lemurious reblogged
Quick sketches of Jean Valjean, Enjolras and Cosette
lemurious reblogged
Offer #6 @lemurious is offering a crocheted scarf (straight or infinity/loop) to keep you warm this winter. Colors of your choice: red? green? red & black? tricolor?
See a couple of crocheted wraps around an alpaca:
Starting bid: $ 50.
I will cover shipping and I will match the highest offer from my own funds.
The cause this year hits very close to home...spent a decade scrambling for visas before a green card and half again as many before naturalization. (Stories may be more suitable for a separate post). Let's help support immigrants.
lemurious reblogged
The thing is, Jean Valjean’s “nineteen year prison sentence for stealing a loaf of bread” from Les Mis isn’t actually unusual….not even today! I see people talking about it as if it’s strange or unimaginable when it happens every day.
In modern America — often as a result of pointlessly cruel (and racist) habitual offender and mandatory minimum laws— people are routinely sentenced to life in prison for minor crimes like shoplifting or possession of drugs.
The ACLU did a report in 2013 detailing the lives of various people who were sentenced to life in prison without parole for nonviolent property crimes like:
•attempting to cash a stolen check
•a junk-dealer’s possession of stolen junk
metal (10 valves and one elbow pipe)
•possession of stolen wrenches
•siphoning gasoline from a truck
•stealing tools from a tool shed and a welding machine from a yard
•shoplifting three belts from a department store
•shoplifting several digital cameras
•shoplifting two jerseys from an athletic store
• taking a television, circular saw, and a power converter from a vacant house
• breaking into a closed liquor store in the middle of the night
And of course, so so so many people sentenced to life without parole for the possession of a few grams of drugs.
And we could go on and on!
Gregory Taylor was a homeless man in Los Angeles who, in 1997, was sentenced to “25 years to life” for attempting to steal food from a food kitchen. He was released after 13 years. The lawyers helping to release him even cited Les Miserables in their appeal, comparing Taylor’s sentence to Jean Valjean’s.
And there’s another specific bit of social commentary Hugo was making about Valjean’s trial that’s still depressingly relevant. He writes that Valjean was sentenced for the theft of loaf of bread, but also that the court managed to make that sentence stick by bringing up some of his past misdemeanors. For example, Valjean owned a gun and was known to occasionally poach wildlife (presumably for his starving family to eat.) . So the court exaggerates how harmful the bread theft was—he had to smash a windowpane to get the bread, which is basically Violence— then insist the fact that he owns a gun and occasionally poaches is proof that he is habitually and innately violent. Then when Valjean obviously becomes distressed traumatized and furious as a result of his nakedly unjust sentence and begins making desperate (and very unsuccessful/impulsive/ poorly thought through) attempts to escape…. the government indifferently tacks more years onto his sentence, labels him a “dangerous” felon, and insists that its initial read of him as an innately violent person was correct.
And it’s sad how a lot of the real life stories linked earlier are similar to the commentary Hugo wrote in 1863? Someone will commit a nonviolent property crime, and then the court insists that a bunch of other miscellaneous things they’ve done in the past (whether it’s other minor thefts or being addicted to drugs or w/e) are Proof they’re inherently violent and incapable of being around other people.
A small very petty fandom side note: This is also why I dislike all those common jokes you see everywhere along the lines of “lol it’s so unrealistic for the police to want to arrest Valjean over a loaf of bread, there must have been some other reason the police were pursuing him. Because the state would never punish someone that harshly and irrationally for no reason. so maybe javert was just gay haha”. (Ex: this tiktok— please don’t harass the creator or poster though, I don’t think they were intending to mean anything like that and its just a silly common type of joke you see made about Les mis all the time so it’s not unique in any way.) because like.
As much as I don’t think Les Mis is a flawless book or that its political messaging is perfect….the only way that insanely long unjust sentences for minor crimes is “unrealistic” is if you’re operating on the assumption that prisons are here to Keep You Safe by always only punishing bad criminals who do serious crimes. And that’s just, not true at all. Like I get that these are just goofy silly shallow jokes, and I’m not angry or going to harass anyone who makes them. but it feels like there’s an assumption underlying all those goofy jokes that “this is just not how prison works!” “Prisons don’t routinely sentence people to absurd laughably unjust pointless sentences!” “Prisons give people fair sentences for logical reasons!” When like…no
Valjean being relentlessly hounded and tortured for a minor crime in a way that is utterly ridiculous and arbitrary in its cruelty is not actually a plot hole in Les mis. It’s a plot hole in …..society ajsjkdkdkf. And the only way to fix that is to fight for prison abolition or at least reform, and (in America) stand up against the vicious naked cruelty of habitual offender and mandatory minimum laws.
