Misérables Musings @gavroche-le-moineau - Tumblr Blog

Welcome!

Welcome to my Les Mis side blog! Right now I’m reading along with Les Mis Letters in French and post about language things. I do translations from French into English and occasionally I post some of my art. I’m a native English speaker who has studied French for over 10 years but I'm always learning and always welcome corrections/feedback. Below you will find (hopefully) useful tag links!

Les Mis Language (#les mis language) Posts about French language related stuff in The Brick

Translations (#mytranslation) My translations into English of bits, passages, chapters, lyrics, etc.

Original French Concept Album translation & annotation project (#concept album translations) I’m currently working on translating some of the lyrics from the Original French Concept Album along with annotations because many of the lyrics contain specific references that I haven’t seen illuminated elsewhere. (This is an on-going project, there will be more here soon.)

My Art (#myart) I also do art! Sometimes! If you want to see more of my art you can check out my main blog: labrador-tea

Les Mis Letters (#les mis letters) Here you’ll find any of my posts or reblogs following the current reading of The Brick

#making a pinned post!

secretmellowblog

It’s fascinating how Jean Valjean is constantly associated with imagery of being buried alive.

His literal near-burial in the coffin outside Petit-Picpus is the most obvious example of that. But it’s in the sewers chapters as well— he has to face the horror of nearly drowning and being buried alive deep underground in the filth beneath the city.

And that imagery a running motif throughout his entire storyline. His imprisonment is constantly compared to as a burial, a living death; being in prison is like being trapped and drowned underneath an enormous weight, unable to move, unable to escape, with everyone around you refusing to acknowledge you are still a living human being.

In his dream before the Champmatheiu trial, Jean Valjean had a nightmare where he’s surrounded by a faceless crowd of indifferent people, who tell him:

‘Do you not know that you have been dead this long time?’

I opened my mouth to reply, and I perceived that there was no one near me.

The core horror of Jean Valjean’s plotline is the horror of being buried alive. It’s the horror of being constantly told that he is dead when he’s still living and suffering and desperately struggling to escape—- but suffering alone while he’s buried in a place so deep that no one can hear him.

secretmellowblog

#prev tags I’d always thought of valjean as an avatar of the lonely but the buried works really well too actually 👀 @lawisnotmocked

YES! The Magnus Archives mentions that there’s often overlap between the Buried and the Lonely– the fear of being buried alive often overlaps with the fear of being buried alive and alone, where no one can ever hear you. Jean Valjean really belongs at that very specific intersection.

The nightmare he has before the trial at Arras really reads like a Magnus Archive episode centered on the Lonely. In fact, it’s literally the plot of a Magnus Archives episode centered on the Lonely, no exaggeration– his dream has basically the exact same plot as MAG 150: Cul-de-Sac. Both Mag 150 and Jean Valjean’s dream are about walking into an empty town full of identical empty houses, wandering down uncanny empty streets, walking into the empty identical houses, and then seeing horrible corpses or uncanny suffering undead people. Jean Valjean’s description of the faceless uncanny crowd is similar to the description of the ‘people’ in the Lonely in MAG 46: Lost in the Crowd.

But Jean Valjean’s dream involves more imagery of burial as well– his dream takes place in a world where “everything is dirt-colored, even the sky.” The people and horses are the color of ash and earth, as if they’ve risen from the ground. When he wakes up he sees no stars in the sky but small lanterns on the street, and believes for a moment that even the stars have all fallen to the earth.

Jean Valjean really is just.... the embodiment of being buried alive and alone, for decades, uselessly and desperately trying and failing to escape-- and the trauma that horrific isolation inflicts on you.

lawisnotmocked

YEAHH LES MIS MAGNUS ARCHIVES!!

You also mentioned Javert being an avatar of the hunt which I 100% agree with but I also think he has some elements of the eye too? He’s constantly watching Valjean in m-sur-m for anything he can use against him and when he ‘hunts’ Valjean and Cosette at Gorbeau house it’s only after an extended period of stalking and watching them until he’s confident that he can catch his prey. Even when he arrests Thenardier’s gang he makes sure to watch and wait for the perfect opportunity before he steps in. Obviously the police of the nineteenth century that Javert represents are very different to the police in our modern surveillance state but his job still involves a lot of watching and waiting for people to make a mistake or wrong decision that he can pounce on. He’s a hunter who’s very aware of his surroundings and likes to watch and stalk his prey before he takes any action.

His suicide note also reveals that even though he purposely tries not to think too hard about the consequences or morality of his actions, he does notice and pay attention to details like prisoners not being allowed to have chairs or being forced to be barefoot in the cold and he remembers them. He may not think but he does observe.

#les mis letters #lm 5.3.7 #jean valjean

theswampghost

you should NOT be at the club. you should be in the streets, june 5th, 1832, paris france. you should be building a barricade

potatosonnet

i need you to know that i've been having prouvaire/feuilly related dreams for the past week. what spell did you cast upon me after i looked through your les mis art again (positive)

Thank u….I miss them too (PS I need to know what your dreams are 👁👁)

#feuilly #jehan #les mis fanart

cliozaur

Jean Valjean

By Petr Pinkisevich

#les mis illustration #jean valjean

cliozaur

Éponine and Marius

by Petr Pinkisevich

#les mis illustration #eponine #marius

pilferingapples

“19 mai 1862 - J'ai fini ce matin la révision totale des Misérables.”

— Victor Hugo, in Le manuscrit des Misérables, ed. Réne Journet & Guy Robert. Belles Lettres, 1963, p. 41. (via byjuxtaposition)

psalm22-6

gavroche-le-moineau

Oh wow this is so cool!

Does anyone have a transcription? I'm not great at reading the handwriting.

What I can read: "J'ai fini ce matin 19 mai 1862 à dix heures la révision totale des Misérables. Je m'étais [remis?] au travail [?] la fin il y aura [?] an dans trois jours, le 22 mai 1861 à [?]. Hauteville House - V.H."

#victor hugo #les mis meta

psalm22-6

In front of a sign advertising Les Misérables, drame at the Porte-Saint-Martin Theater, a woman appeals to a man. She says “Have pity on a poor miserable woman!” He responds “Let’s go! ‘Miserables’ make lots of money.” [source]

psalm22-6

Also, this cartoon has a modern counterpart, which I came across thanks to @advertising-cosette