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Les Mis - Blog Posts
Idea: Every musical takes place at the same time, in the same universe, and it’s a pitch perfect au
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E/R is so funny to me as a ship abbreviation because it’s so non-obvious who it is referring to unless you read the Les Amis sections of Les Miserables pretty closely and remember them in detail, or are already deeply immersed in the fandom. I have never seen anyone refer to it as E/G.
I wonder if any newcomers to the fandom have mistaken it for Enjolras/Republic or Enjolras/Revolution (the only canon Enjolras ships 😆).
Thinking about Grantaire
Thinking about a version of him where, behind all of his cynicism and sarcasm and unseriousness there's a depression, and an intense an all consuming terror at the idea of death. I'm sure to some extent there's an ideation there, a wish to rest, but thinking about it in any more specific terms than "I don't want to be here anymore" sends him spiralling into panic.
Thinking about him seeing Enjolras and looking up to him like a god, wanting so badly to cling to the light, the passion, the energy, the fearlessness he lacks. And yet, in doing so, he is surrounded by these talks of revolution that immediately, always, strike him as doomed to failure. Doomed to death. Yes, he cares about his friends (and really, he cares SO much), yes, he cares about making the world a better place (a little bit less, but it's still there) but Grantaire cannot help but fear that he is dooming himself by merely existing around them. So he drinks, and he is mean, because as scared as he is he cares far too much to leave them now. He knows, has known from the start, that Enjolras will die. Maybe it's just the pessimism, maybe it's truly a premonition, but from the start Grantaire is certain that Enjolras is going to die.
For a second though, he can ignore it - he can march with them, sing with them, build the barricade a little soberer than usual, can get caught up in the fanfare and the noise and the energy and the PRESENCE of Enjolras and, for a second, pretend like they aren't all doomed.
And then there's Gavroche.
Gavroche, who probably reminds Grantaire a little bit of himself - the messy hair, the loudness, the pure and unfiltered childish confidence that it'll all work out, and suddenly Grantaire has something to protect. In the production of Les Mis I'm currently in, during Eponine's death Grantaire spends the scene desperately trying to avert Gavroche and the other children's eyes from the girl that none of them realize is dying. Grantaire knows, he knows from the MOMENT he sees her, and he is terrified, but for once the terror for these boys outweighs the reignited terror for his own life.
Thinking about Grantaire realizing that Gavroche does not quite know death (not death in battle, at least - the streets are different, the death there is different too), and thus does not quite fear it, and so he fears it enough for the both of them.
Thinking about Eponine's death reigniting every bit of panic at the thought of dying, the reality of the situation, weighing back onto Grantaire as the night falls. Thinking about him getting drunk, bitter through the soft celebration the rest of them share. Thinking about him slurring through his verse in drink with me, and Enjolras suddenly seeing right through the anger and the grief to the personal hell Grantaire is sitting in. "Will the world remember you when you fall/can it be your death means nothing at all/is your life just one more lie?" is sung to Enj, but they both know it's really about R.
Thinking about how, in my production, Grantaire settles to sleep almost right beside Gavroche. Thinking about him, mostly asleep, hearing Bring Him Home and knowing that were he sober enough to do so, he would sing the same for Gav.
Thinking about the next morning, when Gavroche climbs the barricade, and Grantaire is terrified enough for the both of them - enough so, that in this moment, he quite nearly forgets how to be afraid for himself. Thinking about Enjolras catching Gavroche and immediately passing him down to Grantaire, because grieving as they all are, Enjolras knows. Thinking about Grantaire CRADLING Gavroche's body, desperately trying to wake him up, bring him back, keep him warm, even as the battle continues on around him.
Thinking about the eventual realization that Gavroche is gone, and with it, the fear enough for the both of him. Thinking about him still, somehow, forgetting how to be afraid for himself - whether that's the grief talking or the truth, we'll never know.
Thinking about the realization that with his boy, his kid gone, Enjolras is certain to follow suit. Grantaire's always known that Enjolras was doomed, but now there isn't someone to protect, someone to fear for, and he's forgotten how to fear for himself.
