"going out to get milk" is a common turn of phrase used to describe a man abandoning his family.
the "milkman" is a common figure in stories depicting a woman's infidelity and adulterous affair.
this implies that the ability to provide milk would both decrease the likelihood of a man abandoning his wife and children, as it would eliminate the need for leaving to get milk AND would secure that man's marriage, as his wife would have no need to seek milk from an extraneous source.
therefore, all men should produce milk, through various means such as:
- being a cow
- being an almond
- being a woman
- being a coconut
- being in the omegaverse
- being an oat
(list is exemplary and not finite)
in this essay, i will redefine the nuclear family and explain the seductive and inflammatory nature of the 1993 "Got Milk?" commercials.
it's so easy to do things! it's so easy to get up and do things and get things done! i am capable and motivated and executive dysfunction can't touch me. *starting to cry a little because my affirmations aren't working* it's so easy to do things, come on get up, it's easy, let's do things *mental image of a cartoon trying to move a heavy lazy animal* come onnnnn
Les Mis French History Timeline: all the context you need to know to understand Les Mis
Here is a simple timeline of French history as it relates to events in Les Miserables, and to the context of Les Mis's publication!
A post like this would’ve really helped me four years ago, when I knew very little about 1830s France or the goals of Les Amis, so I’m making it now that I have the information to share! ^_^
This post will be split into 4 sections: a quick overview of important terms, the history before the novel that’s important to the character's backstories, the history during the novel, and then the history relevant to the 1848-onward circumstances of Hugo’s life and the novel’s publication.
Part 1: Overview
The novel takes place in the aftermath of the Battle of Waterloo, during a period called the Restoration.
The ancient monarchy was overthrown during the French Revolution. After a series of political struggles the revolutionary government was eventually replaced by an empire under Napoleon. Then Napoleon was defeated and sent into exile— but then he briefly came back and seized power for one hundred days—! and then he was defeated yet again for good at the battle of Waterloo in 1815.
After all that political turmoil, kings have been "restored" to the throne of France. The novel begins right as this Restoration begins.
The major political parties important to generally understanding Les Mis (Wildly Oversimplified) are Republicans, Liberals, Bonapartists, and Royalists. It’s worth noting that all these ‘party terms’ changed in meaning/goals over time depending on which type of government was in power. In general though, and just for the sake of reading Les Mis:
Republicans want a Republic, where people have power rather than monarchs and (in this context) elect their leaders democratically— they’re the very left wing progressive ones, and are heavily outcast/censored/policed. Les Amis are Republicans.
Liberals: we don’t have time to go into it, but I don’t think there are any characters in Les Mis defined by their liberalism.
Bonapartists are followers of Napoleon Bonaparte I, who led the Empire. Many viewed the Emperor as more favorable or progressive to them than a king would be. Georges Pontmercy is a Bonapartist, as is Pere Fauchelevent.
Royalists believe in the divine right of Kings; they’re conservative. Someone who is extremely royalist to the point of wanting basically no limits on the king’s power at all are called “Ultraroyalists” or “ultra.” Marius’s conservative grandfather Gillenromand is an ultra royalist.
Hugo is also very concerned with criticizing the "Great Man of History," the view that history is pushed forward by the actions of a handful of special great men like kings and emperors. Les Mis aims to focus on the common masses of people who push history forward instead.
Part 2: Timeline of History involved in characters’ Backstories
1789– the March on the bastille/ the beginning of the original French Revolution. A young Myriel, who is then a shallow married aristocrat, flees the country. His family is badly hurt by the Revolution. His wife dies in exile.
1793– Louis XVI is found guilty of committing treason and sentenced to death. The Conventionist G—, the old revolutionary who Myriel talks to, votes against the death of the king.
1795: the Directory rules France. Throughout much of the revolution, including this period, the country is undergoing “dechristianization” policies. Fantine is born at this time. Because the church is not in power as a result of dechristianization, Fantine is unbaptized and has no record of a legal given name, instead going by the nickname Fantine (“enfantine,” childlike.)
1795: The Revolutionary government becomes more conservative. Jean Valjean is arrested.
1804: Napoleon officially crowns himself Emperor of France. the Revolution’s dream of a Republic is dead for a bit. At this time, Myriel returns from his exile and settles down in the provinces of France to work as a humble priest. Then he visits Paris and makes a snarky comment to Napoleon, and Napoleon finds him so witty that he appoints him Bishop.
