nestor from Tintin's letters. Because Tintin's life and adventures revolves around them and he can't say something about him without mentioning them at least once (and probably after Tibet and staying home more the mentions become more and more).

Basically Tintin has the attention span of a cat (between other characteristics) and if something doesn't happen right in front of him he won't acknowledge it and that doesn't make him a bad person and friend.

[haikumaker]

James Brown in Harlem, 1979

[lewanarta]

oopsie

[loving-n0t-heyting]

> During the bourgeois revolutions, bloodshed, terror, and political murder were an indispensable weapon in the hand of the rising classes.

> The proletarian revolution requires no terror for its aims; it hates and despises killing. It does not need these weapons because it does not combat individuals but institutions, because it does not enter the arena with naïve illusions whose disappointment it would seek to revenge. It is not the desperate attempt of a minority to mold the world forcibly according to its ideal, but the action of the great massive millions of the people, destined to fulfill a historic mission and to transform historical necessity into reality.

[yearningforunity]

W 115th Street and Lenox Avenue, Harlem, Manhattan, 1970s

Photo Jack Garofalo

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

dazai day dazai day it's dazai day yippee

[tillthereweretangents]

Everyone knows this tweet. It's iconic, at this point.

Well, that link, this one, is no longer a dead link. It goes to an interview with someone named Steve Forbert. Get this, from September 2022.

So, not only did they delete the actual interview, now the proof that it existed at all is gone too.

Now we find that just fascinating.

We revisit this every now and then, trying to find more details and this time we happened across some Dylan lyrics that we really want to share:

Bob Dylan’s 115th Dream (from Bringing It All Back Home 1965)

... The waitress he was handsome He wore a powder blue cape ... They asked me for some collateral And I pulled down my pants ... And I hopped inside a cab I went out the other door This Englishman said, “Fab” ... He said his name was Columbus I just said, “Good luck”

The full song if you're interested, cause it's really gay and there is a direct mention to George.

So, it seems like, one, even though Columbus is a bad guy now, he wasn't for Dylan and still isn't for Dylan, we see the comparison as a negative, but it isn't, it's frankly some of the highest praise he could give George in bed.

And secondly, he or his team REALLY want us to forget that quote.

[renaissancetourfashion]

Beyoncé in FROLOV for The Renaissance World Tour MOTHERBOARD ACT - Las Vegas, 2023

[the-lido]

hold on

[fdelopera]

This is how it all began! On Thursday, 23 September, 1909, the first section of Gaston Leroux’s Le Fantôme de l'Opéra was printed on page 3 in the feuilleton section of the Parisian daily newspaper, Le Gaulois.

Le Fantôme de l'Opéra ran for 15 weeks, from 23 September, 1909, to 8 January, 1910, and was printed in 68 sections.

To celebrate 115 years of Phantom in print, I will be posting all 68 sections of Leroux’s novel on each day that Le Fantôme originally appeared in Le Gaulois.

This first section includes the text of the Avant-Propos (Foreword) from Leroux’s novel (I’ve included it as a single panel, and as two panels for easier reading).

As you will see in the following sections, Leroux and his editors at Pierre Lafitte et Cie made significant edits to the Gaulois text when they published the First Edition of Le Fantôme de l'Opéra in April of 1910 (including some amusing typos that made their way into several of the published English translations).

In the following sections, I will be highlighting all of these edits that were made to the Gaulois text, so you can see exactly what was changed.

However, Leroux must have been happy with the Avant-Propos, because the text of the First Edition matches that of the Gaulois edition.

To read my translation of the Avant-Propos, click here.

If you are following along in David Coward’s translation of the First Edition of Phantom of the Opera (which I recommend for its accuracy and completeness), click here for the paperback, or click here for the Kindle version. Both link to Amazon US, but I encourage you to buy your copy from another vender if you so choose. The ISBN-13 of David Coward's translation is: 978-0199694570.

Click here to see the entire edition of Le Gaulois from 23 September, 1909. This link brings you to page 3 of the newspaper – Le Fantôme is at the bottom of the page in the feuilleton section. Click on the arrow buttons at the bottom of the screen to turn the pages of the newspaper, and click on the Zoom button at the bottom left to magnify the text.