Normalize this response

cw for sa mentions (in the context of bathroom debates)

Les Mis adaptations and apolitical appropriation

I think it's no secret on this blog that I love the original Les Mis 1980 concept album in French, and that I also love comparing different versions of the stage musical. I've noticed that Les Mis seems to get progressively more vaguely apolitical as time goes on, not only in the way it's viewed in our culture, but in the actual text as well.

It's natural for specifics to be lost in adaptation. It's easier to get people to care about 'the people vs. the king' in a relatively short musical rather than actually facing the audience with the absolute mess that were 19th century french politics (monarchist orleanists vs monarchist legitimists vs imperialist vs bonapartist democrats vs every flavour of republican imaginable). Still, I feel that as time goes on, as more revivals and adaptations of the stage musical come out, the more watered down its politics become. Like, Les Mis at it's core is just meant to be a fancily written, drawn out political essay, right?

In a way I feel that the 1980 concept album almost tried to modernise it with its symbols of progress. Yes, through Enjolras' infamous disco segment (and other similar allusions to the ideals of social change), but perhaps most interestingly to me, through one short line that threw me off when I first heard it, because it seems so insignificant, but might actually be the most explicitly leftist line of all of Les Mis.

"Son coeur vibrait à gauche et il le proclama" (roughly "His heart beat to the left and he proclaimed it" i.e: he was a leftist) Feuilly says, while speaking of the now dead général Lamarque in Les Amis de L'ABC.

What's that? An actual mention of leftism??? in MY vaguely progressive yet apolitical musical??? More seriously, this mention of leftism, clashing with the rest of the musical due to it's seeming anachronism, is interesting not because it's actually more political than anything else in Les Mis, rather, because it's not scared to explicitly name what it's trying to do.

Adding to this!!!

I'm glad to report that Do You Hear the People Sing has made it on Conservapedia's Greatest Conservative Songs list!!!

when I tell you i was dying from laughter. This shouldn't be taken too seriously because the guy who runs this site is clearly a massive moron (he put Pete Seeger songs in this list for fucks sake... THE Pete Seeger! As far as folk music goes he's probably one of the most famous anti-capitalist, pro-union artists out there) BUT I'll take this as an opportunity to continue on the thoughts I didn't quite complete when I first made the original post.

As a Les Mis fandom, it is our duty to recognise that as much as this work is to us an amazing and complex piece of leftist literature, it isn't to the common folk, because most adaptations do not portray the story that way at all. Most of them give off a message of hope and resistance that's vague enough to be used to benefit most political ideologies (from its usage by confederate soldiers in the american civil war to justify slavery, to the absolutely idiotic guy who runs conservapedia calling it one of the greatest conservative songs, to the french government this summer using it during the olympics opening ceremony despite the fact that it's... well... it's a really shit government).

Instead of telling people that they "just don't get the message" (like I've seen people do after the Just Stop Oil incident last october) we should recognise that no, unfortunately, for the masses and for the uninitiated, the Les Mis stage musical as it is today is not a work with an explicit leftist message at all, and oftentimes represents the very commodification of the idea of revolution, sold for the few people lucky enough to be able to afford tickets and who want to be told that there is a revolutionnary hope without actually being confronted with what that means, without being made uncomfortable.

Most importantly, when acts of activism like that of Just Stop Oil happen (and once again, regaqrdless of if you think of it as good activism or not) we should engage in political conversations about said activism, instead of focusing on the incorrect interpretation of our blorbo book from the 1860s...

I guess what I'm trying to say is, we are a very political fanbase, let's try to also engage in political discussions around Les Mis more objectively, by aknowledging how it is weaponized in today's culture, and by detaching ourselves from this (very natural and fair) need to justify the source material at all costs, even when the discussion at hand isn't necessarily about that at all.

Stealing from the Bishop, manga.

A)

B)

C)

Chaos at the barricade, manga

A)

B)

C)

D)

the first law of tragedies: the end is already written and inevitable. the second law of tragedies: your actions are all your own and you can choose to get off this ride whenever you want. the third law of tragedies: we both know that you are never going to do that.

honestly I hate “can you pet the dog?!?” not for any of the common reasons but because it was initially interesting as a proposition of “can you interact with the world in a way that is not within the primary mechanical loop” and that very quickly fell away to being “well now any indie developer making a game has to have a pet the dog button or they’re going to get letters”

One of my dream projects has an NPC with a dog, and if you try to pet it, the owner tells you not to do that. If you try again, it bites you and you take damage. I want to do this entirely because I genuinely believe that this would make me feel way more grounded in the world than any “click button to see cute animation” would ever do, and also it would be really funny to have a game where people lose their runs because they tried to pet a dog they were told not to pet

I didn't even see the URLs and just accepted this as a normal interaction on this website

LES MIS PRINTS UP FOR GRABS

Ft. The Enjolras Package:

This package includes:

PLUS

HOW TO GET THEM

Donate at least €60 to the fundraiser below by NOVEMBER 21ST, and enter the raffle hosted by @les-mis-for-palestine to stand a chance to win this package!

After you've donated, enter the raffle IN THIS FORM!

Even if you can't donate, sharing this is a great help too! And if you can donate, please do and you might be able to get some art in return :')

Check out @les-mis-for-palestine for the other talented artists who are also participating in the raffle!

**Prints in the pictures are from a previous batch I had given away; reprinting these prints might result in some minor differences.

Everyone gives Sherlock Holmes a hard time about being mean about Watson's writing, but honestly imagine you told your roommate "sure, you can write up an account of my work for the newspaper," thinking it would be like, about the murder, but then he publishes it and it's 90% about you, as a person, and it's a huge hit and now everyone in London knows that you hoard newspapers and do cocoaine when you're depressed. Because I think you'd be little miffed too.

people are so hard on him but the poor man lives with an influencer who shoots two vlogs a day

modern day sherlock adaptation where the toxic parasocial fandom is bitterly divided into "john watson exploits his autistic roommate for engagement" and "sherlock is exploiting his disabled friend for free advertising and content creation labour" camps

really cannot emphasise enough that "All Men Bad" and "masculinity is inherently violent, dangerous, and evil" are load-bearing pillars of radfeminism and these ideas cannot have a place in any truly progressive queer theorising.

II.i.18 Recrudescence de Droit Divine

no, spotify, i don't want to use ai to "turn my ideas into playlists". i already fucking do that with my brain and hands and i do it for fun. what, should i get ai to pet my cat for me? to play my silly games for me? to spend time with my beautiful wife for me? how about i rend you asunder

officially the best line in The Odyssey