Huh. Chakotay’s Maquis ship was named Valjean.
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Val_Jean
#StarTrek #LesMiserables
Archiving my Twitter, Facebook and other social network activity
Huh. Chakotay’s Maquis ship was named Valjean.
https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Val_Jean
#StarTrek #LesMiserables
I hadn't narrowed down my search query enough at Barnes & Noble. I was looking for “classics illustrated” and getting a zillion irrelevant results. I was too sleepy to follow it up with “Classics Illustrated Les Miserables” next, which would have turned up both the print and eBook editions, as well as several other cheap eBooks that happen to have illustrations in them.
So you *can* still buy the #ClassicsIllustrated #LesMiserables digitally, at least on Nook.
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/s/classics%20illustrated%20les%20miserables
All I wanted to do was fix a pair of broken links. Then I went down the rabbit hole trying to figure out why digital editions of #ClassicsIllustrated's entire line seemed to have disappeared from the net.
New blog post:
https://hyperborea.org/les-mis/about/comics-disappearing/
#comics #LesMiserables #ebooks
Something I wrote after my third time through #LesMiserables:
Fiction can’t *prove* a point about about reality, but it can make you *think* about it, and consider connections or perspectives that you might not have considered before. And that’s a very valuable thing.
I dreamed that Jean Valjean convinced Javert to rescue an injured goose like he helps rescue Marius in the original. Javert took the goose to the station, issued it its own photo ID (it was a modern retelling), and the goose proceeded to follow Javert around everywhere for weeks until it got homesick and wanted him to take it back to the lagoon where Valjean had found it. Somehow it managed to convey this to him and he brought it back.
Still a bit rough around the edges, but my Gemini conversion for my Les Misérables commentary is up! The blog is now available both on the web and via Gemini.
It features commentary from two full read-throughs (in different translations) plus reviews of movie, stage, radio and comic adaptations.
Gemini: Re-Reading Les Misérables
Web: Re-Reading Les Misérables
Looking for a non-Kindle place to link to a couple of #LesMiserables translations opened up a can of worms because (1) eBook stores generally don’t tell you which translation is in the book and (2) they’re *flooded* with editions using the public-domain 1862 Wilbour & 1887 Hapgood translations.
I decided to sort it out myself and make a page of links to each English translation at Project Gutenberg & 6 different eBook stores.
New blog post:
A lot of #LesMiserables adaptations tend to put extra focus on Inspector Javert’s role as Jean Valjean’s persecutor, making it personal. It makes for good drama, but it misses Victor Hugo’s point that the justice *system* is unjust. Javert is only its face.
Oddly related to the post I found earlier: I was listening to the Broadway album of #LesMiserables for the first time in ages.
1. I know this version of the show well enough that the gaps in the recording are as distracting as the changes in the current production & movie.
2. On My Own & A Little Fall of Rain still hit me.
3. Bring Him Home hits me now. I wasn’t expecting that. But now I associate it with the moment in the movie when Javert finds Gavroche’s body.
The latest episode of the #LesMiserables Reading Companion podcast covers the amazing scene where Eponine single-handedly stares down 6 hardened criminals and wins.
As always, their analysis turns up some really interesting connections with other parts of the book – like the fact that Eponine channels both Javert and Thenardier, the two main antagonists, but uses their traits to act heroically.
https://readlesmis.libsyn.com/ep40-iv8i-v-the-dangers-girls-face
#books
Each time I’ve read Les Misérables, I’ve had a greater appreciation for the chapter on argot. The first time I skipped it. The second time I decided I hadn’t missed much. The third time I could see what Hugo was doing thematically:
https://hyperborea.org/les-mis/book/slang/
The latest episode of the Les Mis Reading Companion is on that chapter, and they give it even more context, illustrating how language can be used for gatekeeping…or rebellion. https://readlesmis.libsyn.com/ep39-iv7i-iv-argot
Listened to the latest episode of the #LesMiserables Reading Companion. Up to the introduction of Patron-Minette & the “Jondrette” family.
