I’m about to make one hell of a playlist. No genre cohesion. No obvious link between these songs. Why are they on one playlist? Wouldn’t you like to know.

Top 5 meals and/or top 5 movies you’ve seen this past year?

An ask! Yippee! I tried to answer the food one before, but tumblr glitched and deleted it. But my answers were basically various kinds of soup and pasta anyway. I’ll just answer the movie one which I assume refers to my 2023 movie list.

Rope (1948). Love this movie and the characters and the dialogue and the camerawork. Maybe I’m biased because I was going to be in a production of the play that never ended up happening. It’s a great suspense, but it’s also surprisingly funny. It’s also the only movie on this list I’ve written a fic for.

Two different Les Mis adaptations that I don’t want to give two separate spots on here. The 1925 movie is genuinely fantastic. I love the acting. The 1978 movie is…something. I’m a little ashamed of how much I like this one. It’s silly and fun though.

Ravenous (1999). What is it about cannibalism that makes it so perfect for stories with social commentary? This is such a fun movie. And yes, I am one of the people who love its weird score.

A Field In England (2013). I love some good historical horror. I’m not even sure if this is horror though. It’s just really fucking bizarre. I really like this movie, but it does need one hell of a flashing lights warning.

Julius Caesar (1979). I am unreasonably obsessed with this movie. It’s so far from the best production of this play, but the acting… oh my god the acting is enthralling. It also has that one shot of Brutus staring straight into the camera which is an odd choice. For god’s sake, I just need someone else to have seen this thing.

These are in no particular order. I also thought I’d add some honorable mentions because I’m indecisive: The Singer Not the Song (1961), Moby Dick (1956), Jesus Christ Superstar (1973), The Trial (1962), All About Eve (1950).

Today’s les mis letters chapter is hilarious. I keep trying to think of something to say about it, but it just ends up sounding a little ridiculous. This is a scene in which Javert is meant to be menacing. He’s an active threat to Jean Valjean and revels in that fact. But it just comes across as a little funny to me. Like during the chase, he’s a bit over enthusiastic about it, but the reader knows that he’s already failed. So you’re left reading about guy being a little too excited about an arrest that won’t end up happening.

Why is Javert so funny?

I think I have a new favorite wild coincidence from this book:

“He no longer thought of Jean Valjean,—the wolf of to-day causes these dogs who are always on the chase to forget the wolf of yesterday,—when, in December, 1823, he read a newspaper, he who never read newspapers; but Javert, a monarchical man, had a desire to know the particulars of the triumphal entry of the “Prince Generalissimo” into Bayonne. Just as he was finishing the article, which interested him; a name, the name of Jean Valjean, attracted his attention at the bottom of a page. The paper announced that the convict Jean Valjean was dead, and published the fact in such formal terms that Javert did not doubt it. He confined himself to the remark, “That’s a good entry.” Then he threw aside the paper, and thought no more about it.”

Of all the days Javert, who hates reading, could have read a newspaper, he specifically reads on the day Valjean “dies.” And he believes it has to be true because it’s said “formally.” And he feels the need to comment to himself about it. The mental image is just so funny.

I do think this chapter serves not only to update us on Javert’s side of the chase, but to remind us that he’s the best police officer we’re going to see. We last saw Javert when he checked in on Sister Simplice in his search for Valjean, but right before that, he’d killed Fantine with his presence and his cruelty. We’re well-positioned to hate him, and we’re definitely not supposed to be rooting for him. At the same time, Hugo makes sure to remind us that Javert is “moral” in his own way. For instance,  as an officer in Paris, “Javert rendered himself useful in divers and, though the word may seem strange for such services, honorable manners;” police work isn’t “honorable,” but Javert comes as close to making it so as is possible through his integrity. He even gets back on Valjean’s trail through a duty that seems much more sympathetic than chasing ex-convicts: searching for an “abducted” child. We know that Cosette wasn’t “abducted” and that Valjean is an infinitely better caretaker than the Thénardiers, but the police don’t. Javert may suspect that Valjean was involved with this, but ultimately, he’s there because he’s been called on to check on a “kidnapped” child, and if Cosette had actually been kidnapped, it’d be very easy to think positively of his work. 

He’s also so cautious while pursuing Valjean, partly for selfish and/or career-related reasons (he’s secretive, he likes drama, and he wants the credit for capturing such a “dangerous” man), but because of his “conscience” as well. He doesn’t even pick up the chase until he’s certain that this man is a criminal of some sort, either Jean Valjean or someone well-connected. We still despise him for what he’s done, but we’re also made to recognize his integrity (and perhaps to contrast him with the implied bluster of other police officers, who brag about their “captures” even before they catch anyone, whereas Javert is quiet about his work and only wants to be praised when he feels he’s earned it. He seems humble and modest in comparison). 

At the same time, we can’t forget the situation Valjean is in. Javert fears catching him too quickly for this reason:

“The reader can imagine the effect which this brief paragraph, reproduced by twenty newspapers, would have caused in Paris: “Yesterday, an aged grandfather, with white hair, a respectable and well-to-do gentleman, who was walking with his grandchild, aged eight, was arrested and conducted to the agency of the Prefecture as an escaped convict!””

Javert worries about this man’s “respectability,” but with the exception of that line, basically everything else is true. Valjean was almost arrested while walking with the child he cares for, without having done anything immediate to warrant the attention of the police. This arbitrary and unjust division based on “respectability,” then, is what makes all of Javert’s actions absurd and cruel. The best of the police force still punishes people based not on their morals or their actions, but on generalized perceptions of their identity. 

"The paper announced that the convict Jean Valjean was dead, and published the fact in such formal terms that Javert did not doubt it. He confined himself to the remark, “That’s a good entry.” Then he threw aside the paper, and thought no more about it."

This passage has such a comic meme quality to it.

*Javert reads a newspaper to entertain himself with his favourite war news*

Newspaper: "Jean Valjean is dead"

Javert: "That's some good shit."

*crumples paper and throws it over his shoulder*

Javert, in this entire chapter (2.5.10):

you contain multitudes i contain multi dudes *5 guys emerge from my mouth and make you a really overpriced cheeseburger*

no exact year for this one (so sorry!!), but i’m pretty sure it’s early to mid 1800s does 17th century

@adri-atics why, yes it is!

I need Tumblr to have a button that forces y’all to watch a movie with me.

Sometimes I’m looking at art on here and I see a drawing of a rather strong looking old man and I immediately assume it’s my buddy Jean Valjean.

put “top 5” anything in my ask and i will answer ok go

top 5 movies that were adapted from plays! (sorry if this is too specific)

Oh nice! No, I love the specificity, helps narrow it down lol.

1. Becket

2. The Lion In Winter (1968)

3. Romeo + Juliet (1996)

4. Fiddler on the Roof

5. Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Not necessarily ranked because uhh I can’t. Also this is definitely biased towards things I’ve seen recently.

A couple quick honorable mentions that I just remembered: Amadeus, The Sound of Music, My Fair Lady, Rope, Night of the Iguana, The Ruling Class, Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Macbeth (2015 and 1971 — I need to see the 2021 still!), The Hollow Crown: Richard II

@alienfuckeronmain sent this to me last night and I laughed so hard I hurt myself

I wanna do something with my life, like watch more movies.

Happy news indeed guys