#Reading les mis a second time in french

[la-pheacienne]

Ok first time alone after 10 days and trying to take advantage of my evening and not waste it on the internet again. Tomorrow I have to go to the library and work.

My bag, ready.

The clothes I will wear tomorrow, ready.

My coffee mug, clean.

My floor, clean.

The dishes, done.

Time to read Les Miserables and then get some fucking sleep.

For some reason I feel really really stressed all of the sudden and I don't know why, it's like, I've done everything I should but maybe it still won't be enough for me to be able to sleep early enough, wake up early enough, keep a good mindset and be very productive tomorrow in my research. Maybe I'm fooling myself and tomorrow will be a total waste of time, like the day before, and the day before that.

But even if I'm fooling myself, it's still better to find your coffee mug clean in the morning, isn't it? Now that's a solid basis I could work on.

[aenor-llelo]

amitoufo he is carbondated

It's the Year of the Snake. Destiny 2's Heresy just came out. But this ain't about her. I sit on your shoulder, I am your xiaoren.

I'm Taiwanese! Let's carbon date The Drifter!

Lightbearers retain their semantic memory (facts, concepts, ideas) and procedural memory (memory of how to do things) of their original life before death. This is implied from game/lore instances of Guardians with unique accents, ethnic coding, memory of languages that are obscure post-Collapse, even cases of Guardians retaining pre-rez war PTSD. It is outright confirmed by Sen-Aret, a Guardian who- due to the sheer age of her remains or some error by her Ghost- was raised with only the knowledge she had in life, and had to learn about modern weapons/language from other Guardians.

Why does this mean anything? It means that the way a Guardian prefers to dress, talk, and generally behave tells you where they came from pre-rez!

Aside from his voice actor being Vietnamese, his entry in the official cookbook is banh mi, a Vietnamese dish, and his clothes are Chinese, which would point to him being Hoa, the Han people of Vietnam. (He also wraps his clothes in an orientation specific to corpses, because he doesn't count Lightbearers as truly alive humans.)

Behavior-wise, though, have you noticed how obsessed he is with jade? The coins, the necklace. Jade is a very precious stone in the Sinosphere, and jade jewelry is for giving luck or protection to the wielder- what you will hear less commonly is that it is meant to work by breaking instead of you when something happens. We give them to kids and elderly for this reason.

(You can wonder, for a second, the jade coins he always plays with before Gambit rounds, wraps around certain weapons for you, and the Red String of Fate ornament for Malfeasance. Is this a man perpetually deeply terrified for everyone or himself, or is he every middle aging ah-yi who just got back into religion while you were in school?)

So he's Vietnamese and the Chinese influence means his pre-rez life had to have been after Chinese imperial interference with Vietnam. Unfortunately, four different historical periods between 111 BC and the 1400s isn't good carbon dating. KE SHI NI HUI KANDAO THE SANDWICH,

banh mi is a baguette sandwich. this kind of bread comes to vietnam in the mid-19th century from French colonizers, and only during WWI did a mixed flour version make this bread accessible outside luxury. Early 1900s le. But "post-1900s" isn't a better narrowing down than "BCs to 1400s" in a future setting like Destiny.

Except that Drifter's banh mi recipe specifically uses pâté. This was only a common banh mi filling before the 1950s, when the partition of Vietnam sent an influx of northerners to Saigon and led to the Saigon sandwich that is modern banh mi. So, 1910s to 1950s. And the fact that he defaults to hanfu rather than Western dress or more modern standard Vietnamese ethnic clothing like ao dai skews him having been an adult on the earlier end of this time frame or living in a more rural area where colonization ideas were not as enforced. (One could explore him having other Vietnamese forms of cultural expression like lacquered teeth, actually.)

Ain't that something? He could have lived through WWI or even saw the beginning of the Communist revolution. The possibility that his first life was a survivor of colonization, war draft, and/or violent civil war could add a lot to readings of his character, especially his C-PTSD, but that's a whole other post if the people demand it. It's a neat thing to explore, huh?

And don't call him a rat le! Bad enough already the game think that is cute! White people calling East Asians rats is generally a slur in reference (from my collection) to immigrant "infestation" and part of general stereotypes about their uncleanliness (they cook with gutter oil, they eat rats, they cheap they scam they lie dadadada). You want source bigger than I grow up with white people shout in my face and their children pull their eyes to squint like a "jap"? Look up WWI propaganda posters about Japan. They did not invent that out of nowhere, they make Japanese people into rats because that's something they already say.

"It's just about Japanese-" what if I told you a large part of Western racism about Asians is that they can't tell the difference and don't care. and they're making fun of similar cultures and features.

"My Asian friend said it was okay-" the asian friend values your friendship and your comfort more than what they feel when you say slurs, dude. sorry i had to be the one to tell you that. one friend (or stranger online) giving you the pass to say it in front of them doesn't mean you're allowed to say it to everyone.

"it's fictional-" Real East Asian people getting beat down by Sinophobia matters a little more than how cute you think it is to call a Vietnamese man an animal that your culture associates with filth and plague.

"Chinese zodiac animal-" The snake is right there. The game won't shut up about how snake he is. We're having a Drifter-heavy episode right in the beginning of the snake lunar year. His personality matches the charm, mystery, and wisdom associated with the sign. He is never thematically associated with rats. He is never respectfully associated with rats.

It would be one thing if it was another asian character calling him that in the context of the rat's folkloric characteristics, but this is an American game by an American studio writing someone voiced by a non-asian to call him a rat as an insult about his cleanliness and food choices. Good for you if that doesn't hurt your feelings! Hurt many more people than you! They more real than him!

Good game story. Mistakes happen! Doesn't mean you have special privilege to repeat it.

He is snake! Viper! Asp! Cost zero dollar to say that instead! Don't keep a pet slur in your pocket!

[lesmisletters-daily]

The Year 1817

Les Mis Letters reading club explores one chapter of Les Misérables every day. Join us on Discord, Substack - or share your thoughts right here on tumblr - today's tag is #lm 1.3.1

1817 is the year which Louis XVIII., with a certain royal assurance which was not wanting in pride, entitled the twenty-second of his reign. It is the year in which M. Bruguière de Sorsum was celebrated. All the hairdressers’ shops, hoping for powder and the return of the royal bird, were besmeared with azure and decked with fleurs-de-lys. It was the candid time at which Count Lynch sat every Sunday as church-warden in the church-warden’s pew of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, in his costume of a peer of France, with his red ribbon and his long nose and the majesty of profile peculiar to a man who has performed a brilliant action. The brilliant action performed by M. Lynch was this: being mayor of Bordeaux, on the 12th of March, 1814, he had surrendered the city a little too promptly to M. the Duke d’Angoulême. Hence his peerage. In 1817 fashion swallowed up little boys of from four to six years of age in vast caps of morocco leather with ear-tabs resembling Esquimaux mitres. The French army was dressed in white, after the mode of the Austrian; the regiments were called legions; instead of numbers they bore the names of departments; Napoleon was at St. Helena; and since England refused him green cloth, he was having his old coats turned. In 1817 Pelligrini sang; Mademoiselle Bigottini danced; Potier reigned; Odry did not yet exist. Madame Saqui had succeeded to Forioso. There were still Prussians in France. M. Delalot was a personage. Legitimacy had just asserted itself by cutting off the hand, then the head, of Pleignier, of Carbonneau, and of Tolleron. The Prince de Talleyrand, grand chamberlain, and the Abbé Louis, appointed minister of finance, laughed as they looked at each other, with the laugh of the two augurs; both of them had celebrated, on the 14th of July, 1790, the mass of federation in the Champ de Mars; Talleyrand had said it as bishop, Louis had served it in the capacity of deacon. In 1817, in the side-alleys of this same Champ de Mars, two great cylinders of wood might have been seen lying in the rain, rotting amid the grass, painted blue, with traces of eagles and bees, from which the gilding was falling. These were the columns which two years before had upheld the Emperor’s platform in the Champ de Mai. They were blackened here and there with the scorches of the bivouac of Austrians encamped near Gros-Caillou. Two or three of these columns had disappeared in these bivouac fires, and had warmed the large hands of the Imperial troops. The Field of May had this remarkable point: that it had been held in the month of June and in the Field of March (Mars). In this year, 1817, two things were popular: the Voltaire-Touquet and the snuff-box <i>à la Charter</i>. The most recent Parisian sensation was the crime of Dautun, who had thrown his brother’s head into the fountain of the Flower-Market.