Thinking about the fact that, in most productions, Enjolras falls off the barricade towards the enemy. Thinking about the fact that Grantaire then spends the rest of his life desperately trying to reach the top of the barricade - sometimes even managing to swing his legs over the same ledge Enjolras fell off of, before being shot, and falling backwards, staying on his side. Thinking about the fact that even when the stage does not permit it the way a novel or a movie can, Grantaire still does everything in his power to die beside Enjolras.
Thinking about the fact that his last thought was probably that his last action, his last attempt, his chance to prove himself to Enjolras, was a failure.
Thinking about Grantaire.
i've always wanted to do this. To wake up and choose violence
thanks must be given to @archers-and-spies for helping me find the audio
Dial Drunk + thoughts of my beloved Grantaire are NOT good for my "let's write some more happy stuff" resolution.
Saw this painting on my cruise ship and I couldn't help but think of the ABC crew. Enjolras in the red with Combferre and Courfeyac with him, obviously. Grantaire in the vest on the right (perhaps with Bahorel), Marius in blue to the left....
I absolutely adore Éponine, she’s one of my favorite characters (in general, not just in Les Mis), so no one take it the wrong way when I say I absolutely prefer the Bishop being the one to lead Valjean to Heaven in the epilogue. Not so much musically, but more so from a character standpoint. The Bishop is the one who saved Valjean’s soul. Valjean would not know G-d if not for Myriel; so of course Myriel is the best man to lead him to Heaven. The ideal production, to me, has the Bishop leading Valjean to Heaven and also has Javert in Heaven. Unfortunately, such productions seem to not exist (and I am so so so so willing to be corrected about that).
okay, but we don't know where grantaire was shot. people usually say the heart, because he died instantly, but i think there's a better option.
his throat.
now, the heart is poetic because he's only at the barricade because of his love for enjolras.
but.
his worse vices, or at least the two traits that enjolras hates in him the most (besides the non-believing) are his drinking and talking nonsense for 4 pages non stop.
both of those actions are fundamentally linked with one's throat, wine flows through there and words pour out of it.
the throat also houses one's pipes, vocal cords and arteries, so a shot to the throat would be as deadly as one to the heart. either way, the brain ain't getting any oxygen.
anyway both options are valid, but i like this symbolism in grantaire's death better than the heart.
Something about how if enjolras is grantaire's sun, then grantaire must be enjolras' moon, something something, the moon only shines when the sun is around, and even then only reflecting its light...?
still about les mis manuscript, and now you can hear me scream!
this part is a MESS but it is about the moment enjolras tells grantaire "Don’t disgrace the barricade!" etc! and in the border, victor hugo added a part (which is not in the final edition) :
- tu sais que je crois en toi. - va-t-en.
in english:
- you know i believe in you. - go away.
do you hear this!!!!!! im screaming in my room.
I feel like I understand people's blorbofication of Javert because I get why someone would really cling onto a complex (male) antagonist with a traumatic past whose entire life is a lie and who kills himself when he reaches that final moment of realization. It is absolutely tragic, and it is easy and natural to cling onto that, we've all been there. But you need to understand that two things are in motion here: the first one is Javert's individual tragedy, and the second one is the broader system he personifies. He's a symbol. His primary function in the narrative is to personify the hateful, bigoted, cruel, inhumane legal system that intervenes after the fact and crushes all those that society has already put down. He, the incarnation of that bourgeois legal system, delivers the final blow. He finishes off what society started, and he does it with joy. When we say that he killed Fantine, it's not even about Javert the individual per se. It's about the entire system he represents. That system killed Fantine and Javert is its flesh and bones. Fantine was a poor girl that was exploited and let down by society in every single way and when she was herself a victim of actual physical violence, the Law, personified by Javert, instead of protecting her treated her like an animal, dehumanized her, humiliated her. The Law was scandalized that a woman like her dared attack the bourgeoisie. The Law was horrified that such a disgusting creature got medical care because she should just drop dead on her street. The Law rejoiced in tearing down her sole protector. The Law prevented her from getting her child back from the con artists that have been stealing her for years because the Law doesn't care about the crimes committed against marginalized people. That's not its function. Its function is to use its discretionary authority in order to dehumanize and punish people that ended up on the wrong side of the street.
