#on how Eponine-Marius parallels Javert-Valjean

[secretmellowblog]

AH YES ALL OF THIS :_:

I think @everyonewasabird once described their relationship as.... Eponine is like the shadow of Cosette, and Javert is like the shadow of Valjean. But while Cosette and Valjean end up finding each other and having this deep loving father-daughter relationship that changes both of their lives....to me there's this feeling that something was supposed to happen between Eponine and Javert, but it never actually formed. Largely because Javert sucks and is a cop. What I mean is: Valjean and Javert both come across their younger narrative foil being abused by the Thenardiers. Valjean's forced labor in the galleys is mirrored in Cosette's forced labor for the Thenardiers. Javert's childhood in prison is mirrored in Eponine's childhood in a prison-like environment with criminal parents. But when Valjean comes across Cosette, his heart breaks for her, and he prevents her from continuing to endure the trauma he had to endure. But when Javert comes across Eponine after the Gorbeau House raid-- he only notices her to decide she's an Accomplice of the Thenardiers, then indifferently "nabs" her and sends her to prison. His entire worldview is so warped by his mindless worship of Authority and Law that he literally just, ARRESTS the girl who could've been his Cosette. It's like he arrests his Cosette! Because he just...doesn't see her as a person, in the same way he doesn't even see himself as a person. And he's utterly unaware of what he's missed. Valjean comes across a child enduring the trauma he suffered and sees someone he desperately needs to protect; Javert comes across a child enduring the trauma he suffered and only sees someone he can violently punish.

y’ know Victor Hugo is indeed an entire attic of problems, in terms of gender theory etc 

and yet atm I don’t see that we’re ever going to get an adaptation that has the guts to go in on the parallels between Fantine and Enjolras, or Eponine and Javert, or even to examine the way Valjean’s parenting of Cosette challenges the gendered roles assigned to parenting 

and that’s …well it’s not great and people making adaptations should feel Not Great about it 

[secretmellowblog]

For me the ‘canon homoerotic subtext’ between brick!Valjean and Javert is really more about the parallels between Javert and Eponine, who are explicitly set up as character foils.

Brick!Javert isn’t obsessed with Valjean like he is in adaptations. He’s not psychosexually obsessed with hunting him down; he really doesn’t seem to think of him as being any different than any other criminal—- he doesn’t think about Jean Valjean much at all until after Jean Valjean saves his life.

But after the barricades, Javert’s sudden weird desperate emotions about Jean Valjean are like a twisted mirror of his character foil Eponine’s weird desperate emotions for Marius.

Some guy takes pity on them, and extends them a bit of basic impersonal kindness— and they react by descending into this violently self-destructive suicidal admiration built on self-loathing. They’re both described as making themselves the “dogs” of Marius/Valjean, the dogs of people who barely remember they exist.

And anyway! I think there is potential to explore things there in analysis and fanfiction

[angstics]

thinking about how in lesmis paris parallels with montreuil sur mer. javert hunting valjean / thenardier hunting valjean (“he thought that man was me without a second glance” vs “these men who seem to know my crime will surely come a second time”). fantine dying in valjean’s embrace / eponine dying in marius’s (two platonic m/f relationships ooof) (among other parallels: “… / then i shall keep you warm / … / take shelter from the storm” vs “shelter me, comfort me”)

[sparklygraves]

part 2 of watching 2012 Les Mis for the 1st time—

lol Grantaire somehow has a beer in the middle of the battle

oh hey cool Ep in drag!

Javert what are u doing?

I just keep thinking about how Eponine & Cosette knew each other as kids… I wanna know more about that! know any good fics?

like, Ponine was treated better by her parents, but maybe she had her doubts about how they treated Cosette and they became friends? & Ponine snuck C food & stuff?

Javert’s brain hurts

Drink with me!!!

aw Enj was singing along to Grantaire’s song ❤️

& the song was about friendship❤️ that is a kind of love Enj values mad deeply methinks

Valjean making a pact with God to save Marius?

aw they had a slumber party in the street ❤️

noooo Gavroche! wtfff

omg the romantic music when Grantaire came in to die by Enjolras’ side! & his almost casual way of coming in like that’s my man, like he’s stepping onto a dance floor & taking Enj’s hand

& his eyes, so bright & brave & in love!

holy dang

Javert nooo! grow & change— let doubt in. it’ll hurt, but you can do it! ahhh nooo

oh man Marius I feel ya :( ���

ugh wtf valjean— communicate with your daughter u dummy!!! honestly rude & disrespectful to tell Marius & not her. & ugh Marius agreeing to this. rude.

ooo I like the parallel between Valjean & Fantine— both singing about Cosette as they near the end (btw damnn Anne Hathaway was redonk good in this! I know everyone already knows this lol but wanted to send her some good vibes cuz she gets too much hate)

& oh hey! he’s hallucinating Fantine! or she’s here as an angel ghost or something!

oh good Cosette gets to say bye!

[transrevolutions]

I realized something interesting today.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[phoebe-delia]

What was the first musical your ever saw, and how did that shape your perception of musicals, musical theatre, and theatre as a whole?

Jet, what a lovely question. Once again, you've put a little bit of joy in my ask box, and I can't thank you enough for it.

I think the first musical I ever saw was Les Miserables; Cats was also an early one for me, but I think Les Mis came first, and I'm fairly certain I saw it on stage first. And before I go on, I feel as if I can't mention these two musicals in connection with one another without talking about Terrence Mann. He played Rum Tum Tugger and Javert in the original Broadway casts of both shows. I cannot think of an actor who has more range than him.

Also, while we're talking about Les Mis casting: a lot of people have also only seen the recent movie adaptation; if you take away nothing else from this post, let it be my strong recommendation to watch one of the professionally recorded concert versions. The 10th Anniversary ("Dream Cast: In Concert") is my personal favorite, with a perfect cast IMO, but the 25th Anniversary one is a good option, too. I have a whole entire rant about the movie adaptation that I will refrain from going on at the moment.

Now, on to actually answering the question, assuming I haven't lost my audience at this point, oops.

First, Les Mis impacted me by showing me the art of storytelling and characterization. I think it's really impacted my taste in musicals, because my favorite shows are those that take me on the best emotional journey. Great Comet, Falsettos, Chicago, and Wicked are probably my top four favorite shows of all time, and I think they each have deep storytelling elements. Every time I listen to those cast albums, I come away with something new. That's how it is with Les Mis; there's always some new little nugget to pick up on, whether in the music, the lyrics, the story, or the characters, that makes the story even more meaningful.

