I'd forgotten how much WTF there was in this version...

[tenlittlebullets]

Apparently my life is just not interesting enough to write about anymore.

Um. I did get together with elyse24601 and a friend who lives in my house on Friday. We watched the last three-quarters or so of the incredibly bizarre 2000 Les Mis miniseries--the one where EVERYONE BUT COSETTE is a massive sketchball. Valjean? Pervs on Cosette; nuff said. Javert? Got his PhD in lurking from Conspicuous University; also, John Malkovitch wtf; also, black leather trenchcoat. Thénardiers? Were sketchy enough in canon, but now there's random gross PDA that may or may not involve their kids. The Mother Superior of the convent? Grim and creepy and obviously chain-smokes if her voice is any indication. Eponine? Skeevy and goth and tells Marius she'll show him Cosette's house if he'll sleep with her. Marius? Fugly; also, AGREES to skeevy Eponine's proposition. Fauchelevent? Has that "I know your name is Jean Valjean because I listen to you talk in your sleep" moment. Enjolras? ...okay, he's cute and ambiguously slashy, but he does shoot Fauchelevent in a crowning moment of WTF.

Actually, there were so many crowning moments of WTF that it's not even worth it to enumerate them.

Also, it is snowing like crazy and I have sixty pages of The Red and the Black to read and a bunch of Latin subjunctive forms to memorize by tomorrow. Woe. And I spent breakfast talking with my friends who are biochem and physics majors, which made me wonder why the fuck I never got to take a real hard science class except biology in 10th grade, which in turn made me wonder why the fuck I got shunted into the remedial dumb-kid science classes after I left middle school. The official excuse was that I "clearly wasn't very good at math," AKA I was a straight-A student who got a C in algebra under an incompetent teacher. But I have to wonder whether those two X chromosomes had anything to do with the assumption that I shouldn't bother my pretty little head with AP Chemistry and all the scary math it entailed.

At any rate, I really regret never having taken a "real" chemistry or physics course. (And no, the "Matter and Energy" bullshit I got stuck with in high school does not count; it was where they put all the kids they thought were too dumb to take the real thing, so we could learn the basic concepts and move on with our lives.) It's something I cannot fit into my schedule at all at Smith, but I wish I could; maybe after I graduate I'll take community-college courses or something.

Comments

[brouhaha.livejournal.com]

Hahaha yep, that pretty much describes the miniseries. Especially John Malkovich. The trenchcoat! That hair! The slightly nonchalant moseying into the river!

[10littlebullets.livejournal.com]

Haha yes! And the speaking. Very. Slowly.

[mmebahorel.livejournal.com]

Oh, that's just Malkovich. In American Lit sophomore year of high school, I had to watch his excruciating performance as Tom in The Glass Menagerie. Talk about rubbish casting.

[srevans.livejournal.com]

But I have to wonder whether those two X chromosomes had anything to do with the assumption that I shouldn't bother my pretty little head with AP Chemistry and all the scary math it entailed.

I've been feministing lately. Yes, this is what happened.

[10littlebullets.livejournal.com]

Yeah, so have I. I think the most infuriating thing is how insidious it is--it's not until I look back seven years later that I see what was going on. Which is kind of surprising; I was fucking miserable in Matter & Energy because it was too slow for me, the teacher was not happy to have me there because I corrected her in class and read the AP Physics textbooks instead of paying attention, and when I tried to bring this up with the guidance counselor I was told "If you aren't getting along with the teacher you'll just have to work it out with her instead of changing classes."

Yep, because that was totally about interpersonal problems. Us females and our silly catfights, you know.

*headdesk*

[mmebahorel.livejournal.com]

Hey, Malkovich!Javert stole my coat! (seriously, that was my first reaction to anything from that miniseries way back in 2000 when it came out.)

I also sorta like Asia Argento's Eponine. Yes, she's a heroin addict, but she's also appropriately skeevy, so in a way, I approve.

Definitely could have done without Fugly!Marius, though.

That's interesting about your science experience. In my high school, there were probably more girls than boys in the advanced classes, and of the few of us who stuck around for the second semester of Calculus, only three took the AP exam and all were female. (and we were all doing better than the boys, too.) They also didn't much care, it seemed, who signed up for AP Bio because at least one girl in the class had never taken advanced or honours anything in the prior three years.

(basic chem in high school shouldn't have scary math, anyway, so why did they push you over to stupid science? The schools here are supposed to be better than mine in farm country. Apparently, that's only if they already like you.)

[ulkis.livejournal.com]

I liked Asia's Eponine as well. And I didn't mind her red dress either. Mostly I spent the whole movie wondering how two gorgeous girls like Eponine or Cosette could want him. And it's not like they got to know him - they both took one look at him and were instantly smitten. C'est impossible!

[josiana.livejournal.com]

Poor fugly!Marius. :( It isn't his fault that he was miscast.

I wonder at the reasoning behind a lot of these decisions. >.>

But I have to wonder whether those two X chromosomes had anything to do with the assumption that I shouldn't bother my pretty little head with AP Chemistry and all the scary math it entailed.
And, um, probably. >_>; Even if it was only a subconscious assumption.