Cosette And Her Glock

Not even the gods can help you with that, brother

Les Misérables' OC character, Nande, by Su Manshu

Su Manshu was a revolutionary poet who wrote a translation of Book One of Les Misérables into traditional Chinese.

Copy and pasted from a comment I made in Dec 2024:

Su Manshu wrote a self-insert (Nande) who was a mouthpiece for the favour of the revolution of China (which was ruled by the Qing Dynasty at the time).

However, since there wasn't much of a freedom in press in regards to the criticism of it, the main character (the self insert) dies.

During the translation (which was only book 1), there is a running comparison of Chinese and French history, and also anti-Christian sentiments due to Su's fear of the 'Western influence' of China.

The translation is so different, there is some unintended comedic elements to it in retrospect, but I'm sure during the time when it was written, it was truly a piece of revolution. It's just funny if you take the political context out of it.

There is also mistranslations, such as the Bishop asking how many coins Jean Valjean has, and telling him that his place is not a hostel and therefore he doesn't need to pay -> to then become the Bishop asking Jean Valjean how much coins he has, and telling him that it is indeed like a hostel, and thus needs to pay him with all the coins that he has (rather than JvJ keeping them).

There is an academic argument apparently on whether or not mistranslations such as these were intentional, or if Su wasn't as proficient in English as we believed he was to be (since he translated from Wilbour's trans.)

It also is a running theme throughout the translation that JvJ is a bad guy.

The paper I read doesn't talk about other characters, so I don't know how other characters are presented unfortunately. Probably because it overly focuses on the OC lmao

Top five misleading Les Misérables chapter titles

5. “Wherein will appear the name of Enjolras’ mistress” - the mistress was France, it’s always France

4. “In which they adore each other” - they can’t stand each other

3. “A Merry End to Mirth” - nothing merry about this chapter

2. “The Man Aroused” - zero boners, just moral conflict

1. “A Few Pages of History” - it’s never just a few pages

Maybe a little Titanic au(?)I’ve finally finished it.

R doodles from the past months!!!

Been in a crisis about his design eurgh

Anyone remember that one time instead of saying, "Here's to pretty girls who went to our heads," Jean Prouvaire said, "Here's to pretty boys who went to our heads"?? I think about it every day

And then joly emphasing girls when singing his part, with jehan saying "ah!" After 😭

congrats to the Les mis châtelet team for winning best musical! :)

Hong Kong's protestes, and the usage of 'Do You Hear the People Sing' from Les Misérables

Message from the Free HK account that I've given links to below:

"

The reason for selecting this song is to remind Hong Kongers not to lose hope, to encourage everyone to stand up, to speak up together, and to further the fight for democracy. Another purpose is to beckon every Hong Konger and the rest of the world: in acts of conscience, call out together against the high, solid wall.

[Reference to Haruki Murakami's speech in 2009: "Always on the side of the egg," in which he said, "If there is a hard, high wall and an egg that breaks against it, no matter how right the wall or how wrong the egg, I will stand on the side of the egg."]

[...]

Indeed, not everyone can go to the front line, but many truly want to give what they can for this movement. We don't know how long this fight will last, and therefore we must stay unified and not lose hope. [...]

Last but not least, a thank you to all the participants for all their work-- including the conductor, musicians, singers, recording engineers, sound engineers, sponsors for the sound and video recording venues, actors, videographers, and sponsors for recording equipment--all of whom made this video possible. Hong Kongers truly "we connect"!

[...]

"

[Context:]

Description of the video:

Musicians responded to a call to action and formed a 40 member orchestra and 60 plus member chorus within a short amount of time to record "Do You Hear the People Sing" in three languages (Cantonese, English, Mandarin); people from all walks of life also contributed to the production of this music video.

ENGLISH

CANTONESE

MANDARIN

📸: @bikinibottomdayz

“Give to this dog son of a wolf a human face, and the result will be Javert.”

I think a lot about the folkloric story that Victor Hugo describes (or invents) in Les Mis, that uses dogs/wolves as a metaphor for that way that Inspector Javert betrays his own social class. It feels very fairytale-like, so here’s a Lotte-Reiniger style adaptation. Many thoughts, many emotions. I may animate this eventually. (And thanks to @valvertweek for the motivation!)