Second, Les Mis allowed me to see myself in some of the characters. As a young person, Gavroche spoke to me a lot, since he was unfazed by the adults who didn't take him seriously. He showed me the power that kids have, and that lesson always stuck with me.

But more than Gavroche, I started to see myself more and more in Eponine as I got older.

I remember seeing Rachel sing "On My Own" as her audition song in "Glee," and I was spellbound. That performance reintroduced me to the song and the character of Eponine at a point in my life when I was developing a crush on a boy who never liked me back. I have such a fondness for that song, and I remember what it was like to pine away for someone who would never return the same feelings. Eponine's role in the musical is relatively minor; her two biggest moments are singing about her unrequited love and then dying for Marius at the battle. But I think that's such a good representation of love. Eponine dies for Marius, who, frankly, isn't a great guy. But I don't know whether Cosette would've died for him, or if Marius would've sacrificed his life for Cosette. He might've, to be chivalrous, but maybe not entirely out of love.

Finally, Les Mis also showed me the power of nuanced characters. Javert is extremely interesting, as a character. Of course, it seems on the surface as if we're supposed to view him as villain, but when we explore his story arc a little more closely and see his motivations, it becomes a bit more muddled.

In Javert's death, we see a parallel incident to the one Valjean has at the beginning of the musical. In "Valjean Arrested/Valjean Forgiven," Valjean is caught stealing from the bishop, and rather than being punished, he is given more silver and told to use it to improve himself. During "Javert's Suicide," Javert is similarly confused by the way he was treated with mercy after he was captured by the rebels and freed because of Valjean. The music is the same in both songs,

Javert kills himself because he is unable to grapple with the way his entire worldview has just been upended. He starts to question everything he knows. He and Valjean are such interesting foils because where Valjean takes the forgiveness and opportunity to redeem himself, Javert is so deeply disturbed and troubled by it that he loses his will to go on. As Javert sings: "Is he from heaven or from hell? And does he know, that granting me my life today, this man has killed me even so?" And it's so tragic that just when he was on the verge of a moral breakthrough, he thinks he's lost purpose in life.

Anyway--this is my extremely long-winded way of saying that Les Mis gave me an appreciation for powerful characters and storytelling, and it serves as an influence for me when it comes to both my consumption/analysis of other art and creating my own writing.

Send me an ask about Harry Potter, broadway/musicals, The West Wing, and/or Taylor Swift! Or just about life in general :).

Also, I have a playlist of my 99 most listened-to songs of the year so far. Pick a number 1--99 and send me an ask and I'll write you a fic based on it!

[meta-squash]

Brick Club 2.3.8 “Inconveniences Of Entertaining A Poor Man Who May Be Rich”

This chapter is so long. Here goes.

Is it normal for Cosette to have to knock to get into the house she lives in? Or is Hugo just using that as a vehicle to make Mme Thenardier meet Valjean first?

It’s times like this that I desperately wish I knew more about biblical stories and fables and things. This, a rich man in disguise as a poor man being treated poorly by innkeepers and taking something from them, sounds like a bible story or a similar type of fable. But the only two bible stories I know with similar themes are the nativity story and Sodom and Gomorrah and neither of those seem quite right. Still, this entire episode reads like a fable or fairytale.

We’ve already seen how Evil the Thenardiers are re: their treatment of Cosette. Now we are seeing their Evil in the form of treatment of the poor.

You know, that’s an interesting thing that I’m not going to get into in this longass chapter. Javert’s evil and Thenardier’s evil are different because I feel like Javert’s evil is a lot more muddied or obscured by morality and duty and things like that. Where are the Thenardiers are bad but the badness of their actions is much more black and white. I think it’s also because, technically, they never have social power over anyone unless they are manipulative, whereas Javert always has the social power. I’m not sure where to go with either of these ideas but I will look back on it for a shorter chapter.

Cosette is ugly because she’s sad. It’s like the exact opposite of Roald Dahl’s description of ugliness. I called it on the orphanage thing and kids looking years younger than they are; she looks 6 when she’s 8. That doesn’t seem like a huge difference when you look at it written down but the difference between the size and maturity of a 6 year old vs an 8 year old is surprising.

In the way that the description of the doll was a distant echo of young Fantine, the description of Cosette here is a faded echo of dying Fantine.

“Fear was spread all over here; she was, so to speak, covered with it; fear squeezed her elbows against her sides, drew her heels up under her skirt, made her shrink into the least possible space...” I’m sure this description comes from Hugo observing children in his lifetime, but I also wonder if any of this comes from his brother who had schizophrenia and was institutionalized?

“The expression on the face of this child of eight was habitually so sad and occasionally so tragic that it seemed, at certain moments, as if she were on the way to becoming an idiot or a demon.” What an interesting pair of choices. Fear and sadness either stun and numb you completely or they turn you aggressive and evil. Hugo said the same thing before when talking about Valjean’s prison time. Again, like I said before, Cosette here is Valjean when we first met him: exhausted, scared, sad, numb, hatefully terrified of the people around her; the difference is that she still has hope. She had that moment of hoping someone would rescue her, she had the moment of pausing and wondering what the doll’s paradise was like; when we met Valjean he was past that kind of hope.

(Funny that Mme Thenardier doesn’t suspect the trick Valjean just pulled, despite Valjean “finding” a 20 sous piece instead of 15 sous piece.)

I love the description of Eponine and Azelma because it’s so innocent. They as little human beings aren’t morally bankrupt at the level of their parents yet. They’re still pretty and glowing. Partly because they are well-cared for unlike Cosette, and partly because they are still innocent.

“Eponine and Azelma did not notice Cosette. To them she was like the dog. The three little girls did not have twenty-four years among them, and they already represented the whole of human society: on one side envy, on the other disdain.”

Ah, human microcosms. Hugo loves those. The Thenardier children and Cosette are the pared down, simplified version of society. It’s also an excellent example of how Privilege works in layers. The girls’ doll is worn and old and broken, but the fact of them having a real doll and Cosette having nothing is already a layer of privilege Someone else, another little girl with wealthy parents and a new intact doll would have privilege over the Thenardier girls. There are layers.

I really love this passage too because it shows the start of the zero-sum game between Eponine and Cosette. At no point are Eponine and Cosette able to be equals. But the important thing is that neither of them are aware of this. Later, when Cosette and Eponine encounter each other again in the Gorbeau house, Eponine doesn’t have the awareness to be angry about the reversal of their fortunes. She seems sad, mostly, a jealousy born from a feeling of worthlessness rather than feeling slighted. And Cosette doesn’t even recognize Eponine, so there’s no room at all for disdain on her part, unless she’s disdainful of Eponine et al due to their poverty, though that never seems to be the case. But Eponine cannot be happy while Cosette is and Cosette cannot be happy while Eponine is, because their goals occupy the same fulcrum (Marius) and they can’t both be on the same level at the same time.

