#getting perspective

United we stand, Divided we fall: A human discussion

I have been wrestling with this post for a few weeks now as Wyclef Jean’s song, If I were president, repeats in the back ground. I originally wrote this post several months ago but kept revisiting and reworking it because I still had lingering feelings. The election is going full steam and with the candidate pool dwindling down, there is a reason for me to publish this post. It appears that there…

I first watched Les Mis when I was 13.  Like most teenage girls, I was completely melodramatic.  I had a running tally of real and perceived 'slights' against me in my diary, I was gawky and awkward and 'misunderstood,' and all I did was read books that were probably beyond my emotional maturity level.  What this meant was that Les Mis, with all of its (forced?) emoting, was tailor made for me.  While I appreciated the themes of human sacrifice and redemption being enacted on stage, I was most drawn to the love triangle between Eponine, Marius, and Cosette.  After the show, I felt that I found my spiritual kin in Eponine.  "On My Own' became my theme song that year, so much so that I'm surprised my parents didn't institute a Les Mis ban in our household.

Though I watched Les Mis several time since then, most notably from the vantage point of amazing middle centre seats at the age of 22 in London's West End courtesy of a guy I was dating at that time, nothing could capture the magic of watching it for the very first time as a teenager.  Unclouded by pragmatism, I believed it all at 13.  

How about at 31, a full 18 years after I first watched it? Being a Les Mis fan, I dragged MOTL and all of my family members to watch Les Mis in the cinema when it was released on Christmas Day.  And I confess that while I mostly bought it all, the snarky side of my brain kept issuing snide observations throughout the movie.  Though this could very well be a by-product of Tom Hooper's overwrought direction, I suspect that this could be because I've, well, grown up.  Herewith, then, are some of the differences in how I reacted when watching Les Mis at 13 and at 31:

1. I sympathize most with the grown-ups - Jean Valjean, Javert, and Fantine - as opposed to Marius, Cosette, and Eponine

Whereas the love triangle was, for me, the heart of Les Miz at 13, I sympathized more with the quandary facing the 'grown up' characters this time around.  The task of surviving in the face of financial austerity and political turmoil isn't really so far from a lot of people's contemporary realities.  And the idea that the moral compass you believed in all your life is flawed resonates.  Thus, I found the scenes with Jean Valjean, Javert, and Fantine to be the most riveting.

Also, if anything, the love triangle felt insipid.  At 31, Eponine was less someone I could identify with and was more someone who I felt I needed to mentor.  When watching her mournfully roam the streets of Paris, warbling "On My Own," I very much wanted to take her to take her to the nearest basin, wash the dirt and grime off her face, and give her a 'big sister' talking to about how he's just not into you.  I wanted to tell her that Marius is a big dork for friend-zoning her and for expecting her to do stuff for him without anything in return and that, really, anyone who would go for rich, vacant blonde girls who have nothing better to do with their time than brush their locks while staring out of the window is probably also dull and vacant.  And while I recognize that Eponine's taking a bullet for Marius was supposed to be a noble act of love and sacrifice - an act which I venerated at 13 - now, I just saw it as a big waste. That Marius was only sad for three seconds and then promptly forgot about Eponine showed to me that Eponine really should have kept away from the battlefields.

Which brings to mind difference # 2...

2. Marius really is a big dork and Papa Jean is the one to pine for

When I was 13, I bought Eponine's unrequited love for Marius, probably because I was in the throes of a similar unrequited crush on someone who most likely resembled a late-1990s Michael Cera.  And the casting of Eddie Redmayne as Marius, he of the wispy man-boy frame, did nothing to dissuade me of my Marius mockery.  Though I found Redmayne's acting quite good, the character of Marius just bugged. Beyond the aforementioned friend zoning, another reason why Marius bugged was the way Marius is all, "I'm a nice guy" but was in reality perfectly okay sending Eponine into a dangerous mission to find the whereabouts of his crush and also didn't seem terribly fussed when Jean told him he'd be leaving. Sure, he protested, but his efforts were half-hearted at best.  ("No meddling father-in-law," was what he probably thought, that jackass).  If Marius were alive today, he'd probably be posting on Reddit under the MRA forums, bemoaning why "nice guys" like him can never get girls, ever oblivious to the fact that maybe he shouldn't cast his eyes on blonde bimbos. Also, he is a privileged dolt who "dabbles" in the revolution but doesn't really seem to believe in the cause, sidelining the efforts of his comrades by warbling about his lady love. (More on this later).

His moral weakness stands in contrast to Valjean who, even at 13, I understood was the moral centre of the story.  What I didn't realize at the age of 13 was just how fucking sexy Valjean is.  How can anyone not admire Valjean's ability to do a lot of heavy lifting with his strong arms and tree trunk thighs?  I also liked the fact that he was a genuinely good man but he was not so good as to fall into Jalvert territory; he has enough of a bad boy past to keep things intriguing.  Papa Jean trumps wimpy Marius any day.  

3. Revolutionary fervor should be tempered by an understanding of institutional change

The seeds of left-wing discord were previously planted when I first saw Newsies at the age of 7, so I always romanticized the idea of revolutionary change.  Thus, at 13, I was ready to cast aside the chains of bourgeoisie oppression after watching Les Mis.  I heard the people singing!  I was part of the people and I, too, sung!  I admired Enjolras's revolutionary fervor!  Heck, if I couldn't be Eponine, dying for her love Marius, I wanted to be Enjorlas, dying for a cause!

At 31, I was a bit surprised to see the cousin of Gossip Girl's Nate Archibald, Trip Archibald, as the revolutionary Enjorlas, wearing a big, curly wig.  I thought he did well, singing-wise, but I was somewhat bemused to see that all these kids ever do to plan the revolution was go to the bar and get shit-faced and wax eloquent on grand ideas.  Grand ideas, after all, don't mean much unless they're paired with an understanding of institutional change.  After you fight the war, then what?  How would you go about establishing regime change?  And, seriously, shouldn't they try to widen their reach beyond their fervent circle of drunk university-aged comrades and be a little bit more inclusive?  No wonder people shun ideologues.  

Also, it came as no surprise that the women who the men left behind had to literally clean up the mess.  From a gender, peace, and security standpoint, this is always what happens in times of war.  The men are all, "let's fight each other! Guns, and not negotiating, will solve our worries!  Let's go into battle now and think later...RAWR" whereas the women, who are almost always saddled with childcare and other household responsibilities, are all like, "mmmkay...you go fight your fight, honey."  In fact, one of the most amusing scenes during the movie was watching all the women come out of their houses after the bloodshed was over, carrying buckets of water and brushes.  "Dammit," they probably said to each other. "Stupid Francois just got out and killed himself.  Now I have to be both the breadwinner and the caretaker!"

This wasn't to say, of course, that I wasn't filled with revolutionary fervor when watching these scenes.  I totally understood why they were pissed off and commiserated with their helplessness.  In fact, I shared Enjorlas's frustration with Mastercard Marxist Marius, who seemed more eager to show how one he was with the people rather than doing anything substantive.  If I were to lead this young revolutionaries into battle, I'd tell them to kick out the bourgeoisie wannabe revolutionaries, focus on building allies with other movements and even with frustrated political leaders, and think of the larger goal.  And I'd also remind them of UN Security Council resolution 1325 mandating the inclusion of gender concerns into conflict situations.