They had begun to feel anxious at the Naval Department, on account of the lack of news from that fatal frigate, <i>The Medusa</i>, which was destined to cover Chaumareix with infamy and Géricault with glory. Colonel Selves was going to Egypt to become Soliman-Pasha. The palace of Thermes, in the Rue de La Harpe, served as a shop for a cooper. On the platform of the octagonal tower of the Hotel de Cluny, the little shed of boards, which had served as an observatory to Messier, the naval astronomer under Louis XVI., was still to be seen. The Duchesse de Duras read to three or four friends her unpublished <i>Ourika</i>, in her boudoir furnished by X. in sky-blue satin. The N’s were scratched off the Louvre. The bridge of Austerlitz had abdicated, and was entitled the bridge of the King’s Garden [du Jardin du Roi], a double enigma, which disguised the bridge of Austerlitz and the Jardin des Plantes at one stroke. Louis XVIII., much preoccupied while annotating Horace with the corner of his finger-nail, heroes who have become emperors, and makers of wooden shoes who have become dauphins, had two anxieties,—Napoleon and Mathurin Bruneau. The French Academy had given for its prize subject, <i>The Happiness procured through Study</i>. M. Bellart was officially eloquent. In his shadow could be seen germinating that future advocate-general of Broë, dedicated to the sarcasms of Paul-Louis Courier. There was a false Chateaubriand, named Marchangy, in the interim, until there should be a false Marchangy, named d’Arlincourt. <i>Claire d’Albe</i> and <i>Malek-Adel</i> were masterpieces; Madame Cottin was proclaimed the chief writer of the epoch. The Institute had the academician, Napoleon Bonaparte, stricken from its list of members. A royal ordinance erected Angoulême into a naval school; for the Duc d’Angoulême, being lord high admiral, it was evident that the city of Angoulême had all the qualities of a seaport; otherwise the monarchical principle would have received a wound. In the Council of Ministers the question was agitated whether vignettes representing slack-rope performances, which adorned Franconi’s advertising posters, and which attracted throngs of street urchins, should be tolerated. M. Paër, the author of <i>Agnese</i>, a good sort of fellow, with a square face and a wart on his cheek, directed the little private concerts of the Marquise de Sasenaye in the Rue Ville l’Évêque. All the young girls were singing the <i>Hermit of Saint-Avelle</i>, with words by Edmond Géraud. <i>The Yellow Dwarf</i> was transferred into <i>Mirror</i>. The Café Lemblin stood up for the Emperor, against the Café Valois, which upheld the Bourbons. The Duc de Berri, already surveyed from the shadow by Louvel, had just been married to a princess of Sicily. Madame de Staël had died a year previously. The body-guard hissed Mademoiselle Mars. The grand newspapers were all very small. Their form was restricted, but their liberty was great. The <i>Constitutionnel</i> was constitutional. <i>La Minerve</i> called Chateaubriand <i>Chateaubriant</i>. That <i>t</i> made the good middle-class people laugh heartily at the expense of the great writer. In journals which sold themselves, prostituted journalists, insulted the exiles of 1815. David had no longer any talent, Arnault had no longer any wit, Carnot was no longer honest, Soult had won no battles; it is true that Napoleon had no longer any genius. No one is ignorant of the fact that letters sent to an exile by post very rarely reached him, as the police made it their religious duty to intercept them. This is no new fact; Descartes complained of it in his exile. Now David, having, in a Belgian publication, shown some displeasure at not receiving letters which had been written to him, it struck the royalist journals as amusing; and they derided the prescribed man well on this occasion. What separated two men more than an abyss was to say, the <i>regicides</i>, or to say the <i>voters</i>; to say the <i>enemies</i>, or to say the <i>allies</i>; to say <i>Napoleon</i>, or to say <i>Buonaparte</i>.

All sensible people were agreed that the era of revolution had been closed forever by King Louis XVIII., surnamed “The Immortal Author of the Charter.” On the platform of the Pont-Neuf, the word <i>Redivivus</i> was carved on the pedestal that awaited the statue of Henry IV. M. Piet, in the Rue Thérèse, No. 4, was making the rough draft of his privy assembly to consolidate the monarchy. The leaders of the Right said at grave conjunctures, “We must write to Bacot.” MM. Canuel, O’Mahoney, and De Chappedelaine were preparing the sketch, to some extent with Monsieur’s approval, of what was to become later on “The Conspiracy of the Bord de l’Eau”—of the waterside. L’Épingle Noire was already plotting in his own quarter. Delaverderie was conferring with Trogoff. M. Decazes, who was liberal to a degree, reigned. Chateaubriand stood every morning at his window at No. 27 Rue Saint-Dominique, clad in footed trousers, and slippers, with a madras kerchief knotted over his gray hair, with his eyes fixed on a mirror, a complete set of dentist’s instruments spread out before him, cleaning his teeth, which were charming, while he dictated <i>The Monarchy according to the Charter</i> to M. Pilorge, his secretary. Criticism, assuming an authoritative tone, preferred Lafon to Talma. M. de Féletez signed himself A.; M. Hoffmann signed himself Z. Charles Nodier wrote <i>Thérèse Aubert</i>.Divorce was abolished. Lyceums called themselves colleges. The collegians, decorated on the collar with a golden fleur-de-lys, fought each other <i>apropos</i> of the King of Rome. The counter-police of the château had denounced to her Royal Highness Madame, the portrait, everywhere exhibited, of M. the Duc d’Orléans, who made a better appearance in his uniform of a colonel-general of hussars than M. the Duc de Berri, in his uniform of colonel-general of dragoons—a serious inconvenience. The city of Paris was having the dome of the Invalides regilded at its own expense. Serious men asked themselves what M. de Trinquelague would do on such or such an occasion; M. Clausel de Montals differed on divers points from M. Clausel de Coussergues; M. de Salaberry was not satisfied. The comedian Picard, who belonged to the Academy, which the comedian Molière had not been able to do, had <i>The Two Philiberts</i> played at the Odéon, upon whose pediment the removal of the letters still allowed THEATRE OF THE EMPRESS to be plainly read. People took part for or against Cugnet de Montarlot. Fabvier was factious; Bavoux was revolutionary. The Liberal, Pélicier, published an edition of Voltaire, with the following title: <i>Works of Voltaire</i>, of the French Academy. “That will attract purchasers,” said the ingenious editor. The general opinion was that M. Charles Loyson would be the genius of the century; envy was beginning to gnaw at him—a sign of glory; and this verse was composed on him:—

“Even when Loyson steals, one feels that he has paws.”

As Cardinal Fesch refused to resign, M. de Pins, Archbishop of Amasie, administered the diocese of Lyons. The quarrel over the valley of Dappes was begun between Switzerland and France by a memoir from Captain, afterwards General Dufour. Saint-Simon, ignored, was erecting his sublime dream. There was a celebrated Fourier at the Academy of Science, whom posterity has forgotten; and in some garret an obscure Fourier, whom the future will recall. Lord Byron was beginning to make his mark; a note to a poem by Millevoye introduced him to France in these terms: <i>a certain Lord Baron</i>. David d’Angers was trying to work in marble. The Abbé Caron was speaking, in terms of praise, to a private gathering of seminarists in the blind alley of Feuillantines, of an unknown priest, named Félicité-Robert, who, at a latter date, became Lamennais. A thing which smoked and clattered on the Seine with the noise of a swimming dog went and came beneath the windows of the Tuileries, from the Pont Royal to the Pont Louis XV.; it was a piece of mechanism which was not good for much; a sort of plaything, the idle dream of a dream-ridden inventor; an utopia—a steamboat. The Parisians stared indifferently at this useless thing. M. de Vaublanc, the reformer of the Institute by a coup d’état, the distinguished author of numerous academicians, ordinances, and batches of members, after having created them, could not succeed in becoming one himself. The Faubourg Saint-Germain and the pavilion de Marsan wished to have M. Delaveau for prefect of police, on account of his piety. Dupuytren and Récamier entered into a quarrel in the amphitheatre of the School of Medicine, and threatened each other with their fists on the subject of the divinity of Jesus Christ. Cuvier, with one eye on Genesis and the other on nature, tried to please bigoted reaction by reconciling fossils with texts and by making mastodons flatter Moses.

M. François de Neufchâteau, the praiseworthy cultivator of the memory of Parmentier, made a thousand efforts to have <i>pomme de terre</i> [potato] pronounced <i>parmentière</i>, and succeeded therein not at all. The Abbé Grégoire, ex-bishop, ex-conventionary, ex-senator, had passed, in the royalist polemics, to the state of “Infamous Grégoire.” The locution of which we have made use—<i>passed to the state of</i>—has been condemned as a neologism by M. Royer Collard. Under the third arch of the Pont de Jéna, the new stone with which, the two years previously, the mining aperture made by Blücher to blow up the bridge had been stopped up, was still recognizable on account of its whiteness. Justice summoned to its bar a man who, on seeing the Comte d’Artois enter Notre Dame, had said aloud: <i>“Sapristi! I regret the time when I saw Bonaparte and Talma enter the Bel Sauvage, arm in arm.”</i> A seditious utterance. Six months in prison. Traitors showed themselves unbuttoned; men who had gone over to the enemy on the eve of battle made no secret of their recompense, and strutted immodestly in the light of day, in the cynicism of riches and dignities; deserters from Ligny and Quatre-Bras, in the brazenness of their well-paid turpitude, exhibited their devotion to the monarchy in the most barefaced manner.

