sclez:
why haven’t i seen fan art of a dark-skinned enjolras being worshiped by a light-skinned grantaire?
Apologies it’s so sloppy.
grantaire
It’s a day that ends in Y so whatya know, it’s time to talk about my Grantaire Feels. It’s hard to summarise them this time around because it sounds like I’m attacking him and I’d never want to do that, he’s one of my Five Fictional Characters I Would Fight Someone Over…
Buuut, in modern AUs especially, I’ve noticed he often…has the edges taken off him. (This blog being a nifty exception.) Cos, we know what R is really like, we know how much he loves Enjolras and how much he cares for his friends, but he doesn’t always act like the good person he is underneath. Although I don’t think he ever truly hurt anyone as much as he hurt himself, he could definitely be Kind Of A Dick- he calls the waitresses at the Corinthe ugly, calls most people he talks about ugly, calls Matelote ugly to her face (admittedly he does it in such a way that I think he may have actually been trying to complement her in a stupid drunken sense, but still), grabs Louison the dishwasher for some reason, etc. I think, in a modern AU, there’s no way he’d be the hot tortured artist type, he’d be that guy left over at the end of the party who’s really drunk and he mumbles stuff at you that you honestly have no idea is lecherous or not and eventually you leave him on the sofa and go home. I’m pretty sure I knew a Grantaire at university, I’m pretty sure everyone’s met him at least once…
Anyway, somewhere in there is a point and the point is, I like that Grantaire had all these moments of being really quite horrible and yet he’s held up, eventually, as a shining example of selfless love. Because I really want to believe that no-one’s ever as bad as their lowest moments. (Luckily, the novel agrees.)
i am thirsty
mortals, i’m dreaming that the bar down the street from my house is flooded with beer and i’m one of the mops they’re using to sop it all up. i want a drink. i want to forget life. life is a hideous thing some asshole invented before he found tumblr. before you know it you’re dead, and it was worth nothing. and it takes way too much effort
life is like a bad reality tv show or a fanfic where the characters just keep literally running into each other all the time because it’s hard to find ways for people to actually meet. aka how do you even start living? do you have to get out bed? take a shower? put on clothes? be happy? happiness is basically NZT-48 – spoiler alert, it only exists in fiction. ecclesiastes said “all is vanity”, which basically means nothing, and i agree with that guy who probably never existed (i mean let’s be honest here, history relies on the memories of a lot of dead people)
and omg vanity is great. i mean, come on, what could be more ridiculous than calling a boxer a pugilist, a kitchen a laboratory, the shitter a lavatory, and etc pp? vanity is ridiculous no matter how you apply it. on the one hand, you’ve got kids in third world countries reading vogue and worrying about the proper fit to the one t-shirt they own, and on the other you’ve got kids in the first world spending a shit ton of money on clothes that look like they were donated by the kids in third world countries, so what the actual fuck. the first one is tragic; the second is obnoxious.
there’s basically no such thing as honor or dignity or human pride. look at octomom or fucking charles II, who made a night of a sirloin. i don’t even know what i’m talking about anymore, but moving on to my next point:
there is no point. everything is meaningless. people are nothing. i get to say this, according to wikipedia’s watered down definition of nihilism, because according to me, people have no meaning, as in they mean nothing to me, thus all of mankind is meaningless or actually what the actual fuck am i talking about i don’t even know anymore but i’m pretty sure i fucked that example up. who cares though, basically all men must die fuck the police you’re all pots calling the kettle black etc etc etc
if i was actually intelligent or well-read or even paid attention a little bit in school, i could insert some really good quotes in here to drive my point home, but i know absolutely nothing about anything and am too drunk and don’t give a fuck enough to drill google for Clever Things to Say, so deal with it. i’ve always been a lazy fuck. i mean, i wasted my entire art education playing fruit ninja on my roommate’s iPad (he was a selfish prick and considered thattheft?), and let’s be honest here, it was way more entertaining than figuratively wanking off about my feelings and my perceptions of the world through chalk, charcoal, acrylic etc mediums i mean come on
and that’s all i have to say about me, but don’t even think about judging me (i know you want to) as if you’re all any better
well NEWSFLASH
all humans suck. all supposedly good characteristics are like a step away from douchebaggery
moral people are basically bigots. anyone who can save money is a scrooge. there are more vices in virtue than there virtues, and i need a drink taking a break will be back to write more later
…This is genius
Ten Little Bullets in my Hand: flo-nelja: Allons nous coucher, etc.[Grantaire], tu es un misérable…
Allons nous coucher, etc.
[Grantaire], tu es un misérable s’écria Enjolras ; tu excelles à donner des raisons basses pour ne pas faire les choses nobles. Tu souffles sur l’enthousiasme avec une mauvaise haleine.
– Extinguit candelam cum bombo, dit Courfeyrac.
[Grantaire]…
I wish I knew French SO BADLY. Is this Enjolras being a big ol’ meanie again?
