#me when i lie as i refuse to look at my lms

[lesmisletters-daily]

The Death Of A Horse

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 1.3.8

“The dinners are better at Édon’s than at Bombarda’s,” exclaimed Zéphine.

“I prefer Bombarda to Édon,” declared Blachevelle. “There is more luxury. It is more Asiatic. Look at the room downstairs; there are mirrors [<i>glaces</i>] on the walls.”

“I prefer them [<i>glaces</i>, ices] on my plate,” said Favourite.

Blachevelle persisted:—

“Look at the knives. The handles are of silver at Bombarda’s and of bone at Édon’s. Now, silver is more valuable than bone.”

“Except for those who have a silver chin,” observed Tholomyès.

He was looking at the dome of the Invalides, which was visible from Bombarda’s windows.

A pause ensued.

“Tholomyès,” exclaimed Fameuil, “Listolier and I were having a discussion just now.”

“A discussion is a good thing,” replied Tholomyès; “a quarrel is better.”

“We were disputing about philosophy.”

“Well?”

“Which do you prefer, Descartes or Spinoza?”

“Désaugiers,” said Tholomyès.

This decree pronounced, he took a drink, and went on:—

“I consent to live. All is not at an end on earth since we can still talk nonsense. For that I return thanks to the immortal gods. We lie. One lies, but one laughs. One affirms, but one doubts. The unexpected bursts forth from the syllogism. That is fine. There are still human beings here below who know how to open and close the surprise box of the paradox merrily. This, ladies, which you are drinking with so tranquil an air is Madeira wine, you must know, from the vineyard of Coural das Freiras, which is three hundred and seventeen fathoms above the level of the sea. Attention while you drink! three hundred and seventeen fathoms! and Monsieur Bombarda, the magnificent eating-house keeper, gives you those three hundred and seventeen fathoms for four francs and fifty centimes.”

Again Fameuil interrupted him:—

“Tholomyès, your opinions fix the law. Who is your favorite author?”

“Ber—”

“Quin?”

“No; Choux.”

And Tholomyès continued:—

“Honor to Bombarda! He would equal Munophis of Elephanta if he could but get me an Indian dancing-girl, and Thygelion of Chæronea if he could bring me a Greek courtesan; for, oh, ladies! there were Bombardas in Greece and in Egypt. Apuleius tells us of them. Alas! always the same, and nothing new; nothing more unpublished by the creator in creation! <i>Nil sub sole novum</i>, says Solomon; <i>amor omnibus idem</i>, says Virgil; and Carabine mounts with Carabin into the bark at Saint-Cloud, as Aspasia embarked with Pericles upon the fleet at Samos. One last word. Do you know what Aspasia was, ladies? Although she lived at an epoch when women had, as yet, no soul, she was a soul; a soul of a rosy and purple hue, more ardent hued than fire, fresher than the dawn. Aspasia was a creature in whom two extremes of womanhood met; she was the goddess prostitute; Socrates plus Manon Lescaut. Aspasia was created in case a mistress should be needed for Prometheus.”

Tholomyès, once started, would have found some difficulty in stopping, had not a horse fallen down upon the quay just at that moment. The shock caused the cart and the orator to come to a dead halt. It was a Beauceron mare, old and thin, and one fit for the knacker, which was dragging a very heavy cart. On arriving in front of Bombarda’s, the worn-out, exhausted beast had refused to proceed any further. This incident attracted a crowd. Hardly had the cursing and indignant carter had time to utter with proper energy the sacramental word, <i>Mâtin</i> (the jade), backed up with a pitiless cut of the whip, when the jade fell, never to rise again. On hearing the hubbub made by the passers-by, Tholomyès’ merry auditors turned their heads, and Tholomyès took advantage of the opportunity to bring his allocution to a close with this melancholy strophe:—

“Elle était de ce monde ou coucous et carrosses

Ont le même destin;

Et, rosse, elle a vécu ce que vivant les rosses,

L’espace d’un mâtin!”

