Ten Little Chances to be Free (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
tenlittlebullets) wrote2005-09-18 04:07 pm
tenlittlebullets) wrote2005-09-18 04:07 pm
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It crept up on me slowly...
I'll thank ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ladyknight30 not to gloat too hard when I say I've slowly developed a mildly obsessive love/hate relationship with Les Miserables, in both book and musical form. The kind where you hate half the songs and love the other half, and no matter what your feelings on them they're all stuck in your head the whole day; the kind where you put up with Victor Hugo's rambling-on-and-on-and-on because you've discovered to your horror that you actually like the plot and the characters.
It probably wouldn't be hitting me so hard if I weren't, at the moment, deprived of all my music except maybe 5 CDs that aren't scratched and 8 cassettes that I like, and if I had in my possession a recording of a musical other than Les Mis. But alas; my Phantom OLC is scratched to unplayability and all the rest of them resided on my extremely-broken computer. In any case, the only non-rock music I have is an ancient and slightly wonky tape of the Les Mis OLC, which I've listened to far more times than can possibly be healthy.
First off, WTF with the constant stopping of the action so a character can relate the Deep Angst of their Tortured Soul. I Dreamed a Dream, Castle on a Cloud, On My Own, Empty Chairs at Empty Tables? So pointless ZOMG. I mean, it's possible to have an action-stopping solo and have it not be with teh suckage--look at Stars, whichis a song of awesomeness just because it's Javert and squee is thankfully non-angsty and gives further insight into a character's head, or Master of the House, which has the only lyrics in the show that don't smack of bad translation introduces the Thenardiers and is plenty of fun to boot, or Drink With Me, which is completely ruined by Marius going into self-pity mode at the end manages to be really sad because of the context, not because the characters are whining about how their now-to-be-really-short lives suck.
And the death scenes are just painful, and not because of the OMGtragedy. Fantine: just shut up and die already, okay? Blatant tear-jerking doesn't mean your audience is deeply moved. Eponine: congratulations, you and Marius just sang the sappiest song of the 20th century. Valjean: I feel sorry for you, because you had a perfectly nice and dignified death until the aforementioned two decided to descend from heaven and start lecturing the audience about how 'to love another person is to see the face of god.'
Further note to Eponine: STFU with the wangst and deal with your karma, bitch. I want to see you get into a catfight with book!Eponine just so she can kick your whiny ass.
One last complaint: the translation WTF. Master of the House has grown on me because the lyrics are awesome, but the rest of it sounds like it was, well, translated very badly from French. Or maybe I've just been spoiled by Sondheim.
And yet, for all my bitching and protestations, Les Mis has quite thoroughly sucked me in; half the fun, I think, is making vindictive jabs at the sucky parts. And the other half is made up entirely of Javert and asexual revolutionary pretty boys. And watching said pretty boys lay the smackdown on Marius when he starts wangsting and being a lovestruck fool. Seriously, the parts I like? Entirely made up of anything involving Javert and anything involving the revolution, minus Little Fall of Rain because ugh cheesy. Confrontation is of the awesome. Stars and Javert's Suicide are of the awesome. Red and Black, Do You Hear the People Sing, Drink With Me, all awesomeness, and that's the only part that has any emotional impact on me whatsoever.
Oh, and it helps that I am greatly amused by the mental image of Grantaire molesting Enjolras when they're both very drunk, Enjolras rolling his eyes and reluctantly putting up with it, and both of them having a philosophical argument throughout.
Speaking of which, their death scene in the book just made me wibble in the best way possible.
Oh yes. The book. If ever I was iffy in my conviction that every author on earth needs an editor, the book has cemented my opinion on the issue forever. I liked it, but it could easily have been seven hundred pages shorter. I loved the relative lack of sappy bullshit, I loved that unlike the musical every detail of the plot was explained, and I loved the plot itself, but god damn. It's a really bad sign when you're reading over dinner and someone comments, "Wow, you're almost done!" and you reply, "Yep, only three hundred pages left!" In general, though, I found the characters tremendously more likeable in the book, the most notable example being Eponine. I was far more fond of her as a filthy, emaciated, ugly stalker than as a scruffy but pretty young thing who does nothing but whine about how her friend doesn't love her. This might be because musical!Eponine is far, far more sympathetic for teenage girls with unrequited crushes, who promptly latch on to her and defend her every move and vilify Cosette for taking Marius away from her. What's wrong with Cosette/Marius, dammit? It's sweet and boring and easily ignored.
