Recent reading
Jan. 14th, 2023 09:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
troisoiseauxRead Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis, a retelling of Cupid and Psyche that I discovered via moon_custafer's tags on this Tumblr post, and I was not disappointed. If I had loved this book less, I would be able to talk about it more; as it is, I can only say that it gripped my heart, dug in its nails, and twisted. I have a lot of feelings about the narrator, Orual— she is an unreliable narrator and a fantastically layered, flawed, compelling character who defies gender roles and it genuinely boggles my mind that Clive Staples Lewis, of all people, came up with her and wrote her with such empathy.
Currently reading Exiled From Camelot by Cherith Baldry, which you might know as The One with the Extremely Woobie Kay (per previous and very entertaining reviews byosprey_archer [x], littlerhymes [x], and skygiants [x]). I am ten chapters in and the woobie levels are, in fact, critical. Contrary to expectations, the fact I grew up reading Baldry's pseudonymous contributions to the Warrior Cats series is making this a more rather than less embarrassing reading experience.
In Les Mis, I'm through the introduction of Jean Valjean. The only thing bleaker than Valjean's backstory is that it's something still instantly recognizable— overlong sentencing, underpaid prison labor, housing and employment discrimination against formerly incarcerated people— rather than some long-ago historical horror. (Relatedly, it's intriguing that I can think of three separate novels from the mid-1800s featuring a character who was imprisoned in France for 14-19 years.) I'm already sad to have seen the last of Bishop Myriel; I will miss his surprisingly sly sense of humor (e.g., the whole "oh, yes, I found the basket! ohhhh, you were looking for the stuff that was in it?" exchange). I've seen a few different film adaptions, but I can't remember if the Petit Gervais scene is typically included...? (I don't think it's in the musical?) It's such a significant moment! I think the point of Bishop Myriel as a character is to illustrate how being a good person takes conscious action, and in following the candlestick scene with Petit Gervais, Valjean is faced with the immediate impact of conscious kindness vs. unconscious unkindness, and makes a choice about how he's going to live his life going forward— it's not just that he's given a second chance at freedom and automatically resolves to be a good person henceforth.
moon_custafer's tags on this Tumblr post, and I was not disappointed. If I had loved this book less, I would be able to talk about it more; as it is, I can only say that it gripped my heart, dug in its nails, and twisted. I have a lot of feelings about the narrator, Orual— she is an unreliable narrator and a fantastically layered, flawed, compelling character who defies gender roles and it genuinely boggles my mind that Clive Staples Lewis, of all people, came up with her and wrote her with such empathy.Currently reading Exiled From Camelot by Cherith Baldry, which you might know as The One with the Extremely Woobie Kay (per previous and very entertaining reviews by
osprey_archer [x], littlerhymes [x], and skygiants [x]). I am ten chapters in and the woobie levels are, in fact, critical. Contrary to expectations, the fact I grew up reading Baldry's pseudonymous contributions to the Warrior Cats series is making this a more rather than less embarrassing reading experience.In Les Mis, I'm through the introduction of Jean Valjean. The only thing bleaker than Valjean's backstory is that it's something still instantly recognizable— overlong sentencing, underpaid prison labor, housing and employment discrimination against formerly incarcerated people— rather than some long-ago historical horror. (Relatedly, it's intriguing that I can think of three separate novels from the mid-1800s featuring a character who was imprisoned in France for 14-19 years.) I'm already sad to have seen the last of Bishop Myriel; I will miss his surprisingly sly sense of humor (e.g., the whole "oh, yes, I found the basket! ohhhh, you were looking for the stuff that was in it?" exchange). I've seen a few different film adaptions, but I can't remember if the Petit Gervais scene is typically included...? (I don't think it's in the musical?) It's such a significant moment! I think the point of Bishop Myriel as a character is to illustrate how being a good person takes conscious action, and in following the candlestick scene with Petit Gervais, Valjean is faced with the immediate impact of conscious kindness vs. unconscious unkindness, and makes a choice about how he's going to live his life going forward— it's not just that he's given a second chance at freedom and automatically resolves to be a good person henceforth.
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Date: 2023-01-15 02:44 am (UTC)Dunno about older movie versions.
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Date: 2023-01-15 03:00 am (UTC)That's the one! Hmm. A quick Google search says that Petit Gervais is a character in both the 1958 movie and the 2018 miniseries, neither of which are adaptions I've seen... I do feel like I have a half-remembered mental image of this scene, but I honestly may have just invented it.
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Date: 2023-01-15 03:33 am (UTC)and yet despite these reasons it makes sense to cut it... it kind of is like, the crucial scene. otherwise you don't have the balance between the profound harm prison did to Valjean (stifling his innocence, his kindness, his ability to trust) and not condemning him as irreparably evil or broken.
i think robbing the bishop works okay for this trigger but it's not as good bc it's still just Valjean acting in his self-interest and also the bishop is so much more powerful than him (even if he were just a curé). so him being a good dude feels too micro. vs Valjean recoiling in horror when he realizes his first impulse is to take advantage of someone weaker than him.