But yeah :(. I hate how Les Mis opens with a prologue saying the novel will be obsolete the moment the social issues it describes have been resolved— but two hundred years later, the book is still more relevant than ever because we’re dealing with so many of the exact same injustices.
#les miserables#i am gutted by the prison/galley scenes there#and they are in one way not that different from what exists today#solitary confinement is its own nightmare#and the horrible tacking on of sentences#leading to the same constant that “prison makes a criminal” that hugo was so aware of#lemur's belated social awakening
"And yet, any one who follows the course of social clinics shakes his head at times. The strongest, the tenderest, the most logical have their hours of weakness.
Will the future arrive? It seems as though we might almost put this question, when we behold so much terrible darkness. Melancholy face-to-face encounter of selfish and wretched. On the part of the selfish, the prejudices, shadows of costly education, appetite increasing through intoxication, a giddiness of prosperity which dulls, a fear of suffering which, in some, goes as far as an aversion for the suffering, an implacable satisfaction, the I so swollen that it bars the soul; on the side of the wretched covetousness, envy, hatred of seeing others enjoy, the profound impulses of the human beast towards assuaging its desires, hearts full of mist, sadness, need, fatality, impure and simple ignorance.
Shall we continue to raise our eyes to heaven? is the luminous point which we distinguish there one of those which vanish? The ideal is frightful to behold, thus lost in the depths, small, isolated, imperceptible, brilliant, but surrounded by those great, black menaces, monstrously heaped around it; yet no more in danger than a star in the maw of the clouds."
- Victor Hugo, Les Miserables
lemurious reblogged
Quick Enjolras sketch
lemurious reblogged
even the darkest night will end and the sun will rise--
--as Victor Hugo didn't actually say.
The Winter 2025 Bishop Myriel Fundraiser is now open. This year will be dedicated to immigrants, many of whom are languishing in private prisons whose stock just went way, way up.
Our goal this year is at least 25 auction items and over $1000 in funds raised. If you've never participated before, this is your year. DM if you would like to participate but need advice!
Get your fic, art, books, crafts, costumes, and other offers ready. You can submit them according to the rules under the cut, and bidding on each item will start as soon as it is posted. Bidding in REPLIES, NOT REBLOGS, will continue through the end of December 21st, the darkest night of the year.
The recommended places to donate this year are: 1) RAICES Texas, an immigration-focused group which freed more than 2,000 people from immigration detention over the years. They fought to reunify families when children were ripped from their parents' arms during the first Trump administration, and have now pivoted to using funds to provide legal support for the detained, while continuing to pay bonds for those clients.
2) Annunciation House, a shelter serving immigrants. Run by Catholics in Texas who open their doors to the stranger without asking to see their papers, this year they faced down a vicious attempt by the Texas government to shut them down as a "stash house." The attorney general claimed in court that they followed "a more Bohemian set of ‘seven commandments,’ including commandments to ‘visit’ people when ‘incarcerated’ and ‘care (for them) when they’re sick.'” What could be more in the spirit of this fundraiser's namesake, Bishop Myriel? If you are not in the US and/or find it difficult to donate via those pages and/or want to support a particular organization doing good work to assist immigrants that's not listed above, please feel free to select another organization. From groups funding rescue ships in the Mediterranean to those supporting refugees stuck in camps around the world, there is a lot of good work to be done.
Rules for submitting your offers and bidding on them under the cut
#bishop myriel fundraisers#les miserables#fandom auction#oh i definitely will bid and support#as a former? immigrant#14 years to naturalization#(does one ever get to be “former” immigrant. people still ask me where i'm from and get upset when i say california)#i will see if i can create something too
lemurious reblogged
So, as you may know if you've been watching the tags, I spazzed and completely missed Feuilly Week. So, as per the poll I sent out this week, the majority of people wanted to just extend Feuilly Week through the end of November, so you have a chance to finish (or start! ;D) any works you would like to. Enough people were interested in a second Feuilly Week before next October, though, so I may consider running one in early April, perhaps? But that's not set in stone.