So when you come at me with nonsense that Javert "didn't tEchNIcALLy kill Fatnine", "he was just rude", "he was just bitchy", "he just stole her final happy moments", respectfully, you don't know what you're talking about. Javert absolutely killed Fantine. He's not the only one who did but he eagerly and enthusiastically precipitated her execution, and that is the entire point Hugo is trying to make. Your arguments against it are nothing but a mere technicality that stems from the fact that the individual's actions technically do not qualify as manslaughter. It's as if we literally had an individual at court and we were thinking of whether or not to condemn him for manslaughter. It's not about that. It's not about your blorbo and his sadness. Your blorbo has a whole other function in the narrative. You have completely missed the mark of the entire book and you have let your personal emotional attachment for a character prevail over Hugo's main argument about the structural punitive violence that literally kills people. Javert being the product and the embodiment of an entire system that exceeds his individuality does not mean that, as a police officer, he's not responsible for his actions or their consequences. On the contrary, he's precisely entirely responsible for the structural violence committed against Fantine, that's what "embodiment" actually means, that's what we mean when we say that he personifies that system. Absolving Javert of his crimes goes directly against the themes of the book, because while systems operate above individuals by definition, they need those individuals to function. The system needs Javerts. Javerts are everywhere around us, yes even today and it is important to hold them accountable for their crimes. I can't believe I have to explain this tbh.
White boy ASTONISHES grandfather by speaking in fluent WOKE from like 30 years prior (or something idk French political history that well)
"I'm gay" "I'm straight" ok????? I am reaching, but I fall??? And the stars are black and cold???As I stare into the void??? Of a world that cannot hold??? I'll escape now from that world??? From the world of Jean Valjean??? There is nowhere I can turn??? There is no way to go on????😒😒😒
Dudddde what if we were foils and you were beautiful and i was ugly and you have revolution in your eyes and i believe in nothing and you chastely drop your eyes at all things that were not the republic and i stare fixedly at all women and you were absolute in your ideas and i was shapeless and you pitied me and i venerated you and you scorned me and i admired you and you disdained me and i loved you. What if in the presence of you i became someone once more, what if i was charmed by your chaste, healthy, firm, upright, hard, candid nature without me being clearly aware of it and without the idea of explaining it to myself occurring, what if i had need of you, what if i were your unaccepted pylades what if bro can you hear me
the fact that they changed the lyrics de sous les étoiles (stars) and got rid of:
"je ne faiblirait pas/tant qu'il ne sera pas/à genoux devant moi" (I won't weaken until he's on his knees before me)
for
"je le poursuivrais/tant qu'il ne sera pas/repris et condamné" (i will chase him until he's taken and condemn)
is CRIMINAL.
However, this sceptic had one fanaticism. This fanaticism was neither a dogma, nor an idea, nor an art, nor a science; it was a man: Enjolras. Grantaire admired, loved, and venerated Enjolras.
ok, little rant about a use of a leitmotif in les mis that i think has slipped under most people's radars!
so you the know the police leitmotif? the "tell me quickly what's the story/who saw what and why and where/let him give a full description/let him answer to javert!" tune that appears whenever somebody gets arrested?
now turn your ear to javert's suicide, specifically the "i am reaching but i fall/and the stars are black and cold" part. it took me a while to notice, but this whole section of the song is just a snippet of the arrest leitmotif:
but he never completes it. the snippet repeats and repeats. try as he might, he finds himself unable to sing the same old song of Justice and Law and Righteousness and Order. he's like a jammed cassette player spitting out the same second of music over and over and over and over again, unable to follow his old ways, but unable to let them go. he's stuck, but he will keep throwing himself against the walls of the cage.
javert is desperately trying to run on his old tracks of thought, but, as vicky h puts it, he experiences "the derailment of a soul, the shattering of an integrity irresistibly propelled in a straight line and dashed against God".
: )
the chrysanthemum scene from deep end by @aaronstveit
inject this scene into my bloodstream it’s so ,,, like tranquil but deeply impactful?? like you read it and it’s written beautifully and you want to reread it immediately but also just ooft you feel
+ bonus zoom ins on their faces
marius is so “oh no! anyway” about eponine confessing her love and then immediately dying that 1862 girlies could have started using “and by the way, monsieur marius, i believe that i was a little bit in love with you” as a preface to announce major geopolitical events
