like not only did Hugo NOT get paid by the word
NOT ONLY did Hugo’s editors beg him to please shut up
NOT ONLY do all the digressions carry core messages to the larger point of the bookthere is ALSO a nonzero chance Hugo came up with some of the core ideas for Les Mis under the guidance of ghosts , and sometimes comets
WHY WOULD YOU WANT TO ADVANCE THE MOST BORING POSSIBLE THEORY FOR WHY IT’S A LONG BOOK WHEN YOU COULD HAVE GHOSTS
what’s this about space rock ghosts
omg you’re gonna love this
while Victor Hugo was in exile–this started around 1853– the family’s friend Delphine Girardin introduced them all to table-tapping. Peak Spiritualism time, right?
Hugo totally fell in love with the idea, at first hoping to make contact with his dead daughter Leopoldine. Which he started to think he had! I would not laugh about that.
But then he started to get “messages” from all manner of ghosts and spirits, including:
-Shakespeare, now, as a spirit, finally able to access the Truest Language of Humanity (French)
-A Comet
-Andre Chenier, who dictated the ending of an “unfinished” poem that just happened to be one in a collection Hugo hadn’t finished
- The Spirit of the Sepulchre
- Napoleon III, From The Future, When He Was Dead
- Jesus
-Plato
-A Lion , Like,A Four-Legged Animal That Goes Roar, But Now Dead and Speaking French , GOD’S OWN LANGUAGE, because of course
-Aliens from Mercury
- AND MANY MANY MOREall speaking French and frequently speaking in RHYMED ALEXANDRINES
all sounding remarkably like Victor Hugo, though without him apparently realizing this, given that he frequently scared himself into near-faints at these Revelations
and telling him, among other things, that he was going to be hailed as a PROPHET OF THE NEW AGE but had to accept not being Known as such for a while yetand I will ABSOLUTELY laugh at all that, because OH HUGO
I SWEAR I am not making this up , there are books collecting the records of the sessions, because of course he was recording these WORLD CHANGING REVELATIONS
anyway then he got back to writing and among other things finished up Les Mis in the years to come , so SPACE ROCK GHOSTS may have had a hand in the novel! Or not! Who can say what voices move the soul of an author? Except that whatever they are, they speak in French.
This is True and an Important Addition, thank you!
(via pilferingapples)
“Go.”
Chris Murray,SassmasterInspector Javert
Baden, 2011{{Javert’s internal thoughts during this moment, as shown by Chris Murray in an interpretive
dancewalk. This interpretivedancewalk is also known as the “Are You Nuts, Valjean? You’re Batshit!”}}Is this the AU where they get him really really drunk before they tie him up? If not, I think I might have to write that.
That’s not Darius Merstein being JVJ there. Who is it ? (and where did the original come from?)
Wait, that’s not Darius Merstein?
It is Darius Merstein. It says the cast in the description of this wonderful YouTube video of the whole thing: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nR0uMg0CgtE
(Source: havvy-land)
“Go.”
Chris Murray,SassmasterInspector Javert
Baden, 2011{{Javert’s internal thoughts during this moment, as shown by Chris Murray in an interpretive
dancewalk. This interpretivedancewalk is also known as the “Are You Nuts, Valjean? You’re Batshit!”}}Is this the AU where they get him really really drunk before they tie him up? If not, I think I might have to write that.
That’s not Darius Merstein being JVJ there. Who is it ? (and where did the original come from?)
(Source: havvy-land)
My old sketches of brick!Javert and brick!Valjean as I imagine them. Jean Valjean is on his way to Digne. Javert… I just drew him as a prison guard in the Bagne of Toulon.
In fact Javert must look younger in the 1810′s. He was in his thirties when Valjean became a parolee. It’s more like you can see a M-sur-M-era or even Paris-era Javert in his old uniform on my sketch, not real Toulon-era Javert, haha.
…I wonder if anybody remembers that brick!Javert has an upturned nose. I like this detail about his appearance for some reason.
(via robicheauxx)
Some illustrations for an 1922 edition of Les Misérables by Eric Rohman (translated captions when you click the pictures)
(via esteliel)
Terrence Mann and Will Swenson singing Javert’s Suicide. (x)
(via rosestormclare)