Fanfiction has explored this a lot in modern AU but I wonder the kind of havoc that could have been wreaked had Cosette and Eponine met and become proper acquaintances. Their teenage personalities are two sides of the same coin. I’ve always been of the opinion that had they switched places as children Cosette would have ended up like Eponine and Eponine like Cosette. Because Eponine has the capacity for kindness within her, except that she doesn’t know how to use it selflessly; and Cosette has the same stubborn ruthlessness as Eponine, except that she is held back by convention and reduced to talking a lot in order to try and somehow glean information from Valjean or Marius.

“Now your work belongs to me. Play, my child.” This is the second (or third?) Myriel moment for Valjean. Cosette is a child, an innocent child, but her soul doesn’t need to be bought for god. As far as I can tell, for Hugo, children are always holy. Instead, he’s buying her work. But that makes sense. For Valjean, his soul needed to be bought for god because he had already lost it to sin and to evil and to doubt. Cosette still has hope; what she needs bought from her is suffering.

And here is where the parallel continues. Cosette up until now has been Valjean as we first met him: sullen, suffering, scared, dulled, close to becoming “an idiot or a demon” and now, like Valjean’s soul, her work has been bought so she can be free.

I think it is within the walls of the convent that their parallels will catch up to each other and they will become more equal.

I feel as though the cat in a dress vs the sword in a dress must be some sort of parallel to Eponine and Cosette’s personalities but I’m not quite sure how to pull the meaning out.

“A little girl without a doll is almost as unfortunate and just as impossible as a woman without children.” Ugh. Gross, Hugo. This whole chapter was so lovely and then this misogynist bullshit.

I can explain the “water on her brain” line! Mostly because it’s a medical condition I actually have! So, “water on the brain” is another term for hydrocephalus, which is a buildup of cerebrospinal fluid in the ventricles of the brain. It can be caused by being born prematurely (like mine was) or by infections/head trauma. Nowadays they can put a shunt in your head that pumps the fluid into the abdominal cavity (which is what I have), but obviously they didn’t have the technology back then. So what happens to the head if the fluid doesn’t drain, is the head will start to increase in size, and the fluid buildup will squish the brain against the sides of the skull, causing seizures and brain damage/intellectual disabilities and vision problems and other such things. I function perfectly fine except for mild dyscalculia and ADHD (which might have been genetic anyway) but back in the 19th century hydrocephalus probably would have resulted in either mild-to-severe disabilities or death.

Cosette doesn’t have hydrocephalus, but what she does have is severe malnutrition, which can make a person’s head look much too large for their body. So Mme Thenardier is likely using Cosette’s appearance due to neglect to fake that she has a neurological problem and explain why they have to “take care of” her.

Jesus fucking christ this next bit is so much. There’s so much going on. Mme Thenardier is talking to Valjean about Cosette’s mother, the drinkers are singing vulgar songs about the Virgin Mary and baby Jesus, and Cosette is under the table singing “My mother is dead.” to herself. Woof. It is, yet again, an instance of the memory of “Fantine” (in the symbolic, saintly form of the Virgin) being sullied both by the foul songs of the drinkers and the callous, flippant commentary of Mme Thenardier. And Cosette is there under the table, staring at the fire, suddenly playing the role of her own mother, rocking the sword-baby (herself) to try and comfort herself from the shock of this new knowledge that her mother is dead.

(Anyone else read As I Laying Dying, by the way? All I could think of when I read that line was “My mother is a fish.”)

We start to see Cosette’s bold personality come out in fits and starts. She’s brave enough to sneak out and grab the doll Eponine and Azelma have abandoned. But it’s also an example of how desperate she is for something pleasurable and good, considering she’s doing that at the risk of a beating.

For the second time, we see Cosette so absorbed in her moment of “I Want” that she doesn’t see or hear anything else. Again, this seems unusual considering her constant hypervigilance. But her success in getting the doll and her increased confidence due to Valjean’s presence probably have something to do with her lack of awareness.

Cosette is caught with the doll. Is this the parallel of Valjean being caught with Myriel’s silver? Mme Thenardier says “That beggar has dared to touch the children’s doll.” The gendarmes don’t say as much when they return Valjean to Myriel, but it’s pretty obvious they’re thinking something similar.

“We are forced to add that at that moment she stuck out her tongue.” COSETTE IS SO CUTE I LOVE HER SO MUCH SHE DESERVES THE WORLD. Also I just love the way Hugo writes children, it’s so real.

Why did Hugo choose Catherine for the name of the doll? Is it to do with St Catherine? She (the saint) became Christian at 14 and converted hundreds of people before being martyred at 18 after rebuking the Roman emperor for his cruelty and winning a debate with his best philosophers.

“This solitary man, so poorly dressed, who took five-franc pieces from his pocket so easily and lavished gigantic dolls on little brats in wooden clogs, was certainly a magnificent and formidable individual.” Valjean is now Myriel. Outsiders are fascinated by him because he dresses so shabbily and yet is so benevolent and charitable with his money. Again, the difference is that Myriel’s name is always known, and Valjean’s is never known.

I know I say this so often but the distance with which Hugo treats Valjean is absolutely fascinating to me. Valjean has this incredible power to just go inside himself and not move, but we never get that kind if internality unless it’s really really important (like with the Champmathieu affair). Otherwise, Hugo keeps a respectful distance, and even when we get Valjean’s emotions described to us, I feel like Hugo is always holding back a little, like he’s not letting himself see all the way into Valjean, or Valjean isn’t letting him in.

Valjean asks for a stable; I think this is the first time we see his whole thing about sacrifice of physical comfort. Things like this asking for the stable and sleeping in the shed behind the house at Rue Plumet and not having chairs and only eating black bread etc. This is the first example we see of him feeling unworthy of physical comforts to such a degree.

(It’s interesting to me that we don’t see this characteristic when he was mayor, or at least not to this extreme. Is it because it would be unbecoming of a mayor and therefore would blow his cover? Or did going back to prison hammer in that feeling of worthlessness and lesser-than and warp his perception of what he is compared to others?)