“Poor horse!” sighed Fantine.

And Dahlia exclaimed:—

“There is Fantine on the point of crying over horses. How can one be such a pitiful fool as that!”

At that moment Favourite, folding her arms and throwing her head back, looked resolutely at Tholomyès and said:—

“Come, now! the surprise?”

“Exactly. The moment has arrived,” replied Tholomyès. “Gentlemen, the hour for giving these ladies a surprise has struck. Wait for us a moment, ladies.”

“It begins with a kiss,” said Blachevelle.

“On the brow,” added Tholomyès.

Each gravely bestowed a kiss on his mistress’s brow; then all four filed out through the door, with their fingers on their lips.

Favourite clapped her hands on their departure.

“It is beginning to be amusing already,” said she.

“Don’t be too long,” murmured Fantine; “we are waiting for you.”

[klainecrisscolferforever]

First, thank you for finally giving me an excuse to unfollow several people and accounts that I’ve been dying to cut ties with since the 16th, I get all of my D information from our news sharing team and my CC friends so as of now his unfollow will continue to stand (especially knowing it’s not RRALLY him anyway) 🤷🏾‍♀️ He may not have chosen this route happily, but he did make the decision to show up and participate. I will always and forever believe in CC and C and even D, I just refuse to be believe in this decision on ALL accounts. From the pictures seen (either accidentally or because they won’t fucking stop popping up on my timelines), I knew it was fake, but the betrayal and heartbreak was still there because why take it this far for a ‘career move’ when love is so much more valuable than fame? I really do hope he protected himself, his assets, and his REAL relationship with everything before meeting her down that aisle. I hope he took the necessary steps needed to ensure him coming out of this scratched and not scarred. I unfollowed those such as LM and SKs because they were annoying me but also because to know someone and their situation and yet blindly enable their execution is just disheartening and I can’t tell if it’s for support or for clout anymore. Max and Harry are on another level of supportive for me because they don’t enable, they may share in the antics but the indulge and stand by the bad decisions to protect their friends and former colleagues. What I don’t understand about these nuptials is WTF did it turn out like this? The scene in the woods (from the pictures) was alright I guess, even if it was mocking us, the clothes were offendingly bad, the body language was very telling (I mean you’re an actor... sell happy if you must, but don’t look like you’re going to your own version of hell), the promos were tacky and in poor taste, the fact that so much was focused on the ‘party’ and not the love of two souls becoming one is VERY VERY VERY VERY telling, and though negative I’m happy to see more and more people opening their eyes and seeing right through this bullshit stans call M/iarren. It was wildly unorganized, unkempt, and horrendously bad, but I’m over it all. Once again, I hope he can find his way out of the dark and into the light, I hope he find peace. It’s not real, but a lie is still a lie. It’s still a hard thing to fix when that’s all it’s ever been. I hope it’s all worth it in the end for him, for them, and for us.

[clockworkopera]

LORD OF SHADOWS THEORIES: (Part 2)

Disclaimer: My theories are built not just on the Dark Artifices, but from all the previous books as a whole, and will contain spoilers if you haven’t read them. I haven’t watched the Shadowhunter TV series, so these ideas are based solely on book canon.

(edit: This was written before LoS was released. Some of the theories are a little out of date, but still interesting!)

ON THE FAE:

Why is it the only Shadowhunters that we know to have faerie blood are Mark and Helen Blackthorn? Over a thousand years of history and no mention of any others. Could it be that Shadowhunter and Faerie blood can’t mix much like the Shadowhunter and Demon blood? Could there be an exception or loophole if there was already some demon blood in a Shadowhunter ie) Tessa’s line?

(CP 279-280) Tessa meets Hyacinth at Benedict Lightwood’s party and tells her that fae look for ways to strengthen their bloodline and she comments on how much Tessa looks like her adult mother. That means that the Fae had been watching Elizabeth Grey/Adele Starkweather. And we know that Mark’s blood is prized for it rarity—and so what if the Fae have always had their eye on Tessa’s line, may have even helped Mortmain’s changeling exchange of Adele Starkweather in the hopes of creating Tessa and with her a Shadowhunter line that could breed with faeries. Creepy. I’ll get back to this in a bit.