This is what floats up confusedly, pell-mell, for the year 1817, and is now forgotten. History neglects nearly all these particulars, and cannot do otherwise; the infinity would overwhelm it. Nevertheless, these details, which are wrongly called trivial,—there are no trivial facts in humanity, nor little leaves in vegetation,—are useful. It is of the physiognomy of the years that the physiognomy of the centuries is composed. In this year of 1817 four young Parisians arranged “a fine farce.”

[cliozaur]

Regarding your post on tea and coffee in Les Mis fics-- are there any other little anachronisms that have stood out to you?

Most of my research for everyday life of the not-heinously-wealthy from that time period tends to be limited to England and the fledgling USA, just because that's most readily available to me, and it didn't occur to me just how big a difference there'd be between the countries.

Tips would be greatly appreciated.

Oh, thank you for asking. Where do I start? First, I don’t want to be overly critical, and as I said, I don’t mind ignoring anachronisms, especially small ones. I’m grateful to all the authors I read and appreciate their efforts!

Second, it’s hard to say which anachronisms are small; once you know, you know.

I rarely see accurate representations of food and drinks, especially those of common people. Take, for example, breakfast. We don’t want any English breakfast—most British traditions were met with hostility in France due to the antagonism between the two nations. Moreover, the notion of breakfast was quite new for the French at that time. Typically, the rich had toasted bread (with butter or jam) and coffee or hot chocolate, while the poor had bread and soup, water, or even wine. Before the Haussmann reconstruction, not every flat had a kitchen. Javert most likely wouldn’t have had one. (I often see fanfics featuring Javert’s kitchen.)

Water, bathing, washing dishes. Many authors don't grasp that obtaining enough water for bathing (not to mention it as a daily practice) was a big deal, making dry washing more common. And then there was the challenge of getting the water out of the house. I’m not sure people understand that the sewer system at that time was designed for draining water and filth from the streets, not from individual houses. Some fancy houses might have had standpipes in the basements, but they still had to remove dirty water manually.

Javert’s work at the police is always tricky. Authors often have him doing things the early nineteenth-century police couldn’t and wasn’t expected to do—no investigative work, and definitely no detective work. But let’s be honest, Hugo also messed this up, as his Javert performed duties as if he were working for all the existing police departments in Paris.

And little things about behaviour—Javert and Valjean wouldn’t cook for each other. Cooking and other household chores associated with women were considered too degrading for any man, even male servants.

Feel free to ask if you have any specific questions.

[black-rabbit-razumikhin]

Raz Reads Les Mis (XXXIV)

Saint Denis - Corinth

While most of Enjolras&c are out marching to the barricade doing revolutionary barricade work, Laigle and Joly have more important work going on

And by 'more important work', I mean drinking in a cafe/whatever the contemporary version of a B&B is

A place that Grantaire found because he misunderstood a sign

The food is bad, the wine is worse, that's what makes it great

Something has to be said for why this book feels like the connection between Enjolras and Grantaire is more emphasised but Laigle and Joly are described as being practically joined at the hip

I am now asking for a chapter just about Laigle and Joly

Grantaire makes possibly the second best entrance of the book

Grantaire, bursting in to the dining area, "I smell cheese!"

Most French move to detour your entire walk for the smell of good brie

The three of them banter, Grantaire is called a wine barrel because he's so drunk after a point

They are cut short by one of Gavroche's friends carrying a letter directed to Laigle

It's a call from Enjolras for them to go to Lamarque's funeral

Obviously, they decide to stay inside instead

This message, from Enjolras directed to Laigle, puts Grantaire in a mood

"Enjolras despises me! If he had come for me I would have followed him!"

At some point the easy way out is just to confess to your crush. Burn out not fade away

But we need to move the plot along so Enjolras&c conveniently march outside where the rest of the Friends are stationed

Build a barricade you say? Why not build one right outside here?

The plan is accepted, but not without Enjolras being unnecessarily mean to Grantaire

He tells him to go to sleep, and Grantaire, who will do anything Enjolras tells him, does exactly that

A very strategic barricade is built and those who want out of the revolution run inside and board up their windows

Gavroche is there with his pistol, but he's desperate for a musket

Enjolras tries to make him feel included, asks him who the spy is

I knew there was somebody following them in the last chapter!

I did not know it was Javert

Sigh, Javert is restrained

Also a member of Patron Minette is here, the infamous Claquesous

Claquesous murders, so Enjolras murders him in return

He makes an announcement that he does not want to kill, but must justly dish out sin and that his penalty will be afforded to him

If Enjolras is saying he wants to be shot, I'd prefer if he didn't tempt fate

The whole barricade group is still reeling from these events that happened in moments

And that's when Courfeyrac notices the person who was waiting for Marius

It's been a bit of a time loop these past few chapters to get everyone in place, and I think the last person to be accounted for is Marius. Unless Thenardier is making an appearance? I was wondering how all the characters related to one another, and the slow connecting of all the threads that have been established previously is filling me with anticipation.

[barricadescon]

Barricades 2024: Schedule for Sunday, July 14

Welcome to the final day of Barricades 2024!

All times are in UTC, and can be converted to your local time zone at this link.

Key to types of Panels:

Convention Administration panels: Panels run by the Con Committee, to open and end the convention.

Guest of Honor: Special panels from our guests of honor. This year, our guests of honor are Jean Baptiste Hugo, a descendant of Victor Hugo who will discuss his project photograph his ancestor’s house; Christina Soontornvat, the author of the award-winning Les Mis retelling “A Wish in the Dark;” and Luciano Muriel, playwright of the 2018 musical play “Grantaire.” 

Fan/Academic Panel Presentations: Panels on history, fandom, or analysis of Les Mis. Scholars will share historical research, fans will share hobby projects, and the audience may get an opportunity to ask questions. 

Social Meetups: Casual unstructured time to meet up over video call and chat!

Social Games: Games and activities.

Publishing, Podcasting, and Promotion

Saturday, 15:00-16:00 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic Panel Presentation Presented by: David Mongomery, Alexiel de Ravenswood, Nemo Martin Recorded: Yes

Whether it’s fanart, Tiktok videos or deep historical analysis, lots of us have THOUGHTS about Les Mis we’d like to share with the world. This panel discussion features creators sharing their advice on how to share your work with the world in a range of mediums.

Femme/butch: Dynamics of Gender and Attraction in Les Mis

Saturday, 15:00-15:30 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic Panel Presentation Presented by: Eléna Recorded: Yes

In Eléna’s words: “This is a presentation about parallels between femme/butch dynamics and les mis! The focus is on Marius, Cosette and Eponine and their individual gender presentation and attraction. There will be a focus on the original text, but I will also talk about headcanons & representation in the fandom space! I’m a femme myself, but I’ll try to incorporate butch and transmasculine viewpoints!”

Lee’s Misérables: Jean Valjean, Confederate Hero

Saturday, 15:30-16:00 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic Panel Presentation Presented by: Sarah C. Maza Recorded: Yes

Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables (1862) was as big a success in the United States as elsewhere in the world upon publication, hailed throughout the young nation as the commanding masterpiece of modern French literature. Why would a novel that celebrates violent insurrection and radical republican ideals be so warmly received in America? One of the (many) answers to that question is that the novel appeared in the midst of the Civil War, and that it provided engrossing reading to the many soldiers stuck in place for weeks or months in camp, hospitals, and prisons. Most surprising, though, is the evidence of Les Misérables’ appeal to Confederate soldiers (who jokingly called themselves “Lee’s Misérables”), as Hugo was on record as an ardent abolitionist. My paper will illustrate and explain the paradoxical appeal of Hugo’s novel in the South in two contexts: first, I will draw attention to the ways in which Confederate nationalists likened their cause to the European Revolutions of 1848; and second, I will explain the novel’s resonance within what Wolfgang Schievelbusch has called the “culture of defeat,” the emotional resonance, in some historical contexts, of narratives of doomed causes and heroic failure.

Guest of Honor: Luciano Muriel, playwright of “Grantaire”

Sunday, 16:00-17:00 UTC 

Session Type: Guest of Honor Presented by: Luciano Muriel Recorded: Yes

Panel about the details of the creative process behind the show Grantaire, from the discovery of the character during the playwright’s first reading of Victor Hugo’s Les Miserables to the opening night of the staging at the Teatro Pradillo of Madrid. Why Grantaire? Why a dramatic monologue? Why include Amaral songs? What did the awards and subventions entail? All the answers to these and many other questions.

