#but!!! I think the changes to the character in the brick VS the musical and in a lot of fandom stuff are interesting
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Valjean + 7 & 8 (game ask)
For this ask meme: #7. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you like? And #8. What's something the fandom does when it comes to this character that you despise?
Thanks for the ask!!
#7: a thing fandom does with this character that you like:
I love fix-its (I just want him to live!) it’s great when Jean Valjean gets to have a happier ending than his bleak passive suicide.
Fics that explore Jean Valjean interacting with Other Characters (outside of Cosette) are also great. He has such a narrow social circle in canon — he has basically no friends outside of his daughter— so playing him off other characters is really fun. It’s especially fun if (as is canonically accurate) he struggles very hard to interact with people and comes across as deeply weird. Jean Valjean tends to get “trapped in his own head” a lot, and exploring the relationships he could have with other characters– or just how other characters would be utterly baffled by him, while viewing him from the outside– is always great.
I also love fandom stuff that acknowledges how deeply strange he is. Any fandom stuff that features Jean Valjean breaking into people’s houses to give them money is always chefs kiss.
#8: A thing fandom does with this character that you despise:
I was originally going to answer this with a whole passionate overlong essay about fandom tropes around Jean Valjean that bother me, but…I’ll keep it short lol because it's not really a big deal, haha. Like, I don’t want to be mean or unfair, and I like being in a fandom so large I can afford to be picky about characterization. I don’t like holding fanfic to a higher moral standard than big “professional” media properties that are doing far worse. The most popular Les Mis fanfic on ao3 has maybe a couple thousand readers; BBC 2019, which is an utterly vile horrible conservative take on Les Mis and on Jean Valjean in particular, had millions of viewers. Fanfic writers have no budget and often no editors, so we don’t deserve to be held to the same level of scrutiny as massive projects like a tv show . Like I don’t want to overstate harm– fanfic is fine! Les mis fanfic is a tiny niche of a niche, and so small no one’s really being hurt by it. If I don’t like something, I don’t read it, and all that. I'm not here to be the fandom police XD.
And I really don’t like ever positioning myself as an “authority” on these characters or the person who does them “correctly,” because I’m not.
That being said, if I were to be petty and summarize my personal Problems with the way Jean Valjean is often handled in fandom really briefly–
My core "pain" is that I feel like a lot of fans miss that the police are the villains of Les Mis. The police are the villains of Jean Valjean’s story and they’re the villains of Javert’s. Prison is evil. The carceral system is cruel and unjust, as a system. It is not a problem of Javert “not being nice enough to Valjean,” the entire system is fundamentally violent and vile and needs to be burned to the ground. acab, and all.
I think part of why that gets missed is that many fans are laser-focused only on Javert– and often on a highly specific musical-inspired fanon reading of Javert where he Did Nothing Wrong. (I'm not throwing shade, this was kinda also me when I was 13 lolllll.) And then they don’t analyze Jean Valjean anywhere near as deeply, if they analyze him at all, and don't pick up on the larger themes of the novel. And that's a shame, because Javert’s characterization will also suffer if you don’t have that wider context!
I think the “problem” is just that if you acknowledge the complexity of Jean Valjean's character and his trauma, if you recognize how deeply Jean Valjean was ripped apart by prison, how he has not recovered from his imprisonment and never will, and how he doesn’t view the criminal justice system with ‘total forgiveness’ but actually does have complicated overwrought repressed useless grief and rage over the system that abused him and the injustices he’s undergone, how he actually doesn’t like Javert on a personal level and only saved his life out of the same pity he would’ve shown to any other person in Javert's position– it is much harder to see Javert as a Good Person and the police as a Good Institution. So as a result fanfic!Jean Valjean often kinda has to be written as a bland saint patiently agreeing that Cops Are Great and Prison is Fine and Javert Did Nothing Wrong...because if he isn’t, the author has to acknowledge Javert has hurt Jean Valjean in ways he will never heal from, and question the morality of both Javert and the police.
I think lots of people take the line “there’s nothing that I blame you for/you’ve done your duty nothing more” from the musical, interpret it as a sincere compliment, and then graft that interpretation onto the book— to the point of making it the entire core of Jean Valjean’s character. But Jean Valjean complimenting Javert with the Nuremberg defense (“it was all fine because you were doing your job”), and this being portrayed as Correct and Wise, is just not a compelling take on the character to me XD. I do not like it all. So I just don’t read fics that head in that direction. I'm not gonna content-police people, I just don't read it, haha.
I’ve been recommended multiple fics where Jean Valjean becomes Javert’s cop partner, or enthusiastically encourages him to return to the police, and it’s always a big “He Would Not Say That.” XD Jean Valjean, the most well-known victim of police brutality in the history of fiction, the character whose entire personality is built on the trauma of surviving incarceration and attempting to save others from his hellish fate, would never enthusiastically participate in incarcerating people–not even if they were ‘bad’ people! It’s literally the core of his whole weird little Deal. it’s his whole schtick.
And it's not that I hate Valvert either. I actually think Valvert can be very compelling-- and also funny, which is the most important thing. But part of the reason I’ve often stayed away from the valvert fandom despite enjoying the Funky Weird Little Relationship is that I’ve had lots of trouble finding fic that gives Jean Valjean an actual life or character outside of Javert, or that also acknowledges the anti-police anti-prison themes of the novel. But! There are a tiny handful of people who do it occasionally! And that's enough.
And again, this isn’t like the biggest deal or anything! I’m not a fandom cop trying to police what people write, especially because most people are just extrapolating from the musical/lots of people change their minds on characterizations over time/it’s hard to write without a team of editors to help you navigate things. These are just some fandom trends I personally don’t like, that I personally avoid, and that I hope change over time….so that I have more fanfic to read that lines up with my own feelings on the characters XD.
But yeah those are my (abbreviated) years of spicy fanon Jean Valjean hot takes!!!
#les mis#ask game#jean valjean#fandom discourse!! kinda. XD#if anyone was interested I could write a masterpost on 'brick valjean things that arent in the musical' (that people could add onto)#im not positioning myself as an authority on these characters or anything#but!!! I think the changes to the character in the brick VS the musical and in a lot of fandom stuff are interesting#hes a funky little guy#blorbeaux from my book
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Well, since I’m having a massive flare manifesting (at the moment) as the bone-itching urges, I guess I might as well turn it into something productive.
So, mostly for people who are trying to understand what it’s like living with ASPD more than people who know they have it, here’s the best description of it I can give - should be better than most of my previous attempts because it is currently all I can think about anyway!
In my experience, these urges are after things in one of three categories: impulsive, destructive, and disruptive. Note that these are just the categories I personally made up to help me understand what exactly my ASPD is after and how to explain it to my loved ones so they can get an idea of how to help.
Impulsive - Doing something, anything, *right now* with no planning, notice, or thought about it. No questions asked, let’s just go. These tend to be the least harmful and the easiest category to find replacement behaviors in. Examples (both of destructive behaviors and replacement behaviors) are unplanned road trips, large purchases, long/aimless walks, etc. Anything that causes a change in scenery tends to go here, as well as anything that very well *should* be planned out but isn’t.
Coping strategies that may help: If you have ASPD, sometime when you are calmest (maybe right after satisfying one of these urges so you know it won’t be coming again for a while) pack a bag of some kind to keep in your trunk or backseat with everything you might need for one of these including spare keys to your house if your area is safe to do that in/if your trunk locks separately from your car - because really, are you likely to remember them in the moment? - 2 phone chargers (just in case one breaks) with both a wall brick and a car charger, at least 1 set of spare clothes you don’t care about never wearing besides for this, travel shampoo, conditioner, soap, and toothpaste and a disposable toothbrush, at least a day’s worth of any medication you take, enough money to get any essentials but not so much that you mind if it gets lost or stolen - sweet spot of maybe like $20 to $30?, etc. Think “I have to spend a night in a hotel and can’t bring anything but my phone” because you know if you have to remember anything, you won’t and/or the replacement behavior won’t work. If your loved one has ASPD, I can’t speak for everyone, but I would *love* it if my partner did this for me so when I get impulsive we could just *go*. It might be best if you drive tho so they can crank up the music and enjoy the ride without the responsibility. Another would be to set aside some money separate from your normal savings just for this. Whilst it can make money tight and isn’t an option for everyone, it’s important to balance the burden of planning for money to be tight vs coming out of a flare realizing you spent rent money on a console/laptop/tablet/new phone/speaker system/etc.
Destructive - Breaking something, someone, or myself. These are the common ones you think of by the criteria; picking fights, breaking things, hurting yourself/others, sh and sui attempts, drvgs, drinking, smoking, gambling etc. If it can damage person or property, it tends to be in this category. In my experience the most dopamine comes from the first time you do these behaviors, so these things may seem super out of character for the person in question.
Coping strategies are hard to find with this category; really just lean into harm reduction vs stopping them. As much as it sucks, if you have a loved one with ASPD in your life and they are trying to do something destructive, you can’t just stop them unless you have a replacement behavior they seem into trying out in the moment. If you do, you’re pushing it in the direction of causing harm to you because we *need* to fill these urges somehow. I’m not saying just let them harm themselves or someone else - I’m saying reduce the harm as much as possible without taking the “fun” out of it because then it won’t work and the pwASPD will again be forced to find something else to fill this urge. For me, the longer the urges go on, the more intense the behavior has to be to work.
Disruptive - Doing or saying something that would warrant a “what the fuck?”. This includes breaking into abandoned places, lying for the hell of it, buying something you don’t even want or need, yelling in a quiet room, cheating, etc. If it causes a serious change in routine or subverts expectations, it tends to be in this category.
Coping strategies that may help: to be honest many of these don’t need a replacement behavior because many of them are a lil out there but aren’t really hurting anyone. If you see a pwASPD you care about playing Webkinz at 3AM trying to find out which swear words they can successfully name their pet, mind your business. If you do need to replace the behavior, though, lean into the idea of novelty. Is there a mall you’ve never been to around you and you have a bit of money to burn? Go check it out. Do you have a pool that you could swim in despite it being like 65 degrees (F) and raining (not storming)? Go for it. Does sleeping sound lame as hell, but sleeping on your dog’s bed sound more appealing? You got it dude. Wanna read a book upside down? I will be the first in line to tell you how awesome that is once you’re done. Pull a Joey from friends and see how many pairs of your underwear you can put on at once. Move all your furniture an inch to the left to mess with your roommate. This has a lot of overlap with advice I would give to pwADHD as well and a lot of it is basically chaotic neutral activities.
For me, my urges don’t always pick one category, sometimes anything from any one of these will help. However, I find it best to try and take the thing my ASPD wants to do (said thing is almost always a bad idea for one reason or another) and look to replace it within the same category. The only thing is that you want to have the ideas for this on deck for when the urges hit because if your brain has to come up with a replacement behavior in the moment, good ideas will become useless because it doesn’t *want* to replace the behavior, it wants to do it.
Again, these won’t all work for everyone, but they are at least how I experience my urges and tricks I use to keep them from getting the better of me. As always, ymmv and I do not take responsibility for anything that may come of how you choose to respond to your urges. Many things mentioned in here are examples to describe the urge, not suggestions, and therefore things that are illegal and/or dangerous have been mentioned. I do not advocate for anything illegal or dangerous. Still, I hope this helps someone.
#aspd-culture-is#aspd culture is#aspd culture#actually aspd#aspd#aspd awareness#actually antisocial#antisocial personality disorder#aspd traits#anons welcome#tw drvgs#tw drvg mention#tw sui mention#tw sui#tw sh#tw sh mention
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Thai BL Favorites Tag Game
Tagged by @lurkingshan, @ginnymoonbeam, @incandescentflower and @recentadultburnout! Created by @thatgirl4815 as Thai BL Favorites Tag Game, and that's the name I'm playing it under because, a) well, it's all BL on my particular list, it'd feel disingenious to call it anything else except maybe Y Series because we're talking Thai audiovisual media specifically and b) I'm not entirely comfortable with the unilateral renaming of a genre which which originated and grew into its current forms in another cultural context. Don't get me wrong, I made the jump from calling it Yaoi to Boys Love to BL in the 1990s and 2000s; I know to say danmei and dangai (or boy boy) when talking about it in context of media from China/Taiwan, or Y series when talking about it in Thai. If fans and markets in the communities of origin change the names again, so will I. But for now I'm sticking with the term BL. Thanks for understanding.
Favorite Thai BL: @lurkingshan makes a great point with best vs favourite, and her contenders are also mine – is ITSAY my favourite? is Bad Buddy? I suppose if we go by times rewatched, Bad Buddy takes the crown; if it's "what do I rec other people with the least amount of caveats", ITSAY wins.
Current obsession: Laws of Attraction, with Be My Favourite as a close second.
