tenlittlebullets: (i am so good in this scene)
Ten Little Chances to be Free ([personal profile] tenlittlebullets) wrote2010-02-15 10:56 pm

Utter geekery for fun and profit.

HAHA so [livejournal.com profile] toi_marguerite and I put our devious plan into action today. We grabbed our program director and explained that we'd been tracking down Places Where Shit Happens In Les Misérables, and we'd been to almost all of the ones in Paris but you can't exactly get to Montreuil-sur-Mer or Digne on the RER. We quoted the book and rattled on about cultural patrimony and unique opportunities, then gave an approximate budget for Montreuil and sat there looking hopeful.

He laughed. He is familiar with our geeky shenanigans, and was probably pleased that we had the balls to ask. "Write me a proposal--half a page of explanation and half a page of budget--and I'll see what I can do," he said. "And don't ask for a fortune."

Promising, but inconclusive. So we sprang into action! [livejournal.com profile] toi_marguerite hinted that the trip might be vital to the development of her special-studies project on the evolution of the novel's rough drafts. I threw online/RL separation to the wind and showed him the Paris section of my website. Both of these things seemed to impress him, because he said, "Well, we do have a bit of money set aside for student projects, and this sounds like exactly the sort of thing it should be used for." Also, I think the words "serious academic activities" might've been pronounced at some point.

Conclusion: being in Srs Bsns Literature fandoms has its perks. I didn't have the heart to tell him that this was like bankrolling a trip to London so we could try to find platform nine and three-quarters.

[identity profile] mmebahorel.livejournal.com 2010-02-15 10:01 pm (UTC)(link)
No, more like trying to track down Diagon Alley or Grimmauld Place (since Platform 9 3/4 is labeled as such).

This is awesome :)

[identity profile] 10littlebullets.livejournal.com 2010-02-15 10:18 pm (UTC)(link)
Actually that's pretty apt, considering Montreuil-sur-Mer has its own ninety-minute "Victor Hugo included us in his most famous novel!" show complete with song-and-dance numbers, pyrotechnics, and cavalry charges. ;)

Some of the Paris locations, on the other hand... you'd probably have more luck tapping on bricks with a stick trying to find Diagon Alley than tracking down the place in modern Paris that corresponds with the Petit-Picpus convent.