It's a bad thing, I think, that if a couple fic ideas for this fandom are floating around in my head, they're all farcical attacks on rabid slashers, ship wars, and the like.
So in conclusion? Please, God, find me another fandom as fast as you can.
ETA: I almost forgot what it was like to have a fanfic make you go *thunk*
ladyknight30 not to gloat too hard when I say I've slowly developed a mildly obsessive love/hate relationship with Les Miserables, in both book and musical form. The kind where you hate half the songs and love the other half, and no matter what your feelings on them they're all stuck in your head the whole day; the kind where you put up with Victor Hugo's rambling-on-and-on-and-on because you've discovered to your horror that you actually like the plot and the characters.It probably wouldn't be hitting me so hard if I weren't, at the moment, deprived of all my music except maybe 5 CDs that aren't scratched and 8 cassettes that I like, and if I had in my possession a recording of a musical other than Les Mis. But alas; my Phantom OLC is scratched to unplayability and all the rest of them resided on my extremely-broken computer. In any case, the only non-rock music I have is an ancient and slightly wonky tape of the Les Mis OLC, which I've listened to far more times than can possibly be healthy.
First off, WTF with the constant stopping of the action so a character can relate the Deep Angst of their Tortured Soul. I Dreamed a Dream, Castle on a Cloud, On My Own, Empty Chairs at Empty Tables? So pointless ZOMG. I mean, it's possible to have an action-stopping solo and have it not be with teh suckage--look at Stars, which
And the death scenes are just painful, and not because of the OMGtragedy. Fantine: just shut up and die already, okay? Blatant tear-jerking doesn't mean your audience is deeply moved. Eponine: congratulations, you and Marius just sang the sappiest song of the 20th century. Valjean: I feel sorry for you, because you had a perfectly nice and dignified death until the aforementioned two decided to descend from heaven and start lecturing the audience about how 'to love another person is to see the face of god.'
Further note to Eponine: STFU with the wangst and deal with your karma, bitch. I want to see you get into a catfight with book!Eponine just so she can kick your whiny ass.
One last complaint: the translation WTF. Master of the House has grown on me because the lyrics are awesome, but the rest of it sounds like it was, well, translated very badly from French. Or maybe I've just been spoiled by Sondheim.
And yet, for all my bitching and protestations, Les Mis has quite thoroughly sucked me in; half the fun, I think, is making vindictive jabs at the sucky parts. And the other half is made up entirely of Javert and asexual revolutionary pretty boys. And watching said pretty boys lay the smackdown on Marius when he starts wangsting and being a lovestruck fool. Seriously, the parts I like? Entirely made up of anything involving Javert and anything involving the revolution, minus Little Fall of Rain because ugh cheesy. Confrontation is of the awesome. Stars and Javert's Suicide are of the awesome. Red and Black, Do You Hear the People Sing, Drink With Me, all awesomeness, and that's the only part that has any emotional impact on me whatsoever.
Oh, and it helps that I am greatly amused by the mental image of Grantaire molesting Enjolras when they're both very drunk, Enjolras rolling his eyes and reluctantly putting up with it, and both of them having a philosophical argument throughout.
Speaking of which, their death scene in the book just made me wibble in the best way possible.
Oh yes. The book. If ever I was iffy in my conviction that every author on earth needs an editor, the book has cemented my opinion on the issue forever. I liked it, but it could easily have been seven hundred pages shorter. I loved the relative lack of sappy bullshit, I loved that unlike the musical every detail of the plot was explained, and I loved the plot itself, but god damn. It's a really bad sign when you're reading over dinner and someone comments, "Wow, you're almost done!" and you reply, "Yep, only three hundred pages left!" In general, though, I found the characters tremendously more likeable in the book, the most notable example being Eponine. I was far more fond of her as a filthy, emaciated, ugly stalker than as a scruffy but pretty young thing who does nothing but whine about how her friend doesn't love her. This might be because musical!Eponine is far, far more sympathetic for teenage girls with unrequited crushes, who promptly latch on to her and defend her every move and vilify Cosette for taking Marius away from her. What's wrong with Cosette/Marius, dammit? It's sweet and boring and easily ignored.
It's a bad thing, I think, that if a couple fic ideas for this fandom are floating around in my head, they're all farcical attacks on rabid slashers, ship wars, and the like.
So in conclusion? Please, God, find me another fandom as fast as you can.
ETA: I almost forgot what it was like to have a fanfic make you go *thunk*