tenlittlebullets

[tenlittlebullets]

Crank position I am slowly coming to believe: I think theosophy actually subsumed romanticism. The romantics did not carry us into modernity. They made it to about 1870, and then Blavatsky took the reigns.

Like William Blake was awesome but without Blavatsky, there are no Hippies. Without Blavatsky, George Harrison never learns to play the sitar.

[tenlittlebullets]

Ahh yes, the return of the boop laundering scheme :')

[tenlittlebullets]

and if i told you guys that this is an illustration of the same book that brought us Victor Hugo Losing What Little Chill He Possessed Over The Existence Of The Octopus. what then.

fuck it. post gustave doré octopus blowjob

[tenlittlebullets]

Eighteen-Thirties Thursday: Girls Will Be Boys

'Behind the Scenes': an 1838 print by Paul Gavarni, showing an actress playing a male role telling her assistants to hurry up (Rijksmuseum). I enjoy the look at her neckwear being tied (and the shirt frill, although this is the twilight of frilled shirts in menswear).

Aside from fancy dress balls, which seemed to be full of women wearing male costumes and Turkish trousers, the stage was where a Romantic-era woman could be found in masculine attire. Many popular actresses were male impersonators.

Madame Vestris (Lucia Elizabeth Vestris) as Little Pickle in The Spoiled Child, ca. 1830 (V&A)

Mary Anne Keeley as Jack Sheppard the notorious highwayman, 1838 (British Museum).

Maria Foote as 'The Little Jockey', 1831 print of leading ladies (detail). (V&A) This particular character seems to have a lot of merchandise and prints.

Madame Vestris again (V&A), in a circa 1830 print, reminding us that there was also a contemporary song about her legs.

Finally—if you remember the uh, very creative play about the arctic adventures of Sir John Ross and his nephew, which appeared in a toy theatre kit in the mid-1830s (hat tip to @handfuloftime), the role of "Clara Truemore", love interest of the captain's nephew James Clark Edward Ross, is a breeches role, and Clara spends most of the play disguised as "Harry Halyard."

I feel like there is something inherently queer about this, despite the long tradition of "Sweet Polly Olivers" in male drag pursuing their lovers in ballads and broadsides. I wonder how the audience perceived these characters.

[tenlittlebullets]

Iranian Les Misérables performance (2019)

All text from here on out are copied and pasted from a chat.

Hello, Iran opened up the first Persian production of Les Misérables back in 2019, and it ran for 6 months, every seat having been bought.

In the midst of economic crisis, and the rich and the poor growing divide, there were many criticisms to be made about the priority of theatre, especially when the tickets were so expensive.

There were also questions regarding on how they would be presenting women on stage, who couldn't legally show their hair, and weren't allowed to sing solos. In a report talking about Iranian history, along with the modern adaptation of the musical in Iran, see:

For video and footage of some of the performance, see:

For promo photos released by Iranian news source, see:

The onstage production vs the political conditions of Iran, see:

I think this interview was in the news video I sent above, but jic, for the interview, see:

To know about contemporary Iranian theatre:

[tenlittlebullets]

One of the reasons the walrus-versus-fairy thing was so contentious is that not only did the person who originally posed the question strongly believe the correct answer was obviously the fairy, their reasoning for why the fairy was obviously more surprising was that seeing a fairy would instantly refute the validity of human reason as a tool for understanding the universe and bring your entire worldview crashing down. The sensible response is, of course, to point out that people don't work like that, and realistically nobody is going to see something mildly inexplicable and fall to their knees wailing in existential despair unless we're living in an H P Lovecraft novel, but I'm not gonna lie, I'd probably pay money to read a story about a dude having a full on Lovecraft protagonist breakdown in response to seeing Tinkerbell.

[tenlittlebullets]

"Grantaire's in the corner, thinking about his blorbo again," Courfeyrac said.

"One cannot have a person on knows as a blorbo," Combeferre cried.

"Watch me!" Grantaire challenged him. "I can objectify and amplify parasocial relationships from midnight to midnight, running Red Bull-and-vodka-fueled marathons of TikTok binges and YouTube deep dives, driven as far afield by algorithms as anyone has ever been by curiosity unaided by machines' mathemathics. I can doxx -- but beneficiently -- any three people you care to name, and then I can erase their presence from the internet so that no one can follow behind me. When I have a scrap of information in my digital teeth, I worry it like a terrier with a rat, and that data is just as likely to bite me as the rat is the dog, plunging me into myriad illnesses contracted from that foul pest, like a hapless serf gnawed by the Black Plague. I see beyond the mask the way the terrified governments forcing everyone's breath to comingle wish that they could, and I see the truth of those I seek to glorify! Or at least, I see the shadows of their truth as reflected on the wall of that old man's cave, though Plato was his nickname, meaning 'broad,' and so it is theorized that the great philosopher was a himbo. Athens in the classic sense was half the size of Strasbourg, with only a few with the time to think and chat as we do now, my siblings. What can we watch our blorbos accomplish in our time, now that there are so many more of us with the leisure to think, if we only stop worrying about pesky irritations like politics and science, and focus all our efforts on the high and holy purpose of making the blorbo kiss the poor little meow meow!"



[tenlittlebullets]

[tenlittlebullets]

the les mis fandom is a great place to be i could say something completely gnarly like “jean valjean would beat tony hawk in a skateboarding contest” and we’d just accept it

[tenlittlebullets]

Dressing Gown

c. 1840

Litchfield Historical Society

[tenlittlebullets]

as a subtitler im incredibly biased as i say this but. shoutout to forms of fan labor other than fanart and fanfiction. fanart and fanfiction are awesome, don't take this as a dig at those, but i have a big appreciation for fans who provide closed captioning/subtitles/translations of works out of love n passion; fans who recap and explain aspects of the original work; fucking SPEEDRUNNERS, holy shit, shoutout to speedrunners and challenge runners in video game communities. lots of things that fall outside the scope of what comes to mind when people think of fanart/fan labor are integral parts of a healthy fan ecosystem

[tenlittlebullets]

Les Misérables - 2024-25 Paris production concept art

Source : Théâtre du Châtelet twitter

[tenlittlebullets]

La Mode, Pl. 313, 13 juillet 1833, Paris. Robe de jaconas brodé de Mme Cocheu, rue Hilerin Bertin, 8. Mitaines de tricot. Digital Collections of the Los Angeles Public Library

The seated woman on the right is wearing a white dress with gigot sleeves, a white ruff, and tippet. She is wearing mitts and earrings and is holding a fashion magazine in her hands. The woman on the right is wearing a light yellow dress with feather print, gigot sleeves, a white tippet, and a white apron. She is wearing a capote decorated with bows.

[tenlittlebullets]

I really don't think I'll ever be able to forgive them for robbing the West End of the sheer theatrical epicness of The Drape.

Five years later and I'm still devastated every time the music swells and all we get is a piddly cart.

[tenlittlebullets]

I just spent 2 hours debating and testing and arguing in circles and bitching about library catalogs with two colleagues and I just want to say

AO3’s website is really, really, really impressive, functional and ergonomic and cohesive. the tag system is INCREDIBLE and AMAZINGLY maintained. this is my professional librarian appraisal.

I’ve found 1 library catalog that meets my standards. even the national library of France’s catalog is shitty in comparison to ao3.

praise.