Break

Sunday, 17:00-18:00 UTC

1848 in Chile: The Society of Equality and the Siege of La Serena

Sunday, 18:00-19:00 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academc Presentation Presented by: Duncan Riley Recorded: Yes

While the Revolutions of 1848 are traditionally seen as a European event, they had a powerful influence in Latin America. In Chile in particular, university students who studied in France during the revolutions would lead a movement to oust the conservative dictatorship that had ruled the country since the 1830s. Inspired by the poetry of Alphonse de Lamartine and the ideals of utopian socialism, a group of Chilean intellectuals and artisans founded “The Society of Equality,” a cross-class political club dedicated to creating a democratic and participatory republic. Inspired by these ideals, in 1851 the citizens of La Serena, a mining town in northern Chile, declared their independence from the central government. Members of the Society of Equality transformed La Serena into the torchbearer of their vision of a new “democratic republic” that would restore civil liberties and grant greater autonomy to Chile’s provinces and municipalities. In defense of these principles, La Serena endured a months-long siege by government forces. The conflict inscribed itself within broader international dynamics of revolution and empire, as the British Royal Navy Intervened on the side of the government, while French immigrants built barricades to defend La Serena from invasion. Ultimately, then, La Serena and the Chilean Revolution of 1851 provide a fascinating window into the transatlantic exchanges of ideas that drove movements of democratic reform in both Europe and Latin America during the Revolutions of 1848.

The Unknown Light Examined

Sunday, 18:00-19:00 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic Presentation Presented by: Madeleine Recorded: Yes

In the tenth chapter of  Les Misérables, Bishop Myriel sets out to perform the last rights of Conventionnel G, a man reviled by all of Digne for having served on the body that voted to execute the king during the French Revolution. The bishop and the dying man debate the nature of equality, divine authority, and resistance to oppression. G’s fierce defense of the French revolution and Myriel’s staunch condemnation of political violence represent diametrically opposed philosophies, but the two men have more in common than first appears. They are both men of faith, in their own way, called to serve by their profound love for humanity. Intensely shaken by this realization, the bishop kneels before the dying sinner and asks his blessing.

What does this role reversal signify? How do Myriel and G’s conceptualizations of God and morality compare, and why does Hugo seek to reconcile them? To answer these questions, this panel investigates the thematic implications of this chapter. We’ll dissect the characters’ debate, discussing the historical and religious context that informs their moral frameworks—and Hugo’s depiction of them. Drawing on analysis by literary scholars, we’ll situate Hugo’s portrayal of the bishop and the conventionnel within this same context, evaluating the extent to which G is based on the Abbé Grégoire. We’ll also examine the impact of this chapter on Bishop Myriel’s characterization and symbolic role in the novel. Lastly, we’ll explore how “The Bishop in the Presence of an Unknown Light" serves as a political and philosophical thesis for Les Misérables.

Revolutionary Rants: “Les Misérables” Onstage from an International Perspective

Sunday, 20:00-21:00 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic Presentation Presented by: Tessa, Anne, Kaja, Marie, Apollon Recorded: Yes

What started out as an open call online to gather fans from around the world to rant about the musical version of Les Mis has turned into a group of musical fans from four countries getting together to discuss our different perspectives of various international productions of the show. Topics include our favorite cast albums, how our favorite character interactions are staged in various productions we follow (including Enjoltaire), our favorite actors from the different productions, and our favorite memorable moments from the show. And we would be remiss if we didn’t mention the major impact the 2012 movie had on us as well!

Paint & Sip

Sunday, 20:00-21:00 UTC

Session Type: Social Game Presented by: Psalm, Potatosonnet Recorded: No

A short presentation on the artwork of Victor Hugo, his medium and subject matter, followed by crafting time inspired by Hugo’s work.

Les Mis Letters: Building a Book Club

Sunday, 21:00-22:00 UTC

Session Type: Fan/Academic presentation Presented by: Mellow, Eccentrichat Recorded: Yes

There are 365 chapters in Les Miserables. Les Mis Letters is an email subscription that sends you one chapter of Les Mis daily for a year.

Rachel and Mellow have been running the “Dracula-Daily” inspired Les Mis readalong since 2023! Mellow will speak to the behind the scenes process of setting up a Substack and discord server, while other readers will speak to the experience of reading Les Mis for the first time in this format or the small projects they’ve put together while following along.

Les Mis Singalong

Sunday, 21:00-22:00 UTC

Session Type: Social Game Presented by: Megan Recorded: No

Let’s let loose by belting out our favorite Les Mis songs together! All singing abilities welcome and encouraged, it’s virtual after all 😀 It will be musical-heavy but we’ll be sure to throw in some other fan favorites!

Closing Session 

Sunday, 22:00-22:30 UTC

Session Type: Convention Administration Presented by: Convention Committee Recorded: No

Closing remarks by the convention committee, marking the official end of the convention.

Dead Dog

Sunday, 22:30-24:00

Session Type: Convention Administration Presented by: Convention Committee Recorded: No

 “Dead Dog” is a fandom slang term for a laidback “afterparty” that happens when a convention has officially ended. 

[fateandloveentwined]

Characterising Valjean: masks and struggles

Alright, so jvj's sudden intense self-deprecation towards the end of part five has always eluded me. Where did that come from? Hadn’t he already turned over a new leaf with the bishop and with Cosette?

Les mis has many themes, but if we cast aside all the themes focusing on french insurgencies and her destitute people, abstract grace and love and Poverty and Progress, at the heart of the brick we find her characters: to look at Valjean, perhaps there are two things that explain his abject self-deprecation and wretchedness/misery which were so pivotal to his last chapters in the book and central to his overarching character.

(below has absolutely no regard for spoilers. proceed with caution, thanks)

I. Masks and veneers.

It is my sorry fate that, only ever able to command respect that is fraudulently obtained, that respect humiliates me and inwardly oppresses me, and if I’m to have any self-respect others must despise me.

cough erik poto

As patently stated in his final ruminations, JVJ never considered himself successful. Everything he did which he was respected and lauded for, it was attributed to masquerades of himself, Monsieur Madeleine and Fauchelevent. As Valjean, he never achieved anything of worth. He was terrified in his first days in paris hiding from javert's pursuit and finding the convent; he never felt anything of worth as valjean but a criminal and convict pursued for the entirety of his life.

Throughout the book, he lived a struggle between accepting valjean and donning another disguise that would be some other benevolent man: the extensive deliberations on his way to Arras (who am I?), his timidity after Cosette's marriage in which he deemed his work done — either he is to don a new identity or resume the one he hid away for the many past years; towards the end, as Cosette and Marius were increasingly besotted with each other, he withdrew, letting Javert arrest him again under conditions — he resigned to the resumption of his fugitive identity.

In all these years, his convicted past loomed unfailingly over him, especially considering his canonical rearrest after Fantine’s death — in spite of all the good he did in the world, he was never, in essence, a free man of his mind.

Which brings us to our second point.

II. Jacob's wrestle

The terrible struggle of old, of which we have already seen several phases, began once more. Jacob wrestled with the angel for only one night. Alas! how many times have we seen Jean Valjean forced to grapple with his conscience in the dark, and struggling frantically against it!

The bring him home reprise in the finale was so poignant, even more so than the original number, because of what it truly meant to Valjean in the book. The musical "redeemed" many characters by painting them in a better light: Javert, with his misguided understanding of religion vs. reading the law as bible; Eponine, with her scream saving jvj's household at Rue Plumet. As for jvj, his many wrestles with faith were downplayed for the sake of simplification, going as far as to him praying earnestly for Marius’ life at the barricades in the musical when in the book, let’s face it, he was physically saving Marius but in his mind he probably didn't understand why he was doing something so foolish.

Predestined fates do not all follow a direct route. They do not run straight before the one who is predestined. They have dead ends, blind alleys, obscure turnings, daunting crossroads offering several alternative routes.

And so with the musical where all these mental struggles were downplayed, in the book he wrestled with the faith he had chosen: first during his torturously slow tread to Arras (who am I?), then with his ruminations on Marius (akin to heart full of love reprise), and finally with his last confession to Marius — so many times had he struggled; there's the idea that God redeemed him through the bishop, and he did good as a man — yet why still, had his life been so torturous and so full of agony? At first I questioned the use of the title “the miserables/the wretched” — for les amis de l’ABC, the destitute people of the republic, I could see their wretchedness — but Valjean, why was the title so unfitting of the main character? But no. Internally he was wretched, he was pitiable and miserable, and in the aura of his bring him home we forget about his moments of wrath flung out about his faith and life philosophy, blunt anger at the injustice not of the world but of how his life had been — unredeemed, in spite of; the arrant, incomprehensible fear of being pursued and hunted, the resignation to his fate at the very end: moments at the sewers, before javert and before the loving newlyweds.

As such so profound it is, towards his final moments in the musical he reprises “God on high” and prays to bring himself home. He yields to the things in life he doesn’t like and defers to God’s judgement, the faith he has followed on and the bargain he has made so many long years ago — it was not at Arras that his soul truly belonged to God, it was at these final moments where he prays that he has lived his faith through — and that was when I felt jvj’s character fully unravelled.