“What a sublime, sweet thing is hope in a child who has never known anything but its opposite!” We’ve said this already, but Cosette is full of hope and life and light and that is Important because it is exactly what Valjean did not have when he was in her position. But it means that she doesn’t have to work as hard in her ascent towards happiness and goodness.

And, lastly, I love that the placement of the gold Louis in Cosette’s shoe isn’t just a sweet Christmas gesture or a gesture towards Cosette: it’s also an echo of M Madeleine breaking into houses to place gold pieces on the table.

Wow. Long af post for a long af chapter. Congratulations if you read through all of my rambling thoughts.

[youwillnevverknowmyname]

Things my boyfriend did while watching Les Mis (2012) drunk (he’s never watched it before):

- Called Cosette ‘Closette’ for the entirety of the movie

- Called Fantine ‘Fountain’ throughout the movie

- Called Eponine ‘Panini’ throughout the movie

- Shouted ‘Borat’ when seeing Thenardier for the first time

- Lifted his wine bottle and drank while Master of the House was playing

- Pointed out every continuity errors he could find

- Called Cosette ‘Croissant’ one time

- Said Jean Valjean was destined to be the best father

- Complained about characters speaking in British accents instead of in French

- Called the women in the Convent as the ‘triangle people’ and narrated ‘Jean Valjean discovers a new specie’

- Was amazed with many of the scene transitions

- Called Enjolras fit

- Called it ‘The phantom of the les miserables’

- Agreed Samantha Barks is my wife

- Echoed Marius’ lines in a Kermit voice

- Sang do you hear the people sing in a Kermit voice and was very excited by the idea of a muppet version of Les Miserables but Eddie Redmayne plays the Kermit

- Asked who held the wine in the relationship (in Red and Black)

- Asked who Cosette was singing to and guessed it was the Phantom of the Opera

- Called do you hear the people sing ‘a banger’

- Called Gavroche ‘alpha’

- Laughed out loud when Eponine died because she pulled the gun towards her chest

- Chuckled throughout a little fall of rain, claiming my followers are going to kill him for this xd

- Said Eponine is chill about him laughing since she’s smiling

- Said the duet was just Marius interrupting her

- Called Jean Valjean a ‘sweetheart’

- Called Grantaire a ‘weasel boy’

- Cheered and drank with the characters in ‘drink with me’

- Laughed at Jackman’s Bring him home

- At least he found Gavroche’s death sad and claimed “I have a heart, believe it or not”

- Once I explained I had a crush on Hadley Fraser, he scrolled through a bunch of photos of Fraser and agreed he was handsome (“hot”)

- When Enjolras lifted the flag he called him ‘Alpha’

- When I told him about Enjoltaire death he was sad it wasn’t in the movie and shortly ranted about how LGBT+ people are not represented in media

- When Javert was looking down on Jean Valjean in the sewers he called him a ‘midget Javert’

- Noticed a bunch of cinematic parallels

- Yelled and sang “Don’t do it, Gladiator” in Javert’s suicide

- Called Gavroche ‘Gaston’

- Was impressed with Cosette’s high notes, describing it to sound like a smoke alarm (he liked her voice)

- Liked the fact that the Bishop was there at the end

- In the last song he called it goosebump-worthy and that he would be weeping if he wasn’t drunk

- Convinced himself all the characters in the end all came back to life

- “They did a weird Marvel time travel thing where they brought all the characters back to kill Javert one more time. [Me: What did you think the film was about?!] It was a time travel film!”

[actually-2000-mice]

Can we please

CAN WE PLEASE

CaN We PlEaSe

talk about how fucking gorgeous the finale of les mis is

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

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

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

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

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

[centrifuge-politics]

Brick Club 5.1.19

“They distinguished in a heap of dead, a livid face, a flowing head of hair, a wounded hand, and a woman’s breast half naked. It was Eponine.” A gruesome reversal of Liberty Leading the People.

Javert is so thoroughly dumbfounded that Valjean is letting him go that he accidentally musters up some respect for him. It really is something that Javert is only able to find any reason to respect Valjean once Valjean personally does him a good turn. Not the fact that he singlehandedly repaired the economy of an entire town, set up education and jobs for the working class, and by every account is a good, compassionate man. It’s only now that he’s having real misgivings.

Javert: Kill me, you coward Valjean: Go away

There’s an interesting parallel that occurred to me between Javert and Enjolras actually in the idea that certain wrongdoings, even in the pursuit of ‘good,’ can be justly punished. Enjolras believes that the act of murder demands punishment and it doesn’t matter whether it’s in the pursuit of justice or in perpetuating oppression, he is just as culpable as a member of the Guard. Javert believes he has a right to punish Valjean, but it’s also part of the natural order of society that Valjean should find it just to punish him. Not quite the same, but there’s a pervasive idea of equal and opposite retaliation. It’s groundbreaking then that Valjean deliberately refuses to take part in this exchange. There’s both positive and negative implications in the long run—opting out of the system and perpetuating the system are not necessarily opposites—but, to Javert, who cannot fathom anything outside the system, this is an unheard of reversal of the natural order.

I can only imagine how mind boggling this is for Marius to witness. The father of the woman he is in love with just personally requested to murder that one policeman that arrested the thief who saved his father at Waterloo that one time. Like, what in the world could possibly be going on?

[secretmellowblog]

The moment where Eponine prevents her father/his gang from breaking into Valjean and Cosette's house is so fascinating? Especially because the musical's portrayal of it is so different from the novel's. Within the musical, Eponine threatening to scream is this very straightforwardly heroic moment. In the novel, it's portrayed as more morally complicated? She plans to scream in order to draw the attention of the police; she does this while boasting about how she's suicidal and doesn't care if everyone here, including herself, ends up dead. It's framed in this very morally ambiguous way-- there are all these parallels drawn between Eponine and Javert, which is never a good sign; she's compared to a monster, a barking dog, and a ghoul. The fact that she plans to call the police, specifically, is also a big point in the book? Eponine isn't aware that Valjean is also a criminal, and that drawing the attention of the police might also put Valjean in danger. This makes the plot point far more like the "Patron Minette ambush" subplot earlier, the one where Marius was debating over whether or not to give the signal for the police to come in. Just like in that subplot, Eponine ends up being the one who gives the characters a "middle road." Just as Eponine's letter gives advanced warning to Patron-Minette (giving Valjean time to escape in the confusion), Eponine's threat of calling the police here outside Rue Plumet manages to prevent the robbery without the police coming in.

Within the novel she's being brave and heroic, but it's also framed as being deeply morally complex and self-destructive. And I'm never quite sure how to feel about it!

