Les Misérables, Victor Hugo
Vol 5, Book 5
This is relevant to my recent inability to shut up about angels in 19th century literature. Also, if the first sentence (or the citation placing this post-barricades) weren’t there I would have guessed this was a line from one of R’s drunken rants, going a bit above and beyond subtext.
Is it bad that I just kind of… accidentally forget Marius when I’m writing Les Mis fic? I mean, I don’t leave him out on purpose, it’s just whenever I do a headcount of les Amis, I go,…
I wouldn’t feel guilty about forgetting him – the guy is clearly too derpy to be the honorary tenth Ami (that would probably be Gavroche, if one is needed at all)
Caraphasia: thedearest-themostvaliant: carathebug: thedearest-themostvaliant:…
i just want to see marius and courfeyrac kiss just once or maybe a million times please god it’s all i ask for nothing more seriously grant me this one wish
For reals I get pissed off at how dirty everyone is, though. Only the Thénardiers are appropriately dirty….. everyone else needs a bath..
I love this scene so much though /)w(
This Courfeyrac is so perfect he even loses his hat.
*blinks* Where does this happen and where can I see the whole thing? I hope it’s not the 1972 version Coloneldespard mentioned, because I’ve looked and can’t find that one anywhere…apparently it’s out of distribution even in France? Regardless, this gif is hilarious, but you’re right about them being so uncharacteristically dirty – I would have thought that was Montparnasse kissing some random guy or something if I didn’t read the comments.
Insert here any number of horrible puns pertaining to large groups of ships, because this post will attempt to describe in brief some of the more prominent Les Amis slash pairings in the fandom. The definition of “prominent” in this case is quite broad – generally, if I name a ship at least two or three authors have written fics focusing on the pairing. As I said I won’t be including every possible two-person combination of all nine Amis (and Marius), though just because I exclude a ship doesn’t mean that no one has attempted it, and I apologize in advance if I’ve left off your favorite ship. It helps that I wouldn’t really consider any Amis ships to be crack pairings exactly – they all know each other and are on friendly terms at least, and in the fanciful world of slash fandoms, where heterosexuality is negotiable if not simply nonexistent, sexuality is no obstacle. I don’t really have any Amis ships I actively dislike, so descriptions will hopefully be as free as bias as is conceivable without sacrificing my fondness for reading my own snark.
For the sake of space I won’t bloat what already promises to be a very long post with links to example stories. The sites I listed in the first post of this series are obviously excellent sources for fics, and if you would like me to make a recommendation for any of the ships listed here (or others, provided I can find anything), ask me. In addition, any corrections, comments, or constructive criticism for this post and others in the series is quite appreciated – a fandom is not made up of one person’s opinion.
The Close-to-Canon Pairings
Enjolras/Grantaire (PSA for new fans: This ship is abbreviated E/R; Grantaire uses R as his signature, because grand r (“r” pronounced like “air” in French) sounds similar to his name. The more you know…)
I’ll start with the big one, the one almost every new Amis slash fan can claim as a starter ship. Approximately half of its popularity stems from its presence in the musical and the new movie, thus contributing a plethora of images and gifs of various attractive actors in these roles and giving it an edge over everything else on this list. The rest of its popularity comes from Hugo’s tendency to privilege symbolism over characterization, as the Brick gives us E/R as a political allegory rife with classical allusion and no small amount of (probably unintentional) homoromantic subtext. One of my very first posts on Tumblr was about E/R if you care to read a little more, but I don’t want to take up too much more time with this ship here as ample ink has already been spilled on it by many a fan.
Lesgles/Joly (Musichetta optional)
This ship is the product of one line in the Brick, stating that these two live together and share “everything,” including Joly’s mistress Musichetta. One may interpret the exact nature of this unconventional living arrangement any number of ways: platonic friends sleeping with the same woman separately, a classic ménage-à-trois, a bisexual polyamorous relationship, or, as a straight male friend of mine once shockingly suggested, a gay couple with their live-in hag/beard. In any case, gay/bi readings of these two are very easily accomplished, and yet this ship is fairly neglected. One is certainly likely to see Lesgles/Joly/Musichetta mentioned in the background of stories centering on other characters, but these characters are rarely the focus of fics. Even the Brick treats Lesgles and Joly largely as comic relief background characters when compared to the other Amis. Canonical or not, not everyone can be popular, I suppose.
