i think that the creature from Frankenstein should have met Bishop Myriel from Les mis. I feel this would have ended well. The creature would get a father figure/guy who is nice to him. Myriel would get someone who can get things from the top shelf for him
♪ But remember this, my brother
Humankind is not that bad
God has raised you out of darkness
Now beat the shit out of your dad ♪
One time, not even a week after seeing Les Mis, my family and I went to a restaurant that had — for some inexplicable reason — a “Jean Valjean Seafood Special” on their menu. And us all being fans of Les Mis we naturally have to ask our waiter: why? Instead of saying “oh I don’t know” or “oh the guy in the back is a big Les Mis fan” or something, he decided to pick the fun route and lie. He looked into our eyes, straight-faced, so serious, and said “Jean Valjean is French for ‘Seafood Special.’” Now, I don’t speak French, but I know enough that I’m not quite sure that’s true. I respect him for being able to just lie like that though, very impressive.
sometimes I think about that time I was in a production of les mis where I was cast as grantaire and enjolras was being played by a girl i was ridiculously and pathetically down bad for. like jesus christ the irony but anyways lesbian enjoltaire has happened at least once so you’re welcome les mis girlies. I was out there method acting.
I have a lot of respect for the Just Stop Oil protestors who interrupted Les Mis last night. I’ve done disruptive actions before and it’s fucking hard. Any kind of direct action is hard, and anyone who participates in civil disobedience (or uncivil disobedience!) will know that.
But still. It’s incredibly disheartening to see the negative responses from people who (presumably, seeing as they either follow the account and/or bought tickets to the show) are fans of Les Mis.
And like, I don’t know, it’s just making me reflect a lot on how popularised versions of Les Mis (mainly the musical) still fail to get through to people. It doesn’t hammer home the message in the book’s prologue, it’s too easy for people to see it as that was then and this is now, that was over there and this is here, etc, etc. Like… I can’t stop thinking about how quickly the protestors were thrown under the bus by both the audience and the theatre. How it’s easy for people to exercise hypothetical solidarity towards a bunch of fictional characters yet not extend that to real life contexts. How everyone will unanimously agree that the National Guard are the bad guys and then turn around and cheer on the IRL cops for removing protestors. I don’t know.
And I’ve been to productions of Les Mis before where people will cry during the barricade sequence or comment on how upsetting Fantine’s story is and then come out of the theatre and walk straight past the unhoused people on the streets. It’s not new. But it is particularly jarring when as soon as the lights come up people seem to forget how fervently they hoped that things would be different, and not realise they have to play a part in that change in order for that to happen. Like, the message of Les Mis is supposed to be if you do nothing, nothing will change.
The amount of people who don’t seem to grasp that Les Mis condemns people exactly like them, who stood by, who turned away from the people trying to change things, it’s just… It’s so fucking frustrating.
the thing they don’t tell you about getting into les mis as a teenager is that there is no point at which you gain the capability of being normal about enjolras and grantaire. bc here’s the thing folks. grantaire asked for enjolras’s permission, to give him the honor of dying next to him. enjolras smiled and took his hand. and then they died. holding hands. and then there’s “you believe in nothing” / “i believe in you”, the sun/moon imagery, the comparisons to achilles/patroclus and orestes/pylades etc, and dont get me started on george blagden. it’s insane