1. Wow, the callback to the miner’s candlestick from back in Digne (lost in the Denny translation).
2. I hadn’t made the connection between Éponine’s 1st & Fantine’s last appearances.
3. Three times through the book & I never caught on to the implications of just how far Thénardier goes in exploiting his daughters. Ugh.
https://readlesmis.libsyn.com/ep30-iii7i-iii8iv-miners-tools
#books
While I finished reading #LesMiserables last month, I’m still listening to a podcast about the book. The podcaster is a French professor who uses the book in her class, and each week she discusses a few chapters of the book. She’s a little way into Part Three at this point, up to the introduction of the ABC society.
Its been fascinating to listen to, and I’d recommend it to anyone else who’s a fan of the book or is interested in reading it and wants more context.
I finished #LesMiserables today.
6 months’ worth of lunch hours as I found, time and again, that a 150-year old book set 200 years ago on another continent continues to be relevant in ways I wish it wasn’t.
I wish everyone had the time and patience to read it. I think a lot of people would gain valuable perspective from it. Or maybe not. There are people who read & watch superheroes & take the use of power as the lesson, not the efforts to help the powerless.
I’ve been posting more on birdsite than here, and collecting my thoughts on my blog. For the previous read-through I ended up doing way too much plot summary, but this time I managed to keep focused on reactions and (some) analysis
Recent posts include Javert’s breakdown and the way Valjean’s ending tracks with a descent into depression.
No one accused it of being a happy book.
https://hyperborea.org/les-mis/
Today was some light lunchtime reading about the history of the Paris sewers. 😱
They’re particularly awful until a dangerous multi-year exploration starts in 1806. Slightly improved by 1832, much better by 1862.
And I kid you not, Hugo insists that Paris has the best *sewage*. While complaining about how we flush all that fertilizer out to sea, he actually describes “Parisian guano” as “the richest of all.”
#LesMiserables #amreading #books
I finished the June Rebellion chapters of #LesMiserables early afternoon on June 6, the same time that the barricade fell in the book. That was kind of weird.
Lots of commentary and philosophy on revolution & urban/civil warfare, presented as supporting for the story, but I realize now it’s the other way around.
#amreading #books
I was hoping to have finished reading the barricade section of #LesMiserables in time for #barricadeday, but the last few days have been packed & I don’t think I’ll have much time to read at lunch today.
There’s not much plot from where I left off to the last stand, but it’s dense.
One thing about #LesMiserables that always seemed odd: at times we see the start of someone’s inner turmoil in great detail, but the POV pulls away before we can see how they actually *make* the decision.
Ex: When Valjean heads to the barricade to…save Marius? Make sure he dies? Who knows?
This time through, I understand: he hasn’t decided, but he can’t let fate take the responsibility away from him.
More at my blog: https://hyperborea.org/les-mis/book/hidden-decision/
I’ve finished part 3 (of 5) of #LesMiserables, which ends on a solid cliffhanger.
Something I realized is a major difference from the last time I read it: I’m looking ahead for connections, not just backward. Since It’s only been 5 years since the last time, I remember more of the book (and not just the musical).
I’ve also started listening to a weekly podcast that’s also going through the book this year, which has been fascinating: https://readlesmis.libsyn.com/
One of many things that gets lost in adaptation is the extended courtship between Marius & Cosette (usually condensed to love at first sight). They pass each other in the park on a daily basis w/o paying much attention to each other, until she hits puberty & they start stealing glances at each other, trying to keep Valjean from noticing. She’s a lot better at that part than he is, though, which gets funny at times.
#LesMiserables
It does get creepy later on when Marius starts, well, creeping around her garden at night.
But at this point, it’s funny watching Marius hide behind trees so he & Cosette can make eyes at each other w/o Valjean seeing, make a fool over himself with the handkerchief he thinks she dropped (it was actually Valjean’s, so she can’t understand why he’s so fascinated by it), etc.
And when Valjean gets suspicious, and sets traps? Marius blunders into every single one.