Popular Pairings
Enjolras/Combeferre
Sorry, Enjolras/Marius, but this is the ship one would bill as the primary alternative to E/R. Though they lack the stage presence and quotable slashy scenes of E/R, Enjolras and Combeferre have as an advantage the fact that they can already claim a well-established and emotionally stable friendship, one bolstered by a mutual passion for social change and republican values. Enjolras’s virginal asexuality is still problematic, but it’s easier to see a healthy, loving relationship growing from the bond between these two than from anything involving Grantaire’s substance abuse, emotional co-dependency, and cynical depression. While I may ship E/R quite avidly, part of the reason that I believe this fandom doesn’t really engage in shipping wars is that its members are good at reading characters and relationships from multiple angles.
Enjolras/Courfeyrac
Marking the first of Courfeyrac’s many appearances on this list, this relationship is a tale of ideological similarities – as Enjolras’s other lieutenant, Coufeyrac understandably shares his and Combeferre’s high level of dedication to the group’s cause, even if he rarely acts very seriously – and a vast difference in sexuality. Courfeyrac, the charming and sensual “center” of Les Amis, is easy to pair with practically anyone, including angelic revolutionary leaders who, per fanon’s obsession with shipping, desperately needs to learn how to love beyond the abstract sense of the term.
Courfeyrac/Marius
Here is the only Marius ship I could justifiably include, as Enjolras/Marius chemistry in some stagings of the musical notwithstanding Courfeyrac is the only Ami with whom Marius is particularly close. Of course he still has his lovely heterosexual marriage to look forward to after the death of his “intimate friend,” but who knows what went on during the time when Marius was living with his infinitely more experienced acquaintance? Marius uttering the fabulously inappropriate-sounding line “I have come to sleep with you” alone is enough to justify this ship existing.
Bahorel/Prouvaire
Boisterous bearish brawler Bahorel gets less action in fanon than one might expect; true, he’s cut from the musical entirely for some unknown reason and he does die first on the barricades, but I’m still not quite sure that those reasons justify the neglect. This is his most popular ship, one that draws upon their common ties to the Romantic movement and the thought that they might bond over such lovely subjects as the violence and morbidity associated with elements of the Romantic aesthetic. If that isn’t what you were quite expecting to hear about the fanonically (did I just invent that word?) effeminate and campy Prouvaire, I may point out that his list of preferred reading material alone is enough to suggest a darker side to the usually timid poet. Superficially this ship conforms to the seme/uke dynamic of conventional yaoi possibly better than any other Ami ship (something I’ll be addressing further in a later post), but it’s their subtextual similarities that I believe allow them to sustain a modest following.
Any combination of Combeferre, Courfeyrac, Feuilly, and Prouvaire
Yes, really – all six of these pairings have been done often enough to warrant mentioning. Generally speaking the characters included will set a particular tone to the fics: Prouvaire’s fics are sweet and fluffy, Feuilly’s will raise issues of social class, Combeferre’s are intellectual, and Courfeyrac’s are fun and energetic. There are exceptions of course, but these characteristics tend to dictate the relationship dynamic of each particular ship.
…What? I’m not being lazy…really, now…
Other Notable Pairings
Grantaire/Prouvaire
I’m including this only to demonstrate that Grantaire ships other than E/R exist, though this is about the only one I’ve seen anyone write more than once. Although it faces the problem of Grantaire worshipping/loving Enjolras like any other non-E/R Grantaire ship, at least they can bond over art and diverge over their vastly different personalities. It’s basically Bahorel/Prouvaire, only with less Romanticism and (even) more alcohol.
Combeferre/Joly
And here we have one to show that Lesgles and/or Joly can be shipped with other people too, though such a thing is even rarer. These two are both medical students which, if nothing else, provides ample opportunity for creative kinkiness. For Lesgles, as might be expected for someone as unlucky as he is, it’s even more impossible to see him paired with anyone else. He may take solace in the next entry, however.
Courfeyrac/anyone
If all else fails, ship with Courfeyrac. His personality and popularity in the fandom are such that he pairs well with everyone in the Brick – and OCs, and crossover characters, and historical figures….
TL;DR If you think the only Les Mis slash pairings are E/R and Valjean/Javert, think again.
