#les mis daily

[secretmellowblog]

The thing is, Jean Valjean’s “nineteen year prison sentence for stealing a loaf of bread” from Les Mis isn’t actually unusual….not even today! I see people talking about it as if it’s strange or unimaginable when it happens every day.

In modern America — often as a result of pointlessly cruel (and racist) habitual offender and mandatory minimum laws— people are routinely sentenced to life in prison for minor crimes like shoplifting or possession of drugs.

The ACLU did a report in 2013 detailing the lives of various people who were sentenced to life in prison without parole for nonviolent property crimes like:

•attempting to cash a stolen check

•a junk-dealer’s possession of stolen junk

metal (10 valves and one elbow pipe)

•possession of stolen wrenches

•siphoning gasoline from a truck

•stealing tools from a tool shed and a welding machine from a yard

•shoplifting three belts from a department store

•shoplifting several digital cameras

•shoplifting two jerseys from an athletic store

• taking a television, circular saw, and a power converter from a vacant house

• breaking into a closed liquor store in the middle of the night

And of course, so so so many people sentenced to life without parole for the possession of a few grams of drugs.

And we could go on and on!

Gregory Taylor was a homeless man in Los Angeles who, in 1997, was sentenced to “25 years to life” for attempting to steal food from a food kitchen. He was released after 13 years. The lawyers helping to release him even cited Les Miserables in their appeal, comparing Taylor’s sentence to Jean Valjean’s.

And there’s another specific bit of social commentary Hugo was making about Valjean’s trial that’s still depressingly relevant. He writes that Valjean was sentenced for the theft of loaf of bread, but also that the court managed to make that sentence stick by bringing up some of his past misdemeanors. For example, Valjean owned a gun and was known to occasionally poach wildlife (presumably for his starving family to eat.) . So the court exaggerates how harmful the bread theft was—he had to smash a windowpane to get the bread, which is basically Violence— then insist the fact that he owns a gun and occasionally poaches is proof that he is habitually and innately violent. Then when Valjean obviously becomes distressed traumatized and furious as a result of his nakedly unjust sentence and begins making desperate (and very unsuccessful/impulsive/ poorly thought through) attempts to escape…. the government indifferently tacks more years onto his sentence, labels him a “dangerous” felon, and insists that its initial read of him as an innately violent person was correct.

And it’s sad how a lot of the real life stories linked earlier are similar to the commentary Hugo wrote in 1863? Someone will commit a nonviolent property crime, and then the court insists that a bunch of other miscellaneous things they’ve done in the past (whether it’s other minor thefts or being addicted to drugs or w/e) are Proof they’re inherently violent and incapable of being around other people.

A small very petty fandom side note: This is also why I dislike all those common jokes you see everywhere along the lines of “lol it’s so unrealistic for the police to want to arrest Valjean over a loaf of bread, there must have been some other reason the police were pursuing him. Because the state would never punish someone that harshly and irrationally for no reason. so maybe javert was just gay haha”. (Ex: this tiktok— please don’t harass the creator or poster though, I don’t think they were intending to mean anything like that and its just a silly common type of joke you see made about Les mis all the time so it’s not unique in any way.) because like.

As much as I don’t think Les Mis is a flawless book or that its political messaging is perfect….the only way that insanely long unjust sentences for minor crimes is “unrealistic” is if you’re operating on the assumption that prisons are here to Keep You Safe by always only punishing bad criminals who do serious crimes. And that’s just, not true at all. Like I get that these are just goofy silly shallow jokes, and I’m not angry or going to harass anyone who makes them. but it feels like there’s an assumption underlying all those goofy jokes that “this is just not how prison works!” “Prisons don’t routinely sentence people to absurd laughably unjust pointless sentences!” “Prisons give people fair sentences for logical reasons!” When like…no

Valjean being relentlessly hounded and tortured for a minor crime in a way that is utterly ridiculous and arbitrary in its cruelty is not actually a plot hole in Les mis. It’s a plot hole in …..society ajsjkdkdkf. And the only way to fix that is to fight for prison abolition or at least reform, and (in America) stand up against the vicious naked cruelty of habitual offender and mandatory minimum laws.

But yeah :(. I hate how Les Mis opens with a prologue saying the novel will be obsolete the moment the social issues it describes have been resolved— but two hundred years later, the book is still more relevant than ever because we’re dealing with so many of the exact same injustices.