It was a starless night and extremely dark. No doubt, in the shadows, some immense angel stood with wings outspread, awaiting his soul.

---

oops this has gone on for way too long but i was itching to dissect jvj and have put it off for so long since reading the book i just had to do it for myself anyway.

Also living for all the nonexistent COMC Edmond Dantes and JVJ crossovers because discounting the timeline they share too many similarities in knowledge acquisition imprisonment and faith and pretences to not have met and had many an interesting tete-a-tete.

*quotes taken from christine donougher's translation. explains my tendency to use wretched over miserable lol.

[shsenhaji]

Les Misérables - 1.1.2: Monsieur Myriel Devient Monseigneur Bienvenu

Day two of posting about Les Mis Letters 2024, and today I have actual Thoughts!

My overall impression is that I'm enjoying the original French a lot better. I'm definitely able to pick up a lot more nuances, and I'm glad I decided to go this route in 2024.

First main thought: Monsieur Bienvenu is very much not the same thing as Monseigneur Bienvenu, and I have some Feelings about the fact that the English translation (at least for Les Mis Letters) does not carry that over.

Of course, those who are more knowledgeable about the ins and outs of this translation and the others are free to jump in, but I wouldn't have thought it would be so hard to just go with Monsignor Bienvenu, or even keep Monseigneur Bienvenu. The title for me makes a very big difference, in terms of the character and what Victor Hugo is trying to do. Especially since, as the chapter title says, Myriel goes from Monsieur to Monseigneur from the will of the people of Digne.

His new title also is part of the theme that we are presented with in the very first chapter, of having to overcome first impressions or being judged in a skewed fashion - either too harshly or too well - by others; I think the English version does the reader and the story a disservice for not keeping that specific word.

My second main thought is that I was able to grasp a lot more nuances this time around, such as the fact that in M. Myriel's budget, there are several items that have to do with prison rehabilitation and improving prison conditions and freeing fathers imprisoned for debt. As I told my friend, who is reading Les Mis in French for the first time with Les Mis Letters (not his first re-read, though), the foreshadowing is not subtle at all. We love to see it :)

I also do like how this budget helps makes Monseigneur Bienvenu's actions regarding Jean Valjean later on much more understandable. He's already for helping ex-convicts already, if only in theory. As we see later, Myriel's lofty thoughts and principles don't always come through to real-life issues, especially when he has a personal bias, but having that mentality of wanting to help out is already very important. It's also very sad, because all the money in the world doesn't help out very much in this case, as we see again and again throughout the book when encountering systemic and societal issues.

Finally, as many others pointed out last year and this year, the fact that Myriel does all of this charitable work at the expense of his sister and his housekeeper, and not even giving them a choice in the matter, is kind of sad.

Not only does this self-sacrificial impulse negatively impact these two, who already don't have much agency in their world, but it's also that he doesn't seem to realize that they may want him to have some things as well. The line "Bon, dit-elle à mademoiselle Baptistine, monseigneur a commencé par les autres, mais il a bien fallu qu’il finît par lui-même" [“Monseigneur began with other people, but he has had to wind up with himself, after all."] really stood out to me.

My friend rightly pointed out that "when self-sacrifice turns into sacrifice of others, you've gone too far," which I think is true in this case and is even more obvious later on. I really wonder where a certain Jean Valjean gets it from... It's a total mystery...

Last parting thoughts: I liked how the relationship between mademoiselle Baptistine and M. Myriel was described in French a lot better than I did in the English version; for whatever reason, it sounded less sketchy and more heartwarming, though I couldn't say exactly why: "Pour cette sainte fille, M. de Digne était tout à la fois son frère et son évêque, son ami selon la nature et son supérieur selon l’église. Elle l’aimait et elle le vénérait tout simplement."

All in all, I'm very glad I was able to listen to this chapter today - I was so engrossed while listening to the story that I totally stood while doing nothing else for more than five minutes just listening to the narrator tell me all about our bestie Monseigneur Bienvenu. 😆

I hope to have more thoughts tomorrow!

[trisshawkeye]

Can we hear more about enjolras and his merry men?

You most certainly can! Enjolras and His Merry Men is, as it sounds, a Robin Hood AU for Les Miserables. I wrote the first chapter of it for the Les Mis Across History event back in 2013 (I put it on AO3 later when I finally made an account). I got really into the historical research and planned out a bunch more. I had detailed notes on which Les Mis characters corresponded to which Robin Hood characters, backstories, English history, all sorts of stuff.

The problem was, I was doing this all in Scrivener, which I'd just gotten a copy of and was quite excited to use. I then realised that actually I really bounce off Scrivener as a writing and organising tool (I prefer to keep everything in one Google doc, as bonkers as that is, it's just what works for me). Also, this was at least one laptop ago and now I don't actually have Scrivener installed anywhere. All the notes are there, in the .scriv folder, they're not encrypted or anything so I could just lift them out, or reinstall Scrivener to rescue them and reorganise. I've just not bothered, really. The fic text itself is in a Google doc that I haven't touched since 2014. Oops.

Is it abandoned? Nooooooo... making it my WIP with the longest lag time between updates. I don't know when I'll actually sit down and continue it, but I just really love it as a silly concept so I want to come back to it eventually.

Here's a little bit of chapter 2 beneath the cut, for your patience, everyone. They're not using their French names here, but I think you can tell who's who.

Chapter 2 - The Guide

The Sheriff of Nottingham woke with a startled grunt to the sound of someone putting something down on the table. He snapped upright with a curse, to see that a chunk of bread had been laid on his desk. Across from him sat a scruffy servant boy, chewing on his own breakfast and swinging his legs from the chair.

“Did you stay up all night?” the boy asked.

William Brewer rubbed his eyes, mentally chiding himself for abandoning his usually solid routine of waking and sleeping. He made vague attempt at shuffling the paper on his desk into some form of order, then gave up and reached for the bread.

“Staying out of trouble, I hope, Much?” he asked, suppressing a yawn. “I haven’t seen you in a few days. I hope you’ve been making yourself useful.”

“Mmhmm,” Much replied around a mouthful of bread. The Sheriff eyed him levelly, sighed, and returned to his papers.

“Well, I will be writing a report on these outlaws this morning. I do not wish to be disturbed except for matters of the greatest urgency. I will take dinner here. In the meantime, go see what help you can be in the stables.”

Much scowled. “Can’t I stay here and help you?”

“Not unless you could either read, or tell me in great detail about the outlaw John Little, also known as Combeferre.”

Much cocked his head to one side in thought. “Well... he’s really tall, and he uses a quarterstaff. Also he’s second in command to Enjolras.”

“Where did you learn all that?” the Sheriff asked sharply.

He got a shrug in response. “Folk talk about things around a kid more than they do around the Sheriff,” Much replied with a grin. “I hear a lot, I do.”

The Sheriff of Nottingham narrowed his eyes. “You have told me nothing I didn’t already know. Run along now.” With an exaggerated sigh, Much went to obey. He had pulled open the door when he heard Brewer speak again. “Oh - but keep your ears open,” he said gruffly. Much gave him a wide grin and bolted out of the door. Despite himself, William Brewer felt a smile ghost at the corners of his mouth.

[mayguardian]

F1 Drivers in Performing Arts

ok so i was bored and sorting people into like HS/small college performing arts is my equivalent to buzzfeed harry potter house quizzes or whatever. if there are any kindred spirits out there that were in orchestra/choir/drama, i'm sorry in advance for butchering the art that you love.

is this an au? kinda. will i write anything for this? probably not. why are there a disproportionate amount in marching band? because it's the best.

Starting with Musical Theater!

fair warning that i really don't know a thing about what actually happens in theater, so everything is based off of second-hand accounts from actual drama nerds.

