Sucks To Your Ass-Mar

Supernatural

STACKEDNATURAL ⇉ 255/327

NATALIERSO'S FOLLOWERS CELEBRATION 

(First off: Marianne, please let me know if you have any problem with me copy-pasting one of your Abaissé posts from ‘06 and I’ll take this down.  I was trying to rephrase the stuff you covered re: Fenton and lyrics, but you said it all better than I could restate it.)

Many Les Mis fans know Herbert Kretzmer as the musical’s English-language (and therefore arguably most important) lyricist, but fewer are aware that he wasn’t the first man to attempt the job.  The first guy was one James Fenton, who was fired for being unable to keep to the show’s schedule.  Not much of his work survives but his song “Ten Little Bullets” was returned to Gavroche’s death scene for the Broadway revival.  As Marianne reported at the time (link goes to Abaissé):

So, for those who haven’t been following news of the revival as obsessively as I have, one of the changes has been to cut “Little People” entirely and have Gavroche sing a song called “Ten Little Bullets” in his death scene. Ten little bullets in my hand ten little snipers neat and clean– one for the king of this great land two for the aristocracy three for the bishops and the clergymen four for the prefects of police– give me a chance, I’ll take the lot of them– ten little chances to be free Close your eyes, I’ll say when, count to ten. It was written back in the early 80s by James Fenton, the original lyricist for Les Mis, who was fired in 1984 for taking forever to finish and replaced by Herbert Kretzmer. As far as I know, none of Fenton’s lyrics are in the present incarnation of the show, except of course “Ten Little Bullets” in the revival. It’s sung to the same tune as Gavroche’s part in “Look Down.” The only other surviving example of Fenton’s lyrics is another Gavroche song, entitled “You” and presumably set to the tune of “La faute à…” You thought you would notice we had nothing to eat You thought we wouldn’t mind we had to sleep on the streets You thought you wouldn’t bother if we drank from a ditch You thought we wouldn’t wonder what had made you so rich You made up all the rules You must have thought us fools… You kicked us in the gutter and you laughed in our face You dragged us through the courtroom and you taught us our place You preached at us on Sunday looking solemn and sleek You cheated us on Monday and the rest of the week We saw the coaches passing on the way to the ball I wonder if you noticed we had nothing at all We smelt you coming out again with brandy for breath I wonder if you noticed we were starving to death Be careful as you go You don’t know what we know You drove us to despair You thought we didn’t care Based on these two samples, which are much more clever and socially relevant than Kretzmer’s sentimental dreck, I would give my right arm to see the rest of Fenton’s lyrics for Act I. (He never made it to Act II, apparently, though he sketched bits of it out.) Behr’s “Les Misérables: History in the Making” goes on to say that Fenton’s lyrics were more poetic than singable, and thought to be too allusive and esoteric for general audiences. Which really only makes me want to see them more.

I heartily agree (but such are the wages of being an incurable fandom hipster).  Fenton, if Wikipedia is pointing me to the same Fenton, is a poet, journalist, and critic who used to teach poetry at Oxford and appears to be a pretty darn acclaimed English writer.  He’s also still alive.  I’m just going to sit here and sigh at the thought that it might still be possible for someone to hunt him down and wring whatever is left of his LM work out of him (assuming that Les Miz The Musical Sensation hasn’t somehow sworn him to silence).

not only does he fool hogwarts’ staff by letting them believe he was a “stupid and foolish boy”, but he dupes his three closest friends into believing it as well, to a varied degree (cue them patronizing him, underestimating him, trusting him to a fault because it was easy to believe he wasn’t capable of treachery, etc)

successfully became an animagus within the span of three years (an unheard of feat only managed by few others) 

willingly ran around with a werewolf once a month

was included in the making of the marauders map

hints of his more reprehensible nature were visible as early as his school days:

“Wormtail was looking from Sirius and James to Snape with a look of avid anticipation on his face.” Wormtail was on his feet now, watching hungrily, edging around Lupin to get a clearer view.“  "Several people watching laughed; Snape was clearly unpopular. Wormtail sniggered shrilly.”