Favorite pairing: I don't particularly like this type of industrially-pushed shoehorning of actors together as a general rule (let's not pretend Julia Roberts and Richard Gere or Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire weren't also a kind of fixed ship, and I know the Philippines does a similar thing with their (mostly het) love teams – this is not Thai BL exclusive, at least historically speaking), but it clearly sells, so I don't think the industry's going to move away from this model for a long while yet.
That said: tough, but I think it'll have to be Billkin and PP. Just. Look at them act together. Look. Whether it's ITSAY/LTIP/IPYTM and related material, or one of the advertisement shorts or the incredible music videos from last year or even My Ambulance – they're just. So!!!!
Most underrated actor: Fiat Patchata. Give that boy a main role, goddamnit.
Favorite main character: quoting @lurkingshan here:
Teh, I Told Sunset About You and I Promised You the Moon. Yes, both shows, and before you all come yell at me: I SAID WHAT I SAID.
because she's not the only one who loves this disaster of a boy.
Favorite side character: I really loved the friend group in Secret Crush on You, and Tin's friends in Triage.
Favorite scene in a BL: There are so many to choose from, but I'm going to go with the bus stop scene in Bad Buddy ep 3. The way brick shithouse Pat, all 180some beefy adolescent centimetres of him, turns himself into a cute girl at the drop of a hat … that rewired something in me, had me sit up and take notice (and block the Bad Buddy air time slot in my work calendar for the remain of the show's run time). Because they took it seriously. Didn't play it for laughs.
Favorite line in a BL: oh, there are so many. But I guess if we want to go with largest impact on me, personally, I'm gonna go with Thian in Khun Chaai going "May I love you, Jiu?" because. whew. That just hit me right in the feels.
Most anticipated BL (& why): Only Friends and Love in Translation. Only Friends because it looks to shake up a lot of the things we're used to from GMMTV in particular – I know we've had a little bit of flirting outside of the fixed ships this year already in Moonlight Chicken and Our Skyy 2, but if Jojo is going to shake it up more I'm very, very here for that. Love in Translation because the Thai title is รักไม่รู้ภาษา "Love doesn't know language" and languages are my jam.
Healthiest relationship in a BL: I don't really enjoy thinking about relationships in these terms because it just … urgh. I don't care if it's ''''healthy'''' (and seriously, who gets to decide what is and what isn't healthy, anyway? and why are we making this a moral judgement?)
Questions I do ask about relationships: Is the relationship compelling? is it believable? do the people involved behave like they don't only love and desire, but also like each other as people? that's what I want to know.
Most toxic relationship in a BL: see above.
Ginny suggested Relationship dynamic I would most like to have myself: and Relationship dynamic I would least like to have myself: to replace the "healthy" and "toxic" questions and I think that's fantastic, but I'm honestly blanking on both so I'm skipping this part.
Guilty pleasure series: I like what I like, I don't see a reason to feel bad about that.
Most underrated series: He's Coming To Me. It's such a lovely little show.
If you'd like to play, please consider yourself tagged (and feel free to tag me if/when you play -- I'd love to see!)
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17, 20 and 22 for the violence asks >:)
17. there should be more of this type of fic/art
I feel like this is more of a twitter thing for me because I ended up following a lot of artists from Japan and Korea for Spideypool content there, some of whom have made the leap to Daredevil- but gosh, I keep seeing GORGEOUS anime style Fratt art and I'm like... why no Mattfoggy? T___T Not that there aren't tons of talented Mattfoggy artists, but for whatever reason, Foggy seems really underrepresented in the anime/manga style or if he shows up, it's usually just part of a Nelson Murdock and Page cutesy image. PLEASE put him in your yaoi aesthetic doujinshi four panel comics, I'm begging y'all. XDDD
20. part of canon you found tedious or boring
I am trying so hard to be spicy, but unfortunately my taste is immaculate so the things I don't like are pretty much universally panned. XD (No, Cat, you're just basic.)
To take it back to Metal Gear for a moment, I know that fandom is sort of split between what my friends and I used to call the "old" and "new testament" fans. People that were into the games set in the 60's-80's featuring Big Boss, Kazuhira Miller, Revolver Ocelot and the Diamond Dogs etc versus the games set in the 90's-2000's starring Solid Snake, Otacon, Liquid Snake, Meryl, Raiden and also Revolver Ocelot but with a mustache now.
Broadly speaking, while people will debate whether MGS 2 sucks or MGS 4 holds up, or whether the storytelling of MGS V still manages to shine through despite all of the obvious cutbacks caused by Konami- the fandom at large agrees that Metal Gear Solid 3 (the first game where we learn about Big Boss as a hero and his motivations etc) is lauded as the best game in the series. (With some people even saying it's the one you should play first?) And I gotta be really really real here.
I don't give a crap about Big Boss.
I mean, being introduced to the series in something more like release order- he's the antagonist, or at least behind a lot of the events that trouble the protagonists. He set a lot of wheels in motion that had consequences even he couldn't account for. Even when we get his motivation, I'm mostly like, "Cool story. Still war crimes." And yeah, everyone in these games is a war criminal, but some people are war criminals to try and put a stop to nuclear war and others are war criminals bc they think the world should always have a place for soldiers. Basically, nothing anyone could tell me about Big Boss's past could make me like him, and if I don't like characters it's harder for me to care about them. So while I can appreciate MGS 3 and V as games, and still watched people play through them and such... I just don't like... care about them.
22. your favorite part of canon that everyone else ignores
I can't say everyone ignores it, but there's SO MUCH FIC that revolves around Nelson vs. Murdock (and I get it, there's a lot of meat there to chew on) but DAMN the way some of the early S2 episodes make me feel. Watching Foggy running up stairs looking for Matt and cradling his head in his lap before dragging him back to his apartment (somehow???) Foggy strolling into the Dogs of Hell's club- even Foggy's moment of badassery (set to the music from the Columbia steps flashback- maybe hinting at how Matt has changed Foggy for the better perhaps?) in the hospital with the gang members? ARghhh The Daredevil fandom wants to zoom in on the "Matt chained to a brick wall" scene from S2 but I'm like... waving my arms at all this other good stuff from the beginning of that season begging people to do something with it.
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Oh! If it will be tackled (the downplaying of Brick's kidnapping), then I no longer have an issue with it! xD Just allow me to praise you for your skilful writing! 👍🏻My fear was that it would be brushed off & it would never be brought back again. And Blues angst, you say? YAAAAAY! xD Also, I'm going to stop asking you about the whole Angel/Demon stuff since it seems it's impossible to answer me without spoiling stuff. 😅 So, instead, I'm going to hold my theories & see for myself how right or wrong I was. 🙂 And nice! Grandma will be back! Can't wait for it to see if she had a change of heart or not. And honestly? I'm okay with either. If she had a change of heart, it would be lovely. 😊 And if she still the old hag we knew before.... well, I will be ready for Brick vs. Grandma round 2! xD So, both possibilities are welcomed. And Cody Cody Cody~~~ your second best written character imo, Melvin will be the first (oh yes, you read it right! 🤣 I would love to explain why, but there's not enough room for that now...) I really want to see how he feels about Butch now that he has surpassed his 4 months with Buttercup... Oh! Btw, I don't know if you didn't without noticing or not, but if you go back to the early chapters of Choices, it was Cody was the first one who befriended Butch! And he more or less brought him into the group. In other words, he's kind of the reason why Butch and Buttercup are dating now! It's from that fact the readers know for sure Cody is full of shit when he said he's not okay with Buttercup dating Butch because he's a bad guy. It was a missed opportunity to bring up back in Choices, which made me wonder if it was intentional or if you haven't noticed yourself? And the second & last question: Will you upload chapter 5 soon?
Ehh, you MAY still take issue 😅 But Brick's trauma will be discussed again soon! I actually not long wrote it haha.
Ahh I'm sorry I don't want to spoil things haha, so yeah you'll learn more on the Angels/Demons stuff as the fic progresses.
If Grandma Utonium is a leopard that changed her spots I think I'd keel over 🙃😅 & Melvin's like shit on a blanket 😬
Ahhhhhh CODY. He is a combination of SOO many teenage boys I knew growing up 😅😆 Ya really don't know what ya got till it's gone! But thank you, I dealt with my fair share of Cody's as a teen so it doesn't shock me you feel he's well written paha 🙃 Yesssss, I did intentionally make Cody become friendly with Butch first - it was more the musician angle though. My day job is within the industry & the way people bond over their instrument is unlike anything else - I just thought, they are both drummers. Despite their uncertainty of Butch initially, I knew the musical bond would be too strong to resist. You can't put two drummers in a room and not watch their faces light up as they discuss their craft! But ALSO - I thought it would be bittersweet for Cody when Buttercup and Butch started to hit it off and crush on each other. Little bit of sweet karma for him in a way..
To answer your last question - I just updated, chapter 5 is now up!
Thanks so much for your kind words, for reading and for sending your questions and thoughts my way - I hope you enjoy chapter 5 🖤
#madamefist#madame fist#ppg fanfic#fanfic writing#prophecy madame fist#writing#madamefist ask#ask me questions#ask#jassimhamid26
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Fanfic Appreciation Week Day 7: A Place Where I Can Breathe
Yes, folks, I'm appreciating my own darn fanfic for the final day of Fanfic Appreciation Week because I worked really hard on it and it was a labor of love for/with one of my QPPs, my roommate, the man who got me into Sanders Sides: @\cadeorade-powercade (That's him in the aesthetic board)
Allow me to present the director's commentary for A Place Where I Can Breathe:
Content Warnings: All content warnings mentioned in the fic apply.
Chapter 1: I actually wrote this fairly late in the game. It's meant to serve as a prologue and orient the viewer in the universe, s opposed to staring on Chapter 2, which just throws the viewer in without context. I think it was a good choice, as it also allowed me to introduce the concept of the Sides having power focuses early on.
The Premise: Cade is a Virgil stan and he was getting frustrated looking for Virgil fic. He was finding a lot of stuff written without nuance by young authors, a sort of "by teenagers for teenagers" type deal. We are not teenagers, so we both have a hard time relating to that kind of teen angst fic, as we're not the target audience. So he asked me to write him a Virgil fic and we worked together to identify what plot he wanted, what the Mindscape looked like, and what quirks the Sides have. So a lot of this fic is quite gratuitous and self-indulgent
The Title: Lizzie McAlpine has a song called "Apple Pie" which includes the lyric "I've been running around trying to find a place where I can breathe." Apple Pie SCREAMS Moceit to me, and I had taken notice of the lyric and wanted to use it as the title for a Moceit fic. I didn't really have an idea beyond that, and when Cade asked me to write this fic, I realized it was actually perfect and summed up Virgil's inner struggle quite nicely. So cheers to "A Place Where I Can Breathe," the Moceit Fic That Wasn't
-Cade asked me specifically to include Virgil having a spider and I wrote nearly the whole fic without doing so, then had to go back and sprinkle some references in. I think I managed 2 total.
Chapter 2:
"Uh, how about I hold off on that until I actually see my room?" Virgil stared expectantly at Roman, who bounced on his toes. "Lead on, Macduff."
"That's not the line and you know it," Roman complained, but he turned to lead Virgil to his room. "It's ' lay on, Macduff,' and--"
-This fic was originally supposed to reach a climax with a confrontation between Remus and Roman, and "lay on, Macduff" would come back as a brick joke. Unfortunately, the original ending was a result of me getting tired and lazy, so I had to go back and fix it, and we lost the Roman-Remus confrontation.
It was hard for Virgil to not shudder at the sudden heat and weight on him. With his senses already open and taking in more information than his brain seemed to want to process, touch was an added stressor, more unwanted sensory input.
-Virgil being touch-averse is a direct shoutout to Cade, who is also touch-averse.
Roman had already transformed the living room: metallic streamers of purple and black stretched across the corners of the ceiling, and shiny balloons spelling out A-N-X-E-I-T-Y hovered above the TV.
-Upon first writing, Virgil had already given the upstairs crew his name, so the banner spelled out "VIRIGL" which is way funnier than "ANXEITY." But then his name reveal became a plot point so I had to go back and change it.
-Let! Virgil! Be! Mean!
-Virgil's line about hearing refrigerator noise when Roman talks is another shout-out to Cade, who has leveled that accusation at me
A small, cruel part of him protested at the idea that he would need special treatment and desperately wanted to throw it back in Patton's face. He wasn't a sweetheart, he wasn't a baby. He didn't need to crawl into a blanket fort with Dad just because he was a little stressed.
-Remus calls Janus "Janus Geminus" because I was tired and couldn't come up with a pun. "Geminus" is one of the Roman god Janus' epithets; another is "Pater" meaning "Father." That led to a conversation about Remus deliberately confusing Patton by calling Janus "Daddy," but I couldn't think of a clean way to fit the explanation into the narrative, so I stuck with "Geminus."