So, without further ado................
Hello, fellow Feuilly lovers!
Feuilly Appreciation Week is here!
All fanworks are welcome: fanfiction, fanart, photosets, gifsets, fanmixes, fanvids, polyvore sets, cosplay, moodboards – you name the medium, it’s welcome. ^_^ The only requirement is that your fanwork be centered on Feuilly.
Gen works are welcome. Ship works are welcome (platonic or romantic). As long as Feuilly plays a starring role in whatever you’re creating, anything else can fly. ^_^
And because this has come up a few times, yes you absolutely can tag your any works for other events for Feuilly Week as well. (For example, I think @brickrenouveautions is kicking off soon?) The more Feuilly, the merrier! ;D
The week will run from November 12th to November 30th.
The tag for the week is #feuilly week or #feuillyweek (or #feuilly week 2024 / #feuillyweek2024).
I will be doing my best to track the tag and reblog everything posted for the week to this blog, but tags have been really dodgy since... forever... so if you really want to be sure I’ll see it, please @ this blog!
If you have any questions, feel free to direct them to the blog ( @feuillyweek ) or the mod’s blog ( @eirenical ).
For more information, please try the FAQ.
And please feel free to signal boost this elsewhere (Discord or Twitter or wherever fandom people are congregating) if you feel comfortable doing so!
lemurious reblogged
Cosy Enjolras/Combeferre today
lemurious reblogged
“The Constitutionnel and the Debats seem to a certain degree to have correctly understood or hit what happened, but the colour and measurements are incorrect. I have just come from the theatre of the strife of yesterday, when I convinced myself how difficult it would be to get at the truth. This theatre (Schauplatz) is one of the greatest and densely inhabited streets of Paris, i.e. the Rue Saint-Martin, which, beginning at the gate of that name on the Boulevards, ends on the Seine at the Bridge Notre Dame. At both ends of the street I heard the number of the patriots, or, as they are called today, the rebels, who fought there, esteemed at from five hundred to a thousand; but, in the middle of the street the sum became less, and in the very centre it was reduced to fifty. “What is truth?” said Pontius Pilate. The number of troops of the line is easier to give. Yesterday even the Journal de Debats declares there was forty thousand men ready for action in Paris. Add to these at least twenty thousand National Guards, and we find that a mere handful of insurgents fought with sixty thousand men! The heroism of these insanely brave men is unanimously praised; they indeed achieved miracles of bravery. They cried continually, “Viva la Republique!” but it found no echo in the breasts of the people. Had they instead cried, “Viva Napoleon!” then (as is generally declared today in all groups of the people) the line would hardly have fired on them, and the great masses of the workers would have joined them. But they scorned a lie, for they were the purest, if not the craftiest, friends of freedom. And yet people are stupid enough to declare today that they were acting in intelligence with the Carlists! Verily, he who fights unto death for the holy delusion of his heart and for the beautiful error of an ideal future, will never ally himself to that cowardly filth which the past has left us under the name of “Carlists.” I am, by God! no republican. I know that if the Republicans conquer, they will cut my throat — and that because I will not admire what they admire; but, still, the tears rose in my eyes today when I trod the place which was still wet with their blood. It would have pleased me more had I, and all my fellow moderates, have died in place of those Republicans.”
so i theoretically want to go back to writing regularly, even if snippets and ficlets, and i know it will do me good, but i seem to be completely blanking out when i try (it's been real tough since the election, holding up teeth and nails)... that said, i managed to respond to a sort of prompt today and that felt Very nice.
all that is to say - uh, if you feel like it, send me a prompt and i will do my best to get to it this week?
lemurious reblogged
I think I'll do some "would you rather" questions (as per @permetutotheworld's suggestion) next!
Would you rather crawl through the Parisian sewers or be temporarily buried alive to get out of the convent?
Propaganda for crawling through the sewers:
It's basically tourism! I speak as an American: why do my people feel the need to endure experiences they will inevitably bitch about (long plane ride, jet lag, being asked to walk places, neophobic reactions to benign unfamiliar everyday objects, the international tendency towards lukewarm beverages)? Let's list some off, and Hugo can back me up on why the Parisian sewers check the boxes.