Charles:

has never not gotten the male lead

Ever.

the director actually just won’t choose a musical if male lead role isn’t A. written for tenor and B. containing least 3 solo numbers

has the voice of an angel but isn’t actually a great actor or dancer

kinda looks like he doesn’t wanna be on stage when he’s not singing?

naturally talented singer (broadway style)

didn’t start taking vocal lessons until after he got his first lead role

“anyway here’s wonderwall” self-taught pianist

if he’s in a room with a piano you have 3 minutes before he’s playing river flows in you

takes saving his voice on show week extremely seriously 

“we can’t read lips dude do you want chocolate milk or powerade with your lunch today”

Fernando:

vocal captain

also in choir

tenor

told the choir director he would quit if he had to be leadership there as well

does more in rehearsal than the actual director and is bitchy as hell about it

“nice of you to finally show up! the show is dogshit, no one can sing, and first tech run is on thursday!”

decides most of the casting himself

gets into immediate and pointless power struggles with the musical director whenever they have an orchestra

bitter arguments over how many vamps and what tempo to take

in the end pit just plays exactly like the recording drama’s been using to rehearse lol

doesn’t ever audition so he’s always ensemble 

thinks memorizing lines is stupid and too much trouble

Oscar:

sound/lighting design

also does tech work for dance and drama

the guy reading cues during runs

tom-and-jerry avoiding the director asking him to be stage manager bc he doesn't want to actually come to regular rehearsals

into music production/sound engineering (not the beat making kind)

french horn 3 in concert band 

has worn the same bow tie to every concert since he was 12

in woodwind quintet instead of brass quintet like a weirdo

permanent feature on the caught lacking/napping instagram

has been documented sleeping in:

bathrooms

theater catwalks

the prop room

the tech booth

all 4 music libraries

a tuba case

Bottas:

does dance (contemporary/jazz/tap, not ballet)

choreographs most of the show

successfully convinced the director to do newsies at some point cuz he wanted to do a tap number really bad

also snuck a jazz square into an ensemble number of les mis once 

so bad at singing that fernando gave up and told to lip-sync every time he’s on stage

winning the idgaf war

shows up to rehearsal once a week and if people are goofing off he just leaves

has a noninteraction policy with the stage manager and makes the dance captains go between if there’s issues

[pazak-thion-brady]

Dont read the book or watch the film. Watch the musical. Theres tones of videos of it on YouTube. Full pro productions. It's the longest running musical ever going on about 40 years now in London at the Sonheim Theatre.

It follows a convicted French man Jean Val Jean as he is released from 19 years in prison for stealing a loaf of bread per french revolution.

He finds it hard to work so he turns back to crime and steals silver from a kind kink who let him stay the night but when Jean is caught and hauled back to the monk he said it was given freely.

Jean now uses this silver to become an honest man. He sets up a factory and becomes mayor of a town.

Several years down the line one of his factory workers is kicked out leaveing her with no way to pay for her child's upkeep with the inn keeper who looks after her while Fontine is at work. Fontine seeing no other way of life now becomes a prostitute and gets Syphilis dying of the disease but not before Jean finds out about her plight and vows to look after her daughter.

A specter from Jean's past creeps up in Javert, an old prison guard who watched over Jean and has chased him for years since he broke his parole. Javert wrongly accuses another man of being prisoner 24601 Jean's old number and Jean confesses in court. The judge refuses to believe it since Jean is now the mayor and so he's set free. Javert doesnt like this so he fights Jean over Fontine's hospital bed. Jean wins and runs again.

Jean finds Cossette the child of Fontine and takes her away to Paris.

Time skip about 10 years. Revolution is in the air among the students of paris. One day now adult Cossette meets one of these handsome revolutionaries named Marius

They fall in love rapidly which leads to Marius having second thoughts about trying to overthrow the french government.

The revolutionary students only have one voice in the french government General La Mark. When he dies the rebelion begins. Large barricades are erected at Ru De Bark, Notre Dame and the ABC Cafe and fighting ensues. Cossette begs Jean to go into the fighting and retrieve her boy toy Marius and Jean does that. At the same time Javert is also there as part of the french army and sneaks in under cover to the revolutionaries. Jean find Marius and fights beside him until he spots Javert. The revolutionaries kick out Javert on Jean and Marius' orders and the fighting continues.

Javert sees no way to continue so that night throws himself in the river Sene dying.

Marius is gravely wounded at the next battle which is a surprise by the army and Jean drags him to safety through the sewers, which is lucky because all the others die giving a decisive victory to the French army.

Later Marius, Cosette and Jean return to the ABC Cafe to mourn the losses if all Marius' friends.

Marius and Cossetre get married and Jean dies in a church after leaving their wedding early.

That is the entire plot of Les Mis.

hmm okay i’ll bite what’s les mis?

[shitpostingfromthebarricade]

Les Misérables is written about three or four different time periods depending on the given chapter and the level on which you're reading it (literally versus historically versus philosophically, etc.). I don't think I appreciated until episode 7.13 of Mike Duncan's Revolutions podcast when he broke down how intensely all of the political factions involved in the 1848 revolutions were influenced by their opinions of the French Revolution, however, how much Les Mis talks about 1848.

I'm gonna be making a post later with a theory about Hugo's characters and structure they pertain to this history and these factions and most especially Cosette's future, but in the meantime, I've transcribed from around 13:10 to nearly the end of the episode so that you all can also appreciate how many levels were involved and have it in writing to refer to and research as you like, because I think it also summarizes pretty well the non-Bonapartist political forces in play at any point in the bricc.

(I also cannot recommend this podcast highly enough for jumping into not just the world of French Revolutions but also Western Revolutions in general.)

So at one end of the spectrum, we have those who looked back at the French Revolution with nothing but horror and disgust and who believed that above all and no matter what the cost, Europe must be kept free of the menace of revolution.  But this category of anti-revolutionaries divided up into three broad groups who agreed on practically nothing but the fact that revolution was abhorrent.

First and most obviously, we had the conservative absolutists who returned to power after the Congress of Vienna. The chief leading light of this group was Metternich, and the spectre of the French Revolution haunted no man so much as Metternich. Men like Metternich were so opposed to revolution that they were even opposed to reform. King Louis XVI had invited reform in 1789, and look what had happened to him. So across Europe in 1848 there were conservative writers and members of the clergy and major landowners who believed that you could not even let three guys sit down for a drink or they'd start plotting revolution. You certainly couldn't have a free press. You had to be stubborn, unfair, and ruthless. It was simply too dangerous to be anything less. And this extended to things even as seemingly banal as allowing a kingdom to have a nominal constitution, because in the conservative mind, once you granted the premise that rights came up from the people, rather than down from God through the king, you could just kiss the whole thing goodbye. These conservatives still pined for the days before 1789, and they hated the memory of even the most moderate of French revolutionaries, whose seemingly innocent and earnest appeals for reform had simply been the thin end of the wedge.

But absolutist conservatives were not the only ones who recoiled at the memory of the French Revolution and who wanted to do everything in their power from ever letting it happen again. So this second group of anti-revolutionaries were constitutional liberals who worshiped the rule of law and for whom revolution was anathema to everything they held dear. In France, we would put both Louis Philippe and François Guizot into this category, even if they had oh-so-ironically come to power thanks to the July Revolution [of 1830]. Both men admired the principles that had animated the men of 1789 but who had nonetheless concluded, no less than Metternich, that acquiescing to reform was only the beginning of a very slippery slope. Guizot himself had written a history of France and believed that the king's concessions in the early days of the Estates-General had led directly to the Reign of Terror — and remember, Guizot's father had perished in the Terror, as had King Louis Philippe's [Louis Philippe II, Philippe Égalité]. By the mid-1840s, both men had become stubbornly convinced that everything that needed to be achieved had been achieved and that any further reform would invite that slip into radicalism and the return of Madame la Guillotine. This kind of thinking could also be detected in the minds of rulers over in [modern-day] Germany, where we've discussed that there were these constitutional regimes — Ludwig in Bavaria, Leopold of Baden, and Frederick Augustus in Saxony. Those constitutions existed more as a stopper to prevent revolution than any kind of liberal expressionism.

Finally, there was a third group that cringed at the idea of the French Revolution but who drew the opposite conclusion from Guizot and Metternich: where Guizot and Metternich thought that reform was an invitation to revolution, they felt that reform was a necessary release valve to prevent revolution.  So in this category you would find Odilon Barrot and the dynastic left in France who wanted to save the monarchy by reforming the monarchy.  You would also find in here a guy like Alexis de Tocqueville, who would go on to write his own book on the French Revolution where he would argue that all of the quote-unquote “gains” of the French Revolution had already started under the Ancien Régime and that basically you didn’t need revolution to change society, you just needed continuous, gradual improvement.  We’ve also discussed so far two massively influential reformers in [modern-day] Italy and Hungary who fit this same basic mold.  In Italy, we talked about the Count of Cavour in episode 7.09, and in episode 7.08 I introduced István Széchenyi.  Both of these guys have broad, sweeping visions for the futures of their respective countries.  They believed in liberal constitutional government, economic modernization and social improvement, they simply did not believe revolution was the means of achieving their ends; in fact, this was the very lesson they had drawn from the French Revolution, that the ends had been just, but the means counterproductive.  The attempt to cram a century’s worth of work into a single year had not just had disastrous consequences, but they had upset the whole project of reform.  I would also throw into this group of anti-revolutionary reformers all of the Austrian liberals in Vienna, who we also talked about in episode 7.08. They believed that the stubborn brittleness of Metternich’s government was inviting a revolutionary upheaval that could be headed off by intelligent and necessary reform.

