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sophia_sol) wrote2013-01-10 01:13 pm
sophia_sol) wrote2013-01-10 01:13 pm
Entry tags:
Fantine. Also the internet.
Last night my internet was out for the whole evening. I was very disappointed.
Me: Damnit, I just finished Volume II of Les Mis and I want to write up my thoughts!
Mara: You still can, you know
Me: Yeah, but I don't like writing longhand, I prefer to type.
Mara: You still can, you know
Me: No, the internet is down
Mara: You don't need the internet to type stuff
Me: *epic headdesk*
LOOK I'M JUST SO USED TO EVERYTHING I WRITE BEING STORED IN THE CLOUD THAT I FORGOT MICROSOFT WORD WAS A THING OKAY?
Anyways, then I proceeded to type my thoughts out, but you don't get them because I'm currently at work on my lunch break and my draft post is at home on my laptop instead of stored handily in gdocs. (oh, sorry, "Google Drive")
Instead you get my thoughts on Fantine's storyline in the musical versus the book! LET'S GO.
One of the changes from Les Mis the book to Les Mis the musical that really interests me is Fantine's factory supervisor in M. sur M. It turns the firing of Fantine from a question of public morality to a question of sexual predation.
In the musical, the foreman is typified by the following words: "Have you seen how the foreman is fuming today? / With his terrible breath and his wandering hands? / It's because little Fantine won't give him his way / Take a look at his trousers, you'll see where he stands!" And then it goes on to make it perfectly clear that the entire reason Fantine is sacked is because she won't sleep with the foreman. Oh, the other ladies encourage her sacking, but it seems that it's because they're protecting themselves from what might come up about them if Fantine sticks around, and because she makes a convenient scapegoat for the foreman's anger to rest upon.
In the Brick, by comparison, the supervisor of the women's factory is a woman, and there are no men and no unwanted sexual advances involved in the decision at all. And Fantine's sacked because everyone finds out that she has a child out of wedlock, which says that she is an immoral woman, so none of them (and especially not the sternly moral supervisor) think it appropriate and right that she be allowed to continue working there with other decent folk.
Connect this, too, with another change from the book to the musical: Fantine's arrest. In the book, she is engaged in walking up and down the street in a silk dress, and thus happens to pass by an arrogant douchebag every five minutes. He takes the opportunity to say insulting things to her each time, because he knows what she is and thinks himself better than her as a result. Eventually he escalates to physical assault, shoving snow down her back even though a) she's lightly clad, b) she's already ill, and c) the wet will ruin the only silk dress she owns. She retaliates for this attack, and the two of them get into a serious physical fight with each other, which is broken up when Javert arrives on the scene.
In the musical, the arrogant douchebag is a would-be client whom she refuses. He proceeds to tell her she's not allowed to say no and continues to make advances while saying insulting things about her. She retaliates with a physical attack, but it is very brief and no fight breaks out because Bamatabois threatens to get the police involved and Fantine immediately backs down.
So when you connect these two changes together, you can see that the musical turns Fantine's story away from one about social class, social shaming, publically enforced morality and the power that social mores have, to one about sex and the power that men have. Which are two very different things! I'm not saying it's a complete dichotomy, because there are elements of both in both versions of the story, but each creates a particular emphasis on something different.
I'm not going to say anything in conclusion, because I don't currently have an opinion in any direction about these changes. I just thought that they are very interesting and worth remarking upon.
Me: Damnit, I just finished Volume II of Les Mis and I want to write up my thoughts!
Mara: You still can, you know
Me: Yeah, but I don't like writing longhand, I prefer to type.
Mara: You still can, you know
Me: No, the internet is down
Mara: You don't need the internet to type stuff
Me: *epic headdesk*
LOOK I'M JUST SO USED TO EVERYTHING I WRITE BEING STORED IN THE CLOUD THAT I FORGOT MICROSOFT WORD WAS A THING OKAY?
Anyways, then I proceeded to type my thoughts out, but you don't get them because I'm currently at work on my lunch break and my draft post is at home on my laptop instead of stored handily in gdocs. (oh, sorry, "Google Drive")
Instead you get my thoughts on Fantine's storyline in the musical versus the book! LET'S GO.
One of the changes from Les Mis the book to Les Mis the musical that really interests me is Fantine's factory supervisor in M. sur M. It turns the firing of Fantine from a question of public morality to a question of sexual predation.
In the musical, the foreman is typified by the following words: "Have you seen how the foreman is fuming today? / With his terrible breath and his wandering hands? / It's because little Fantine won't give him his way / Take a look at his trousers, you'll see where he stands!" And then it goes on to make it perfectly clear that the entire reason Fantine is sacked is because she won't sleep with the foreman. Oh, the other ladies encourage her sacking, but it seems that it's because they're protecting themselves from what might come up about them if Fantine sticks around, and because she makes a convenient scapegoat for the foreman's anger to rest upon.
In the Brick, by comparison, the supervisor of the women's factory is a woman, and there are no men and no unwanted sexual advances involved in the decision at all. And Fantine's sacked because everyone finds out that she has a child out of wedlock, which says that she is an immoral woman, so none of them (and especially not the sternly moral supervisor) think it appropriate and right that she be allowed to continue working there with other decent folk.
Connect this, too, with another change from the book to the musical: Fantine's arrest. In the book, she is engaged in walking up and down the street in a silk dress, and thus happens to pass by an arrogant douchebag every five minutes. He takes the opportunity to say insulting things to her each time, because he knows what she is and thinks himself better than her as a result. Eventually he escalates to physical assault, shoving snow down her back even though a) she's lightly clad, b) she's already ill, and c) the wet will ruin the only silk dress she owns. She retaliates for this attack, and the two of them get into a serious physical fight with each other, which is broken up when Javert arrives on the scene.
In the musical, the arrogant douchebag is a would-be client whom she refuses. He proceeds to tell her she's not allowed to say no and continues to make advances while saying insulting things about her. She retaliates with a physical attack, but it is very brief and no fight breaks out because Bamatabois threatens to get the police involved and Fantine immediately backs down.
So when you connect these two changes together, you can see that the musical turns Fantine's story away from one about social class, social shaming, publically enforced morality and the power that social mores have, to one about sex and the power that men have. Which are two very different things! I'm not saying it's a complete dichotomy, because there are elements of both in both versions of the story, but each creates a particular emphasis on something different.
I'm not going to say anything in conclusion, because I don't currently have an opinion in any direction about these changes. I just thought that they are very interesting and worth remarking upon.
no subject
Interesting - since I have the complete OBC which doesn't have the bits that were added, but also doesn't have the ones that were cut? I don't know, maybe it really has been too long since I listened and I've just forgot about them.