Next time: It’s a question that to a gay/bi man is as innocent as asking someone what they do for a living, and yet among anyone else is actually very NSFW. I’ll be conjecturing answers for the Amis and getting rather naughty in the process. If I weren’t so exhausted from writing right now I’m be jumping with anticipation.
I’m starting a new series of long posts, though this one will be more concentrated than the last as jumping wildly among fandoms looking for something worthwhile to discuss was fun but not especially productive. Instead, I’ll be compiling information and commentary pertaining to Les Amis slash shipping, that most surprisingly popular subgroup of the Les Mis fandom. I will be taking care where possible to approach this subject from my own perspective as a gay male and therefore working to fill this gap in the fandom. I’m usually not very ambitious when it comes to my own Internet content, but these posts may also potentially provide something of a resource to new Les Mis slash fans on Tumblr who likely came for E/R but will hopefully also discover the wealth of other Amis ships and characterizations out there. I can’t claim to be a major voice for the fandom any more than I can claim to represent the views of all gay/bi men, but if you’ve read anything else by mean you should know that long, barely-authoritative opinion pieces are my specialty (not to mention very entertaining to write).
Note that the content of these posts may occasionally dip into NSFW territory, so I’ll be putting the bulk of them under cuts. I consider that a fair courtesy when I’ll be talking frankly about sex and sexual behaviors from time to time.
For these posts I will be drawing on three sources:
1) The Brick
This one is obvious, though I must note that it has been around two years since I’ve actually read the full text, and during the intervening time I’ve read a variety of other literature as well as an inappropriately large amount of Les Mis fics, such that my knowledge of canon (and the line between canon and fanon) may be rusty in places. Here more than anywhere else I welcome corrections, additions, and so forth, because I feel it’s where they will be most needed. I will not be taking into consideration the musical – I think everything that may be said about its interpretation of E/R has already been said, and there’s little else to recommend it on this subject. The only other adaptation I’m aware of that goes through the trouble of characterizing Les Amis is the anime Shoujo Cosette, though as I’ve only seen a few clips and read about some of its narrative peculiarities secondhand it’s not really my place to comment upon it.
2) Fanon
My familiarity with the body of fan-created content for Les Mis is hardly exhaustive, though I will be drawing on what knowledge I do have of interpretations of Les Amis in fiction, art, and essays, located in all corners of the fandom: FF.net, AO3, the Abaissé forums, Deviantart, Tumblr, the sadly defunct LMFFI, the kink meme, and fiction found on assorted personal websites like A Wasps’ Nest, The Saga of Christian Caron, and others. While I can’t even say that I’ve read all the fiction listed (I’ve not even read most of A Wasps’ Nest, which one would think I’d be all over), I think I’ve gathered a reasonably informed understanding of the fandom’s approaches to slash.
3) Perspectives on gay men
I should state that the gay community with which I am most familiar is that of New Orleans, my home city and current place of residence. Among its many other demographic and cultural oddities, New Orleans possesses a large though rather close-knit gay community, a reproduction of the intimately invasive hospitality for which the American South is (in)famous. This community also notably predated the Stonewall riots, the event in New York in 1969 that brought national attention to gay rights for the first time in American history. Gay Mardi Gras krewes were a creative outlet and form of social activism for gay men in the 60s otherwise unable to express themselves openly, and they still exist in some form today, though their cultural relevance is understandably rather diminished. I mention these as a potential source of comparison with Les Amis, who, of course, also have broader goals than their own sexual gratification. I will be drawing on my experiences as a former member of a group of this sort as well as my participation in less socially active circles of gay/bi men. Les Amis may not have been able to form their group identity around sexual orientation – the concept was nonexistent – but their base in such a metropolitan center as Paris, the decriminalization of sodomy following the French Revolution, and other environmental factors make it not unreasonable to suggest that most if not all of Les Amis would have been aware of and possibly even open to the prospect of sexual relationships with other men.
By comparing fanon depictions of Les Amis to my own experiences in groups of gay/bi men, I would also have to add that the sort of casual non-monogamous sex that appears in various PWP kink meme fills is not merely the unrealistic fulfillment of a desire for hot gay action (though it certainly can be). Casual sex among gay men is frightfully common; now we even have multiple smart phone apps designed specifically to facilitate the hookup process. More relevantly, though, close social circles encourage FWB (friends with benefits, a designation someone like Courfeyrac would surely have appreciated), if only because it’s better for a variety of reasons to have sex with people one can trust. Long term relationships are not commonly formed in these sorts of situations unless they existed prior to the group forming (Lesgles/Joly perhaps?), as they can be seen as challenging the casual element. I suppose one could compare them to office romances in that regard.