Part 3: the novel actually begins
1815: Napoleon is defeated at the Battle of Waterloo by the allied nations of Britain and Prussia. Read Hugo’s take on that in the Waterloo Digression! He gets a lot of facts wrong, but that’s Hugo for you.
Marius’s father, Baron Pontmercy, nearly dies on the battlefield. Thenardier steals his belongings.
After Napoleon is defeated, a king is restored to the throne— Louis XVIII, of the House of Bourbon, the ancient royal house that ruled France before the Revolution. In order to ensure that Louis XVIII stays on the throne, the nations of Britian, Prussia, and Russia, send soldiers occupy France. So France is, during the early events of the novel, being occupied by foreign soldiers. This is part of why there are so many references to soldiers on the streets and garrisons and barracks throughout the early portions of the novel. The occupation officially ended in 1818.
1815 (a few months after Waterloo): Jean Valjean is released from prison and walks down the road to Digne, the very same road Napoleon charged down during his last attempt to seize power. Many of the inns he passes by are run by people advertising their connections to Napoleon. Symbolically Valjean is the poor man returning from exile into France, just as Napoleon was the Great Man briefly returning from exile during the 100 days, or King Louis XVIII is the Great King returning from exile to a restored throne.
1817: The Year 1817, which Hugo has a whole chapter-digression about. Louis XVIII of the House of Bourbon is on the throne. Fantine, “the nameless child of the Directory,” is abandoned by Tholomyes.
1821: Napoleon dies in exile.
1825: King Louis XVIII dies. Charles X takes the throne. While Louis XVIII was willing to compromise, Charles X is a far more conservative ultra-royalist. He attempts to bring back something like the Pre-Revolution style of monarchy.
Underground resistance groups, including Republican groups like Les Amis, plot against him.
1827-1828: Georges Pontmercy, bonapartist veteran of Waterloo, dies. Marius, who has been growing up with his abusive Ultra-royalist grandfather and mindlessly repeating his ultra-royalist politics, learns how much his father loved him. He becomes a democratic Bonapartist.
Marius is a little bit late to everything though. He shouts “long live the Emperor!” Even though Napoleon died in 1821 and insults his grandfather by telling him “down with that hog Louis XVIII” even though Louis XVIII has been dead since 1825. He’s a little confused but he’s got the spirit.
Marius leaves his grandfather to live on his own.
1830: “The July Revolution,” also known as the “Three Glorious Days” or “the Second French Revolution.” Rebels built barricades and successfully forced Charles X out of power.
Unfortunately, TL;DR moderate politicians prevented the creation of a Republic and instead installed another more politically progressive king — Louis-Philippe, of the house of Orleans.
Louis-Philippe was a relative of the royal family, had lived in poverty for a time, and described himself as “the citizen-king.” Hugo’s take on him is that he was a good man, but being a king is inherently evil; monarchy is a bad system even if a “good” dictator is on the throne.
The shadow of 1830 is important to Les Mis, and there’s even a whole digression about it in “A Few Pages of History,” a digression most people adapting the novel have clearly skipped. Les Amis would’ve probably been involved in it....though interestingly, only Gavroche and maybe Enjolras are explicitly confirmed to have been there, Gavroche telling Enjolras he participated “when we had that dispute with Charles X.”
Sadly we're following Marius (not Les Amis) in 1830. Hugo mentions that Marius is always too busy thinking to actually participate in political movements. He notes that Marius was pleased by 1830 because he thinks it is a sign of progress, but that he was too dreamy to be involved in it.
1831: in “A Few Pages of History” Hugo describes the various ways Republican groups were plotting what what would later become the June Rebellion– the way resistance groups had underground meetings, spread propaganda with pamphlets, smuggled in gunpowder, etc.
Spring of 1832: there is a massive pandemic of cholera in Paris that exacerbates existing tensions. Marius is described as too distracted by love to notice all the people dying of cholera.
June 1st, 1832: General Lamarque, a member of parliament often critical of the monarchy, dies of cholera.
June 5th and 6th, 1832: the June Rebellion of 1832:
Republicans, students, and workers attempt to overthrow the monarchy, and finally get a democratic Republic For Real This Time. The rebellion is violently crushed by the National Guard.
Enjolras was partially inspired by Charles Jeanne, who led the barricades at Saint-Merry.
Part 4: the context of Les Mis’s publication
February 1848: a successful revolution finally overthrows King Louis Philippe. A younger Victor Hugo, who was appointed a peer of France by Louis-Philippe, is then elected as a representative of Paris in the provisional revolutionary government.