[10kwordsreviews]

Sky Without Stars - 4.5

Sky Without Stars is a Les Miserables retelling set in space. Is that all you needed to hear? Yeah, that’s all I needed too. 

THE GOOD 

- The worldbuilding is awesome! The planet Laterre represents France. The population is separated into three “estates” as it was historically. Only the monarchy and Second Estate get to live under the light of three fake suns. (It’s a rainy planet). Everyone in the impoverished Third Estate is obsessed with winning a raffle to go live with the others. Other than culture, the world is built out in terms of technology. The weapons are called rayonettes, which I’m imagining as bayonet that shoots blasts Star Wars style. Some details of clothing are worked in, and everyone logs onto some little screen inserted in their arm called the Skin. I’m assuming that's a reference to modern smart phone obsession, but I dig it. With small mentions of other planets and their rulers peppered in, I felt like this world really came to life and drew me in. 

- The characters are pretty likable. Instead of following Valjean and Javert (they are definitely included though), we follow characters that parallel Eponine, Cosette, and Marius from Les Miserables. The book is split into three point of views: Chatine, Alouette. It makes total sense to focus on their story in a YA rather than Jaljean and Javert’s. 

- I would say I prefer the Les Mis counterparts a little more, but I still really like these three characters. Chatine is meaner than Eponine, but hey, I get it. She has every reason to be a pissy af. Her life is really rough. However, what I admired about Eponine (in the musical anyway) was that she was sweet and caring despite how difficult her life was. Alouette is sheltered and innocent, but I felt there was some attempt to make her more badass and appealing to YA readers. She can hack and she doesn’t shy away from action. I think in Les Mis we compare Eponine and Cosette to see what Eponine could have been if she had been loved by her family and didn’t live in poverty. The comparison is still there in this book, but not quite as strange. That brings us to Marcellus. Eh! He’s sweet, he’s good to both girls. He’s kind of impulsive and dumb. But so is Marius : ) Marcellus comes from a privileged background and has to make a really difficult choice about who to trust and who’s side he’s on. 

THE BAD 

- This doesn’t bother me, but if you hate love triangles, you won’t want to read this. If you know Les MIs, you should know what’s coming. Both girls fall for Marcellus. Marcellus only loves one of them. Although I feel the triangle is a little more gray compared to Les Mis, and I think Marcellus has feelings for both girls. He just clearly has stronger feelings for one over the other. 

- Without giving too much of a spoiler, Marcellus has to choose a side at the end. I was a little confused about what he actually chose at the end. Maybe I’m just dumb and that’s my punishment for calling him out above. 

- Some people think retellings have to be really faithful to the source material. I disagree and would rather be surprised. Otherwise, I’ll just read the original, right? But if you’re of that opinion, I think you’ll be disappointed. 

- On the above topic though, I think Les Mis is about how people change, why they change, and how they deal with that change. I feel like this should set a strong precedent for the characters changing a lot. These guys eh, they change a little. Not a ton. 

THE VERDICT 

For me, this book really worked. I looked forward to reading it and binged big chunks of it. My gripes are pretty minimal, so I’m only knocking off half a star. I’ll be there for the sequel. 

Peace!

[cryingalexanders]

my rambling thoughts watching les mis 1935

we open with valjean’s trial

this prison sequence doesn’t go as long as others but it’s strange they always add this in anglophone adaptations. maybe this is where it originated.

this myriel is strangely young. he keeps pronouncing “jean” like “jan” with a french j and it’s distracting

did.. did valjean and myriel just have a subtext

this javert is well-acted but otherwise completely wrong. the way he speaks with this posh affectation was apparently iconic charles laughton but it isn’t right for javert. he’s also completely obsessed with valjean from the get-go. also this javert outfit is not book accurate at all but it looks cool, similar to perkinvert’s guard uniform.

i see they aren’t bothering to show fantine’s story between the firing and javert trying to arrest her. in this one she storms into madeleine’s office to yell at him with javert and some gendarmes running in after her

ohh fantine spitting on madeleine was good

the moment where javert asks the gendarmes about madeleine was good i’ll give them that but then he plays it off like he was just wondering

fantine is still alive when valjean goes to get cosette and she is throughout all this sequence

valjean comes across the cart on the way to get cosette from the thenardiers, and javert uncharacteristically braces himself against the side to help him lift it up, then tells him about the one other who could do that while helping valjean into his coat

this cosette and valjean meeting is so ‘stranger danger’. he literally follows her outside when she gets the water and starts asking her personal questions about her family. then he insists on carrying the water bucket even though cosette tells him she’ll be beaten if they see him helping her. way to completely miss the fucking point of that moment…

it looks like madame thenardier runs the inn by herself in this one. we didn’t even get the bargaining scene

i could enjoy this scene where valjean teaches young cosette table manners and they play board games if i didn’t know what was coming later…

javert interrupts valjean and cosette playing a board game to confess denouncing valjean

this is the second time javert looks like he’s about to start crying what’s up

oh what the weird guy with the bread was genflou the whole time

valjean just grabbed javert by the neck and knocked him out?

cue wacky carriage chase out of montreuil

valjean hiding from the gorbeau landlady under the sheets while cosette answers the door

cosette starts crying when they seperate her from valjean at the convent why does this version make me so uncomfortable for her?

this has cosette and valjean seeing the chain gang but it’s as soon as they get out of the convent

hmm who is this giving a speech in the park? *the movie, two seconds later* oh for– we have another enjolras!marius i see

cosette is watching marius proselytize about the unfair prison system and giving him eyes and he’s barely paying attention to her. eponine just came up behind him and started pulling at his coat, marius stopped for a moment then kept going i’m dying

eponine: *sees cosette* “oh. i thought you were the police”

eponine appears to be marius’ secretary

javert is going to spy on cosette bc she’s involved with super important revolutionary leader marius

valjean is randomly buying cosette a dog.. is this proto-chouchou??

