(no subject)

[bloodygranuaile]

Alright, I'm adoring almost everything about Les Mis including the bits I complain about, but I dead seriously am starting to think that Marius and Cosette's romance is the single stupidest, unhealthiest relationship I have ever read except possibly Twilight. But only possibly. I am genuinely, jaw-droppingly appalled at how thoroughly and unmitigatedly awful it is. I would think it was a parody of fairy-tale romance if it weren't clearly taking itself perfectly seriously. Every time I think it can't possibly get any more ridiculous, it gets more ridiculous. It's pretty much stopped being funny and now I'm just like I cannot get over how bad this is.

Comments

[skygiants]

Hahahaha man, BOOK!MARIUS IS THE WORST. This is my strongest memory of reading Les Mis as a teenager: hating Marius SO MUCH. What a giant tool! Both Eponine AND Cosette can do better.

[agentclaudia.livejournal.com]

Idunno, so far Cosette and Marius seem fairly well suited to each other to me, because they both have NO PERSONALITY WHATSOEVER. I find it somewhat unbelievable that real humans could possibly have so little personality, even in the middle of having misplaced one's usual interests in the throes of an unhealthy obsession. But then, I am not yet done with the book, and I have not yet gotten to the bit where (in the musical) Marius and Valjean decide to withhold from Cosette all the things she's wondering about, so I am prepared for that to be like fifteen times worse in the book just because everything is like fifteen times MORE in the book due to length.

At this point it's not even that either character bugs me all that much (although they do, oh god, they both do SO MUCH) as that Victor Hugo's ideas on what True Love is and how it develops are like... terrifyingly, terrifyingly unhealthy. Becoming totally fixated on complete strangers? Stalking people? Reading volumes and volumes and volumes of meaning into the tiniest of actions? The idea that you can totally know someone's INNERMOST SOULLLLLLLLL by looking into their eyes instead of by, like, interacting with them and observing their behavior? The glorification of falling into catatonic depressive states? This shit is not okay.

The bit when they finally first meet that was all "Cosette didn't even wonder how Marius had gotten into the garden; it seemed so natural that he would be there" almost made me drop the book and start yelling "Red flag, girlfriend! REDDEST FLAG EVER! GET AWAY!" and then I started imagining Marius as Tate the Psychopath Ghost Boyfriend from American Horror Story. (And then I had a weird dream that was some sort of Les Mis/American Horror Story crossover and it was scary.)

But yeah, MARIUS=CREEPY STALKER. Do not like.

[skygiants]

Yes, but I can't blame Cosette for that given that she had a super abusive childhood followed by many years in a convent with no life experience! SHE DOESN'T KNOW.

But haha, man, if I remember right Victor Hugo's own love life was pretty super unhealthy. Weren't he and his brother madly in love with the same girl? And then Victor Hugo married her and his brother had a nervous breakdown on their wedding day?