Ten Little Chances to be Free (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tenlittlebullets) wrote2006-03-22 01:27 am
tenlittlebullets) wrote2006-03-22 01:27 am
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More Miz. As usual.
Okay. Another fandomy post, Les Mis this time, and hopefully short because I'm tired and I have a test in the morning I'm totally going to bomb.
And look! It's so short I'm not even going to LJ-cut it!
Do not bash Cosette. Just don't. Oh, she's 'too perfect,' is she? Too boring and normal? Look at her from the objective viewpoint of 19th century society: Cosette is the illegitimate daughter of a streetwalker, stolen from her guardians--honest folk who took her in out of charity--by an ex-convict who then raised her in seclusion. Hugo made her turn out sweet and normal and generally ideal for a reason. Almost all of the more painfully virtuous characters of LM are in fact the dregs of their society, and Hugo is out to show that if you toss them in with such respectable personages as a policemen and a family of innkeepers, they can in fact be the most likeable of the lot.
Or put it another way. Cosette may appear ditzy and bubble-headed and even weak to us more liberated folk, but think for a moment about her life with the Thénardiers. Pleasant and completely non-traumatizing, huh? Cosette came out of a completely crap childhood happy and well-adjusted, and that says so much more for one's strength of character than donning pants and chasing one's beloved to the barricades to die.
[Random tangent on other Virtuous Dregs of Society: Fanfiction focuses mostly on character and relationship study, yes? Rather than plot and symbolism? No wonder there's so little fic out there for Valjean and Fantine.]
[ETA random tangent #2: Eponine does not hate Cosette. She may resent her, but she would not wish harm upon her, because Cosette makes Marius happy and Eponine likes happy Marius. If Eponine wished harm upon Cosette, she had more than enough opportunity to inflict it--how hard would it have been to tell Patron-Minette that the house on the Rue Plumet wasn't safe to rob that night but they could come back tomorrow, and then divert Marius the next night and leave Cosette to the tender mercies of her father's gang? Eponine is resourceful and manipulative as hell. If she'd wanted to hurt Cosette, she would have.]
And look! It's so short I'm not even going to LJ-cut it!
Do not bash Cosette. Just don't. Oh, she's 'too perfect,' is she? Too boring and normal? Look at her from the objective viewpoint of 19th century society: Cosette is the illegitimate daughter of a streetwalker, stolen from her guardians--honest folk who took her in out of charity--by an ex-convict who then raised her in seclusion. Hugo made her turn out sweet and normal and generally ideal for a reason. Almost all of the more painfully virtuous characters of LM are in fact the dregs of their society, and Hugo is out to show that if you toss them in with such respectable personages as a policemen and a family of innkeepers, they can in fact be the most likeable of the lot.
Or put it another way. Cosette may appear ditzy and bubble-headed and even weak to us more liberated folk, but think for a moment about her life with the Thénardiers. Pleasant and completely non-traumatizing, huh? Cosette came out of a completely crap childhood happy and well-adjusted, and that says so much more for one's strength of character than donning pants and chasing one's beloved to the barricades to die.
[Random tangent on other Virtuous Dregs of Society: Fanfiction focuses mostly on character and relationship study, yes? Rather than plot and symbolism? No wonder there's so little fic out there for Valjean and Fantine.]
[ETA random tangent #2: Eponine does not hate Cosette. She may resent her, but she would not wish harm upon her, because Cosette makes Marius happy and Eponine likes happy Marius. If Eponine wished harm upon Cosette, she had more than enough opportunity to inflict it--how hard would it have been to tell Patron-Minette that the house on the Rue Plumet wasn't safe to rob that night but they could come back tomorrow, and then divert Marius the next night and leave Cosette to the tender mercies of her father's gang? Eponine is resourceful and manipulative as hell. If she'd wanted to hurt Cosette, she would have.]
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(sorry, wish I had something more substantial to say ;-) )
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What if you just don't like Cosette because she's a girl and a main character and therefore gets too much attention...? XD;;
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and, touche on the Eponine bit.
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But please rant away whenever you like, because you do it well. ;)
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