marius and eponine are sitting next to each other with some wine in the cafe while the revolutionaries around them are getting riled up for the big day

valjean finds out about marius and is angry with cosette and asks her “and what about me? do you have anything for me?” and she’s like “but you’re my father” ohhh this valjean is so gross

eponine turns up with a message from marius and breaks down laughing in front of valjean

eponine to valjean “i know how you feel”… thanks this is the worst eponine/valjean parallel an adaptation could possibly make

eponine and valjean are going to the barricade to get marius and javert is chasing them through the crowded streets after shouting “valjean!” incoherently

javert’s not even spying on the barricade.. he just wanders in and someone asks him who he is lol. then valjean sees the commotion and offers to take care of it. it looks like he originally plans to do it and then changes his mind wow

javert is about to start crying again

valjean just walking through a group of fighting men and policemen with marius on his back while javert trails him in the crowd wtf is going on

um-hmm and we have a sewer chase

valjean and javert keep slipping damn there’s so much trash in this sewer

i just realised it’s not even explained why he needed to go through the sewer in this version.. couldn’t he have just gone back the way he came if there was so much chaos? they never established that the “barricade” was being guarded or anything

valjean has javert-sense apparently. he’s just like “javert.. you’re here.. i know it.” then he just looks in the doorway and there he is skdgasjhk

the candlesticks are the true protagonist in this version

javert jumps while ‘ave maria’ plays and valjean and a few other dudes see it, and then valjean looks up to the sky in supplication so it’s implied that this was a gift to him from god thanks i hate it

[spacetrashpile]

Hi. I was very lucky to see the National Tour of Les Mis tonight and HOLLLLYYY SHIT. It was beautiful and I loved it and I have to talk about it a bit. This is gonna be a long post so buckle up.

Okay so to start: Everyone killed it, every performer was amazing, and the children in the show were so good.

Act 1

The staging for Look Down was really cool, and all the different prisoners killed their solos. Valjean and Javert’s interactions were great to watch throughout the show, and this was just the beginning.

The ensemble in this show was just *chef’s kiss*. They were always entertaining to watch, and they did everything so well.

Who Am I? KILLED me. I may have ascended during that song, it was so amazing. The blocking was so simple and yet so striking, and there were a million different parallels in that blocking to the blocking in Stars and Javert’s Suicide, even in the directions the actors faced at different times. Amazing.

The Foreman in At The End of the Day was as disgusting and horrible as he always is and FANTINE. This is just a side note, but the woman playing Fantine needs to be Anastasia some time, she’d kill it. 

I Dreamed A Dream, lovely and simple. 10/10

Lovely Ladies was,,, interesting to watch with my mother. I tried not to look at her the whole time but WHO BOY. It was well done and the Foreman being the first person to solicit Fantine after she became a prostitute? That killed me, I did not know that was gonna happen.

The scene with Valjean and Javert after the cart incident was so stressful. I knew Valjean wasn’t going to get arrested there and yet I felt so terrified that Javert would know, props to those actors.

Come to Me, first time of many times I cried during this show. Fantine was such a beautiful singer and her displays of emotions killed me. When she called out to Cosette,,, :( She died hugging Valjean and he placed her really gently back on the bed and I was holding back tears.

Confrontation was GREAT but for the first minute I couldn’t see Javert at all because he was standing right on the end of the stage where my vision was obscured and I just kept internally going “Sir,,, sir please move to the middle of the stage, please”

Young Cosette, my baby. Castle on a Cloud was adorable but at the same time I almost cried, I love her. One side thing that was super weird, Young Eponine was white but adult Eponine was a WOC?? And I don’t know why?? I don’t know, just a bit strange.

Madame Thernardier! She stole every scene she was in my GOD. She had such a powerful voice and stage presence that you couldn’t help but watch her every move, she was great. Monsieur Thernardier was funny and crude and he did a very good job, Master of the House had the whole theater dying laughing.

Young Cosette and Valjean’s interactions were genuinely some of my favorite moments of the show. They were very few, of course, but they were lovely.

Stars SLAPPED. Every parallel to Who Am I? was really cool, and the set was very beautiful. They had Javert bless himself a LOT during the show, and most of it was of course during Stars. Javert was one of the best performers in the show, hands down. 

Gavroche was adorable, and all eyes were on him the second he came on stage because he owned it. He knew what he wanted to do and he did it. 

Marius was adorable and also Latino which was really nice. His first meeting with Cosette was so adorable and I think this might just be bias towards those two on my part, but God every interaction they had with each other was so good.

The Les Amis de L’ABC. Oh my God. They were all so amazing and watching them do anything was wild, even just in their first scene in the streets.

Cosette was so good, those high notes could just kill me. Marius jumped the wall into the garden after she went inside, and then he threw a pebble at her window to get her attention, classic and adorable. When she came out on the little balcony he started the song and he purposely voice cracked on the first line and it was so endearing. Cosette then came down and they did the rest of the song face to face and Marius did the song really well, I loved his performance in the whole show, but especially here.

I know I just talked about the Les Amis but I’m gonna talk about them again. All of them were so great, but my eyes were constantly drawn to Combferre. He had such good interactions with the other Les Amis and he had really great reactions to everything that was happening, props to him. Red and Black was just overall good, after Grantaire taunted Marius (during which he climbed on one of the tables), Marius took his bottle from him and the Les Amis started throwing it around with each other before Enjorlas took it, sang a bit, and gave it back. Grantaire and Gavroche also had really good interactions throughout the whole show, they had this really deep bond, and you could tell just from how they worked with each other. Do You Hear the People Sing? was so beautiful, I just loved it a whole lot.

One Day More, I almost gave them a standing ovation. They deserved it. The blocking was lovely and it was so beautiful.

Act 2

This Eponine, I genuinely think she could rival if not best some of the greatest Eponines, INCLUDING Lea Salonga. She killed On My Own and there was some guy in the audience who yelled “bravo” really loudly when everyone was applauding, which is great because she deserved it.

Valjean had a limp in act two, which was super interesting. I don’t know if that’s a consistent in every production or not, but I really liked it. When he read the “Now that I know you love me too” part of Marius’s letter, he kinda slowed down as he read it and paused after the “love” as though he was confused about it, which was great, very funny

Gavroche revealing Javert on the barricade is always one of my favorite parts of the show, if only because I love Gavroche so much. This was actually one of the few times where he’s not right next to Grantaire during the show which I thought was interesting. After he reveals Javert, Combferre pulls a gun on him and Gavroche just walks in between them and puts the gun down like a whole adult, it was great. At the end of the song, he straight up gave Javert the finger and I was crying laughing because that small child SOLD IT. 

A Little Fall of Rain, oh boy. Eponine and Marius’s voices complimented each other so well but still, I don’t want this scene to happen. The first person (other than Marius of course) to notice Eponine was dying was Gavroche which HURT because he reaches out for her but one of the Les Amis pulls him back. When she’s carried off stage after the song her hat falls off, and Gavroche picked it up and then very solemnly handed it to Marius and I SOBBED.