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Date: 2023-01-15 03:55 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2023-01-15 03:55 am (UTC)YES, THAT'S IT, THAT'S WHAT I WAS THINKING OF. I was so confused, because I definitely had a mental image of it but couldn't remember how it fit into the musical. (I used to be obsessed with the musical in middle/high school, and had the chance to see it several times between 2011-2015, but it's been ages since I saw or thought about it... nature is healing.)
him being a good dude feels too micro. vs Valjean recoiling in horror when he realizes his first impulse is to take advantage of someone weaker than him.
Yes!!
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Date: 2023-01-15 04:56 am (UTC)I feel like adaptations almost always tend to lean into the interpersonal dynamics of Valjean's story (especially making Javert personally obsessed with catching him) and then secondarily the religious conversion narrative aspects (which like obviously are there, but rarely tempered by any equivalent to the huge section on convents and why the church is Problematic) - and then the social commentary aspect stays more implicit. Though I do still need to see Ladj Ly's 2019 film (which isn't really an "adaptation" but is obviously working in parallel)
eta: also was just thinking about how the Petit Gervais thing clarifies the parallels between Valjean and Javert (though they make a different choice at the crucial point); without it, Valjean is saved "from above" - meanwhile Javert cannot accept being saved "from below". But w/ the Petit Gervais scene, for both, the epiphany comes from seeing the humanity in their victim...
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Date: 2023-01-15 12:56 pm (UTC)Ooooh, that's such a good point.
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Date: 2023-01-15 03:52 am (UTC)Woobie in exile! Oh NO, your Warrior Cats history is exacerbating the experience in the wrong way? I am laughing a little but can't wait to hear more on this.
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Date: 2023-01-15 03:58 am (UTC)Here's the thing: there has been at least one scene so far that was just so obviously iddy that reading it, with my (albeit recently-discovered) association of Cherith Baldry with a childhood favorite book series, felt vaguely like I had just run into my third-grade teacher buying fuzzy handcuffs.
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Date: 2023-01-15 04:01 am (UTC)INCREDIBLY vivid analogy 🤣
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Date: 2023-01-17 09:57 am (UTC)Joy Davidman, from the biographies I've read, was a fascinating person but deeply messed up.
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Date: 2023-01-15 10:25 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2023-01-15 11:59 am (UTC)/failing at being an English major
*ducks and hides*
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Date: 2023-01-15 01:53 pm (UTC)Ahahaha I am ALMOST sorry that I inflicted Exiled from Camelot on you... not really, though. I'll be curious to hear if there's any overlap between that and Baldry's later Warrior Cats oeuvre.
Also yes, the Petit Gervais scene is such a pivotal moment! I wonder if adaptations cut it because it seems so unsympathetic - the novel allows Hugo to show that it's an internal turning point in a way that might be hard for a visual adaptation - or if there's just so much going on that they're just cutting left and right.
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Date: 2023-01-15 06:11 pm (UTC)On a flippant note, I was just gobsmacked he let a woman hold a sword. Anyway, better late than never/points for effort, I guess, although he still wrote the part in "Screwtape Proposes A Toast" about how "'normal twentieth century girl' ... will mean increasingly: 'Make me a minx, a moron, and a parasite" three years after this book, and I feel like there was a bit "not like other girls" vibe going on re: both Orual and Psyche (e.g., as compared to the third sister, who he probably would have described as a "minx, moron, and parasite")...
Ahahaha I am ALMOST sorry that I inflicted Exiled from Camelot on you... not really, though
On a positive note: I do like the touch about Gawaine's side gig as battlefield medic, and the scene where he was organizing healing plants before going off to battle (?). It's a nice little character note, and not one I've seen before!
(I also find it very funny that Mordred definitely exists, in this book about Arthur being betrayed by his illegitimate son, but said illegitimate son is not Mordred.)
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Date: 2023-01-16 09:13 pm (UTC)Look, Cherith Baldry needed to make the very important point that ALL of Arthur's illegitimate sons are worthless wastes of space. (Speaking of Arthur's illegitimate sons! In Book I of Le Morte d'Arthur, he sires an illegitimate son named Borre, who may or may not ever show up again. We shall see!)
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Date: 2023-01-17 12:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-01-17 01:48 pm (UTC)Look, Gawaine just loves Kay!!! SO MUCH!!!! Okay!!!!! (What part are you up to?)
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Date: 2023-01-17 02:02 pm (UTC)Is it good? No. Do I love it? Yes.
What part are you up to?
I've read through the OH SO DRAMATIC chapter 13, aka the bit with the Head in the Box.
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Date: 2023-01-17 02:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2023-01-15 03:43 pm (UTC)That preface was right :/
Aww, I love Myriel's sense of humour! And that's a good point about Petit Gervais.
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Date: 2023-01-15 06:20 pm (UTC)Cue Victor Hugo lamenting from beyond the grave like, IS THIS BOOK IRRELEVANT YET??
(I actually wrote one of my college application essays on that quote/the continued relevance of Les Mis, lo these many years ago. The topic was along the lines of "why do you like your favorite book?" and I was like WELL IF YOU INSIST.)
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Date: 2023-01-15 03:54 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2023-01-16 05:46 am (UTC)Oh, Petit Gervais <3 I love that part and was always a bit miffed it wasn't in the musical, though I saw dramatically it would be difficult (although I loved reading in teh comments that productions these days try to put him in!)
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