#les mis #lm 1.2.6 #Jean Valjean #anyway sometimes lm 1.2.6 makes me sad and sometimes it makes me angry #today I feel both #: ‘((((((((((((((( #but yeah #also again I don’t hate people who make the goofy ‘lol valjeans prison sentence was so unrealistic javert must be gay’ jokes #i get that they’re jokes #and that they’re mostly made by people who like watched Les mis 2012 once #but also #but also but also #:’’’’( #I don’t know the tragedy of valjeans story and the continued relevance of that social commentary Gets to me #Les mis letters #Les mis daily

[0-solshroom-0]

SICK AND TWISTEDDDDD

#les miserables #les mis daily #les mis letters #enjolras #grantaire #enjoltaire #les mis

[syrupsyche]

“Are you good for anything?”

“I have a vague ambition in that direction,” said Grantaire.

“You do not believe in everything.”

“I believe in you.”

“Grantaire will you do me a service?”

“Anything. I’ll black your boots.” — les mis, 4.1.6

Ahh yes three iconic Enjoltaire quotes back-to-back 👍 However, what I found even more interesting were the following quotes:

“Well, don’t meddle with our affairs. Sleep yourself sober from your absinthe.”

“You are an ingrate, Enjolras.” — les mis, 4.1.6

I remember someone somewhere had posted that what makes exR's dynamic interesting is how Grantaire gives as good as he gets. He may be a 19th century equivalent of a simp (see: black your boots) but he throws insults to Enjolras' face too, even though there isn't any true fire behind it. At this point, their arguments are almost playful. Heck, all Enjolras does is just repeating: You?? You going to try and talk to them about revolution??? You?????? like he's simply gobsmacked at Grantaire’s gall of volunteering himself.

Overall, this is a pretty funny scene BUT it also foreshadows and parallels their penultimate scene together. At the barricades, Enjolras also snaps at Grantaire to sleep his alcohol off elsewhere, but his anger this time is red-hot as he delivers his "incapable of dying" line. Similarly, Grantaire isn't able to respond playfully anymore; he replies with a solemn: "You will see". That scene feels so much more tragic and cruel BECAUSE we got to see a more light-hearted version earlier here in 4.1.6. Hugo loves his parallels, man.

#les mis #lm 4.1.6 #enjoltaire #les mis letters #les mis daily #syrup ramble #syrup talks about lit

[lesmisletters]

made these to celebrate the end of the book!! pinky promise me you'll only use them if you read the whole thing (/j)

congrats y/n!!

#i'm queueing this up on jan 13th btw #i'm prob gonna schedule things throughout the year to celebrate the end of the book #yes my real name. not my real signature #les mis daily #les mis letters

[aux-barricades]

Dracula Daily's format made a lot of sense because you could pretend you had a bunch of friends telling you about their lives. Some days they would write a few pages, some days they wouldn't write anything because nothing had happened or because they were so busy they had to leave it for later... and it felt totally natural because that's how life goes.

Les Mis Letters, however, is hilarious because you have this one guy who stubbornly goes on the computer every single day to tell you about the life and political views of some random bishop. And it will only go worse.

#I'm having so much fun #Les Mis Daily #Les Mis Letters #Dracula Daily #Victor Hugo #my stuff

[past-the-dawn]

#I love and appreciate hugo's commitment to historical infodumping but I love and appreciate fantine more #thankfully the 1817 digression is a short comedy more than anything #les mis letters #les mis daily #les miserables #les misérables #the brick

[kimbearablykute]

I did it! I finally read The Brick!

#les mis daily #les mis letters #les mis #les Miserables

[punknatch]

"Only the little lark never sang."

#les mis daily #les mis letters #lm 1.4.3 #the lark #les mis

[mayhemchicken-artblog]

this post started as a joke about jonathan harker continuing to send me emails and then it just Kept Growing, so here’s the entire dracula cast reading along to all the substacks i’m signed up for in 2023

jonathan is reading the lord of the rings newsletter, and enjoying all the vivid descriptions of scenery and food

mina is reading carmilla

lucy is reading pride and prejudice

arthur is attempting to read les miserables

quincey is reading the three musketeers

renfield is reading frankenstein, screenshotting all the parts where frankenstein does something cringe fail, and sending them to seward with the caption “is this u”

seward is listening to moby dick on audiobook

van helsing is getting the sherlock holmes stories straight from dr. watson himself (them meeting on the train to varna is a reference to this post)