              I get the sense that the Seelie Queen hasn’t been at full power in a while. Mark in LM (403-404), “The Queen of the Seelie Court can be deprived of her powers if her crown is stolen. Even, Gwyn, who leads the Wild Hunt, must yield authority to any who steals his cloak.” Is this why she is in hiding? Julian and Emma were whipped for this information: it’s important!

My theory: Princess Nerissa knew the Seelie Queen was off her rocker and capable of doing inordinate damage to her own people, so I think she asked the Blackthorn brothers to help her hide the crown in the hopes of diminishing the Seelie Queen’s power.

I think that Nerissa’s affair was with Arthur and not Andrew, and when he wouldn’t break under fae questioning they punished him by trying to break his mind. Julian: LM (pg120) “His lunacy, as the Clave would have termed it, was to Julian’s mind a faerie-spun thing. If they had not destroyed his sanity, they had planted the seeds of its destruction.” And Mark says: LM (pg482) “ ‘Madness’ was the faerie word for it; it was a faerie punishment, in fact, the bringing down of madness.”

I think fearing discovery of what Nerissa had done, Helen and Mark were smuggled out of Faerie to the safety of Andrew’s Shadowhunter Institute and the protection of the Clave, before the fae could use the children as leverage against Nerissa and Arthur. I think Arthur’s mind was broken at this point as a Faerie punishment because he wouldn’t reveal the truth about where the crown was. Andrew took in the children as his own, knowing Arthur wasn’t stable enough to raise them.

When the Faerie convoy comes to the Institute, Julian asks Arthur if he knows why, and with a casualness Arthur tells him: LM (119) “Perhaps Nerissa would know.” It’s with a familiarity that seems like he wasn’t in the thrall of being tortured for seven years. It is known that the fae wove so many illusions for the brothers, much like when Mark first returned, that everything of their testimony before the Clave is suspect. They fae are brilliant at lies for truth and truth in lies. In Arthur’s mind, he knows where to find the Crown and it may have been one of the reasons the L.A. Institute is attacked by Sebastian and Meliorn. Finding the Crown may pull in a plot thread for what the Queen of Air and Darkness is about.

So, was Nerissa discovered and imprisoned? Will Mark and family find her alive and learn the truth? Could she be reunited with Arthur and cure him of the faerie punishment? OR…If she is dead: how does the line of succession in the Seelie Court work? If the Seelie Queen dies, and Nerissa was a Princess, could the next in line for Queen be Helen?

--And has anyone seen Gwyn wearing his cloak?

LM(pg199) Mark: “They told me I had no choice but to leave the Hunt. That the King of the Unseelie Court had commanded it.” Since when does the Unseelie King command the Hunt?

I think in terms of general politics, the Unseelie King is making a move to take over all of Faerie. The chapters of LoS are based on Poe’s poem Dreamland. The poem describes a very fae-like place where the dead roam and is presumably ruled by a Lord of Shadows. I think the King believes that the Black Volume of the Dead will give him the power to become that Lord of Shadows. I think he already has Gwyn’s cloak and is forcing an independent Wild Hunt to yield to his authority, and the Queen’s on the run because she doesn’t have the Crown of Thorns and she knows he’ll kick her ass. He wants to rule all the Fae, not just the Unseelie Court, and this puts Faerie in the midst of a civil war.

And that gives us the Dark Artifices: 1) Black Volume of the Dead 2) Gwyn’s cloak 3) Crown of Thorns

And this is the backdrop that Emma and the Blackthorns will be walking into when they go to rescue Kieran.

