#dull!

Argylle, 2024.

-while Valjean is a tree pruner in Faverolles and a gardener at the Picpus convent while Cosette is growing up, and keeps a garden in most of his homes later, he doesn’t seem to actually garden or grow anything in his time as Madeleine! Maybe I’m missing something? It is very unusual for him to not be doing anything in this line!  But I reread the chapters on his pre-Fantine life in M-sur-M twice just now; and while “Father Madeleine” gives a lot of agricultural advice, he doesn’t seem to engage in any agriculture himself!  Again, maybe I missed something?  but if not: that is some very telling and subtle foreshadowing, there. He is helping other people grow things, but he isn’t actually growing anything himself . 

--Fauchelevent doesn’t seem to garden at all until after his cart accident, when he has his change of heart. Not surprising, but surely Symbolic!

-Fantine is, as noted, growing her rosebush while she’s secure and able to provide for Cosette via work at the factory. But after she loses her teeth and hair and runs out of energy even to keep herself clean, the rosebush dies-- “dried up in a corner, forgotten”.

-Mabeuf’s garden actually dies before he sells his last book--this one is definitely  foreshadowing in a very direct way. He no longer has the strength to tend his flowers (as Fantine also lost her energy for caring for a plant); Eponine prolongs their life a little, but if he can’t water his plants they’re done for in time. 

- I can think of three plant-raising characters-- Myriel, Prouvaire, and Georges-- whose plants aren’t dead or abandoned/doomed significantly before their own death. In the case of Myriel, this is very obviously due to support from his sister and Magloire; likely even after they’re all gone, the next inhabitants will keep the garden up to some degree.  In the case of Georges and especially Prouvaire, on a practical level, it’s because death just comes too fast -- just a couple days, in both cases. At least some of Georges’ plants -the rare flowers-- are “stripped” from the garden, and saved to be cared for by others. The rest are left to turn to “briars and scrub” (FMA), or to die from neglect.  (In the case of Prouvaire’s potted plant, we don’t know; it’s possible a friend or neighbor takes it on, and also possible that..they don’t :(   ) 

-Interestingly, Marius does not garden or raise flowers; possibly the only fully-sympathetic character with a major chunk of page time spent on his daily life to not do so!  He certainly spends a lot of time in gardens, but they are ones he does nothing to maintain. This could be chalked up to Student Living, except that even when he’s married, it’s Cosette who keeps a garden (some..how...truly where  does your garden grow, Cosette??) .

- This puts him in company with Enjolras, Eponine,the momes, and Montparnasse in a general “characters linked to flowers/gardens who don’t actually do any sort of horticulture” group.

-Montparnasse of course only uses specifically cut flowers-- like Marius, he’s linked to plants someone else has grown . Unlike Marius, those plants, for the use Montparnasse has for them, have to die . Very goth of you, Montparnasse.

hmmmmmmmmm let me think

just really good at chemistry. has been stirring chemicals together and applying heat until they go boom since he was a child; has a very efficient mental model of how to pick chemicals a, b and c to mix to obtain chemical d, and also to predict what annoying chemical x will be produced as a side product and how to make that not happen

actually understands what a supercritical fluid....is

also has an intuitive understanding of optics and the qualities of light

same for fluid dynamics

have i mentioned before his skills as a materials scientist? powerful aptitude for inventing new alloys, polymers, ceramics, textiles -- you name it.

less scientifically: an adept speechwriter. he understands audience and impact and when to make a joke. he’s good at reading from a teleprompter.

also has very careful facial control that’s based in some hilarious + obsessive research on micro-expressions where he spent a week sticking needles in all his face muscles and electrocuting them just a little until he knows how to make them move on purpose. spends a lot of time practicing faces in the mirror like a psycho (or a liar)

absolutely impossible to fool with magic tricks. the only person who has fun going to a magic show with tony is tony, because he likes feeling clever. everyone else has to decide if they want to ask him how it works and be disillusioned and/or agonize that they could know how it works if they wanted to but don’t.

maybe equally important are the things i think tony is NOT good at

languages. i know it’s a smart person thing to be spectacular at languages and i expect that tony can learn vocabulary and grammar theory like a pro, but languages only follow systems so much, and eventually you just have to practice for hours and hours, which -- tony does not have hours and hours. i expect he can speak...english, non-fluent spanish, some norwegian to appease thor, little mandarin, little japanese, and schoolboy latin.

really high-concept mathematics. he’s an engineer. why. why is this math happening. no.

no taste in decor at all. somehow understands fashion (some universes) but not interior design. doesn’t get the difference between what makes a car nice and what makes a house nice. please hire someone to help you with this, tony

no taste in art either. everything tony buys is either lobby art, an expensive status symbol/investment, or unbearably sentimental

interpreting his own damn emotions. tony has a clear system for exactly how much every event in his life should affect him, and if it does more or less than he expects it is confusing. lab explosion: 15 minutes heart-racing adrenaline recovery, 1 hour sulking plus 30 extra minutes for every important thing ruined, 3 weeks slightly elevated caution. team dinner: warm feelings until bed, 50% easier to eat a normal human amount of food all at once. this is not how emotions work and that’s hard for tony.

John: In real life. People don’t have archenemies

Sherlock: That sounds a bit dull. So what do people have in their real lives?

John: Friends, people they like, people they don’t like, boyfriends, girlfriends…