There are a couple things in here not les-mis-related.

[melannen]

1. I posted a fanmixy thing for the asexual_fandom mini meta fest that's ongoing. So, you know, you should all go look at the post? And also write and comment on other things for the mini meta fest.

(Things I learned from doing that post: a) the a_f crowd seems to lean really heavily toward semi-obscure folk music. Somehow not too surprised?; b) the version of Windows Media Player that comes with Windows 8 is the most terrible thing ever for making fanfixes on; c) no really there needs to be a Les Mis vid to 99 Problems. Or a 99 Problems vid to Les Mis, I'm not picky.)

2. The difference in experiences between tag wrangling several dozen small/quiet fandoms and tag wrangling one very active and vocal fandom is so different that it doesn't feel like the same job at all. I suspect this difference is a major and largely invisible factor in some of the issues with wrangling culture and communication.

(Things I did not expect as a result of being in Les Mis fandom: that I would be inspired to brush up on my Spanish. Cheers and kudos to the small cadre of Spanish-Language Les Mis authors on AO3! I am enjoying translating all of your chatty freeforms and learning about the recent European student political movements you're writing about, even if my Spanish is still too terrible to actually enjoy your fic. ...no, nobody is posting Les Mis fic on AO3 in French, that would just be silly.)

3. Also I accidentally the Brick? I started writing a fanfic that was not intended to be crack, but then it started trying to be ALL ABOUT MARIUS, so in order to prevent that terrible fate I had to let it become a Javert & Courfeyrac mismatched buddycop casefile where they bond over how very Pontmercy Pontmercy is, and while there are a lot of things I can try to write without knowing canon, casefile is not one of them.

So anyway, Brick. I wanted to be good and read it straight through but so far I am just reading the Javert-relevant parts and the political digressions completely out of order. But, okay. So. I started this fic as a Javert/Valjean-ish story? But I was trying to follow the characterization I'd picked up from highly-rec'd bookverse stories, where Javert isn't nearly as obsessed with Valjean as he often is in musical canon. But now that I have read some scenes from the brick. I am going to have to go put some obsession-with-Valjean back in. Apparently the slashfic has misled me in the wrong direction about how slashy canon is, yet again...

(Thing I have learned from this adventure: Apparently, even though I have never even read this book before, I can open to approximately the right page to find any scene I want, if I know where it falls in the plot, just by feel. Book superpowers: Activate! Now I know why I was determined to wait for a paper copy. Can't navigate by feel in ebooks. Also, why was I worried about having to do extra history & politics research to write bookverse fic? ANY HISTORY HUGO WANTS HIS FANS TO KNOW HUGO WILL TELL THEM HIMSELF.)

4. Also reading the Brick has made me figure out where Valjean fits into the Discworld crossover, which has suddenly given me something like a plot. (Really the Brick in person is way, way more like a Discworld novel than I expected, right down to narrative voice and hilariously random non sequitur history digressions. Though I should have expected that, I just hadn't made the connections.)

Although putting Valjean (and probably Patron-Minette, because Thieves' Guild intrigue) in during Snapcase-era means I really can't get away with leaving out Javert. Figuring out Javert is hard (even when not writing cracky crossovers). (Hey, carmarthen, would you feel terribly betrayed if I had Javert raised in the same Genua brothel where Vetinari was raised? I know it's just fanon but! Javert and Vetinari raised in the same brothel! And nobody ever seems to write I-am-from-the-gutter-too Vetinari even though it's more canon than any other backstory we've got for him. Probably because he doesn't shout at people about it.)

4. Also: WAISTCOATS. PEOPLE I NEED WAISTCOATS. 19th-CENTURY-STYLED WAISTCOATS.

I know some of the people reading this are waistcoat-people! Anybody have recommendations for how to acquire sturdy, fitted waistcoasts worthy of a Victorian dandy that are sized for a small-bosomed yet still lady-shaped person? Historical sewing patterns preferred, but I would enjoy anything, up to and including just pretty pictures...

Comments

[carmarthen]

...no, nobody is posting Les Mis fic on AO3 in French, that would just be silly.

But there is fic in English with dialogue in French. *sobs*

Javert's obsession with Valjean kind of waxes and wanes in the Brick, I think--there are points where I definitely think he's obsessed, and other points where not so much--but mainly, in the Brick he has an actual career that is not 100% centered around Finding Valjean, which is easy to forget in the musical.

ALSO CASEFIC CASEFIC ILU.

Hey, carmarthen, would you feel terribly betrayed if I had Javert raised in the same Genua brothel where Vetinari was raised? I know it's just fanon but! Javert and Vetinari raised in the same brothel! And nobody ever seems to write I-am-from-the-gutter-too Vetinari even though it's more canon than any other backstory we've got for him. Probably because he doesn't shout at people about it.

Not at all, heh.

I ALSO NEED MORE WAISTCOATS IN MY LIFE. Since I have more or less quit the SCA with extreme prejudice, perhaps I should use some of that awesome Italian silk to make 19th century waistcoats....

[melannen]

>>....But there is fic in English with dialogue in French. *sobs*

I think I would almost prefer that to the fic where all the dialogue is song lyrics...