The scene where Valjean lets Javert go was really good (Javert’s acting man, like I said, one of the best performers in the show). As Javert went off stage, Valjean kept the gun aimed at him for a few moments before turning and firing at the sky. Also the gun actually went off? Like sparks and everything, it was so jarring I was NOT ready for it.

Drink With Me was really nice, everyone’s voices blended super well and it was really pretty. Grantaire’s solo (which I am always happy to hear) was really good, and so was the Grantaire. They didn’t go as far out with Grantaire and Enjorlas as I might have liked (no hug at the end of his solo, which I know some productions do), but when he went off stage afterwards, Gavroche went and tried to pull him back on which I thought was really nice.

Bring Him Home OH MY GOD. I was halfway through standing up at the end of the song before I realized we weren’t giving that man a standing ovation, he was EVERYTHING. Bring Him Home is a really special song for me overall and it was just so beautiful.

Gavroche’s death killed me as it always does. He climbed over the barricade and sang almost his whole song over there. After the first shot (the one that doesn’t kill him) there was this super long silence and even though I knew he wasn’t meant to die there, I was freaked out, it was so horrible. He was climbing up the top of the barricade as the song ended, and he threw the bag of ammunition over there before he finished climbing, actually. He got right in the middle of the barricade as the song was ending (”So you better run for cover”) and he stood up tall RIGHT in front of Enjorlas who was ready to help him over, and that’s when he got shot. He fell right into Enjorlas’s arms and it was awful. Enjorlas turned around, all back lit from the lights, and he handed him to Grantaire who was right below him. Grantaire brought him over to stage right and laid him down, and he stayed with him for most of the scene.

The deaths of the Les Amis, oh my god. It was painful, and loud; the guns were firing constantly, and every death was worse than the last. I think Claquesous was the first I saw die, although I don’t know if he actually died first. Both Combferre and Courfreyec were at the top of their barricade, and the shots fired them back it was awful. There were a lot of people lying dead on the barricade. Enjorlas died almost in the main gap where Gavroche was shot, right next to it, and then Grantaire, who’d been at Gavroche’s side the whole time, ran all the way up the barricade, right in the main gap next to Enjorlas and he put his fist in the air and was shot like that. It was just, oof. It was sad but they did it very, very well.

They also had a small scene after the barricade was cleared away that just twisted the knife in further. Javert and two other soldiers came out, and the two soldiers were leading a cart. Javert prayed over Gavroche’s body, which was nice, but the cart killed me. The only body in the cart was Enjorlas, and he had his hand dangling out, still barely hanging on to the red flag. After Javert prayed over Gavroche, he picked him up and placed him in the cart next to Enjorlas. I died. Just, my God.

Dog Eats Dog was gross because ew the sewers but ya know. I felt so bad for Marius and the guy Thernardier was dragging around because there was SO MUCH FOG on stage and I know how hard it is to breathe in that stuff. The scene looked cool as hell though, so pros and cons.

Javert’s Suicide, holy shit. As Valjean went off stage with Marius, Javert had a gun aimed at him the whole time before he ripped it away and aimed at the sky, although he didn’t shoot, and it was basically a perfect mirror of when Valjean let him go. The first half or so of the song he actually wasn’t on the bridge, and I straight up thought they were going to have him shoot himself, which would’ve been wild. But as he started to spiral more he backed up and the bridge set came down. Something I noticed almost immediately was that the back side of the bridge was the same set as during Stars and I was YELLING. He didn’t technically jump off the bridge, but he climbed up on the front and then at the end of the song the sides and back of the bridge pulled away and the part he was standing on backed up into the spiraling water backdrop and it looked so, so cool. 

Empty Chairs at Empty Tables. I cried HARD, this Marius killed the song, and really sold his guilt. During Turning the women had brought out candles and left them in different places on the stage, so it gave the scene really nice lighting. About halfway through Empty Chairs at Empty Tables I noticed something. I can’t say for sure, but from what I could tell, each of the candles was placed in the spot where one of the Les Amis died, as well as one where Marius lay when he was injured, and just: holy shit. The Les Amis came ON STAGE during the song (also the sign for the cafe de L’ABC was in the background the whole time too, oof). They each picked up their candles, and Marius picked up his as well, and they all held them out to Marius as he sang “Oh my friends, my friends, forgive me/That I live and you are gone”. At the end of the song Marius raised his candle like a glass and then blew it out and like. Damn.

Just a small thing I noticed, Marius and Valjean were mirrored entirely during Who Am I? Reprise, they were both dressed in all black and they both were limping on the same leg. Idk I just thought that was cool.

Marius and Cosette’s wedding was really nice and I loved it but then I realized as I was watching that all the male wedding guests were Les Amis de L’ABC and I started crying again. At least Cosette’s wedding dress was pretty, and at least Marius punched Thernardier in the face.

Oh the Finale. OHHHH the Finale. I was sobbing the whole way through, everyone was amazing. They had Fantine with her long hair, and she was in an all white dress too. When Valjean died, he stood up and Fantine ripped off the shawl he was wearing to reveal his pure white shirt which was REAL nice. I thought that they had given Eponine an all white costume too, but I realized near the end that she was still in the costume she died in, hat and all, except her coat was now pure white. All of the ensemble came in first, but then the bishop came onstage and hugged Valjean which was really, really nice. The Finale was beautiful as always.

Okay, that’s all. I know it was a lot but I just loved the show so much and really wanted to talk about it. Props if you got here.

[bbclesmis]

Monsters & Critics: Game of Thrones or Les Misérables – Which one should you watch?

Tonight, one great television series ends and one begins, but which one should you watch? The answer is both!

If you are vested in HBO’s sumptuous Game of Thrones, by all means, watch in real time tonight as the resolution of the great good versus evil culminates in a deadly all-or-nothing face-off between the armies of the dead (Wights, the reanimated corpses lead by White Walkers) and the armies of humankind.

It will also prove that the human forces for good will triumph over the corrupt, morally bankrupt and craven players of the series that made the show such a delight to watch.

However, you must also record Les Misérables on PBS Masterpiece, also airing tonight.

This is classic literature that plays on similar big picture good versus evil themes and much more.

Like Game of Thrones, Les Misérables is a tale of redemption, inequities of wealth and the excessive overreach of authoritarian power determined mostly by one’s stature and ability to use money to skate through difficult situations.

Both shows overlap and parallel modern themes that we see playing out in the news today including police brutality, needed prison and sentencing reform, corrupt governments and politicians and wealthy people afforded a different set of rules than average people to skew life favorably for their progeny.

These are both stories for the times eternal, not just the settings they happen to be told from in time. Though wildly different in cast, characters and locales, they resonate with so many people.

