#russian mountains

[secretmellowblog]

YAY I love the chapter of Les Mis where Fantine rides a roller coaster!

About three o’clock the four couples, frightened at their happiness, were sliding down the Russian mountains, a singular edifice which then occupied the heights of Beaujon, and whose undulating line was visible above the trees of the Champs-Élysées.

The “Russian Mountains” were an early version of roller coasters. They were (obviously) invented in Russia, and then became a Thing in France when Russia occupied the country after helping defeat Napoleon in the battle of Waterloo, which resulted in a lot of cultural exchange.

Obviously at this point roller coaster technology was in its infancy (they were basically just carts that rolled down a track.)

Here’s a longer post with more detail on the coasters!

But yeah, I wish adaptations would just let Fantine zoom around on her little roller coaster for a bit. She goes through so much later on that she deserves that. Let her have this one thing.

[lesmiscollageproject]

Toward three o’clock, the four couples, delirious with happiness, were running down the Russian mountains, a singular structure then occupying the heights of Beaujon, the serpentine line of which could be seen above the trees of the Champs Elysees.

[mournfulroses]

Velimir Khlebnikov, from The Collected Works of Velimir Khlebnikov; “Mountain People,”

[classic-art-favourites]

The Ghosts of Hellas by Vasily Polenov, 1905.

[soracities]

Marina Tsvetaeva, excerpt from Poem of the Mountain, Selected Poems (trans. Elaine Feinstein, with Valentina Coe) [ID'd]

[illustratus]

Travellers on a mountain pass by Ilya Nikolaevich Zankovsky

[thermodynamic-comedian]

"i haven't met a single lesbian who doesn't listen to girl in red" you clearly have not met a lot of lesbians.

[fatchance]

Tumbleweeds.

[russianfolklore]

Vitaly Volovich's illustration for russian tale "The Mistress of the Copper Mountain" by Pavel Bazhov.

The Mistress of the Copper Mountain, also known as The Malachite Maid, is a Russian fairy tale character, the mountain spirit from the legends of the Ural miners and the Mistress of the Ural Mountains of Russia. In the national folktales and legends, she is depicted as an extremely beautiful green-eyed young woman in a malachite gown or as a lizard with a crown. She has been viewed as the patroness of miners, the protector and owner of hidden underground riches, the one who can either permit or prevent the mining of stones and metals in certain places.

[fortjester]

musings on the body

dilaudid by the mountain goats / don't know how to keep loving you by julia jacklin / body by julia jacklin / pressure to party by julia jacklin / head alone by julia jacklin / russian doll s1 e7 "the way out" / spencer (2021, dir. pablo larraín)

[hauntaholicc]

[vintage-russia]

Altay,Russia (1900s/1910s)

Photography by Sergey Borisov (1859-1935)

[historyguide]

Alaian Woman by Grigory Gurkin.

Explore our visual guides and documentaries about art & history.

[apollodreams]

Nickistat playlist but it's only Damn These Vampires by The Mountain Goats and Naked in Manhattan by Chappel Roan

[classic-art-favourites]

Caravan of Yaks by Vasily Vereshchagin, 1875.

[soracities]

Marina Tsvetaeva, excerpt from Poem of the Mountain, Selected Poems (trans. Elaine Feinstein, with Valentina Coe)