Chapter 3:
"There's nothing normal about that! " Roman stared in horror at the coffee massacre Virgil had orchestrated. What had once been a respectable (if not very tasty) cup of black coffee was now part of a 1:1 coffee to milk suspension, the liquid a tasteful shade of tan suitable for business casual trousers or a show-ready chihuahua.
-Cade is a certified Nightmare Man and came up with Virgil's horrifying coffee order after I asked him about it. Keep an eye out for Janus' equally horrifying coffee order later in the fic.
1) Shouts out the fact that Janus is canonically a Dostoevsky fan
Chapter 4:
Janus smiled at him. "Where reason fails, the Devil helps." He fussed with his gloves and straightened his capelet. "It's showtime."
-I fucking love Crime and Punishment. Look at me. Look at me. I fucking love Crime and Punishment. Janus' quoting Raskolnikov serves multiple purposes:
2) Lampshades the fact that Roman just conveniently happened to be alone in the living room, because I didn't want to waste time getting him there. That makes me, the author, the Devil
3) Foreshadows the impending disaster. When Raskolnikov says this line it is because he had planned to commit axe murder. The axe he was planning to steal had been moved, but he finds another, different axe to use. Raskolnikov messes up the murder and ends up killing an innocent witness in addition to his intended target. Janus messes up his manipulation attempt and ends up murdering Roman's self esteem
-I was going to include a reference to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (Remus' line "debauchery and vomit" was originally going to be "blood, love, and rhetoric") but I didn't because... Uh... Hm. Why didn't I do that. Maybe I just forgot about it???
-Roman is too stubborn to manipulate for long and that is a fact.
"I was pretty much done anyway," Remus said. "There's only so much debauchery and vomit you can fit into one story."
-Cade specifically ask me that nobody cry in this fic, but after I had Janus eviscerate Roman I knew he couldn't not cry a little. I kept it to a minimum because there's already a billion fucking fics about [literally any Side] crying on the shoulder of [literally any other Side] and it's really just not interesting to either of us.
-It didn't come up because it doesn't matter, but Thomas dreamed he was participating in the exact Dionysian orgy that took place in The Secret History because it's my fic and I said so.
Chapter 5:
He just sat back and watched and tugged at his hair while Janus spooned mound after mound of crisp white sugar into his mug and Virgil poured his customary eight fluid ounces of milk into his own mug.
-Cade strikes again. Virgil's coffee order is equal amounts milk to coffee; Janus' is equal parts sugar to coffee. He had asked me to include a scene where Roman catches Janus massacring his coffee and is appropriately horrified, but I uhh... Didn't write it. I still might include it as an omake someday.
-I imagine that Roman feels really strongly about dragons vs wyverns, and Remus just pretends to give a shit because he thinks it's funny to wind Roman up. Fortunately for me but unfortunately for my sense of realism in writing, I can't relate because I adore my sister and we get along perfectly almost 100% of the time.
"You shut us down every chance you get!" Remus said, baring his teeth. "How would you like it if your pens never wrote, hm? What would you do with all those thoughts in your head?"
-I do wish I had developed the concept of power focuses a bit more, established rules and such. Basically, Patton is always on the prowl for wrongthink and actively represses it, which in turn breaks or sabotages the Dark Sides' power focus.
Chapter 6: This chapter really should have been Janus and Roman but I was really tired and didn't want to bother with it. Plus, you know, Moceit. This chapter was meant to demonstrate how the characters would get along without Virgil nannying them. There's friction, but everyone is making a conscious, deliberate effort to get along because they love Virgil, and love is a series of choices you make.
I chose "Leo" as the answer for the answer to the crossword clue instead of "Virgo," because my other QPP is a Leo. She'll never read this fic, but I did it anyway because I love her. (Trivia: My sign is Virgo, so it was really a choice between shouting her out and shouting me out, and the last chapter is self-indulgent enough, thank you).
Chapter 7: I was gonna write a fic where all the Sides watched Cats the Musical because I was going through a phase. Then Cade requested this so I combined the two ideas. By this point I was fucking exhausted, and that's the only thing that saved you and the rest of the world from me writing the Sides riffing on the movie scene-by-scene. I could come up with snarky commentary for almost every, if not every single song from the movie.
Most notably, I cut a Patton-Remus interaction where Remus declares his love for Grizabella and Patton gets all staryy-eyed about Remus connecting with the idea of rising above rejection and being loved and accepted only for Remus to shoot him down and explain that he just likes that she got to die in a tire fire.
Other cut scenes include Janus quietly pretending not to go feral over Mister Mistoffelees, Patton full-on fucking sobbing over Grizabella and the kittens, and Logan experiencing a deep, soulful kinship with Munkustrap during Of The Awefull Battle of the Pekes and the Pollices (and henceforth introducing the phrase "like herding cats" into his regular vocabulary
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For @thatgirlatthebackoftheclasaroom: Wolfstar + 39 from this list.
Hi! I don’t know what happened with this story: I had something in mind, but the characters chose to do something else. I hope you will like it!
39: I can't promise you the world. I can't promise you wealth, comfort, or even happiness. But I can promise you one thing...no matter what happens, you will always be loved.
--
Sirius' nose was pressed against his skin, nuzzling into his neck as they sat on the floor of the astronomy tower, looking at the starry sky out there.
Remus sighed a bit, cocking his head to the side to let him have even more space to caress and kiss; his eyes were staring at the moon, that was in its last quarter. It had been a few days since the last full moon - something that he was trying not to think about.
“Do you think we can see me from here?” asked Sirius, his arms coming around his chest in a weird sort of embrace - lips still brushing against his ear lobe. The werewolf shrugged, turning his head enough to kiss one of Sirius’ temples.
“Well — I could, if my eyes were on the back of my head.”
The animagus slapped him lightly on the chest, making him laugh. “I meant star me.”
“Oh, star you. The one waiting in the sky?”
Sirius chuckled right in his ear - it was slightly rough and it made Remus shiver a bit. “Yeah, he’d like to come and meet us.”
“To tell us to boogie?” he asked, moving in his arms so that his shoulder was now pressed against Sirius’ chest. His lips stretched into a genuine smile as the animagus followed the line of his cheekbone with a finger.
"He thinks he'd blow our minds — Moony, c'mon. Know your Bowie!"
Remus kissed the pad of his finger as it stopped on his bottom lip. “Remind me: why did I think it would have been a great idea to introduce you to Muggle music?"
"Because you knew I couldn't live without the Black Sabbath or the AC/DC or the Queen or —"
"— I reckon that it's more Lily's fault. She and Mary had to go and make The Beatles' songs as the background music of the Common Room."
While speaking, Remus could actually see the snogging session quickly morphing into another one of their The Beatles vs The Rolling Stones debate (that had its origins from the first time Sirius had listened to Child of the moon) and he was ready to shut the animagus up with a kiss, when a noise coming from the stairs startled them.
They both reacted quickly: Sirius took the invisibility cloak he had stolen from James and covered them, while Remus took the Map from the floor beside him and checked who it was.
"It's Prongs" he whispered, pressing closer to Sirius' body. "— and Lily."
"I wonder what Mr Headboy and Miss Headgirl are going to do at this hour of the night in the astronomy tower" mused Sirius, his eyes twinkling.
"Well—"
"James!" Lily chuckled, coming into their sight, cheeks almost as red as her hair. James followed her, taking her hands in his.
"— take my whole life too, for I can't help falling in love with you" the boy sang, trying to imitate Elvis' voice.
Remus felt Sirius tremble against him and brought his left hand to cover the animagus' mouth to stop the laugh that was about to come out of it. His eyes found the grey ones, shining in mirth.
"Hush" he murmured under his breath - Sirius just kissed the palm of his hand.
"I dislike you" said Lily, the sentence quickly followed by a noise that made him realise they were kissing.
"You can't fool me anymore, Evans. I know you like me —" another kissing sound. "I can tell you actually love me."
"Dear Merlin, your head is only going to get bigger, isn't it?" she replied and Remus could tell that Sirius was trying hard not to snort.
"Not as big as your love for me" James said and the werewolf rolled his eyes with an amused smile.
Sirius bumped his nose with his and smiled. “They are snogging” he whispered in his ear, being the only one who could see them. “Should we get out of here while they are busy?”
Remus nodded and tried to get up without being noticed, when James talked again.
"You know, I brought you here because I wanted to ask you something": that sentence made the two of them stop in their places.
"Is he going to —" Sirius mouthed in disbelief, eyes wide.
"It's probably a bit mad, but I can't think of anything else."
Remus could hear a certain amount of nervousness in James' voice and turned his head to look at the couple through the cloak: Lily was standing with her back against the wall and James was right next to her, shoulder pressing into the bricks. They were looking at each other with twin smiles that spoke more than they should have, making him wonder if he looked like that whenever he stared at Sirius.
"In two months' time we will graduate and I know for sure that Peter is going to stay at his mother's," James began. "Sirius wants to ask Remus to live with him in that flat in London his uncle has left him" Remus turned back to Sirius, gazing at him surprised. "He asked me to live with them too - he is so sure Moony will agree" grey eyes found his green ones and the animagus looked almost embarrassed, his lips pressed tight. "I've yet to answer him because — Merlin, Lily, I'd love to live with you. To get to know every little thing about you" James went on, but Remus wasn't listening anymore.
He wants to keep living together, he wants to actually stay with me: this kind of thoughts gravitated in his mind, making him a bit dazed.
“I’m going to hex him into oblivion,” Sirius said, lips against the werewolf’s cheek. “I didn’t want you to find it out before I got to ask you” as he spoke, his arms came around Remus’ body, hugging him - James and Lily’s voices were just a background noise in that moment, as if the werewolf’s mind couldn’t register more than one thing at a time.
“I know you think it's crazy that I want to dive in this war that has been going on without a single thought," Sirius whispered, tightening his hug - as if he was trying to explain. "I also know that you will be by my side, as we fight," he took a deep breath. "I can't promise you that I won't do anything stupid or that I will try to back away from fights — that's not who I am and that's not who you are either. I can promise that I will love you and that won’t change."
The rustling of the cloak was perhaps a bit too noisy as Remus reached for Sirius' hair, pulling at it until their lips met properly, kissing him as if trying to bury away his worries. He was too afraid to think about what would happen after they left school - just like he feared what happened whenever the moon was full. It was something totally out of his control, something from which he couldn't keep Sirius, James, Peter, Lily or even his parents safe from.
Living with Sirius, however, could help him deal with it - it was strange, having someone as unpredictable as him as his own rock. "I —" he sighed between kisses, as Sirius' lips locked onto his upper one and sucked a bit on it. There were so many things Remus wanted to say, some of which were already well-engraved in his heart, so much similar to the animagus’ last words.
He couldn’t.
“Let’s go back to the dorm” Lily’s voice said, sounding as breathless as he felt, making him aware of her presence.
There was some whispering – which Remus heard with his mouth glued to Sirius’, trying to be as still as possible – then, James let out a sigh and began to walk away.
The two of them stared into each other’s eyes waiting for a bit, before rushing to check out the Map: James’ and Lily’s dots were now downstairs, walking towards the Gryffindor tower.
“Zero points deducted for being out of the dorm past the curfew – as someone who was a Prefect I shouldn’t be so proud of us.”
Sirius took the cloak off them and watched him with flushed cheeks (and his lips, his amazing lips…). “I’m proud of you for being proud of us — I remember when you were too afraid to try breaking the rules.”
“I was eleven and, after a month or two, you and Prongs made me teach you how to be careful enough not to get caught.”
“Our Moony, prankster extraordinaire.”
Remus snorted, playing with the other student’s tie as he tried hard not to smile idiotically. “Why, Messer Padfoot, you should know that I’m no prankster: just a mere mastermind.”
Seconds passed as he waited for the other’s reply – when nothing came Remus looked up to him. Instead of laughing, Sirius was watching him with that fond smile of his. “Will you come living with me?” he asked, making the werewolf’s heart sink low into his chest – the beats could be felt into his stomach if one were to touch it.
He licked his lips, trying hard to tell the things he couldn’t say but failing. “I want to” he replied, moving his face away as Sirius tried to kiss him. “Wait — will you let me pay the rent?”
“There’s no rent to pay: it’s my fl — no,” the animagus exclaimed, understanding the real meaning of his question. “No, you won’t pay me the rent. We can share the groceries expenses if you want, but I won’t —”
“I think I can live with that,” Remus said, smiling a bit.
Sirius kissed him, more chastely than before, pressing his forehead against his. “Do you want to resume stargazing?”
Remus smiled briefly and turned back, falling in the same position he was before. “I don't know if I can find you,” said he. “You're too bright to let me find you.”
“Am I?”
“Annoyingly so, but don't worry — I love you no matter what.”