Though fictional drama, the premises for both ring true to the viewer in an authentic and profound way. This is when television is at its best in content and programming.

If you are the vested Game of Thrones viewer, you will relish PBS’ Les Misérables for the run, and if you know or care little about Game of Thrones, then by all means watch Les Misérables in real time and make it a goal to dive in and catch up on HBO’s crown jewel of programming not seen since The Sopranos aired on the network.

They are both excellent and worthy of your precious time.

What is Les Misérables?

This is a loosely historically based novel by French author Victor Hugo, set in the 19th-century Paris against the events that occurred in the 1840s, a turbulent half-century of French history, post-French Revolution. The story is of poverty, war, political revolution, eternal love, and redemption and is considered to be s true classic novel.

It is adapted by the accomplished Welsh-born screenwriter Andrew Davies. His work includes House of Cards, Pride and Prejudice, Vanity Fair, Daniel Deronda, Doctor Zhivago, Bleak House, Mr. Selfridge and more.

At the past Television Critics’ Association press tour, Davies was on a panel and admitted that Les Mis was one classic that he had never read until the idea to rework it for Masterpiece was presented.

He said, “I never read it. It was brought to me by Simon Vaughan from Lookout Point, who said, ‘This is a great title. I could sell it all over the world.'”

“‘And it’s a good story. Why don’t you read it?’ So I did read it, and I thought it was a terrific story that just resonated so much with the world we live in today, particularly. I thought I’d just want to have a go at this…I’ve faced down many great books in my life.”

He added, “I thought, you know, ‘I mean, this is just another great book. I’ll just do it the way I see it,’ which is the way I always do it.”

Dominic West (The Wire) stars as lead character Jean Valjean, a convict that experiences the most extreme lows and highs of success and reversals of fortune. Out of hunger and for stealing a loaf of bread he gets 19 years of prison. His nemesis is French policeman Javert (David Oyelowo).

The casting of Valjean (Dominic West) and Javert were critical to the production, and with regards to it, actor David Oyelowo (Javert) said it was always Javert they had him in mind for.

“It was always Javert. And for the exact reasoning behind the question is why it was attractive to me because we have seen the reverse of that dynamic numerous times, as you say, Oyelowo said.

“And the truth of the matter is, you know, contrary to some popular belief, not every black man living in Europe in the early 1800s was some kind of slave or subservient in some way. Napoleon had black generals in his army. And, again, little known fact. But I am always looking for ways to shake things up for myself.”

“And so what was actually of more interest to me was I had had the opportunity to play a number of virtuous, good men in my career, and I was kind of fascinated by this character who is so obsessed in his pursuit of another human being, down to what he deems to be his own moral compass in a sense.”

Explaining how he interpreted the police authority, Javert, Oyelowo said, “He is not, in his own mind, a villain. In fact, he is the hero of his own story. And that’s kind of what fascinates me about Javert, is that, in relation to Jean Valjean, I’m the righteous one.”

“I’m the one doing God’s work. I’m the one who is the law keeper, the law abider. And that was a very fascinating thing for me to get to play, knowing, as David the actor and the fan of the book, that that’s not necessarily how everyone else would perceive it.”

Additional cast includes Lily Collins as the fated Fantine; Josh O’Connor as the wealthy Marius, Erin Kellyman as Eponine, and Academy Award-winner Olivia Colman as the evil Thenardiers.

x

[whilereadingandwalking]

It’s very difficult to organize my thoughts on a 1230-page novel in one long review. My main focus here will be the things that struck me on my reread of Les Miserables by Victor Hugo. Because of that, this review will hold spoilers, and I’m going to have to rush through some things to fit it all within any reasonable amount of space. You have been warned. 

Reading this novel again was wonderful. Hugo writes his world with an insistence on acknowledging always all sides, all complexities, which is why it’s so long but also why it continues to appeal: Hugo writes a novel that manages to be realist through its epic-ness, through its insistence on telling you everything, on summing up entire lives and crises and revolutions in their tragedy, anger, strife, and beauty. I’ve spent the last ten years complaining about Hugo’s several chapters on Waterloo, but this time around, I loved them—he describes it so well, particularly the epic moment where the battle turns against Napoleon thanks to a peasant shaking his head—and I also had a better appreciation this time for Hugo’s wider purpose when it comes to politics and philosophy, whereas last time I was more razor-focused on the individuals. (Note: I still do not endorse Hugo’s obsession with the Parisian sewers.)

I had a little less time for Marius and Cosette’s young, obsessive love this time around, and focused more on Eponine. Her death, as usual, made me cry. For years, I’ve heard people discussing Enjolras and Grantaire as in love, and I thought it was a fanciful thought post-film. No, it might as well be canon, and I adore it. The text tells us that Enjolras has no time or interest in women. Grantaire believes in nothing, and not the revolution, but, he says, he does believe in Enjolras. And after sleeping through the entire barricade because he was drunk (what an iconic move), he wakes up just in time to see the soldiers about to shoot Enjolras. He stands up, declares that he too believes in the revolution and should die, and the two of them die smiling at each other and holding hands, Grantaire at the feet of Enjolras. What an iconic couple.

On the second read, I had more respect for the way that Hugo mirrors Valjean and Javert’s moments of crisis. Valjean as Madeleine must either let an innocent man take on this lifetime in jail or doom a town, as well as Fantine and Cosette. Javert must either honor the debt he owes to Valjean for saving his life, or he must turn Valjean in. The text parallels these two struggles. I understood better this time how fascinating of a villain Javert really is, because the depth of his despair here really did hit me. Javert is a villain to us and to Hugo because he fails to understand that the world is not a simple one of justice and criminal, black and white, good and evil. But in this moment, everything he has believed in, his entire value system, is chaos. To him, the idea that Valjean is a good man is the first moment where he has to grapple with the world of moral quandaries and morally grey decisions that we all have to see. It is a hard truth. 

I think it’s something we see a lot today—the world is complicated, full of maybes and justice undone. Valjean decides to be an actor in this painful world, even though it’s hard—to do his damned best to do good in a world where nothing is simple, where every act has a thousand repercussions. To always strive for the best he can. Ultimately, Valjean and Javert are not hero and villain. They are the difference between a man who walked into the abyss, who faced it, and a man who couldn’t handle, and refused to handle, a world where things were not morally simple. Valjean is a hero not because he’s perfect, which Hugo stresses often he is not, but because he faces the abyss of chaos and works, despite his own painful emotions, despite the grey areas of the world, to be the best he can and do the most good he can.