June 1848: This is a lot, and it’s a thing even Hugo’s biographers often gloss over, because it’s a horrific moral failure/complexity of Hugo’s that is completely at odds with the sort of politics he later became known for. The short summary is that in June 1848 there was a working-class rebellion against new labor laws/forced conscription, and Victor Hugo was on the “wrong side of the barricades” working with the government to violently suppress the rebels. To quote from this source:
Much to the disappointment of his supporters, in [Victor Hugo’s] first speech in the national assembly he went after the ateliers or national workshops, which had been a major demand of the workers. Two days later the workshops were closed, workers under twenty-five were conscripted and the rest sent to the countryside. It was a “political purge” and a declaration of war on the Parisian working class that set into motion the June Days, or the second revolution of 1848—an uprising lauded by Marx as one of the first workers’ revolutions. As the barricades went up in Paris, Hugo was tragically on the wrong side. On June 24 the national assembly declared a state of siege with Hugo’s support.
Hugo would then sink to a new political low. He was chosen as one of sixty representatives “to go and inform the insurgents that a state of siege existed and that Cavaignac [the officer who had led the suppression of the June revolt] was in control.” With an express mission “to stop the spilling of blood,” Hugo took up arms against the workers of Paris. Thus, Hugo, voice of the voiceless and hero of workers, helped to violently suppress a rebellion led by people whom he in many ways supported—and many of whom supported him. With twisted logic and an even more twisted conscience, Hugo fought and risked his life to crush the June insurrection.
There is an otherwise baffling chapter in Les Mis titled "The Charybdis of the Faubourg Saint Antoine and the Scylla of the Fauborg Du Temple," where Hugo goes on a digression about June of 1848. Hugo contrasts June of 1848 with other rebellions, and insists that the June 1848 Rebellion was Wrong and Different. It is a strangely anti-rebellion classist chapter that feels discordant with the rest of the book. This is because it is Hugo's effort to (indirectly) address criticisms people had of his own involvement in June 1848, and to justify why he believed crushing that rebellion with so much force was necessary. The chapter is often misused to say that Hugo was "anti-violent-rebellion all the time" (which he wasn't) or that "rebellion is bad” is the message of Les Mis (which it isn't) ........but in reality the chapter is about Hugo attempting to justify his own past actions to the reader and to himself, actions which many people on his side of the political spectrum considered a betrayal. He couldn't really have written a novel about the politics of barricades without addressing his actions in June 1848, and he addressed them by attempting to justify them, and he attempted to justify them with a lot of deeply questionable rhetoric.
1848 is a lot, and I don't fully understand all the context yet-- but that general context is necessary to understand why the chapter is even in the novel.
Late 1848/1849:
Quoting from the earlier source again:
In the wake of the revolution, Hugo tried to make sense of the events of 1848. He tried to straddle the growing polarization between, on the one hand, “the party of order,” which coalesced around Napoleon’s nephew Louis-Napoleon Bonaparte, who in December 1848 had been elected France’s president under a new constitution, and the “party of movement” (or radical Left) that, in the aftermath of 1848, had made considerable advances. In this climate, as Hugo increasingly spoke out, and faced opposition and repression himself, he was radicalized and turned to the Left for support against the tyranny and “barbarism” he saw in the government of Louis Napoleon.
The “point of no return” came in 1849. Hugo became one of the loudest and most prominent voices of opposition to Louis Napoleon. In his final and most famous insult to Napoleon, he asked: “Just because we had Napoleon le Grand [Napoleon the Great], do we have to have Napoleon le petit [Napoleon the small]?” Immune from punishment because of his role in the government, Bonaparte retaliated by shutting down Hugo’s newspaper and arresting both his sons.
Thenardier is possibly meant to be Hugo’s caricature of Louis-Napoleon/Napoleon III. He is “Napoleon the small,” an opportunistic scumbag leeching off the legacy of Waterloo and Napoleon to give himself some respectability. He is a metaphorical ‘graverobber of Waterloo’ who has all of Napoleon’s dictatorial pettiness without any of his redeeming qualities.
It’s also worth noting that Marius is Victor “Marie” Hugo’s self-insert. Hugo’s politics changed wildly over time. Like Marius he was a royalist when was young. And like Marius, he looked up to Napoleon and to Napoleon III, before his views of them were shattered. This is reflected in the way Marius has complicated feelings of loyalty to his father (who’s very connected to the original Napoleon I) and to Thenardier (who’s arguably an analogue for Napoleon IiI.)