And it was stupid, being able to say this words just under his breath - without watching him in the eyes. It didn't make them untrue, only easier to say them.
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Brick Club 1.3.2 “Double Quartet”
According to wikipedia, a double quartet is a musical composition made for eight voices or instruments, or made up of two string quartets, that are often written in a call-and-response style. Also, I’m not quite sure if this is relevant, but wikipedia specifically mentions German composer Louis Spohr in the section on double quartets. Spohr wrote an opera in 1816 called Faust (which was drastically different from Goethe’s plays), to which wikipedia gives this synopsis:
Faust is torn between his love for the young Röschen and his desire for Kunigunde, the fiancée of Count Hugo. He makes a pact with the devil Mefistofeles which allows him to rescue Kunigunde from the clutches of the evil knight Gulf. Faust obtains a love potion from the witch Sycorax which he gives to Kunigunde during her wedding celebrations. Outraged at the sudden passion his bride shows for Faust, Count Hugo challenges him to a duel. Faust kills Hugo and flees. Meanwhile, Faust's first love, Röschen, drowns herself in despair. Mefistofeles seizes Faust and drags him down to Hell.
Again, I don’t know if that is relevant, but I thought it was interesting nonetheless. Especially considering the “lover flees, young woman is ruined” motif. I have no idea if it was popular or even known in France at the time, but it was part of the Romantic movement, so I wouldn’t be surprised if it was part of Hugo’s repertoire.
But it’s interesting that Hugo names this chapter after a call-and-response style of music. This chapter specifically is set up that way: we get information on the women, and then the men. Their affairs later on seem to also line up with this call-and-response, at least until the end of the dinner, when one half of the strings drop away and the other four are left on their own.
I don’t know enough about the different areas of France, so I’m wondering if where the men are from is at all important?
Also, who is the “Oscar” Hugo is comparing the group to?
Hugo establishes the men as “insignificant,” which I think is actually quite significant. To the other grisettes, and probably most other grisettes in their circle, these men are (as Hugo explains) common little flings. So to make someone who is insignificant to most, significant to Fantine is an interesting move. Hugo kind of does this with all his characters, on a larger scale. Aside from Valjean and Enjolras, who are exceptional, most of his other characters seem to be relatively normal people who aren’t necessarily special in a big way. The fact that he decides to focus in on them is what makes them special. And yet here it’s Tholomyes’ insignificance that highlights how unusual Fantine’s attachment to him is.
“...and in their souls that flower of purity which in a woman survives the first fall”. I don’t really know what to make of this line considering how a paragraph later he seems to insinuate that all but Fantine have already “fallen” due to their many affairs. (Which he then softens by blaming society for the women’s problems.)
“Poverty and coquetry are fatal counselors; the one scolds, the other flatters, and the beautiful daughters of the people have both of them whispering in their ears, one on each side. Their ill-guarded souls listen. Thence their fall, and the stones that are cast at them. The are overwhelmed with the splendor of all that is immaculate and inaccessible. Alas! Was the Jungfrau ever hungry?”
Hugo referencing the fall of man here, although this time it seems like only the women are punished, and not the men. Also, another Faustian reference, this time Marlowe, with the “good angel and bad angel” imagery. More references to life choices and the whole concept of having two potential paths and choosing the “wrong one.” Like with Valjean’s original crime, Hugo seems to criticize this behavior here while simultaneously pointing out the way that society demonizes these women and hurts them. I’d love to know why he uses the German “Jungfrau” here instead of just saying “maiden” or “virgin.”
We get a lot of information on Favourite in this chapter, and not that much on the other girls. She’s the eldest at 23, born out of wedlock, and has her own home. I love that she’s like Jehan--adding an extra letter to her name for the fanciness of it. We basically get an illustration of her as the sort of “leader” of the group, with everyone else looking up to her. She’s then contrasted with Tholomyes, the men’s “leader,” who is also the eldest of his group, I assume. Favourite seems closer to Bahorel’s “laughing mistress” or Musichetta than the other three; aside from her mother barging in on her life and being a nuisance, she seems much more stable than any of the others, financially (she’s been to England!) and emotionally/socially (her friends all look up to her). (I think it’s interesting that she’s not paired with Tholomyes, who seems to be her masculine counterpart?)
Fantine is “wise” while the other women are “philosophical.” Also, Hapgood translates “sage” as “good” instead of wise, for some odd reason. It seems as though Fantine is wise in the same way that Valjean has that divine element of goodness that can be kindled and relit. It’s something that she is not necessarily aware of. I’m also wondering how Hugo defines “wise” vs “philosophical.” I’m guessing that wisdom is closer to intrinsic, instinctual knowledge, while philosophy is more thought out and pondered upon. (Perhaps these definitions are based on a popular philosophy at the time? If so I have no idea which one.)
In any case, part of what makes Fantine wise is her capacity to passionately and loyally love. Which I think is an interesting move, to praise someone’s social (and possibly emotional) naivete as wise, only for her to be completely ruined because of the person she’s devoted to. Her capacity to love is also the vulnerability that manipulative men see as a good opportunity to latch on to and use her.
This “wisdom” thing is also a weird call considering Fantine’s utter lack of pretense. The other three grisette’s go by fake names, have had a number of affairs and seem more playful than thoughtful when it comes to the affairs with this group of men. Fantine is just...Fantine, and she’s the youngest, and she hasn’t had the experience the other girls have had, and she’s about to make a huge mistake (rather, by this time she already has, and Cosette is an infant). Presumably the other three women learned somehow that their affairs were just affairs, why didn’t they clue Fantine in on this game? Later on we see Favourite thinking that Fantine is “putting on airs;” but she’s also the only one tu’d instead of vous’d and they all know she’s the baby. Are the other three just wrapped up in their own stuff and too preoccupied to think that maybe Fantine doesn’t realize this isn’t a real, permanent thing? Or is this a situation of three older girls being latched onto by a younger one who doesn’t really know what to do, and aren’t really a fan of the burden of being teacher? She’s been in Paris at least 4 years and yet she’s never had friends like these grisettes? I don’t exactly know the social mores of back then, but I assume that having friends then was similar to having friends now: gossip and talk about relationships and flings and one night stands. Interesting that she either never really learned by inference that this might be that, or that perhaps she just blindly assumes that this isn’t like that because this is real.
And here we get Fantine’s backstory, and her symbolism as the Universal Grisette. So many of Hugo’s characters that are blatant “universal” symbols are either orphans or abandoned quite early in life. And so many we get a certain period of their life, then a jump, then more. What happened between infant-Fantine being found and her working on a farm? Hugo does this time-jump with Valjean and the Thenardiers, and Marius, too. I think Fantine’s about 19 when we’re first introduced to her, if my math is correct? Hugo also foreshadows the sale of her teeth and hair here.
“Fantine was beautiful and remained pure as long as she could.” An interesting callback to a few paragraphs ago. Hugo seems to imply that the other girls gave in to those “whispers” quite quickly, while Fantine did not. Part of her purity, too, is her trust and devotion to Tholomyes; she’s not giving in to promiscuity or shallow affairs like the other three, she is genuinely in love.
The way Hugo uses beauty and ugliness is so interesting. “Beautiful” Fantine paired with “ugly” Tholomyes, as with Enjolras and Grantaire, and even to some extent Cosette and Eponine.
What stands out to me is Tholomyes and Grantaire both specifically being characterized as “doubting” and also described as ugly. Grantaire gets the actual word “ugly” while Tholomyes gets this horrible description (weirdly tempered by the fact of his humor and gaiety). I know that technically Courfeyrac is paralleled with Tholomyes, but I always seem to see more similarities between him and Grantaire. The difference being that Grantaire changes and Tholomyes does not. There also seem to be bits of each of Les Amis in Tholomyes (Grantaire’s doubt and ugliness, Bossuet’s irony, Bahorel’s age, Courfeyrac’s womanizing ways, Joly’s illness, etc) but all from the negative.
Tholomyes is described in a really awful way. That “he had a play refused at Vaudeville” and “doubted everything with an air of superiority” always has me reading him as this MRA type loser who thinks he’s better than everyone else and that that’s why people hate him. He’s charismatic, but in a slimeball sort of way. Hugo tempers Tholomyes’ awfulness with gaiety and then immediately turns around ruins that “but he was funny!” by telling us this awful prank.
Oh, and then Hugo stops to interrupt himself with a question about linguistics regarding the word “irony” and whether it’s based on the English word “iron,” like, the metal. Which...???? I don’t really know what to make of? Is he trying to say something here, because if he is, I don’t get it.
“Saint January” is Januarius, the patron saint of Naples, whose “miracle” is the annual liquefying of the phial of his blood. Apparently people gather to witness this annual miracle three times a year (as well as during things like papal visits). Interesting that Tholomyes compares his rather unpredictable and cruel “surprise” with the predictable, annual miracle of the blood liquefying. It makes me wonder whether this is not the first time he has done this (he is 30, after all, and I assume has had many affairs), just with a different group of friends.
We are just as in the dark about the surprise as the women are. Hugo does the same thing here that he often does with Valjean’s thoughts. He remains an outsider to the thoughts of any of the characters in the scene, and remains in a specific location within the scene, so when the characters leave, any following dialogue or action or thought is obscured from him as a narrator.
#les miserables#les miserables meta#brickclub#lm 1.3.2#les mis#les mis meta#i started writing this at 2am instead of 4am! progress!#except then i went to sleep and finished it at 2:30pm the next day
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Let’s talk about books
Back in the day, about three years ago, I went through a phase of posting monthly write-ups of what I’d been reading on here. In these trying times there seems to be a little bit more time for reading, plus escapism and procrastination are always fun, so I though I’d share a few recommendations. There’s a few different genres (amazingly, hardly any YA fantasy), and I’ve mostly read these in the last year or so. I’ve kept my thoughts as spoiler free as I can. Read them under the cut.
1. The Hunger Games Trilogy by Suzanne Collins
Everyone and their mother has read The Hunger Games. I have read The Hunger Games before. But, a couple of weeks ago, I reread the trilogy for the first time since my first reading, which was around Christmas 2011. And to be perfectly honest, these books hold up! I think maybe it’s because I read so many not so good dystopian YA novels after I first read the Hunger Games that I thought less of this trilogy, but I don’t know. This is a solid series. If you’ve never revisited it (or if you’ve never read it at all), now could be the time! I love the fast paced writing - once things kick off, they do not stop and I burned through the whole trilogy in about three days. The world building is decent, and it doesn’t back away from some pretty heavy stuff. I remember certain scenes being much more gory, but that’s probably just because I’ve read much worse in the past 9 years. Also being older, I appreciate Katniss as a character a lot more. I remember 13-year old me getting annoyed, but now I kind of like that she is allowed to be confused about her feelings and struggle with what she’s been through and generally be a pawn rather than a flawless 16-year old rebel commander as seen elsewhere. The love triangle also isn’t as bad as I remember, although I was reminded of my own love for Peeta. Some people complain that he’s boring, but I think he’s a lovely boy.
2. The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
I’ve been wanting to read this since I saw someone on the internet pitch this as something along the lines of “The queer dragon fantasy epic you’ve been waiting for.” I did a lot of waiting for it to come out in paperback, because it is an absolute behemoth over 800 pages, and while incredibly pretty, the hardback was just too big. It was, however, well worth the wait. I haven’t read a ton of adult fantasy, because a lot of it is so big, but this was a good place to start, because the writing style is pretty easy to read and also its a standalone, so the story is told by the end, it’s not the first of like 6 800 page bricks. While the plot and the characters and the love story between a queen and her handmaiden who’s a badass sorceress in disguise are all enjoyable, the thing I loved the most was the worldbuilding. I love the time and effort that was spent developing the religions and mythologies of all the different kingdoms and how they clash in ways such as different takes on the legend of St George and the dragon, and the contrast Western dragons as monsters to be slain by knights vs benevolent Eastern dragons that kind of echoes real world mythology. I saw one review of this describing ‘Priory’ as ‘a feminist successor to Lord of the Rings and Game of Thrones.’ While I think you could definitely say that that is the case, I would say that equally being more feminist than either of those titles is not a particularly high bar, given that there are only about 5 named women in the whole of Middle Earth, and most of the women in Game of Thrones are assaulted and brutalized for no good reason.
3. Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston
This book made me so happy, you have no idea. An enemies to friends to lovers story about the son of the first female American president and the Prince of England, that reads kind of like fanfiction but in the best possible way is exactly what the world needs right now. Everything about this book is delightful, from the characters to their relationships to the pseudo-alternate history that its set in. I think the thing that increased my enjoyment of this is the fact that the main characters are in their early twenties. It seems to me that most protagonists, regardless of genre are either 16 or pushing 30, and while I still enjoy their stories, there was just something infinitely more relatable about a character the same age as me. If anyone knows of any more books with characters in this age range, please let me know, because they seem few and far between. Back to this, however, I think I was grinning like an idiot through most of this book. I laughed, I may have shed a little happy tear, I fully recommend.