-swm, ootp

as well as other moments in the chapter where wormtail derives sadistic pleasure at snape’s (a victim’s) expense

switched sides during the war without a single person catching whiff of his treachery (including dumbledore, moody, kingsley, the marauders, and all order members including those who were official auror and ministry personnel) 

supplied information to voldemort about the order and the potters whilst remaining smoothly undercover and playing the perfect part of loyal, trustworthy friend (and even inciting affection and pity from them while doing it ie lily’s letter; pet nickname “wormy” sympathy and concern “i thought he seemed down” etc)

shifted the blame for the potters’ deaths on sirius black in front of a crowd of muggle witnesses before he 1) single-handedly murdered twelve people with a single powerful blast of magic, 2) cut off his finger and 3) transformed into his animagus form - all in a clever ruse to frame sirius 

(sirius laughed maniacally when the aurors arrived to apprehend him because he realized the extent of peter’s cunning)

lived in disguise as a rat for twelve years unbeknownst to the wizarding family who adopted him as a pet

was the one who found voldemort’s spirit in albania within a relatively short span of time, and manipulated and overpowered ministry personnel bertha jorkins (who he recognized as a valuable source of information for voldemort)

he was rather adept with dark arts (blasting curse, unforgivable curses), duelling (confrontation with sirius, overpowering bertha jorkins, capturing mad-eye moody), charms (marauders map), potions (he produced the rudimentary body potion and regeneration potion for voldemort, brewed the polyjuice potion to help barty crouch jr disguise himself as moody), transfiguration (was an animagus, could perform conjuration - an advanced type of transfiguration), displayed wand versatility (was able to cast unforgivables, conjuration, levitation and many other spells with his masters wand despite not having won the wands allegiance), non-verbal magic (stunning both ron and crookshanks in poa, locking and unlocking the cell door at malfoy manor, lighting a fire and conjuring ropes and levitating harry in gof - all done wordlessly). 

despite his obvious weaknesses and character flaws, he’s competent, skilled, self-preserving, intelligent, displays deductive reasoning and strategic-thinking, is capable of affection and mercy, and is an opportunist. 

that boy is like the single most fascinating thing about all the Marauders in their entirety. he was their best friend, they loved him, he became an Animagus with them, they trusted him to join the Order, and then he betrayed them because he didn’t see the war as worth it anymore, he knew everyone was going to die so he tried to live

he was literally the only Gryffindor to come to the realisation that this Gryffindor glory in war was all a hoax, a lie, just this big “dolce et decorum est pro patria morti“ bullshit that they’d been fed their entire lives. he’s fascinating.

why would you cut him out and pretend he’s worthless and he’s got no talent and is no use to the group. he’s the most interesting one.

but, honestly, fandom isn’t actually interested in the First War and the Marauders as a dynamic, it just wants adorable anachronistic CW fluff fanfic. and the short shy fat kid doesn’t fit into that imaginary landscape you want to live in. despite the fact he’s the single most fascinating Marauder.

NEWSFLASH: Kids in a war in the 1970s will not be living some adorable CW teen drama narrative where everyone’s white and gorgeous and straight. Why is fandom obsessed with this? Why don’t you talk about something interesting, like Peter, instead of obsessing over shit like, Blackinnon, and how clearly the love of Sirius Black’s life was this one line woman who wasn’t even a character, just this name Marlene McKinnon who everyone latched onto and turned into a self-insert cute white blonde girl who was in love with Sirius Black and a cool official Marauderette yadda yadda yadda.

like you go in for this heteronormative bullshit instead of, say, actual war stuff.

[please note that the photo depicts the June Days Uprising of 1848, not the June Rebellion of 1832. Silver iodine photography was not invented until 1833.]

Do you hear the people sing?

Lost in the valley of the night

It is the music of a people

Who are climbing to the light

For the wretched of the earth

There is a flame that never dies

Even the darkest night will end