September 2, 2000. Just a few quick notices while uploading the new front page and the icons and backgrounds that goes with it (FYI: Adrift will not begin posting until October 31, though it may begin sooner, depending on how much I can write forward)
First, Moira Manion has resigned as illustrator for Pont-au-Change and I've accepted the resignation. There is no new illustrator; the books will be published as text only (although someone has pointed out that a map of Canada in Sanctuary might be a good idea; I'm still thinking about that one). I wish her well in her other endeavors.
Second, Resurrections was delivered to the publisher on August 31. It's in what's called "pre-production" right now; it will take them some time to read it through and design the cover off of my layout, so I'm not looking to see it before Christmas, certainly. It looks like it should come out in January. I do have an ISBN number for ordering it, though, but I'm not going to post it until next month when the production end is a little closer to the goal. Not much sense for people to order it five months in advance. Although it may come out earlier, since it's already been edited and proofed and polished and everything, and the book text is for all intents and purposes "camera-ready." But as soon as I find out, I'll let you all know.
Oh, and by the way, here is my design sketch for the cover of Book One that I submitted to the publisher (their art department will take the design and redo it so it looks a coupla hundred times better :-) ). The title I just put on there to show what it might look like; I have NO control over what fonts they use in the book but I have requested that they NOT use the Caslon Antique font (you know, the one that's used for the musical's logo). I have all six covers designed, they're all basically the same except that the stuff on the table changes. This one has a loaf of bread, a pair of handcuffs, Javert's cane, a candlestick, and a pouch full of money. Only the candlestick and the cane are in every cover design. For example, Sanctuary has the candlestick and cane, plus a thorny rose branch, a tuque and a Bible... oh, and the candles are burned lower than they are on the cover of Resurrections....
Third, someone pointed out that way back in the dawn of history (two years ago) I had said that this was a book in eight parts. I did not believe it until I found it way at the bottom of the Blotter. I have no idea what I was thinking when I wrote that. Pont-au-Change has always been a book in six parts (sometimes I've thought about condensing it to five, but it just won't work). Very odd! But it is six books. So right now we're 1/3 of the way there. Whee!
Fourth, I did get a couple of comments for Sanctuary but nothing really "summing up" to post to the Blotter. Oh, and I heard back from "Adela Javert." I deleted her email unread. She had her fifteen minutes, or fourteen, making this the fifteenth. Time's up. Thank you. Next!
Although I did get another "Leonard Maltin review" that I think's hilarious, but it's not enough material to put by itself in the Blotter, so here it is:
Pont-au-Change Book 2: Sanctuary
Exiled from France, ex-convict Jean Valjean and the policeman whose life he saved leave England for Canada and become involved with rebels there. Meanwhile, Valjean's new son-in-law runs into trouble back home. A large supporting cast keeps the story moving as the leads practice male bonding. **1/2 —Leonard Maltin
And that's about it. I'll update the website again at the beginning of October to let everyone know the status of Book One, if anything can be reported. I'm planning on going out to Florida next month to meet my two proofers, Lindsay and Trout, and if all goes well we'll be invading Walt Disney World. I've always wanted to do that :-) If it comes off and I remember to take pictures I'll be posting them.
Till next month...
August 15, 2000. Napoleon's birthday, which commemorates the beginning of an era in world history. And also the anniversary of the surrender of Imperial Japanese forces in World War II, which commemorates the END of an era in world history. I know, I know, in the US it's celebrated on the 14th, which is fine, it is... but when the surrender was made in Japan, across the dateline, the local date there was the 15th. Oh, and is it too much to add that it's also known as V-J Day?
Here we are at the end of Sanctuary. A few more ups and downs than I'd planned on, but on the whole there is some closure to it (remember, these were originally not conceived as six separate books, but as one book with six large sections, the same way that Les Misérables is one large book of five sections, not all of which make self-contained works). It certainly didn't turn out the way I'd originally plotted it, that's for sure. I'll be discussing that in later months. Meanwhile, I'm taking a two month break before beginning to post Book Three, the name of which can be found in the usual place, the little print at the very end of Book Two. No spoilers here! But that doesn't mean the page is going into hibernation, I will be posting the odd thing here and there as usual when the mood strikes me. But long about October, Book Three begins, and then things REALLY start happening! Sanctuary was always meant to be a quiet little interlude of a section, in anticipation for some really dark and serious stuff going on in the next book particularly and in the remainder of the series generally. So, I've been nice to you all for a year. Things will get a little, um, rough.