4. The Broken Earth Trilogy by N K Jemisin
Another foray into adult fantasy, this is such a good series. The books aren’t too long and the writing style is easy to digest, but it is DARK. It’s set in a world which experiences apocalyptic natural disasters every couple of centuries. There are people with powers that can help control this, but they’re super oppressed and treated as evil, rather than potential saviours. The story follows a woman searching for her missing daughter in the wake of an apocalypse, a young girl coming into her powers and others, and it is so well done. It’s such a unique and diverse world, and there are some great reveals as to why the story is being told the way that it is, as well as interesting takes on things like living vs surviving and systems of oppression.
5. The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid
An aging and reclusive Hollywood star decides that the time has come to share her life story to an unknown journalist and it’s amazing. This is so well done that its easy to forget while reading that Evelyn Hugo is not a real person and you cannot go and watch her films. I first heard about this book and thought it sounded interesting, as I have a love of Old Hollywood musicals. I then promptly forgot all about it, until I heard other people on the internet talking about how it had a bisexual protagonist, which both reminded me about it and made me want to read it more and here we are. Evelyn Hugo had a hell of a life, with seven husbands and another great love story, and I thoroughly enjoyed reading about it. This book does a great job at showcasing both the glamour and less glamorous underside of the era, as well as the lengths people are willing to go. It also had me sobbing at 1am because I couldn’t put it down, and if that isn’t the mark of a quality book, I don’t know what is!
6. Circle of Friends by Maeve Binchy
A coming-of-age story following two childhood friends as they move from their small town to Dublin for University in the 1950s. Quite a chunky book, but a lovely story and I found it read pretty quickly. As I was saying about Red, White and Royal Blue, it’s rare to find books about characters of this sort of age range. Equally rare I think are books with a university setting - the only others I can think of are Fangirl, the Magicians and the Secret History - any recommendations, let me know! I enjoyed the characters growing and finding their confidence and independence, as well as the period setting. I also greatly appreciated the ending, in terms of the main character’s love interest, as it’s something that you don’t often see in this type of book. I may have to read more by this author.
7. Everything I Know About Love by Dolly Alderton
This is one of those books that I just happened to read at the perfect time in my life, and for that reason it means a lot to me. I read it at the very end of 2018, when I was feeling really down and not myself, and something in there just spoke to me and maybe gave a little perspective. I don’t read much non-fiction and this is just the memoirs of someone as she navigates her teens and twenties. I can see why someone might not like it, but I really did. There’s some relatable content in here. As the book went on and I read all these parts about bad dates and third-wheeling friends, I kept waiting for the part where she said, ‘but then I met so-and-so and it all changed’ but that NEVER happened. By the end of this book, this woman is still single and praising all the types of non-romantic love in her life, and that I think is a bit of a revelation. It is so rare for a woman to stay single at the end of a book (see every YA love triangle ever, even when both boys are terrible), and so this resonated deeply with me. I laughed, I cried, I go back and reread bits every so often, and I wholeheartedly recommend.
8. Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare
There are those who say that Cassandra Clare needs to stop, but I wholeheartedly disagree. As long as she wants to keep writing Shadowhunter books, I will keep reading them, because they are a hell of a lot of fun. I’ll admit, bits of the OG Mortal Instruments series aren’t the best thing I’ve ever read, but the historical series are in another league altogether. I adore the Infernal Devices trilogy, which features one of the few good love triangles in YA, and Chain of Gold is a promising start to a new series about the children of the Infernal Devices characters. I think there’s something about the historical setting that just works so much better than the modern series, it could be the angst that comes from things like marriages of convenience and ruined reputations, but I digress. I really enjoyed getting to know this new cast of characters, while also getting some appearances from old favourites. The plot was solid too, and I liked the new expansions to the mythology, while wondering what they mean for what’s coming in the rest of this trilogy. I think the fact that I read this in less than 48 hours, mostly sitting in the same spot tells you everything you need to know.
#booklr#books#reading#the priory of the orange tree#chain of gold#the seven husbands of evelyn hugo#lizzy reads
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Brie Larson vs. The World: A Letter for Humanity
So I’d like to share and say hmmm in terms of adoration mm yeah Chris Evans what a husband material hubba hubba Chris Hemsworth funny dude even Taika Waititi oh Jodie Comer- in lesbians for her Armie Hammer Jake Gyllenhaal oofers eye candy Margaret Qualley mah babies Mackenzie Davis Wynonna Ryder and Kristen Stewart of course all them Marvel girls from A for Angelina Jolie Blanchett Danai Debicki Saldana Evangeline Karen Scarlett etc etc etc to Z for Zendaya Star Wars gang Daisy Felicity Oscar Lupita um yes please all the heroines we love Gal Gadot Amber Heard les cheveux roux madmoiselles Chastain Amy Adams the veterans Patricia Clarke Bullock Paulson Weaver Gillian Anderson Moore Lawless Mirren what goddesses they are even the young’uns newcomers Diana Silvers Billie Lourd Hunter Schafer such gems Thrones crew Gwendoline Emilia Lena Kit Sophie Maisie err pretty much everyone of them yes even the Night King give me the shivurs Aubrey Plaza Anna Kendrick Sarah Carter yas yas yas even some voice actors Ashly Burch Elizabeth Maxwell Hannah Telle j’adore Fab Five queers heck even politicians like AOC or Kamala Harris or Brian Sims gets me giddy wonderful wonderful insanely talented amazing great people.
But
then
there’s
Brie Larson.
I was a music photographer and journalist for a while, I interviewed people and got the chance to meet some renowned humans (Feist, Au Revoir Simone, Kina Grannis, YYYs, Sean Lennon to name a few) it was my job to recognise their backgrounds and learn people’s personalities and identify situations.
While there are so much amazing people that I mentioned above who has done so many great things, I have never seen someone MOST relatable like Brie, so humble and hardworking in the harsh -no privacy- industry of entertainment, who just bases her life out of goodness and excitement of life and purity. She’s like most of us, she’s awkward and shy, loves pets, video games, Indiana Jones, Star Wars, Sailor Moon, fan girls towards other celebs, music nerd and an actual nerd, and just loving life in general.
So it does break my heart that people are targeting her as the subject of everything that’s negative just because she wanted to set a stigma that women can be powerful and is their own person, and she’s had it rough before (as I read/listened/watched her interviews) Here’s a narrowed down of her life:
- Her parents were constantly fighting when she was young, leaving her into a broken home, around 7 years old she moved to LA living in a studio apartment with her mom and sister with the 3 of them with only 1 murphy bed. She’s estranged with her dad until now.
- She’s definitely an introvert, type of girl who sits on the far upper left or right corner in the theatre thinking that she doesn’t block anyone’s view (she actually said this on an interview), had social anxiety attacks since she was young but she knows she loves acting and wants to entertain people, starting with singing in her early years. She prefers doing stuffs alone and creating arts just to keep her mind at ease.
- Because of her passion in acting and her social condition, she was home schooled and focused in acting schools more, thankfully her mother supported her to go to acting schools and just going on auditions. Her singing career didn’t go as much as she hoped, to make ends meet she started DJ-ing just to earn money. Keep in mind Brie did not come from a prestige family with access to Hollywood unlike some of her Marvel co-stars. She started from zero.
- She actually auditioned for Twilight and was told, “Don’t ever bring Brie Larson back here again” for whatever reason. Was also told she wasn’t “sexy enough” for some stuffs she auditioned.
- Even though she loves acting, knowing she’s an introvert, it is the only reason why Brie has never considered blockbuster movies because she was afraid of getting recognised worldwide that it would leave her having no privacy at life at all. Due to this, she accepted mostly indie movies (Most recognisably Short Term 12 or The Glass Castle) but even by doing indie movies she didn’t earn enough money that sometimes she would cry in her kitchen telling her mom that she doesn’t have any money just to buy food.
- She did the movie Room which won her first Oscar for best actress, but in the process in doing so it broke her in half because of her childhood past and trauma. Whilst doing The Glass Castle she also said it was rather personal that she played a character with a broken relationship with a father (Played by Woody Harrelson) is because she never had father-daughter relationship. All the stuffs she did were mostly personal because she felt connected to them. Even Captain Marvel, because she felt that it was a moment in her life where she needs the change to be stronger for herself and Carol has changed her for that.
- Her road into becoming Captain Marvel was almost like a brick to brick road built up for her, as she has acted in movies with most of the Marvel casts. In 13 Going On 30 with Mark Ruffalo, with Chris Evans in Scott Pilgrim vs. The World, Scarlett Johansson in Don Jon, Tom Hiddleston and Samuel L. Jackson in Kong: Skull Island and Joe and Anthony Russo in Community.
A few reasons she accepted the role of Captain Marvel;
One being when she saw Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman, she admitted that even as the movie was just about a few minutes in, she couldn’t stop crying and she asks herself as to why that is, and she realised that this is the stuff I need, we don’t have this enough, where a powerful strong woman was depicted on screen;
The other, for the most realistic reason that she did need the money while she was given the opportunity;
The SIMPLEST reason is just to MAKE PEOPLE HAPPY that the character is going to be brought to life;
The MOST important of them all is that she wants to break the barrier of herself. She wants to be more out there, spreading positivity and setting an example to people to be stronger for themselves, that people can change for the better, in which in this case: Brie was a completely non athletic person with asthma, she trained for 9 months, almost 3-5 hours a day for 5 days a week at the gym with constant crying because of her hard work and changes to herself, vomited mostly at the gym and also puked during her pilot training. She had bruises all over the place because she did most of her stunts and training (Per her saying, it was ignorance at first because she thought everyone on Marvel was doing their own stunts when they’re not, but she did most of them herself that she was allowed to).
- Now that she has recognition, she’s actually doing more activism and be a spokeswoman into helping people. She even promotes people’s brand and stuffs via her Instagram just to help out simple things.
Please remember, she’s human. She has flaws, but I have never seen her doing/saying anything fatal that depicts resent. Never. And no, Brie is not the first female ever trying to set examples for people, but she is the current one getting the most hate for it just because of Captain Marvel— a film about a female superhero, setting an example for people to be stronger, she did it just to make people happy and half the world is angry at her. WTF. Believe it or not, this is girl actually CARES about people, she would care about you if you actually DO CARE about all the good things that does matter. Being of who she is, Brie is capable of empathising with people, which is something most people don’t have.
Brie wanted to be a better person, SHE DID. When in fact Brie has successfully done that, now people are hating her even more because she’s just a “bigger easier target” because of her role and apparently it is easier to hate someone else than just to be nice or appreciative or grateful in general.
If you’re reading and you’re hating, can I just ask, what has Brie Larson done to your life? And maybe ask yourself what have you done that matters in your life? We can just be nicer to other people, it’s really not that hard to try, you know. Life is just about being kind to each other, there is no point in throwing hate because it’s not your cup of tea, having an opinion to your taste is fine, but giving hate comments about is just being an asshole. Imagine being in her shoes and dealing with all those that wasn’t necessary in the first place. It does take mentality of the size of the Jupiter with that amount of hate, and Brie Larson is still dealing them. Just think if that was you, could you be able to handle it as far as what she’s gone though? Really think about it. Not one human in the world wants to be hated for even the smallest reason, not even you.
As to those who feel like they wanted a change in their lives, if Brie can do it, SO CAN YOU. Stay calm, just be nice and kind to others— even to those who treated you unjustly. Let the action speaks louder than any words will ever do. And be happy of life.
My adoration for her is at the apex at the moment. She is IT.
So I’m just here spreading the love for Brie.
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Tonight on Legend of the Hare: Rasslevania!
This was originally supposed to be a birthday, but then I thought of the phrase “no holds barred mitzvah” and changed it last second. do like that Jill and Riley both don’t actually know what a bar mitzvah is. Given that the next few pages portray the event as taking place in an arena (?) around a wrestling ring (??) and one of the people in attendance is a music industry scout (?!), it’s also possible that I didn’t know what a Bar Mitzvah was, or at the very least didn’t bother to change any of the later pages to account for this change. This is a really stupid plot point! And it also means that the band is tempted by money at a Jewish event, which is one of those things I probably should have stopped to consider the implications of, but I clearly didn’t consider the implications of anything I was doing on any level. In the aborted LotH Version 2, this whole scene was going to be an actual birthday party, and Riley would sing a song that would be way inappropriate for kids and the family would kick them out, which Riley would blame on Jill before Peggy showed up an arrested them all. It would be at the police station where the rabbits first appeared, and V2 was getting very far from V1 before I gave up on it.