--And remember the Blackthorns didn’t technically fulfill the deal. They never turned over Malcolm to the Court for justice (and the King could care less about the murderer, he just thought the murderer had the book). The Fae are very big on technicalities so they’re not just going to let Mark go. They’ll press their claim. But, of course they could restrike a bargain: The King want the Book, Gwyn wants his cloak and the Queen wants her crown. Any of them would be willing help free Mark if they got what they wanted. Easy Peasy. Kieran’s predicament could be a lure to bring the Blackthorns to Fae.

***(I think someone will become the Lord of Shadows, but it won’t be the King…stay tuned for Part 3 of my theories as to who it will be when I go into my thoughts about who will die)***

 But, what else might the Blackthorns find in Fae….

Christine from Polandbanana books likes the theory of Sebastian having a child with the Seelie Queen and it’s a good one— (even works with my theory of Shadowhunter/Demon blood combo needed to procreate), but it’s almost too obvious.

So, I have a twist… I wonder about Kaelie Whitewillow and her brief fling with Jace Herondale. Remember, the fae knew Jace was a Herondale, even while no one else did, and they are trying to strengthen their bloodlines. Why would a Queen’s handmaiden be a waitress in a restaurant in New York that Jace frequented—or bother to flirt with him in the first place? And why would a waitress be the one the Seelie Queen sent when the Dark War was over in the hopes of negotiating terms?  That’s a weighty responsibility.

(COHF 639-) “Jocelyn Fairchild sat beside Maryse, but there was no sign anywhere of Clary Fray or Jace Lightwood.” Jace wasn’t there and he was the only one who maybe had a hope of convincing the Clave of leniency, but why would he? Did Kaelie think she had leverage over him?

What if it isn’t Sebastian’s child in Faerie, but Jace’s?

I can picture Jules’ annoyance at this muttering to himself: “Why can’t the Herondales ever keep track of their children?”

FURTHER DOWN THE CRACKPOT ROAD OF FAE:

(If you haven’t recovered from the Jace thing above, please take a break before you continue) …

Meliorn could lie because one of his parents was not fae. No one ever talks about who his non fae parent was. Theory: Benedict Lightwood. The man was infected with Demon Pox (there is a lovely song), so it still fits the demon blood theory and would make him eligible for fatherhood of a fae—and we know from the party Will and Tessa attended way back in the day (CP) he was promiscuous, in case the Demon Pox didn’t give that away.

But, if so, that would have made Meliorn a Shadowhunter. One denied of his rightful name and place within Shadowhunter society because of his mixed blood—Benedict Lightwood would have considered him a dirty little secret. In terms of age: We don’t know how long Shadowhunter/Fae children live, if their immortal or if their life span is extended. We do know that time works differently in faerie and Mark hasn’t aged, so Meliorn could easily have lived 100+ years. Meliorn could have plotted retribution on the Clave for generations nursing a hatred against the Lightwood name who refused to claim him, that only got worse after Robert Lightwood’s actions with the Circle.

So…for my next big theory: If Meliorn was a Shadowhunter, he could have entered anyplace a Shadowhunter could have, including the Institutes. I think he exchanged baby Max for a changeling (revenge not just for the Lightwood name, but punishment for Robert’s deeds while in the Circle) and raised the biological Lightwood child as his foster son in Faerie.

The boy would have been turned against the Shadowhunters with stories of the Circle, how the Clave treated their own in Mark and Helen Blackthorn, and been privileged to a first-hand account of the Fae’s suffering under the Cold Peace. He probably would believe that Meliorn rescued him from the Shadowhunters and seeing as how his counterpart is dead (Sebastian did seem surprised at how fragile their Max was), he may have a point. And seeing as how Alec killed his ‘father’—this could be an awkward future reunion. His age (if not screwy with fae time), would coincide close with Dru’s.

He would make such an interesting character dynamic full of anger and angst against the Clave, making Alec and Isabelle’s lives miserable—the Clave would never trust him. The Wicked Powers is in five years’ time which would put him and Dru around 18, a good age for main characters and possible ships.  

Thoughts?

**I’m new to Tumblr and not sure my posts are coming up in the searches. So, if you like, please reblog. Thanks!