#les mis fandom wank

[starlene]

Have you seen the post where it lists each member of Les Amis de l’ABC and why they fought on the barricade? You know, the one that says Grantaire was there to fight for his friends?

fnghbghn

Have we actually read the same book? The one where Grantaire is drunk and unconscious for nearly the whole affair?

In some very vague sense, the way the Les Mis fandom is going, I’m starting to understand why religious reformations sometimes happen.

[starlene]

Say it together with me, Les Mis fandom: Marius Pontmercy is not stupid.

[starlene]

Some outrage about the upcoming BBC Les Mis on my dash again.

It’s just that... They’ve all been pretty terrible so far. Every single onscreen adaptation of Les Mis. Different flavours of terrible, obviously, and some way more terrible than others – but terrible nonetheless.

So can’t really be bothered to feel too fussy about this.

[starlene]

Saw this post listing how fandom misunderstands the Les Mis characters. It mentioned all of Les Amis by name but forgot to include Fantine. I... think that sums it up perfectly, really.

[barelymissedbecominghistoric]

Chill out? Like wow I can do whatever the hell I want and I'm not even the first person to come up with the bc there are already a couple groups like this within the les mis fandom? Like seriously I'm sorry that I pissed you off but please keep it off my post

Hate to break it to you, but you're not the only one who can do "whatever the hell [you] want".  That's the nature of a public social network.  So if I want  to call out the fact that exclusive "networks" that expect some people to compete for the grand honour of some randomer's favour are a bunch of exclusionary ego-stroking pish, then I can absolutely do that.  And since I don't think it's a good thing for our fandom, I absolutely will highlight and critique like that when it crosses my dash.

[barelymissedbecominghistoric]

A recent tumblr post on my dash, which linked the dead students of Les Mis to dead protesters in Ukraine, attracted some controversy.   Some users felt that this was fandom being disgusting and exploitative, fetishizing recent deaths for the sake of fanfic fodder.

Firstly, relating Les Miserables to contemporary events is nothing new and is certainly not limited to Les Mis fandom.  There is a great deal of writing on how the recently published novel found huge popularity in the American Civil War, to the point that Confederate soldiers took to calling themselves “Lee’s Miserables”.   TV networks in 1989 showed coverage of Tiananmen Square with the accompaniment of Do You Hear The People Sing.  In Turkey last year, the protesters filmed themselves singing it, just as demonstrators at the Wisconsin State Capitol a few years ago did.   Examples like these show that linking Les Mis to non-fictional events isn’t a case of sheltered privileged fangirls making everything about their OTP - this is people finding universal truths in works of art.

Most of all, lest we forget, the events of Les Mis really did happen and its characters were based on real life figures.  Is it offensive to draw parallels between contemporary events and history?  I don’t think so.  It’s certainly rather common after all.  I don’t think that it is offensive that those parallels are drawn through the prism of a fictionalised narrative either.

Victor Hugo himself said:

“So long as there shall exist, by reason of law and custom, a social condemnation which, in the midst of civilization, artificially creates a hell on earth, and complicates with human fatality a destiny that is divine; so long as the three problems of the century - the degradation of man by the exploitation of his labour, the ruin of women by starvation and the atrophy of childhood by physical and spiritual night are not solved; so long as, in certain regions, social asphyxia shall be possible; in other words and from a still broader point of view, so long as ignorance and misery remain on earth, there should be a need for books such as this.”

In other words, Hugo sees his novel as a response to the struggles of the real world, not as some sort of cheap escapism, and that fiction relating to and responding to real life is a virtuous thing.

Drawing parallels between the events and characters of Les Miserables and the ongoing struggles of real people is not exploiting them for cheap fandom purposes.  It is recognising issues in our world that remain unsolved despite nearly two centuries of supposed progress.  Perhaps most importantly, it reminds us of Hugo’s message of hope for a better future, encouraging us to go and seek that future out.

[barelymissedbecominghistoric]

Newsflash - There's more to Enjolras than being a blond pretty boy. 

So can we please shut up with this "omg it's ice skating Enjolras!" nonsense unless Charlie White has suddenly started publicly fanboying Rousseau and campaigning for the rights of the lower classes?

[hozierbyrne]

kingedmundsroyalmurder replied to your post:[[MOR] i’m like so so happy for jason and joe...

ew, are people actually doing that? that’s so gross. ~sigh~ here’s to hoping that hasn’t translated into tweeting similar comments at them. (i don’t think i want to know if it has; i like to pretend i have faith in fandom)

ugh yes like a good half of the posts about the engagement in the tag (which don't need to be tagged at all tbh??? you could talk about it on your blog but random text posts don't need to be in the main tag!!) are like "omg real life e/R getting married i'm dying"

and i'm like ??????

how about real life people with real life feelings and real life lives getting married because they love each other???

(also i wish i could pretend to have the faith you do but i've literally seen tweets hashtagged with "reallifeeR" like can we not)