There’s something very Scott Pilgrim vs the World-y in those first three panels, especially Jill’s band being a retro gaming reference. Who came up with that name, anyway? Also, wow, I just told Carlos to draw a generic indie wrestling poster and gave him a sample of one, but I totally passed on a chance to put a joke on the poster. Missed opportunity, past me! Also, using “Goldstein” as a generic Jewish name, bluh. That’s lazy, it should’ve been a funnier name. If it’d been, like, “Rick ‘The Rack’ Ruckus presents: His son’s no-holds-barred mitzvah” then there’s a little character in it, the idea that maybe it’s the dad who likes wrestling and not the kid, which gives me an opportunity to have a joke later about the son being bored and also kind of helps explain why there’s no actual Bar Mitzvahing going on. You can tell how much I’m feeling a page by how much effort I’m putting into finding these spaces for a joke. In a perfect ideal word, a writer should spend as much time on a page as the artist, going over every line and background detail and trying to find ways to get as much mileage as possible out of every panel and taking every chance for a clever joke. Obviously, this doesn’t usually happen in practice. But it should! It’s very easy to pop out something passable in ten minutes as a writer in a way an artist can’t, but you should hold yourself to a higher standard and even now I don’t do that as much as I should.
Panel 3 looks like a generic alley, but I actually took a photo of an alley in Boston I liked and had Carlos use it as a reference
I’m not quite sure why I found this image so striking, but it adds a little to the sense of place that this alley has a brick road instead of a paved street, and is one of the very few visual clues that this comic takes place in Boston and not Generic City, so it was worth the time to photograph. Also, hey, that’s Eoin in a trenchcoat reading a newpaper in the background of paper three there. The original opening to Legend of the Hare would have had Trenchcoat Eoin (back when he was called Teporingo) and Mary Farrier at Doink Burger scoping Jill out as a potential rabbit champion. This never got past the first draft stage and mostly revolved around Mary being a hyper child and not focusing. Interestingly, the script I have for that opening establishes Legend of the Hare as being set in Oregon. I wonder why I set it there originally, given that I’ve never been. It might have just been a reference to Gravity Falls?
Anyway, this is the first appearance of Riley, and note that even this early he’s making fun of Jill behind her back. Old man Starflower seems to just accept what Jill is saying as normal, which looks like a joke but is also foreshadowing, since Starflower knows a bit more than was ever shown to the audience. Sadly, it never comes up in the comic because everything’s a mess, but Mary Farrier the horse champion is Starflower’s daughter, and it was through him that the rabbits learned of Jill. It’s all connected, but offscreen because I wasn’t doing anything properly.
The Lore Post for this page will be of grave importance to a few people: It’s the first appearance of Helen Alvarez, the Rooster Champion and surprisingly popular minor character! Helen doesn’t actually appear on-panel for like 40 pages, and by then she’s very clearly sick of all the “cock” jokes, but she seems to be in better humor about it here:
Dear Diary,
I don’t know if anyone’s going to read this, but if you’re reading this now, hi.
So today was odd. I skipped school and then a bunch of Roosters flew me off to Cock-Narnia. Little bit unexpected, that twist. They gave me the whole “Chosen One” spiel I’ve seen in a million fantasy novels, though they didn’t seem to know who actually chose me or why. They offered to let me go home, but I told them nah. Even a crappy Harry Potter LARP thing run by birds is better than Mom and Brad. And, honestly, I wasn’t going to make a better career choice than being the “Lady of Cocks”, so I might as well get on the Cock while I can. Got the tattoo and everything.
I’m sure that’ll stop being funny any second now, but I’ve only been here a few hours so I’m going to ride the cock train just a bit more.
The cocks – there it is, this is old -the roosters are not very smart. Which I guess isn’t surprising, because they’re birds? But they can talk, so you’d think they’d be smarter than normal birds. And maybe they are, but they ain’t shown signs of it yet.
I tried to get some details on what my Cock Destiny (okay, one more) was, but no one was able to answer me. Kind of defeats the point of having a prophesied destiny if it’s a mystery, doesn’t it? If I wanted vague promises of future greatness, I’d see the guidance counselor again.
Isn’t that life, though? In that….um…..you never know what you’re gonna get? Or something? I dunno. I really don’t know anything. Supposedly once I sign up I get all kinds of magical girl superpowers, but I don’t feel very super right now. I mostly just wanna lie down. Such hero. Very amaze.
Actually, lying down sounds like a great idea right now. I need to stress over all my decisions today. I’m gonna go do that.
How was your day?
Holy hell, you can tell this lore post is old, there’s a doge reference.
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Okay, so I’ve slept on it and have some more thoughts on BBC Les Mis as a whole? My brain broke it down into two parts, which are Good Moments In an Adaptation vs. A Good Adaptation as a Whole and also Accessibility of the Adaptation to New People (Or, Who are Adaptations For). These are of course just my personal ramblings! Different people are gonna feel differently about things, but I need to process.
Good Moments In an Adaptation vs. A Good Adaptation as a Whole
This adaptation, particularly in the last episode, did have some good MOMENTS. The final barricade sequence? Nice. Javert’s actual suicide? Well done. Most any thing with Gavroche? Stellar. But I think the thing for me, as much as I did enjoy those moments/sections of the story, so much of the rest of it was just a MESS, that on the whole I can’t call it a good adaptation. And I think this comes down to one thing in particular. As a writer and a reader/viewer, I look for the emotional beats. Not just in the moments, but how they build and how they draw through, and that is where Davies really, really failed for me. And I think because parts of the last episode were so much better than the previous 5, I saw what could have perhaps been, but was not. The thing for me is that Les Mis is SUCH an emotional story, and I shouldn’t have only cried at the end (good on them for finally making me cry! But I should have been more invested earlier on in the series). Les Mis leaves a particular feeling in me when I read passages of the book, or watch the musical or another solid adaptation, that strange mix of bittersweet hope and grief all mixed into one, and I only felt that when I was watching some of the Amis stuff in the last episode, and not as powerfully as I could have if that had been built up properly, though it was at least better than the Valjean content. I even liked the bits with the particular worker and Enjolras! Good stuff but WHY couldn’t they have just named him after the worker we do have? Why not just call him Feuilly? There was even a glance of what should have been Feuilly’s writing on the wall. Why not tie that together? Frustrating. And this adaptation is full of stuff like that that isn’t pieced together for optimal impact.
There were other small moments I liked that weren’t Amis based. Fantine’s bead bird! The moment where Valjean and Cosette were talking about him calling her Papa! Javert and Valjean’s carriage ride. But one big, big issue I have is that Davies didn’t REALLY tie in Valjean’s story line to the barricade story line.Like yes, plot wise all the paths crossed there where they were supposed to. But thematically? No. I don’t think I ever considered how much a character assassination against Valjean could affect the power of the Amis storyline, but it did, for me, even though unexpectedly (with 2/3 of the Amis missing and Enjolras not really being Enjolras until the last episode) those bits hit me the most in the emotions. The place where Valjean and the Amis intersect is that they’re all trying to change the world, just in different ways and on different levels. But they are all trying to inject more kindness and love into what’s around them. And BECAUSE Valjean was so wrong basically the entire time, it almost made me wonder “why does Davies think the Amis are here, other than to intersect Valjean’s path with Marius’ path?” It felt like the two stories were a bit disconnected, because when you’ve got Valjean going around saying “the world sucks” and being frankly abusive to Cosette, you don’t feel the thread between Valjean’s story and the Amis’ story. You don’t feel the barricade as a part of a larger whole. It makes the barricade feel like a vehicle toward something else rather than something that matters on its own merit, though oddly it WAS the most powerful part of the adaptation.
I’ve said it already, but the Valjean and Cosette arc falls so terribly flat after what happened with the way Valjean treated her, and the Creepy Levels of Codependency. I don’t need to talk about it more, really, but as much as I liked Cosette being the one to realize Valjean saved Marius, it didn’t fully work because why would she love him so much, really? After how he treated her. Again, a good moment that had impact but wasn’t earned.
Javert’s arc kind of falls in here as well. Because the moment of his suicide WAS so well done. Like DAMN, David Oleyowo, make me gasp and start crying when you were crying. Plus the reading of the letter! But because they did all that weird stuff with his character throughout (Jean Valjean is the LEADER OF THE REBELS, why????) the moment itself, great as it was, lost some power. I think one thing I can say for this adaptation is that they had some amazing actors (Lilly Collins I’m thinking a lot about) who just weren’t served by the script.
Accessibility of the Adaptation to New People (Or, Who are Adaptations For)
I know, I know, I’m rambling, BUT. I was thinking this morning about the moments that did make me emotional and how I was glad to really finally get some, though it got me wondering, would those moments have affected people who didn’t already love the source material? With Gavroche, probably yes. Everyone gets upset about Gavroche. But the Amis stuff in particular that was good, was GOOD because I care about and know those characters. Seeing a bright, merry Courfeyrac go down, to see Enjolras whisper “this is history” to him, means something to me because I love them. Grantaire and Enjolras holding hands in their death means something to me because it’s such an iconic Brick moment that was nice to see. But despite the better last episode, the series as a whole wasn’t accessible for people who hadn’t seen it before? If I was new to Les Mis or only knew a little bit, I wouldn’t have understood what was going on. I wouldn’t have sympathized for Valjean and would have wanted Cosette to run out of there. Javert would have seemed like The Guy Who is Overly Obsessed With One Thief. And it got me thinking about who adaptations are for, which is a conversation people have had since forever. Is it for people who love the source material, or for new people? I think it’s really supposed to be a combo of both, and I don’t think this one On The Whole did a great job of either.
The End
I keep going back to the final moment, and still just...really don’t know what I feel about it. I think I saw someone else call it a downbeat, which I think is a great way to describe it. I wanted to glean something cool from it, but I’m not sure I can? Like, I wanted to draw coming back to these two little boys and acknowledging Hugo’s focus on on the Every Man and the Little Guy in light of this huge epic story that DOES tell us the story of all these names history wouldn’t remember against the backdrop of a France roiled by change and revolts, how kindness and love can radically alter people’s lives, and how those people and what they did MATTERED. How what they did mattered even though they were former convicts and rebels and people society would look down on, and that’s part of what was so radical about the novel in the first place, giving the spotlight to people like that. But I’m not sure that’s what they were going for or not, and because Davies sucked the emotion out of so much of the series, it didn’t really have that feel for me.
So I guess, in the end, I saw glimpses and glimmers of good things I liked, but that weren’t drawn through to have impact because the script and lots of character choices were A Nightmare. And I think this goes to show that when you so thoroughly mess up Valjean’s character and his choices, it taints the entire thing. If Valjean had been better, I probably would have liked it a lot more. But alas, that did not happen. Well, that, and you know, ERASING all the weird sex stuff, Please Stop.
Pretty sets and costumes can’t make up for missing the core of emotion that Les Mis is about, thought at least those were nice.
But! I’m really enjoying the good meta and thoughts this has brought up, and also you know NEW FANDOM JOKES.
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Les Miserables 2018 Reactions
Episode One
A title card gives a brief summary of the situation in France before dropping us into the day after the Battle of Waterloo, when the “glory” of battle is over and the gore remains.
Rather fitting for a series translated to The Miserable (or Wretched) Ones.
Yikes. British viewers really weren’t kidding about the typeface. Or that 1970s slasher movie red.
But in all honesty, I like the change in opening. It’s a bold move, sure, but it grounds viewers in a specific time in history (so only the inattentive can make the “it takes place during the French Revolution” mistake) and functions as a mirror of the eventual end.
**Book spoilers**
A Ponmercy possibly dead at the scene of a failed conflict?
A man surviving conflict and returning home to be separated from his child by Gillenormand?
Does this not sound like a bitter cycle when we know this story ends in Marius surviving a failed conflict and Valjean surviving conflict and returning home to be separated from his child by Gillenormand(‘s grandson)?
And to top it all off, the title card ends with: “The old order will be restored. The revolution forgotten.” Aside from Les Miserables, how often do you hear of the June Rebellion?
The Opening
Rain, mud, dead horses, trees shattered by cannonballs...the cinematography feels Romantic (capital R) already. A horse flutters its eyes (Is this a reference to Napoleon’s war horse Marengo, famously depicted in Napoleon Crossing the Alps by Jacques-Louis David?)
Thenardier (!) rushes onto the screen, injecting it with a surge of adrenaline. Laughing (?), he hops from one dead soldier to the next, picking pockets and collecting anything of value he can get his hands on relatively quickly. And he’s not alone. There are other looters, and there are British soldiers chasing them in the background.
(Are we supposed to see a parallel between this and the way society is shown to treat its ‘dead’ and ‘dying’? Or are the British soldiers chasing people breaking laws, or at least morals, representative of how the Law works in the series?)
...But I can do without Thenardier cackling the entire time.
