Discover Top Posts Tagged with #cosette!

Brick!club 11/14-11/15/13 Les Miserables 4.3.6 and 4.3.7

4.3.6- THE BATTLE COMMENCES I am reasonably amused that Hugo's basically describing Cosette's attraction to Marius as the equivalent of a fancrush- he's someone pretty and safely distant that she can throw Emotions at without worrying about actual Interactions. And yeah, I actually agree with Hugo that that's probably a useful phase for her to be having here! Also, yeah, totally, not knowing the reason for a feeling does nothing to diminish the emotion (or the illness)! Yes! This is true! ...Aaaand that's about the only part of this chapter I can read without wanting to hurl things about because I mean "Women play with their beauty like children with their toys" and "the purity of soul of young girls" and the "coquetry" everywhere, just blurgh. No. Noooo. Hugo STOP. 4.3.7- To Sadness, Sadness and a Half In Which EVERYTHING COULD BE SOLVED IF PEOPLE WOULD ONLY TALK TO EACH OTHER I have to give Hugo full credit: he explains the mindset of the people REFUSING TO TALK TO EACH OTHER so well that I'm totally convinced that this is about the only way they, in particular, can reasonably behave. Valjean's taught Cosette silence about feelings since she was a child, apparently increasing as she gets older; it's amazing she's as open as she is, really. And Valjean...is a mess. He's so afraid of losing Cosette's love; but he thinks he has it; but what does he think love IS if not caring about his happiness, valuing his ideas, wanting his company and approval, or any other sort of cooperative emotion? Is it all adoration and possession to him? Has he thought about it at all? I mean, he's had no particularly good background for how to think of such things, and it's impressive that he's come as far as "Love = keeping Cosette happy" and the whole leaving the convent thing shows that he understands something of her need for autonomy but just... HOW DOES HE NOT GET THAT HE DOES ACTUALLY FIGURE IN HER HAPPINESS THIS IS AWFUL AND I KNOW IT'S GETTING WORSE. Also I'm not sure if it's intentional, but I do think the whole "loved each other exclusively" thing is a big part of their problem-- it seems to be being held as a Good Thing? But it's left them without any experience in sharing their lives beyond themselves, and if they're not gonna be cloistered forever THEY ARE GOING TO HAVE TO LEARN AND IT'S A LITTLE LATE NOW, of COURSE it's painful, they're stretching out of all their old boundaries.

#brick!club #4.3.6 #4.3.7 #Cosette #COSETTE!#Augh Marius #actually you do nothing wrong here #you're just a dork #but that's the tag #VALJEAN #HUGO #STOOOP

Brick!club 9/27/2013 les Miserables 3.6.3 The Effect of Spring

In Which Hugo is Really, Really, Really Gross.

*insert thirty minutes of me railing about men blaming women for their own reactions, and assuming we do nothing but plot to get their attention, as though male attention was REALLY HARD TO COME BY, because they've chosen to interpret FEELINGS as weakness and something to fear and so anything associated with FEELINGS like OTHER PEOPLE becomes dangerous and this bizarre belief feeds into everything from actual witch trials to the stupid fake-geek-girl concept, however chivalrously it may be phrased in one instance it is TOXIC AS LEAD PAINT, and I am cutting off because I REALLY CANNOT BE COHERENT ON THIS, and anyway we're all on Tumblr, we all know, right? Right. Okay* On a strictly Marius level this is all adorable as all get out, though. For all that people say Marius is self-conscious before this point, he's really not, much; or maybe he's just not very self-AWARE. He's always been concerned about maintaining his guidelines for pride and dignity, and touchy about having them crossed-- but he hasn't really seemed to think about what other people think of him, mostly because he hasn't seemed aware that OTHER PEOPLE THINK, and might be looking at him from a place totally outside his own head (this is of course part of his constant flight from almost everyone-- he assumes they're judging the things he would judge. That women might want to look at a guy for something other than his clothes BAFFLES AND ELUDES HIM, that women who aren't attractive might still think women-thoughts likewise. Basically, augh, Marius.). Now he's noticed there's at least one other Definite Person in the world who is very separate from him, and he is seeing what he actually looks like from the outside and considering how it fits with outside expectations (showing he's at least had those entering his mind, even if he's not been processing them into his world view), that other people might in fact be judging him EVEN WITHOUT TELLING HIM ABOUT IT through laughing or anything, the way he's evaluated the people on the bench-- and hey, he's not exactly been representing himself the best way. IS IT THE DAWNING OF AWARENESS it kind of is! Yay, Marius! You are realizing the world is full of Actual People to Actually Interact With! Next chapter: Marius tries. He really does. And Victor Hugo continues to trip my wires.