#art #artists on tumblr #dracula daily #dracula #jonathan harker #mina harker #lucy westenra #arthur holmwood #quincey morris #renfield #jack seward #van helsing #lotr newsletter #carmilla quarterly #pride and prejudice weekly #les mis daily #musketeers daily #frankenstein weekly #whale weekly #letters from watson #yes i am signed up for every single one of these because i am insane #girl help

[secretmellowblog]

One aspect of Les Mis that gets forgotten a lot is how much Hugo stresses that Bishop Myriel is #Not Like Other Bishops--- that his charitable anti-authority behavior is a form of rebellion against the oppressive way the Church usually works and the cruel greedy authoritarian behavior it usually rewards. And since the dracula-daily-ish @lesmisletters is in its swing I should probably write an overlong Les Mis analysis post on that, but for now have this moodboard that came into my head and wouldn't leave until I photoshoppped it into reality

#im recovering from a severe infection and thats why this exists now #XD #les mis #les mis letters #les mis daily #bishop myriel

[autailome]

as les mis letters comes to an end I want to plug this amazing book that added a lot to my understanding and appreciation of the novel. it's hard to get a hold of but I believe you can borrow it on internet archive!

#les mis #les mis letters #les mis daily #les miserables #the brick #victor hugo

[syrupsyche]

“[...] to be in Europe a sort of nation gilded through glory, to sound athwart the centuries a trumpet-blast of Titans, to conquer the world twice, by conquest and by dazzling, that is sublime; and what greater thing is there?”

“To be free,” said Combeferre.” — les mis 3.4.5

#les mis #les mis letters #lm 3.4.5 #les mis daily #lets goooo combeferre 💪💪💪💪💪

[lesmisletters]

inspired by dracula daily, I'm emailing out one chapter of Les Miserables for every day of 2022 in Les Mis Letters

it's never too late to sign up or follow along in your own copy

members of the discord can help catch you up

the FAQ and previous asks may also be a good resource

a jpeg calendar, and spreadsheet calendar of what is posting when

@lesmislettersdaily will be posting each chapter in Tumblr post form, if that's anyone's speed (thank you @flowers-and-literature for setting that up)

we're following #les mis letters and #les mis daily and will reblog posts onto here (but you absolutely don't need to follow the blog to follow along)

we love being sent/tagged in posts! please show us things!

just send a message if you need anything!

run by @fritextramole and @secretmellowblog

#les mis letters #les mis daily #ref #pinned

[bossuet-lesgle]

"always out of breath...because of her asthma" girl same madame magloire is already the most relatable character in the entire brick

#les mis letters #i love how hugo is just a details boy #like does her asthma have any bearing on the story? absolutely not #but goddamn are you gonna know about it #i feel like modern books would have some sort of gotcha with all the little details but hugo is just like #these are people and people are interesting in their own right because of who they are and nothing else #les mis daily

[sanguinarysanguinity]

A ship of the line is one of the most magnificent combinations of the genius of man with the powers of nature. A ship of the line is composed, at the same time, of the heaviest and the lightest of possible matter, for it deals at one and the same time with three forms of substance,—solid, liquid, and fluid,—and it must do battle with all three. It has eleven claws of iron with which to seize the granite on the bottom of the sea, and more wings and more antennæ than winged insects, to catch the wind in the clouds. Its breath pours out through its hundred and twenty cannons as through enormous trumpets, and replies proudly to the thunder. The ocean seeks to lead it astray in the alarming sameness of its billows, but the vessel has its soul, its compass, which counsels it and always shows it the north. In the blackest nights, its lanterns supply the place of the stars. Thus, against the wind, it has its cordage and its canvas; against the water, wood; against the rocks, its iron, brass, and lead; against the shadows, its light; against immensity, a needle.

Victor Hugo, Les Miserables (Volume II: Cosette; Book II: The Ship Orion; Chapter III: The Ankle-Chain Must Have Undergone a Certain Preparatory Manipulation to be Thus Broken with a Blow from a Hammer)

#les mis daily #les mis letters #les miserables #victor hugo #age of sail #tall ships

[fritextramole]

Inspired by Dracula Daily, I've put together this substack called Les Mis Daily. The brick has a total of 365 chapters, and every day in 2023 I'm going to email one out (mostly as a way to make myself read the book.)

#les mis #dracula daily #les mis daily