Anyway, he starts to loot one soldier crushed under a fallen horse when the soldier regains consciousness and, thinking Thenardier pulled him out for charitable reasons, thanks him for saving his life. Could it be Baron Pontmercy?
The Pontmercy Plot
In a rare adaptation appearance, a living Baron Pontmercy returns home alive. The streets of Paris initially seem colorful and thriving, but lintering shots of homeless beggars. Pontmercy’s father-in-law, Gillenormand, rejects him for siding with Napoleon. He goes into the “I’m glad my daughter is dead” trope, then ends it with a biting “I thank God I may never see you again.”
“It’s your lot they’re strining up from lamposts now,” Gillenormand says as we are shown a precious toddler overhearing everything. This is Pontmercy’s son, Marius, a little baby boy who will be raised to hate his own father by his grandfather.
Nicolette sneaks out of Gillenormand’s house to tell Pontermcy where he can see Marius at church.
The Fantine Plot - Part 1
A few feet away, a young Fantine is trying to convince her friends that she’s not naive and that she can take care of herself (I’ll wait for a Cosette callback in later episodes). I like seeing Fantine as a carefree young woman instead of being introduced to Fantine after she had and separated from Cosette. It makes her slow descent even worse when we see how youngshe is.
Also, we were just introduced to one man who is denied custody of his son by a gatekeeper of society, and now here is a woman who will eventually have to give up custody of her daughter by the circumstances of her society. Nice parallel!
The Valjean Plot
The yellow filter and the music makes this feel like a Western. This town ain’t big enough for the both of us, 24601...
Valjean sees one of the guards beating a prisoner and causes an avalanche that pins down the guard (so he visually echoes Pontmercy under the horse in the opening scene). Why does Valjean attempt murder? Well, this adaptation’s Valjean senses the injustice and wants to balance out this unjust society through violence (again, foreshadowing).
But when he hears the pinned man’s agony, he realizes he isn’t that person. He isn’t capable of committing a crime like that without guilt. So out empathy and guilt, he goes to lift the weight. A man lifting a weight from a man pinned under debris? Hmm...forshadowing. A man lifting a weight off someone pinned under the rocks (of society?) Hmm...symbolic.
Javert, who has been watching the entire thing, stares down at Valjean. That night, Valjean is brought to Javert’s office. Javert asks, “What was that about today?” Valjean looks at him like Because I’m a decent human being? That’s why...
Javert’s backstory is really, uh, shoe-horned in there, isn’t it? Could have revealed it later when he unwittingly befriends Madeleine or something...No?
Javert says, “Men like us have only two choices: to prey on society or to guard it.” And, well, you could view every male character we’ve met so far through that lens: Pontmercy vs. Thenardier and Gillenormand, Valjean vs. Javert.
But who’s really the one preying on people here?
The Fantine Plot - Part 2
Speaking of prey, Fantine’s out on the town with her friends. She meets eyes with Felix, and her friend Favourite urges her to be more forward with the attraction. Felix wastes no time playing the charming dance partner. The slow music switches to something more lively (and tell me if you don’t have the tiniest reminder of that below-decks dance in Titanicin this moment).
Ugh. These Fantine night scenes look gorgeous. Like a (modern) outdoor wedding.
“You have to remember they’re not serious...they’re amusing themselves.” The harsh voice of experience doles out some foreshadowing. “Why should it always be like that?” Fantine asks. The voice of change we hear throughout this series, too.
The Fantine section is also filmed like Davies’ more famous adaptations (lulling unwitting audiences into a false sense of security about where this is going...)
So many period drama romance tropes. It really does feel completely different from any other adaptation I’ve seen in this section. I like it.
Felix tries every trick in the book: I didn’t care about anyone before you. I’m going to be a poet, and you’ll be my use. Have mercy on me, I’m suffering with love for you. But Fantine has never read the playbook, and she kisses him, despite her doubts.
The Pontmercy Plot - Part 2
In case you weren’t against this prison system before, the prisoners are forced to watch an execution in a brief scene that cuts to Gillenormand saying, “order restored. Now everyone knows their place again.”
Gillenormand convinces his grandson into believe his dad’s a “scoundrel” for his political stance. Throughout the scene, little Marius is playing with army figurines, too. Hmm…can you hear commentary about how wrong this situation is yet? (The book isn’t subtle about this is, either)
Baron Pontmercy is reduced to waiting for a glimpse of his son at church. It hurts in the book, and it hurts here, too. Oh, and the religious theme comes in. (And a nice Mabeuf cameo).
This is a good time for an unpopular opinion: I’m fine with the cuts between the Pontmercy, Fantine, and Valjean stories. It makes the later inclusion of more characters and the eventual intertwining of some of these plots feel natural. It also shows how different people in this society suffer completely different unfair circumstances that bloom from this society and culture.
The Valjean Plot - Part 3
Is this what Daves meant by “sexing up “Les Miserables with a nude, underfed, and whipped Valjean? He’s muscular from forced labor. Not really sexy.
“You have your name back, Monsieur 24601.” Hey. This will be ironic in hindsight!
Oh, and (un)paid labor for prisoners commentary, too. Valjean’s furious. But why wouldn’t he be? Nearly two decades for petty theft. And in those conditions.
Valjean carries those barrels like he’s carrying the world. (Do you see the Jesus symbolism yet?)
But if he carried any hope that life outside of prison would be any more rewarding, he is quickly corrected. More manual labor with little pay. Chased away from a place to stay by dogs. Pointed to the church by a kind woman. (All in all, pretty book accurate—down to the ensuing conversation)
Cut from one faceless shot of Valjean to the Bishop, connecting the two.
Bishop with spectacles. Awww.
Valjean has the bluntness that comes across in the translations of the brick (I’ve never read it in French. Is he blunt there, too?)
The comparison Valjean draws between the religious authority figures in prison versus the Bishop here is a nice book reference, and it shows that he is very much aware of his terrible situation and how imbalanced society is (in and out of prison) versus the (actual) Christian values shown by the Bishop
“How can I love my fellow man when he treats me like a dog?”
“Even if the world has done you a great injustice. Does it really serve you to have a heart full of bitterness and hatred?”
Ooh. The quandry at the heart of this adaptation’s Valjean.
So what if it’s on the nose? It’s for viewers introduced to the book for the first time. Books are a well. Shows are a pool. It’s the detriment of adaptation.
“What about the silverware?” The bishop, knowing full well it must have been taken by Valjean, “I can’t help you, I’m afraid.”
In the few minutes he’s part of this episode, the Bishop is The Perfect Christian example that Valjean (and even other characters) will follow in various ways
The vulnerability and disbelief in Valjean’s eyes when he realizes somebody’s helpinghim and even covering for him...
Valjean’s little chuckle when he realizes he’s free again
Valjean’s what am I supposed to do with these?look at the candlesticks. Heh
“Jean Valjean, you do not belong to evil anymore. You belong to good. I have bought your soul with this silver and these candlesticks.” Again in this adaptation, there’s this sense that Valjean didn’t choose to better himself, but it was foisted onto him (the Holy Spirit foisted on him) until he eventually makes the choice to let it in himself
The episode began with Thenardier stealing and showing no signs of remorse. It ends with Valjean stealing and being presented with the means to turn his life around. Nice bookends—is what I would say if the episode ended here. But there’s more!
The Fantine Plot - Part 3
Oh, the “sexing up” was with Fantine and Felix. Just some family-friendly snuggles as he drops hints he’s going to leave her and her baby.
Fantine has a caged bird in her room. Symbolism.
Felix, Fantine, and their friends are out on a double (well, tripple) date. The guys tease a “surprise” for the women. What could it be? A beautiful day outside. A meal at a fancy restaraunt. Could they plan on...proposing?
Nope! This is a last hurrah before the guys leave to return to their “respectable” families.
I’m surprised we got an abbreviated Felix speech from the book. Didn’t expect that. And it’s all the more irritating for his character when you know what comes next: the men quietly leave the room as their girlfriends wait excitedly for the “surprise.” But the light drains from the eyes of all three of the women as they read the “surprise,” a letter stating that their boyfriends (and financial support) are leaving them forever.
The Ending
Meanwhile, Valjean leaves the village, angry at the Bishop for “buying” his soul. Conflicted, he rests beneath a tree. Then a little voice grows louder. Is it--? Yes, it’s Petit-Gervais playing with a sou and singing down the road. Valjean steps on the coin (almost intentionally) and scares Petit-Gervais away.
This is different from the book. In the book, he goes into a trance during this moment and only realizes he’s standing on the coin later (which conveniently absolves him of guilt in the reader’s eyes). Here, Valjean is brought back to the reality of his actions by the tolling of the church bell. He stole from a little boy like the prison system stole from him. A few scenes ago, he was that little boy. And he tries to do the right thing and return the coin. Like in the book, he calls for the boy to come back, but the child is gone, and Valjean is a thief again.
Meanwhile, Fantine returns home to her happy baby. She moves to curl up on the bed and cry, but the needs of her daughter Cosette draws her back to the world. Felix is no father, but Fantine is still a mother.
Valjean is free, but Fantine is about to enter a different kind of prison.
Overall, I liked this episode. There were a few changes I would have made, like concealing Javert’s backstory until episode 2 (or even later) to build up a sense of mystery to him. Thenardier was too…jovial to me, also. Finally, that scene of the women gossiping in the woods was unnecessarily choreographed, and I’m surprised PBS actually aired that scene.
When I first heard about some of the adaptational changes, I was wary of this series, but now that I see them in context, they aren’t too bad. I think an angry Valjean could make for a more dramatic transformation in later episodes. I loved Derek Jacobi as the Bishop and Lily Collins as Fantine.
But my favorite choice of this miniseries was the way it made the Valjean plot, the Fantine plot, and the Pontmercy plot run concurrently to highlight the similarities in their situations.
In the book, Hugo describes Valjean’s situation in one “book,” then switches to Fantine and goes back in time a few years to explore her experiences before her plot meets Valjean’s plot. It allows for the reader to get invested in each uninterrupted arc, but what works on paper doesn’t translate well to screen. There must be change.
We’ll see what other page to screen changes were made in the upcoming episodes. Les Miserables airs Saturday nights on PBS.
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There Must Be More
“…than this Provincial life!”
Sorry, I just needed to have my Belle moment. That’s totally not what this post is about. I just adore that score.
Onward!
Over the past week I saw 3 shows - 2 Broadway and 1 Off-Broadway.
These shows were (in the order I saw them):
Scotland, PA
The Inheritance Part 1
Tootsie
Now, regardless of how I felt about each of these shows, or how much I did or did not enjoy them individually, they all had something in common per my experience in watching them.
At one point (at least) in every one of these shows I had the thought: “…But must we? This again? Isn’t there more out there? There must be more.”
Allow me to explain.
Enjoyment vs Analysis
Just a quick side note before I dive in.
I think it’s important here to know that I do not think that enjoyment and criticism are mutually exclusive. In fact, I personally believe they go hand in hand.
When someone asks why you didn’t enjoy something, most people are ready with their criticisms handy to defend their positions. But when someone asks me why I did enjoy something, I feel the same way. I like to know why I enjoyed it and be able to explain that to people.
And nothing is perfect. Nor is it a requirement to explain your likes and dislikes. But for me, enjoying something - or even loving something - does not mean that I find it to be perfect or above criticism.
I adore Back To The Future. One of my favorites growing up. But the movie’s got issues, both artistically and socially issues (ie soooo, we’re saying a white man invented rock’n’roll???).
Anywho. Onward!
Blindingly White
Okay. I know. I’m aware.
Most of the writing spaces and head artistic positions for Broadway and Off-Broadway shows are occupied by men. Generally white men. Generally cis, white men. Often even straight, cis, white men.
But in the world we are living in today, does that fact need to translate directly into the stories being told on the stage? At the very least, does it need to feature as prominently across the shows listed in the back of the Playbill as it currently does?
All three shows I just saw focused on cis, white men. And for two of them it was straight, cis, white men.
Now, is this necessarily a problem? No, not necessaaaaarily. But it says something. Actually, it says a lot of things.
Especially considering that the 2 shows featuring straight men were specifically about under-achieving straight, cis, white men who learned relatively shallow lessons and didn’t really end up changing - a genre that has filled our canons of literature, theatre, film, and TV for a very very long time.
Let’s be more specific.
Scotland, PA
A musical parody adapted from a movie parody of Macbeth.
Main character - Straight, cis, white man.
The guy is an under-achiever according to his wife, even though he’s happy with the life they have and it’s also clear he has aspirations for more, if the opportunity were to present itself.
The wife is played by a black woman and, similar to the Shakespeare play, she exists mostly to prop up the ambitions (or lack thereof) of her husband - even though she is the one who actually wants more and has the stomach to chase after it.
And then she’s scapegoated.
And goes insane. And regrets everything, but isn’t given the capacity to fulfill that character arc. So she must die instead. Of course.