I couldn’t wait for an actual French speaker to translate, so here’s what Google translate says:
Go to bed, etc..
[Grantaire], you’re a miserable cried Enjolras, you excel to low for reasons not to do noble things. You blow on the enthusiasm with bad breath.
– Extinguit candelam cum bombo said Courfeyrac.
[Grantaire] divided smiled:
– Enjolras, we will cut the throat in the morning.
They both die. – [Grantaire] gay and heroic; Enjolras seeks the hand of [Grantaire]. Take my hand.
(Victor Hugo, Building – draft folder on Les Misérables)
(Name changed, because even if we can see what Hugo talking about is the time when Bossuet and Grantaire were the same character, and it’s just too weird. Indeed, many names are not the same in drafts, it gives a misunderstanding each time)
So it sounds like Enjolras is being frustrated with Grantaire’s cynicism – but given that Courfeyrac follows it with what I assume is a joke about extinguishing a candle with a bomb and Grantaire smiles, I’m not sure if Enjolras is being properly angry or just (almost fondly?) exasperated.
(I also wonder if that other draft fragment was banter rather than meanness – without context it’s difficult to know. Though even if it was intended as banter I could see Grantaire being hurt by it because he’s a depressed alcoholic with the self-esteem of a caterpillar)
And then Victor Hugo making a note about how they end up dying together.
(I am totally going to take that note as evidence that the “Enjolras grasped his hand with a smile” or “Enjolras clasped his hand with a smile” are closer to what Hugo intended than “Enjolras shook his hand with a smile” – apparently the French like can be read either way, but I always assumed the gesture was sort of about presenting a united front. And the idea of them shaking hands in front of the firing squad just seems… awkward? Idk)
Oh, I love this all so much. Especially the last little note. “They both die”! Like Hugo was thinking “HMM THIS IS A NICE LITTLE STORY. HOW COULD I POSSIBLY END IT? WAIT, I KNOW!”
(…and then we get to “Grantaire, happy and heroic” and “Take my hand” and I start bawling like a baby.)
Grantaire, fumant sa pipe et gris
On me croit situé au sommet de la philosophie. On se trompe. Je suis un porc.
– C’est vrai, dit Enjolras.
(Victor Hugo, Chantiers – dossier de brouillons sur Les Misérables)
Grantaire, drunk and smoking his pipe: “They think I’m placed at the summit of philosophy. They’re wrong. I am a swine.”
“It’s true,” said Enjolras.
(Victor Hugo, Chantiers – collection of notes and drafts for Les Misérables)
literally my favorite thing in the brick
#i feel like #(and note that i am only nearing the end of fantine in the brick so i’m just basing this on this quote and a few others i have read) #i feel like part of why grantaire loves enjolras so much is that he reminds him of who he used to be #i feel like he wasn’t always a cynic #once he was an idealist who believed in love and art and feedom #but he was ugly and no one would love him #and he found himself loving beautiful men who in turn loved beautiful women #and he was taught by his father and the world that he did not deserve love #and so he starts to drink #at first he drinks to drown his pain #and then he drinks to drown in his pain #like marmaladov ‘i drink that i may suffer twice as much’ #for that is what he deserves #and then he meets a beautiful man in love with not a beautiful woman but a beautiful future #a man who loves everyone yet lacks one single person to love only him #so grantaire will love him #that this sun god might not darken #that the cruel world might not kill this prince of the people #that he may not be crushed as grantaire was crushed #that he may live to understand only love and liberty
Once upon a time everyone in the world had a pet as big as their dreams. Usually these pets would get smaller and smaller as time goes on.
Take Grantaire, for example. At the moment, his pet is a caterpillar.
And then there’s Enjolras.
Enjolras has a Libertysaurus.
Libertysaurus is an expensive pet to have, to be sure. Which just goes to show how cruel and oppressive the monarchy is, if a guy can’t even feed his Libertysaurus forty cows without going bankrupt. Not that Enjolras goes bankrupt, what with being filthy rich, but THAT’S NOT THE POINT. The point is that the monarchy is bad and Libertysaurus will feast on the flesh of the nobility and stomp on the heads of the bourgeoisie while leading the poor and their sad tiny dream animals to VICTORY!!! and GROWTH!!! and hopefully Libertysaurus will stop squishing everything, that is pretty much all Libertysaurus does, it’s very sad and nobody can bring themselves to complain about it because Libertysaurus is the sweetest dinosaur you ever met. Libertysaurus tries to hold doors open for people but he has tiny tiny arms and a biiiiig head so it doesn’t work out so good.
Also, Libertysaurus might be able to breathe fire.
The end.
This is the most adorable saddest thing and I totally want to cuddle the Libertysaurus now.
…although the actual saddest thing may be that Grantaire has a caterpillar, which will presumably after a serious nap wake up as a butterfly, and then DIE THE SAME DAY. Although I suppose the firebreathing Libertysaurus might change everything!