>> in the Brick he has an actual career that is not 100% centered around Finding Valjean,

Do you have any good scenes for evidence of this?? Because I started with the bit where Marius comes to him to report the kidnapping (which is where the fic I'm writing goes AU), thinking that would be a good place to find Javert just being a policeman, and he is all "THE GORBEAU HOUSE? I CHASED VALJEAN THERE ONCE! AN OLD MAN IN A CHURCH? HO HO HO MUST BE VALJEAN!" and I was like uh, okay, Javert...

(and don't get your hopes up, it is a very silly casefile that I will probably never finish writing. :P)

ALSO YES! You should totally repurpose your fabric for waistcoats! And if you do, report back! (I have had bad luck with trying to sew anything waistcoat-like, the fit is always terrible on me, but then I've never used a 19th-century based pattern.) I would say you should switch over to doing 1830s in general except, well, 1830s fashion. The only time period where disco!fanart can improve the fashion...

[carmarthen]

Well, he does spend years convinced Valjean is dead and not thinking about him, because what's the point? I think we tend to get the scenes where he is thinking about Valjean because those are the ones relevant to the plot, but he presumably doesn't spend years in Paris getting paid to obsess over a supposedly dead convict. And he's capable of laughing at himself: cf the "Valjean is dead and I am a ninny" scene. There are times he comes off as obsessed and times he doesn't--by the end he's all "UGH YOU AGAIN? WHY?"

I like the more sedate male 1830s fashion...frock coats, yesssss.

And yeah, fic with dialogue in French and/or song lyrics: thing #1 I didn't miss about being in a fandom for a musical based on a French novel. Sigh.

[carmarthen]

..or more briefly: Javert isn't relevant to the narrative except as a foil for Valjean, so Hugo had no reason to show him in Valjean-free contexts. But I do I think his whole bantering with Patron-Minette thing, and brief interactions with the Thenardier kids, do indicate that he is doing a job off-page that doesn't revolve around Valjean obsession. Is there some element of obsession at various points? Sure. But I think a one-note Javert whose entire mental life revolves around catching Valjean is a bit ludicrous, and less interesting than the alternatives.

[melannen]

Oh, I do think a multi-dimensional, non-obsessed Javert is far more interesting (and plausible) than an obsessed one! And it's certainly clear he does a v. good job as policeman doing things that have nothing at all to do with Valjean; it doesn't interfere with his work. (I mean, when he's actually making the arrests at the Gorbeau house, he's entirely focused on arresting the bad guys and pays no attention to the man in the corner.) But I'm still having trouble interpreting his comments about Marius's Old Man in any way other than a) he still sees Valjean around every corner and in every shadow, or b) he has known where Valjean is for years already and has been stalking him looking for evidence.... well, maybe when I've read more context it will stand out less.

[carmarthen]

Check out this analysis on Tumblr (I'd read Cinaed's original post also)--I assume that's the scene you're talking about?

http://sarah1281.tumblr.com/post/45725384522/we-can-rewrite-icarus-javert-you-are-confusing-me

[melannen]

Huh, okay, on re-read I can see that interpretation! And it does make it make a lot of sense without requiring excessive amounts of slashy. (Although it requires Javert to be doing a very bad job of interrogating Marius, because it means that a) Javert knows all about Thenardier and knows where he lives, and b) doesn't think to ask Marius if he knows anything about his neighbor, thus revealing that the Jondrette with the daughters is the neighbor. But I guess I guess many things can be explained just by "Pontmercy".)

[carmarthen]

But I guess I guess many things can be explained just by "Pontmercy".

True words!

I dunno, I'll have to reread the scene again and think about it--I do think at that point that Patron-Minette and Thenardier are definitely major features in Javert's professional thoughts. Isn't he looking for Thenardier at the sewers?

[melannen]

Patron-Minette is definitely at the top of his thoughts! I dunno about Thenardier - I haven't read most of the other relevant bits yet (I'm currently skipped back to the rescue of Cosette and the first account of the Gorbeau house. And the Bishop, with the Tumblr read-along.) I believe he is looking for Thenardier in the sewers, but by that point Thenardier is also a prison escapee...

[carmarthen]

Well, Thenardier is closely involved with Patron-Minette, so they kind of go together.

[melannen]

True! But "Does Javert know Thenardier is involved with Patron-Minette yet"? is a more open question. (The casefile I'm playing with is about Javert following up on loose ends from the Thenardier arrests - hence Pontmercy, hence Courfeyrac - so I'm paying closer attention to what he does and doesn't know, when, than I might otherwise. So the question of who he thought the Old Man was is quite relevant here - things-gleaned-from-fanfic gave me the impression he didn't know, and didn't waste a lot of worry on it, in true melodrama-dramatic-irony tradition; canon is giving a much more complicated starting place. As seems to be the case with All Things Javert.)

[carmarthen]

canon is giving a much more complicated starting place. As seems to be the case with All Things Javert.

TRUFAX.

[melannen]

FROCK COATS ARE THE BEST. I own one (not a historical costuming one, but a modern-ish knit one that I picked up at a used clothing shop) and I have to be good and make myself not wear it EVERYWHERE. (Although specifically 1830s frock coats with the GIANT LAPELS and the weird sleeves and the open-front-down-to-the-bellybutton, I am still kind of dubious of.)