“Classic women, am I right?!”
No. You are not.
So, as this man rises and takes more we are meant to root for him, even though we know he’s doing terrible things. But why? Why this story? Why this story again? Why this story again now without some sizable changes for more relevance? Is it really that interesting today?
It’s not a bad story - it wouldn’t endure otherwise - but there must be more.
The Inheritance Part 1
Full disclaimer: I loved it. I wept. I think it’s doing great work for this generation.
Main characters - All gay, cis, white men. And there are up to 6 main characters in this first part, depending on how you classify the term main character, and all of them fall into this category.
Now, this show is really about interpersonal struggles and relationships, and how that echoes across generations - particularly for the marginalized group that is gay men. It’s also a story about growth, change, hardship, and love. I really do think this play is doing beautiful work.
The remainder of the non-main character cast is mostly non-white, which is really awesome to see. However, so far in this play, the conversation amongst all of these people and characters is about the lives, stories, and struggles of the gay community as seen through white gay male eyes and experiences.
There are black and Latino characters on that stage, but we aren’t even touching their extra layers of struggle and experience. Meanwhile, the play is discussing the future of gay men and where they are potentially headed, as a group with its own vibrant culture. A culture that they even acknowledge to come from appropriations from the drag community, which appropriated from the ballroom community, which consists almost entirely of queer men of color.
This seems like a pretty sizable issue.
The play is focused on worries of continued and intensified marginalization, but it simultaneously has left out a gigantic piece of the conversation about marginalization by leaving out the additional layers of struggle for non-white gay men.
And this is not even to mention that - although other letter of the LGBTQ+ world are mentioned - the focus is entirely on gay men. What about the rest of the community? Isn’t it all the same history? The same inheritance?
Gay men can claim Stonewall all they want (and they do), but transwomen of color threw those bricks.
Gay men can claim the AIDS epidemic, but the affects of that disease were highly striated amongst sub-groups and especially men of color.
I loved this play. I cannot wait for Part 2. But I just kept thinking, “there’s more here.”
There must be more.
Tootsie
Okay, let’s do it. Let’s talk Tootsie.
I’m not going to go too in-depth here, mostly because there is a lot about this show that is well-crafted and plenty of people are enjoying it. And perhaps, for some people in these audiences, this show really does push the envelop in their minds. But we do have to say it…
This show probably should not exist. Not today, anyway.
Main character - Straight, cis, white man who pretends to be a straight, cis, white woman to book a job.
This man is apparently (objectively) talented too, which means he has many a leg-up in the world in comparison to the majority of people around him.
So, what’s keeping him from getting work?
He’s an angry and uncontrolled human who acts out and gets fired, which means he doesn’t retain contacts from his jobs since he burns bridges. And…
He’s getting older. (Like, 40? Is this one really a problem for men in the business? I remain unconvinced.)
Now, here are some merits about this story (stick with me):
A story of a straight, cis, white man who ruins his own chances at a steady and productive life because of his anger…this is relevant. This is extremely relevant. And if the show were about that particular person, their growth, and their personal journey to leave that toxicity behind, well, then we might have a good story here that is relevant to today.
His alter ego - for she does seem to be a character unto herself and completely disassociated from her male counterpart - Dorothy is actually quite a badass woman. She fights against sexism and ageism in a world rampant with it. And if this were a story about an actual woman fighting for these things in this world, this would be an excellent and relevant story.
But alas, this show is ultimately neither of these things.
Here’s what it actually contains:
The man learns lessons - but not enough.
He changes - but does he?
His alter ego is wonderful - but she doesn’t exist.
There’s a fight for and positive messages for women and feminism - but it’s led entirely by a man in a dress.
There’s a fight against ageism - but led by a man, and men don’t seem affected by this in the capacity that women are.
And not to mention the fact that there are some really cringy moments in this show that parade as feminism, ageism, and trans-positive moments, which really aren’t any of those things. Instead, they are part of a plot for this out-of-work man to get - and then retain - his job.
Is this show moving us backward? I don’t think it is. It could have become that, but it didn’t. And for that fact - adapting from a source material “of a different time” - I will tip my hat.
But is it moving us forward? Nope. Not at all. Not in the least.
So, I again ask: “Why this story? Why now? Is there really not more???”
There must be more.
There Is More
Okay, there is. So much more.
But it’s not being put out there into the commercial consciousness. And when it is, it’s not happening fast enough or as prevalently as it needs to.
And I don’t mean to rail against these particular shows - they had the bad luck of being the 3 newer shows that I happened to see within the same 4 days.
There are plenty of positives for them as well:
Scotland, PA had some awesome music.
The Inheritance Part 1 is beautiful and saying some very important things.
Tootsie made me laugh more than most musicals ever do.
But there is still more.
And we need to find it and put it out there. We need to continue moving forward and stop treading water. Let’s celebrate more people - other people.
There are countless good stories to tell, so let’s find them and tell them to the world with the prevalence that has been given to white men. We can, we should, and we will.
#glamorous life blog#glamorous life#theatre#theater#theatre artist#more#Broadway#Off-Broadway#Scotland PA#The Inheritance#Tootsie#cis white men#straight#gay#criticism
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The Lego Movie 2: The Second Part
In an era where the sheer amount of content we consume is relentless, a movie that actually surprises and delights feels rarer than...well, rarer than a kitty with a unicorn horn. When 2014′s The Lego Movie burst on the scene, it was able to surprise and delight just as much as a kitty with a unicorn horn and maybe even more. The wild success of the tale of Emmett Brickowski (Chris Pratt) and Wyldstyle/Lucy (Elizabeth Banks) saving the Lego universe from an evil tyrant who wants to glue everything into stasis led to a slew of (subpar) franchise offshoots, including The Lego Batman Movie and The Lego Ninjago Movie. Phil Lord and Christopher Miller are back again 5 years later as writer-directors to helm the sequel to the OG brick-building caper, picking up right where the first left off. Is this creation building upon a great foundation to become bigger and better than the first? Or is it more akin to stepping on a Lego in the middle of the night on the way to the bathroom and cursing every god known to the tongues of man? Well...
Much more the former than the latter! This sequel is smart, sharp, full of quick wit and dazzling visuals, and it explores the characters we know and love and gives them independent trajectories with some real emotional growth. Basically, Bricksburg has been destroyed due to the Duplo invaders that arrived at the end of the first film. Every time they rebuild, the Duplo agents find them and destroy them, so they live in a postapocalyptic shanty wasteland called Apocalypseburg, where everything and everyone is dark, edgy, gritty, and unappealing so as not to attract Duplo attention. Emmett is the only one who’s kept his sunny disposition and Lucy worries he’s too immature because of it. Another Duplo attack from General Mayhem (Stephanie Beatriz) leads to Lucy being kidnapped and taken to the Systar System to meet the queen there - Queen Watevra Wa’Nabi (Tiffany Haddish). Emmett chases after them to rescue Lucy, but gets waylaid in space and saved by Rex Dangervest (also Chris Pratt), a galaxy guarding space cowboy raptor trainer, who agrees to help Emmett save his friends. As these two plot threads begin to intertwine, it becomes clear that in spite of appearances, what’s really going on with the Legos is a result of real-world siblings Finn, from the first movie (Jadon Sand) and his little sister Bianca (Brooklynn Prince) fighting over their respective Lego creations. Bianca just wants to join their two imaginary worlds together, while Finn gets mad and smashes everything to pieces. It’s only when they realize they can have more fun together than apart that the citizens of their respective Lego worlds can be saved.
Some thoughts:
These movies are cram-packed in the best way with jokes, visual puns, sight gags, and fringe character sightings. They really bear repeat viewings because so many jokes and details are split-second or simply go by too quickly to really be savored.
More than anything, the animation is just BREATHTAKING. Like in the gif above - the little steam bubbles made of Legos that appear when Rex takes off his helmet. It’s a minute little detail but it takes literal world-building to a whole new level and I’m just so enamored with it.
I love the different homages to other genres that weren’t addressed in the first movie. We start off Mad Max style with the postapocalyptic vibes in the desert, then move on to a Star Wars-inspired rebel space odyssey. Even the big villain song feels very classic Disney, something very akin to “Poor Unfortunate Souls.”
I like the idea of Emmett and Rex’s conflict being about reconciling who you want to be vs. who you THINK you want to be. I feel like I say this every time I review a kids’ movie, but the good ones, the smart ones, are able to do this with such aplomb. Emmett doesn’t change for Lucy or for Bricksburg or for Rex. He grows as a result of his experiences and he learns from his past (and future) mistakes. That kind of growth is painful, and it’s elegantly done here in a movie aimed at people who are still figuring out who they want to be - and whether they want to be that for the wrong or the right reasons.
The Bruce Willis cameo might be my favorite cameo of the year so far.
I love the fresh blood brought to the principal cast, especially in the form of three amazing women of color - Tiffany Haddish as Queen Watevra Wa’Nabi, Stephanie Beatriz as General Mayhem, and Maya Rudolph as live action Mom. Each gets a juicy role to really dig in to, and each is fantastic in her own way.
None of the songs are quite the earworm that “Everything is Awesome” was (not even the purposefully earworm-y “Catchy Song”) but the music IS catchy and has all the fun and verve of the first film’s songs.
Overall, this doesn’t pack quite the same level of punch as the original but it just baaaaarely falls short, and that’s higher praise than I can give most films aimed at kids. This is still a sweet and visually stunning treat with a core that taps into some deep emotional issues. All in all, a worthy sequel that far surpasses the other spinoffs and extended universe entries in the franchise.
#119in2019#the lego movie 2#the lego movie the second part#the lego movie 2 review#the lego movie the second part review#tlmtsp#chris pratt#elizabeth banks#stephanie beatriz#tiffany haddish#maya rudolph#movie reviews#film reviews
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Top 10 Impressions: Bryston 4B Cubed & BP-17 Cubed
I've logged about a month with the the Bryston 4B Cubed amp and BP-17 Cubed preamp. Full review in the works, but here are some impressions so far...
Build quality. As expected given Bryston's reputation, but the 4B3 amp is built like a tank. It's not particularly large or heavy for a 300wpc unit, but it feels as solid as a brick - truly professional-grade, and a cut above typical audiophile gear in robustness if not fanciness. The BP-17 pre is by contrast quite light and more conventional in build quality. Fit and finish are excellent however and the controls have satisfying feel.
No remote? I was surprised that no remote control for the preamp is included. I understand making it optional, but at this price point, I'd expect at least something basic included. I managed to get remote capability working via my Logitech Harmony system.
Break-in. Bryston runs in equipment for 100 hours at the factory. This might lead you to believe that no further break-in is required. Do not be fooled - this gear takes a LONG time to start sounding right. For the first 50 hours or so, the sound was, in current vernacular, “meh.” It took at least 100 hours of playing time for the combo to open up, and it continues to improve after a couple hundred more.
Character. I read a comment in an audio forum that someone found the sound of the 4B3 amp “dark and murky.” I can see why one would think this in the first 100 hours of operation - however the darkness slowly burns away, and everything is sounding significantly more open and responsive now. Overall, I'd characterize it as solid and neutral from top to bottom, neither overtly bright nor dark, cold nor warm; it feels very middle-of-the-road neutral with a reassuring "core" to the sound centered around the lower midrange.
Dat Bass. Lower frequencies are the Brystons’ calling card. They're powerful and controlled, full without being overtly rich. Music has a rock solid foundation, making my Ayre AX7e sound a little lean and flighty by comparison.
Crank it up. With 300 watts on tap (500W into 4Ω), the 4B3 is the most powerful amplifier I've had in my system, and it definitely sounds it. I tend towards smaller amps given my system, apartment environment and tastes, but there's no substitute for power. There's an unmistakable effortlessness, and music sounds better and better the louder you play it - there's no change in tonal quality, no congestion, no hardness or strain.
A bit reserved. The Bryston combo trades the above qualities for some resolution vs. the best I’ve heard - e.g. my lightly modified Ayre has more air and detail, with better separation of instruments. The Brystons are more laid back and less lively compared to the incisive and slightly-forward Ayre. I'll try to ascertain how much of this is due to the preamp vs. the amp.
RCA vs. XLR. Initially, I found the unbalanced (RCA) input to sound better than the balanced (XLR) one. Now, I'm not so sure - they both sound pretty good after break-in.
High gain > low gain. However, I’d definitely opt for the high gain (29dB) input setting over the low one (23dB), which is a little veiled by comparison. (I also wonder if the “dark and murky” comment came with the wrong gain setting.) Stick with high gain if your system can run with it.
Power cord matters. On the amp at least, I’ve found the right cord to be critical in rounding out the sound. Currently I’m using a bespoke cord from Martin DeWulf, and have also gotten good results from the trusty Audience powerChord.
Much more to come in a full review!
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