So those are the guys who desperately wanted to avoid another French Revolution, who instantly shuddered at the idea of ever having something like that happen again. But is that how everyone felt? Oh my goodness, no. There were those who had picked up the thesis of Adolphe Thiers and believed that the revolution of 1789 had been a good thing, a project launched for noble reasons and in fact launched because the existing regime was simply too stubborn to change without revolutionary energy. In this telling, men like Lafayette and Mirabeau were heroes to be emulated while you kept on constant guard against villains like Robespierre and Saint-Just. As you can imagine, this was a very attractive thesis among liberals in Germany and the Austrian empire who saw their own situation as analogous to the Ancien Régime of 1789. Their kingdoms were reeling from an economic crisis, their governments were financially shaky, their natural rights were trampled on by tyrants. So the French Revolutionary project that unfolded between 1789 and 1792 was absolutely a model to be emulated. Bring the liberal, educated intellectuals of the country together and force the kings to grant them a constitution and to guarantee basic civil rights. If they were going to be denied a constitutional place in government, if their local assemblies were going to be neutered, if they were not allowed to vote, if the government was unresponsive, then it was perfectly acceptable to look to 1789 and say, “Yes, we want that too. A moment when men of good will and conscience join together to define the rights of man and the citizen.” Now of course, these neo-1789ers knew the lesson of history well, and they knew that they would need to guard against the villains of 1792, but they did not believe that the Reign of Terror was necessarily inevitable. It had simply happened that way in France thanks to a variety of coincidences, mistakes, and bad luck, so liberals across Europe believed that they could forge constitutional governments that defined civil rights and popular sovereignty without falling prey to the Reign of Terror. Thus, the spectre of the French Revolution would loom very large indeed in the minds of these liberal revolutionaries as the course of 1848 rapidly progressed faster than they could keep up with. As we will see, they will all hit a moment of truth where they have to decide whether to keep pushing and join with more radical forces or quit the whole project, reconcile with the old conservative order, and fight against those radical forces that might lead to the new Reign of Terror.

But there were also those who rejected this whole contrived moralizing of the “good” revolution of 1789 and the “bad” revolution of 1792.  They did not recoil from the insurrection of August the 10th, the First French Republic, or the Jacobin Committee of Public Safety.  They idolized not the buffoon Lafayette and hypocritical traitor Mirabeau, but rather, the steely resolve of men like Danton and Robespierre and Saint-Just and Marat.  These had been men who saw the tyrants of Europe for what they were and knew that one must stand up when the going got tough, not go hide in the corner.  These more radical republicans further believed that there was just as much injustice perpetrated by comfortable liberals as conservative absolutists, so they saw the Revolution of 1789 as merely the precursor for the much more important, much more glorious, and much more necessary Revolution of 1792.  So though they were enemies of each other, these radicals actually agreed with Metternich that reform really was just the thin edge of the wedge, that it would lead to a greater revolution that would overthrow the despotic monarchies of Europe.  In their minds, the widespread slandering of the First French Republic and even the portrayal of the Reign of Terror as the most terrible crime in the history of the world was the nefarious propaganda of the comfortable classes, whether of conservative or liberal stripe.  Their propaganda emphasized the dramatic horror of the guillotine in order to cover up the horrors the common people of Europe lived with every day, and the best summation of this argument actually comes from A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Mark Twain. 

Now the book wasn’t published until 1889, but in it, Twain writes a passage that would have had a lot of radicals nodding their heads in 1848.  He wrote, “There were two reigns of terror, if we would but remember and consider it.  The one wrought murder in hot passion, the other in heartless cold blood.  The one lasted mere months, the other had lasted a thousand years.  The one inflicted death upon ten thousand persons; the other, upon a hundred million.  But our shudders are all for the horrors of the minor terror, the momentary terror so to speak; whereas, what is the horror of the swift ax compared with lifelong death from cold, hunger, insult, cruelty, and heartbreak?  What is swift death by lightning compared with death by slow fire at the stake?  A city cemetery could contain the coffins filled by that brief terror, which we have all been so diligently taught to shiver at and mourn over.  But all France could hardly contain the coffins filled by that older and real terror, that unspeakably bitter and awful terror, which none of us has been taught to see in its vastness or pity as it deserves.” 

(Sounds an awful lot like like a certain conversation our favorite bishop has with a certain conventionist, no?)

Now granted, I don’t think many of these radicals were actively pursuing a new Reign of Terror, but they were also not planning to settle for a constitutional monarchy bought by and for the richest families of their country.  And as we’ve already seen in France, these guys were not going to let the blood of patriots be spilled simply so they could swap one Bourbon for another and give another hundred thousand bankers and industrialists the right to vote.  What in that represented the nation?  Where in that were the people?  Where was liberty leading the people?  Oh right, that painting was locked now in the attic so it did not offend the forces of order.  In Italy, these radical republican forces who celebrated 1792 rallied around Giuseppe Mazzini and later Garibaldi; in Hungary they would rally around Lajos Kossuth, and when I get back from the book tour, I will introduce you to the radical leaders in Germany, who would not be satisfied by the mere token reforms promised by men who celebrated 1789 but feared 1792, men like Friedrich Hecker, Robert Blum, and Gustav Struve.  Everywhere, they would find their support not solely in the salons and cafés but among artisans and workers and students.  Those who would mount the barricades not just for the right to publish an article or to mildly criticize the government or the right to vote if you made a gargantuan amount of money: they fought to topple the king and to bring power to the people — all of the people.

So, so far we have men who idolize the conservatives of 1788, men who idolize the liberal nobles of 1789, and men who idolize the Jacobin republicans of 1792.  Well, there was also in 1848 also [sic] now emerging a small clique of men for whom even 1792 was not enough.  These guys believed that 1789 had been merely a step to 1792, but also believed that 1792 was simply a step to something greater.  So where did these guys look?  That’s right: they looked to 1796.  “1796?” you say.  “  What are you talking about?  The Directory?  Surely not.  Nobody says, ‘Ah, yes, the good old days of the French Directory, let’s definitely go back to that.’”  And no, of course I’m not talking about the directory, I’m talking about Gracchus Babeuf and the Conspiracy of Equals.  With the small but ever-growing, increasingly influential spirit of socialism and communism beginning to take root, men like Louis Blanc and Karl Marx looked to Babeuf and his gang as the first example of what the force of history was aiming to make of humanity.  Communities and nations that shared not just political rights but the wealth of the nation.  How indeed are you going to sit back and say, “Ah, yes, the declaration of the rights of man and the citizen, and one citizen should have one vote,” and then call it a day when so few had so much and so many had so little?  The vote was nothing to an entire family — dad, mom, children, who were all stuck working eighteen hours a day for starvation wages.  It was thus not the spirit of 1789 or the spirit of ‘92 that moved them, but the spirit of 1796; and it was not the name Robespierre that got their hearts thumping, but rather Babeuf.  Babeuf had been among the very first of the socialist revolutionaries who had not stopped short at merely answering the political question, but who wanted to answer the social question as well.  And as we’ll see as we move further down the road on 1848, that the memory of Gracchus Babeuf was not simply a matter of picking some obscure hero out of the historical record: there was actually a direct line of revolutionary succession, because one of Babeuf’s fellow conspirators in the Conspiracy of Equals was an Italian revolutionary socialist named Phillipe Buonarroti [Filippo Buonarroti].  Buonarroti was in prison but later released and would then go onto a long and active career inside the revolutionary secret societies that sprang up after the Congress of Vienna, and we’re gonna talk more about the role that Buonarroti played in kindling and spreading this revolutionary socialism, but for his small cadre of disciples, the revolutions of 1848 would be a chance not to complete the work of Lafayette in 1789 or Robespierre in 1792, but the work of Babeuf in 1796.

[kaaaaaaaaaearl]

These are a couple of panflets on the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin Les Misérables from 1878, probably the earliest adaptation of Les Mis, the theatrical drama by Charles Hugo, Vicky's son.

It premiered in 1863 at the Théâtre Des Galeries in Brussels, just one year after the publication of the novel. This is the OG cast

of which I can't seem to find any pictures of yet.

The play is divided into prologue, the first part called: Fantine, the second part: Valjean and an epilogue.

It sticks close-ish to the brick and even closer to the now almost 2 centuries of adaptation canon templates. Like seriously so many standards of les mis adaptation are born here.

Still tho there's some weird adaptations choices like the amis and Javert dying on an explosion, or Javert's backstory being changed to his dad being a guard??at Toulon??? and him and Claquesous are cooworkers ig, as well as Montparnasse being there in the Montfermeil scenes for some reason, Valjean also escapes without going to Toulon a second time idk little stuff like that.

If you are interested in reading the 1863 libretto here google books and gallica

Going back to the french staging I found this little booklet for the first part of the show. It's pretty cool, it resumes all the plot of that first act; from the Bishop up to Cosette and Valjean arriving at the petit Picpus and there's an opinion bit at the end about the actors, the direction, stage design.

The way they've separated it into two makes me think that maybe they've just split it into two different shows? I can't seem to find anything on the second act of this production. I've also found restagings from other years that seem to do the same [1904]

This one from [1908] has the full thing but separates it into a 3 part play.

Either way the most important thing for me here the cast

I found pictures of some cast memebers, in costume.