That situation, however, applies only if one prefers to characterize Les Amis as a massive Frenchboy orgy that just happens to give speeches and build furniture walls during temporary breaks from fornication. In later posts I’ll be reading them more traditionally (relatively speaking, anyway), looking at popular Amis ships and how the fandom commonly interprets their characters in monogamous slash. I’ve yet to see the all-encompassing alternative to an orgy, a fic that pairs up all of Les Amis with each other in neat little couples (Marius would have to be included to make up for the odd number – poor guy), and in truth Les Amis ships are pleasantly varied and often overlapping. Though I don’t have the time or the sanity to go through all thirty-six (forty-five with Marius) two-person Les Amis ships, in the next post I’ll be covering those that have attained at least a modest degree of popularity.
…What have I gotten myself into?
How strange to see an author from another fandom whose fics I have thoroughly enjoyed appearing under Les Mis on FF.net…
…to post an Enjolras/Marius. I suppose we must forgive people their shipping peculiarities, difficult as it may sometimes be.
Now that the movie has predictably inspired another round of Éponine idolization and Cosette hatred, I thought that weighing in briefly would be a good opportunity to demonstrate that heterosexuality is not completely alien territory for me (critically, that is). I was never very emotionally invested in any of the three characters under consideration, though I can sympathize with all of them to a certain extent and can even somewhat forgive their moral failings and/or general blandness.
I’ve always read this love triangle in a social context, given Hugo’s passion for social commentary and my first impression of (teenage) Éponine’s physical description early in this subplot, which practically screams, “Behold the physical (and moral) degeneration that is extreme poverty.” I believe that Hugo, much like Jane Austen, is drawing upon is an uncomfortable reality of “socially acceptable” romantic/sexual relationships (especially when marriage is involved): class, wealth, and the perceived quality of one’s potential in-laws are all major factors when considering romantic prospects. Éponine is plainly insufficient in all these respects, and so for a young man voluntarily separated from his wealthy guardian and enduring considerable privations as a result to attach himself to her would be unthinkable. One of the underlying themes surrounding the characterization of the Thénardier family (as well as Fantine bringing herself to ruin in an unsuccessful attempt to provide for her daughter) is that loving relationships cannot be feasibly sustained in such conditions: one must be either self-centered, amoral, and figuratively cannibalistic or else die from self-sacrifice.
On the other hand, Cosette, in addition to her various personal charms, brings with her the charms of an idyllic bourgeois lifestyle, seemingly bolstered by the figure of a rich and respectable father. Marius is in this way less a Romeo than an Austen hero (though she doesn’t have many heroes who are impoverished at any point – Captain Wentworth from Persuasion perhaps? It’s been a while.), and if he comes across as rather boring it’s mainly because he has the misfortune to not be in a comedy of manners – he’s competing for attention with ex-cons on the run, gay boys on barricades, and shamelessly digressive socio-historical essays, among other things.
Of course, the joke is on him when Cosette’s background is revealed to be a sham, and this is incidentally one of the changes in the musical that bothers me considerably even though no one ever talks about it. In the Brick, Valjean waits to tell Marius the truth until after the wedding, preventing Marius from reconsidering the marriage after hearing that his fiancée is the bastard daughter of a prostitute and the adopted daughter of an ex-con. The musical moves part of this revelation up to before the wedding, which renders the scenario less plausible but makes Marius more likable (because he still marries Cosette, that is). Either way, Marius and Cosette still have Marius’s grandfather to provide them with a more or less respectable familial and financial backing so they can still have their saccharine happy ending.
I realize I barely addressed Éponine, but that’s part of the point really: she never had a chance, and as she certainly doesn’t belong to the comedy of manners/bourgeois romance genre her personal character development – especially in comparison with her parents’ characterizations – is of more significance and of more interest than is the fact that she never gets Marius.
(Looking back at this post now that I’ve written it I think this could be considered a somewhat Marxist reading, though I’m not very well versed in literary Marxism so I’m not so sure.)
Gascon-en-exil: Gallophilic Cultural Posturing 