1851:
On December 2, 1851, Louis Napoleon launched his coup, suspending the republic’s constitution he had sworn to uphold. The National Assembly was occupied by troops. Hugo responded by trying to rally people to the barricades to defend Paris against Napoleon’s seizure of power. Protesters were met with brutal repression.
Under increasing threat to his own life, with both of his sons in jail and his death falsely announced, Hugo finally left Paris.
He ultimately ended up on the island of Guernsey where he spent much of the next eighteen years and where he would write the bulk of Les Misérables. It was from here that his most radical and political work was smuggled into France.
Hugo arguably did some of his most important political work after being exiled. In Guernsey, he aided with resistance against the regime of Napoleon III. Hugo’s popularity with the masses also meant that his exile was massive news, and a thing all readers of Les Miserables would’ve been deeply familiar with.
This is why there are so many bits of Les Mis where the narrator nostalgically reflects on how much they wish they were in Paris again —these parts are very political; readers would’ve picked up that this was Victor Hugo reflecting on he cruelty of his own exile.
1862-1863: Les Mis is published. It is a barely-veiled call to action against the government of Napoleon III, written about the June Rebellion instead of the current regime partially in order to dodge the censorship laws at the time.
Conservatives despise the book and call it the death of civilization and a dangerous rebellious evil godless text that encourages them to feel bad for the stupid evil criminal rebel poors and etc etc etc– (see @psalm22-6 ‘s excellent translations of the ancient conservative reviews)-- but the novel sells very well. Expressing approval or disapproval of the book is considered inherently political, but fortunately it remains unbanned.
…And that’s it! An ocean of basic historical context about Les Mis!
If anyone has any corrections or additions they would like to make, feel free to add them! I have researched to the best of my ability, but I don’t pretend to be perfect.
I also recommend listening to the Siecle podcast, which covers the events of the Bourbon Restoration starting at the Battle of Waterloo, if you're interested in learning more about the period!
Here’s how the scene actually went as nearly as I can remember.
Student 1: I’m the president of the United States. How can I help you?
Student 2: I’d like to make a complaint about the Vice President.
Student 1: Okay let me just get out my chalkboard where I tally complaints about the Vice President. Let’s see, that makes five… hundred! What’s your complaint?
Student 2: Well you see, I’m here to assassinate you, but I don’t think that guy should take over when you’re dead.
Student 1: Okay let me make some calls. Beep boop beep boop beep beep beep. Hello? I’m here with— What’s your name?
Student 2: I’m William Shakespeare.
Student 1: I’m here with William Shakespeare and he convinced me we need to replace the Vice President. When? Let me ask. — When were you planning to assassinate me?
Student 2: I mean I was thinking like, as soon as I was done talking to you.
Student 1: Okay sounds good. Yes we need to replace him right now, one moment. Beep beep boop beep. Hello? You’re fired. Bye. Ring, ring. Oh, it’s my assistant again. Hello? What’s that? Oh, they want to know if you’re the same William Shakespeare who wrote Romeo and Juliet.
Student 2: Yes, that’s me.
Student 1: What’s that? He’s been dead for four hundred years? Okay thank you goodbye. Sorry they said you’ve been dead for four hundred years so you can’t assassinate me.
It really is so disturbing to see a Percy Jackson without the inner monologue.
In the books, even if he was absolutely slaying, eating, serving BAMF in the middle of the fight, the book would be saying like "gosh I'm so awkward and clumsy haha who let me hold a sword lol I'm such a silly goose"
In the show we see him in pain and literally doing the most insane stuff with the most stoic facial expressions. Killing, stabbing, getting stabbed. He isn't some quirky funny kid on the outside, even if canonically on the inside he sees the world like a real kid. The show Percy seems different for these reasons but that's not OOC, that's just what Percy looks like to EVERYONE ELSE.
The whiplash I felt seeing that that comic is from 2022 and being described as a 'classic'... I know novelty rules online but man.
Come here, children. Sit around my rocking chair. I have been here since 2012 and I have tales to share.
Pre-Words of Radiance:
@esseastri's liveblog of Way of Kings, which managed to make its way to Brandon's assistant Peter Ahlstrom. (He also used to pop into our fandom chats on rare occasions.)