Seeing places with centuries of history: "all that human laws persecute or have persecuted, is hidden in that hole; the maillotins in the fourteenth century, the tire-laine of the fifteenth, the Huguenots in the sixteenth, Morin’s illuminated in the seventeenth, the chauffeurs [brigands] in the eighteenth."
Visiting sites associated with historical figures: "Louis XI. is there with Tristan, François I. with Duprat, Charles IX. is there with his mother, Richelieu is there with Louis XIII., Louvois is there, Letellier is there, Hébert and Maillard are there, scratching the stones, and trying to make the traces of their actions disappear."
Experiencing the thrill of possible danger: "To try that unknown thing, to cast the plummet into that shadow, to set out on a voyage of discovery in that abyss—who would have dared? It was alarming."
The chance to find and bring home a souvenir: "If a giant had filtered this cesspool, he would have had the riches of centuries in his lair. [. . .] Bruneseau held his lantern close to this rag and examined it. It was of very fine batiste, and in one of the corners, less frayed than the rest, they made out a heraldic coronet and embroidered above these seven letters: LAVBESP"
We love a beach vacay—no chance to make it to the coast? The sewers got you: "Still another resemblance between Paris and the sea. As in the ocean, the diver may disappear there."
Concerned about venturing into shadier areas? No worries, the sewers are patrolled (ACAB): "It was the gloomy star of the police which was rising in the sewer."
Eating novel and regionally unique snack, such as: "the roll which had been forgotten there on the preceding evening"
Encountering unfamiliar geological features: "This crevice, the hiatus of a gulf of mire, was called a fontis, in the special tongue. What is a fontis? It is the quicksands of the seashore suddenly encountered under the surface of the earth; it is the beach of Mont Saint-Michel in a sewer."
Finally, as any who have read Les Misérables know, you can never predict: fate loves a coincidence, and you might meet an old friend while spelunking who will be happy to share a bit of local lore and a helping hand (or bit of rope and key, as the situation demands).
The grave is a fine and private place, but the sewers have history, thrills, souvenirs, snacks, and pals! Crawl through them today!
Propaganda for being buried alive:
Have you ever fantasized about shutting off the world, where none of the noise and bustle of the latest revolution-in-the-making could reach you?
Have you been a little less than prudent in spending your fortune, and are suddenly encountering insistent debt collectors asking for your whereabouts, carrying suspiciously heavy sticks?
Are you embroiled in an affair more complicated than the taxation system in 1789 and more blown up than the sleeves of the fashion of the day?
Are you working on a romance that just needs an accurate depiction of a mournful cemetery to clinch that end scene?
Do not wait any longer!
Speak to Fauchelevent & Frere about a bespoke funeral with all accoutrements, including a coffin carefully tailored to your height and girth, cushions of linen or damasque according to your means and preferences, verified air-holes on top and around the sides, and a grave digger to be selected from Affable Drunk or Intellectual-Down-on-his-Luck variety! All horses are trained not to jostle the carts on the way to the cemetery, though we cannot be held responsible for the state of the pavement.
Low rates, satisfaction guaranteed - nobody has returned to complain yet!
lemurious reblogged
The Gamins of Paris (their lost leader)
inspired very heavily by this by @lemurious
________________________
After the lady had left, they snuck out. The whistle had drawn some of the older ones, ones who remembered the Lark of Petit-Picpus, and they brought the others too. There must have been over a hundred of them, gathering in the street.
[mme. euphrasie pontmercy pays her respects]
A belated fic for @lesmis-prompts. October 24: girls of Les Mis; October 25: reflections; October 30: love.
Here on AO3 and below the cut (it is on the long side).
She swore to remember them all. She would tell Marius how they had looked, calm and victorious in the morning light.
It was the early morning on the day after the barricades fell, and Cosette quietly slipped out of her house and walked towards the square where the guards were cleaning the rubble.
lemurious reblogged
he's in someone's locket
lemurious reblogged
The blood of the martyrs
Finished and framed my Les Misérables inspired embroidery. I am insanely happy and in awe with how the blood pouring from the bullet hole in the banner turned out.
It’s been two years I’ve been embroidering pretty consistently and I’m always amazed by the variety of textures I can achieve with thread, floss and yarn on a piece of fabric.
Process pics, from the concept sketch to the finished piece yet to be framed under the cut:
Saw it for the first time! Heart still on the barricades.