[persefoneshalott]

LES MIS SPANISH CENSORSHIP ADVENTURES

I own two spanish translations of les mis. The first one is the most famous and the one that's in most people's houses but it has censorship in it because it's from 1862 and people changed the lenguage a bit through time but never thought to check it with the original french. The new one is the first one without that censorship. I have found another version in the archives that seems to not censor some of it too but I didn't check the whole book out so I can't confirm. All in all there were other translations but because this first one went into public domain pretty quick, it was the one that got reprinted the most and the most easy to find in my country to this day.

So! There's a lot of changes between the two translations I have and I like to look at what was cut and changed and try to guess at why. Maybe I'll do it at the same time I do the les mis letters review. Maybe probably I won't have time once I get back to my job. Either way! I am doing it for these first chapters. I mostly look at the 1810 Spain freedom of press law for the reasoning on the changes. It specifically mentions the writings will be censored if they're offensive to the Monarchy and its laws, to public decency and good morals; and that all writings on matters of religion will be reviewed by the ecclesiastic ordinaries. It also mentions that three of the members of the Supreme Board of Censorship are ecclesiastics, two of the members of the provices are as well, and the rest are secular clergy.

Right, having given the info and context for this, let's go

M. Myriel Becomes M. Bienvenu

The part where a bunch of names are listed as having been in the episcopal palace cuts out the fact that Jean Soanen was a predicator to the king in the old translation. They don't cut any name, just that specific thing about their relationship to the king I am guessing because of implied offense to the monarchy ??

"Things will not go well, M. le Comte, until the Emperor has freed us from these black-capped rascals" The new translation uses a much more offensive word in the place of rascals compared to the old version, 'meapilas' ( literally, stoup-pisser, coming from the origin quote 'this guy pisses holy water') vs 'cassocks' in the old translation but it's not that much of a change to the overall text.

A Hard Bishopric for a Good Bishop

First cut of a line! This is a line that doesn't seem to be in the version we're reading the letters in, but it is in other translations and I thought it being cut here was very in line with other cuts that are made later on with the bishop character.

From Christine Donougher's translation:

"On his visits he was kind and indulgent, and did not so much preach as chat. He placed no virtue beyond reach. He never went looking very far for his arguments and his exemplars. To the inhabitants of one village he would cite the example of the neighbouring one." The old spanish translation cuts the virtue line and the new one recovers it, roughly translating it as "He never placed any virtue in an inaccessible plateau".

THEN when talking to the second group of village people, the old translation has them as 'slothful/lazy' rather than 'greedy' which changes the feeling of it A LOT, even though the rest of the text is pretty similar. It feels like he's shaming them for not working enough vs the original text being of him trying to get them to not only look out for their own selves but form a community where they all can rely on each other and help each other in solidarity. you can see what I mean below: "In villages whose inhabitants were slothful, he said: “Look at the people of Embrun! If, at the harvest season, the father of a family has his son away on service in the army, and his daughters at service in the town, and if he is ill or incapacitated, the curé recommends him to the prayers of the congregation; and on Sunday, after the mass, all the inhabitants of the village—men, women, and children—go to the poor man’s field and do his harvesting for him, and carry the straw and grain to his barns and granaries.” (old spanish translation)

VS In greedy villages for profit and harvest, he said: “Look at the people of Embrun! If, at the harvest season, the father of a family has his son away on service in the army, and his daughters at service in the town, and if he is ill and incapacitated, the parish priest makes his case known in the sermon; and on Sunday, after the mass, all the inhabitants of the village—men, women, and children—go to the poor man’s field and do the harvesting, and carry the straw and grain to his granary.” (new spanish translation)

[veileranthonypopularmusic]

'Bella Ciao' in Money Heist: how does the song trigger specific images?

'Una mattina mi sono alzato, o bella ciao, bella ciao, bella ciao ciao ciao [...]'

These famous words are undoubtedly what makes Money Heist (La Casa de Papel) so recognisable. In fact, the song 'Bella Ciao' is one of the most iconic features of the successful series released in 2017.

(Here you can listen to the song in the series: https://youtu.be/1MzNrX1ZvtQ)

I guess even if you did not watch the show, you must have heard of it at least and one cannot divide the show from its song. The 2 definitely match together, right?

I think this series is a good example of how people create images while listening to the song.

Instinctively, when we hear 'Bella Ciao', it is highly probable that we will connect it with these iconic characters that are playing armed robbers. We are going to associate the song with so many images: their Dali masks, their red suits and so on and so forth. Therefore, the song triggers a whole mix of images that makes Money Heist so characteristic.

However, while preparing my post on the subject, I wondered: is the series legitimate in using such a historical song?

Indeed, one cannot over look the fact that, primarily, the song has historical origins. On the one hand, it was meant to celebrate a social conflict that happenned in Italy in 1908. The so-called 'Bella' in the song refers to a 'mondina'. The term was used for the female agricultural workers who were overworking and exploited. In this sense, the song was made to denounce their working conditions.

On the other hand, the song was going to be even more significant in the context of the Second World War, when Benito Mussolini had made the country fascist. Before the war erupted, a famous female Italian singer, Giovanna Daffini used to sing 'Bella Ciao' for special happy occasions, but it so happen that once the war began, she had joined the Resistance and would played a significant role in the renewal of 'Bella Ciao' in that its lyrics were going to became an anthem to fight fascism.

(Here is Giovanna Daffini's 'Bella Ciao' version which dates back to the 1950s: https://youtu.be/i1UgYrFfM0A).

The success of the series with the use of the song, especially with its hooks in the chorus, has paved the way for the song to reemerged in contemporary times. In 2018, 'Bella Ciao' was took over by French artists: Naesto, Maitre Gims, Vitaa and Dadju.

(You will find their version here: https://youtu.be/CAOFXTbECn0).

However, it turns out that their approach of the song, turning it into an expression of love in a R'N'B style, has been highly criticized in that it did not properly reflected the chore meaning of the original song.

These examples are what led me think about the question I raised early on. Even though I really liked Money Heist and that it definitely belongs to my top 10 of series, I am not sure though that it was legitimate in using ‘Bella Ciao’ as such, insofar as it did not tackled the historical and political aspects the song originates from. The same goes with the interpretation the French singers gave: the main purpose of the song has been dismissed and replaced with a much brighter image, regardless of its historical and political contexts.

That’s it for this week – I hope you enjoyed reading my post!

What do you think about the question I raised? Do you think the producers have made a good choice using the song without taking into account its origins, or do you think the legitimacy of the show can be challenged?  Does the popularity of the series allows it to appropriate the song for its own world? Also, did you watch the show and if so, did you like it?

Many thanks!

_____________

Sources I used:

https://www.programme-tv.net/news/series-tv/206803-la-casa-de-papel-netflix-dou-vient-la-chanson-bella-ciao/

[godlovesdykes]

having so much fun in my archive tonight. i joined tumblr in august 2013 having already spent a few months scrolling through my friends’ tumblrs before i was allowed to get an account. my first post was a supernatural post despite never having watched the show. my friends thought i was a poser. i was into sherlock, hp, doctor who, welcome to night vale, and lotr/the hobbit (it was between the first and second hobbit movies).

sometime in october 2013 i started reading homestuck, and on may 31 2014 i caught up (this was during the gigapause). i cosplayed rose in novermber 2013.  i participated in the homestuck shipping world cup in summer 2014 on the arasol team. game over, in october 2014, was my first live hs update, and i followed the updates till the end two years later.

by mid-2014 i was starting to like the avengers and especially stucky. later that year i watched in the flesh. sometime in december i discovered les mis by way of batcii’s fanart. i also read all the young avengers comics in the latter half of 2014. i cosplayed meulin in november.

in february 2015 i was still posting sherlock, but it was totally replaced by les mis by april. i read the song of achilles in march. sometime before may 2015 i got into the marauders, but i can’t pinpoint it because i was already posting hp before then. that summer i finished the first volume of les mis and read the first three books of the raven cycle. in the fall i participated in the r/s games and cosplayed enjolras and davepetasprite^2. hamilton first appears on my blog in november, and i got into the french revolution around the same time. december was star wars tfa, the first star wars movie i watched.

i read the iliad in march 2016. in july i discovered voltron, once again through batcii fanart. i was outed to my parents sometime between april and october 2016. that fall i watched yuri on ice as it came out. in november i cosplayed elder mckinley from the book of mormon and remus lupin. started listening to taz around november and caught up during the suffering game in early 2017. played my first ace attorney game in june 2017. sometime that year i started id’ing as a lesbian. looking through my phone photos, this was also the year i started learning abt historical fashion, although it wasn’t a major interest yet. i also took my first classics course, and my cosplay that year was a maenad.

my last voltron post was in january 2018 and i graduated high school in june. my 2018 cosplay was god tier rose lalonde, which is a fun callback to five years previously. my halloween costume was antigone. gonna stop there with the retrospective but that was very fun. i like placing events in my life in the context of where my energy was going at the time. coming up on ten years here this august.