@featherwriter's Beneath The Bells of Kharbranth, which has already been recommended but deserves another endorsement.
@tatter-demalion's Sadears comic.
@airred's Jazznah art (I'm biased as Red is a friend of mine but this is also fucking hilarious)
@lunarubato's Stormlight valentines, which she printed out and gave to Brandon. We uh. we may have made him a whole gift basket.
The Windrunner Dodgeball chat
Pre-Oathbringer:
Where's My Chull?, a fandom collaboration featuring works by many artists and prose by @esseastri, which was also printed out and given to Brandon at a signing.
@esseastri's Liberté. It is a Les Mis AU. It proceeds accordingly.
@jamiedodgerart's 'What am I willing to put up with today?' animation
My own Skymark, Fading - a CSFWF fic that I am still proud of to this day. Periodically I get emails with fresh distressed screaming in the comments and this keeps my skin moisturized.
@jamiedodgerart's Kaladin's Internal Monologue animation. Song is 'Swear Jar' by Illy and it's an ANTHEM honestly.
Pre-Rhythm of War:
Ridiculous Reading of Oathbringer Wedding Scene courtesy of Brandon and his beta readers
I've combed about 165 pages of my own Stormlight tag (which is up to about five years ago, not fully caught up) and these are the things that stand out to me as particularly #Iconic.
It's an unprecedented deal for the author, whose 'Mistborn' series and 'The Stormlight Archive' are being eyed for film and television adapt
The deal is rare one, coming after a competitive situation which saw Sanderson meet with most of the studio heads in town. It gives the author rarefied control over the screen translations, according to sources. Sanderson will be the architect of the universe, will write, produce and consult, and have approvals. That’s a level of involvement that not even J.K. Rowling or George R.R. Martin enjoy.
I bet there's at least one guy who uses a wheelchair who became a sneakerhead just for the laughs. Wearing pristine bright white brand shoes like "if you let your shoes touch the ground you're a bitch. If you keep them on display and never wear them, you're a coward. I'm the only one doing this correctly. Fuck you, get on my level."
Elend Venture really said "Hey, I know this is only the second time we've met, but can we engage in parallel play where I sit here and read forbidden literature and you dance and stuff?"
And then Vin was all "DAMMIT! Why do I find that so hot?!?"
And then Shan Elariel was like "My fiance is READING in proximity to another woman?!? By Elend standards HE'S PRACTICALLY MAKING OUT WITH HER!"
The other night, I dreamt that I was talking to my husband about the movie Gnomeo and Juliet, and how I've always wondered why 3D objects with faces are all alive and sentient, but 2D objects, like pictures aren't. I then went on to ask, "If, in the world of the movie, you cut out a paper doll and gave it a face, would it also come to life? What if you cut a person out of a painting they're in? Would they gain sentience? Or maybe they were always sentient, and would thank you for freeing them from the confines of the picture around them."
The dream then changed to me waking up and realizing that the entire conversation had been a dream, followed by my husband coming home and me starting to tell him the whole thing all over again. But this time, he interrupted me to say that in Demon Slayer, the Mugen Train is alive because it has a connection to a demon.
This led my dream-self to come up with the fan theory that, in Gnomeo and Juliet, all the gnomes and other lawn decorations are alive because the two houses they live at are inhabited by demons as well.
Our youth and family nonprofit theatre is doing the musical Annie with a cast and crew of about 100, mostly children. Yesterday we had a two-show day with limited time for kids to rest and eat in between.
A parent offered to set up catering to be delivered for anyone who didn’t want to or couldn’t leave the site, and asked that anybody who was interested contribute a small amount to the cost. A few parents started asking if they could pay for other families who might not be able to contribute, and put in extra.
The whole cast was fed. There was food left over. Very few families left to get food or brought food from home because there was an abundance. Kids got seconds. Kids got seconds of dessert.
It’s been said a million times, but people balk at the idea of socialism and taxation and “paying for freeloaders” because we’re devoid of community and isolated. Nobody feared “paying for freeloaders” because those freeloaders aren’t faceless, they’re kids who go on playdates with your own children, or families who offered your child a ride when your car broke down. If we could think about other people as members of our community instead of faceless, we would be more generous and sharing almost instantly.
This was filmed at the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust, which rescues, rehabilitates, and releases orphaned elephants in Kenya (among other conservation efforts). Charity Navigator has given it a 4/4 star rating, and you can make donations here or “adopt” a baby elephant here.