Lots of stuff to add this time: I finally acquired my 1952 Michael Rennie movie and put it up for review, and it's every bit what I thought it would be! Now I really can't wait for the French miniseries broadcasting early next year, the one with Gerard Depardieu as Valjean and John Malkovich as Javert (or rather, John Malkovich playing John Malkovich in a French policeman's uniform). The crème de la scum is rising to the surface in these reviews! However, on a much better note I have decided to rework the musical's review, and divide it into two separate entries: a review of the Tenth Anniversary Concert video, and a review of the current touring company (which I have now seen twice, or, as one may learn in the review, one and a half times). And, perhaps soon, I will have a review of the silent movie that's running on Bravo every now and then, if I can find someone to tape it for me! I have no cable, I'm so pathetic...
Also, by popular request, I have put up a synopsis of Resurrections that is accessible from the front page for the novel (click the Novel link on the homepage, then follow through, you'll see it). Warning, though: if you don't want the whole thing spoiled, if you really want to wait for Book One to hit the shelves, then don't click the Synposis link! But if you want to read Sanctuary now or if you've started it and you're thinking "What the heck is going on here?" it makes a good start. Or alternatively if you read Resurrections and need a reminder about what happened in it (as in, "say, what was the deal with that guy again?") it makes a handy reference.
In addition I am posting another of Moira's pencil roughs for Resurrections. I had a chance to tell Regan Thiel, the actress in the current touring company, that Moira was using her as the reference for Cosette. After seeing the woman up close and on stage and watching her play the part, I heartily approve of my illustrator's decision. I don't know if anyone else is aware of this but, other than what I've pretty much written for descriptions of the characters, I am leaving the actual character design up to Moira, so if some of them look vaguely familiar, that is because it is Moira's interpretation and she has carte blanche to do as she likes with them. I have not been disappointed, either, I might add. Sometimes it's very difficult for a writer to look at someone else's vision of what goes on in their books (especially movie versions!) but I have no problem with what's being done so far. In fact, I'm downright thrilled. Oh, and the picture, which is of Cosette discovering the unconscious Javert in the basement, can be found here.
I found another children's version of the book and it had a great frontspiece, even if the book itself sucked frogs, so I updated the Gallery. I also got a ton of cool new letters for the Blotter and put them up too (including one from a wholly unexpected source! One of the best ever!) and I have set up a Commentary page for Sanctuary for those who want to comment about the book overall as a single work. The link for that is at the end of the last posted section. And I've updated the Bibliography. Soon I will put up a page of web-based bibliography for the references I've picked up on the Internet, like several pages about the Rebellion of 1837-1838 and some very cool old maps of Québec.
And that's pretty much it for this time. Book Two is done. Book One goes to the printer September 1, and should be out around the first of the year (something else that will be posted very soon!) And, just to drive people nuts, here's a very scary thought:
Someone I know who is starting an independent film production company has inquired, however tentatively, about the movie rights to Pont-au-Change.
Be afraid. Be very afraid.
Not goodbye, or even au revoir, but á bientôt, which is to say, "see you soon!"
Arlene C. Harris
July 20, 2000. Got tired of waiting, and besides, it's Javert's birthday. Not that he'll be enjoying it, but, well, every party has its pooper... besides, he's 221. He's bound to be a little more cranky than usual.
For the record, Sanctuary is finished, all of it. Not all of it went up this time, though. I'll be putting up the rest, the absolute honest-to-Miserableness last bit of the book in August. I haven't decided when yet, and there will be no other warning. So there.
Besides the posting I got a few new letters. Soon I should be able to add to the Media Checklist, I'm still waiting on that.
Actually the reason I posted a little early is the fact that I'm going away for the weekend to San Diego Comic-Con, where because of my professional sales in the comic book industry I can get in for free and schmooze. And I want to see if anyone notices the page got updated early. Just curious.
For a birthday present, click here. It's a preliminary sketch for one of the illustrations Moira Manion is doing for Resurrections. I have asked for her hand in marriage. We'll have a June wedding... ;-) kidding! But when you see it, you'll see why I even (briefly) considered it. I could not be more pleased with the way these are progressing.
SERIOUS NOTE REGARDING ORIGINAL ART ON THIS SITE: Respect the copyright notice on the picture. Take a copy for your personal use if you want, but if you link to it or copy it and put it on your own page I will come after you and have your ISP take action against you for copyright violations. This usually means they'll take your page down. I am NOT kidding. And my ISP provides me with a site monitor, so I know when people directly link to pictures on my site (as a few of you are aware). And for those who don't link, but copy, well, my spies are everywhere and LM fandom is very insulated, so I will find you in short order. Drastic, yes, but necessary. Other images on this site (like all the gallery pics) are in public domain, and you can take those as you like and even post them on your site (as long as you don't link to mine, copy them and upload them to your own server space so it doesn't drain my bandwidth) but there are original illustrations around, not only the ones for Pont-au-Change, which are not in public domain, they are owned by people who are not nice when riled. There are other people whose art appears on my site (Colleen Doran for example) from whom I have permission to reprint their art and whose copyright notices accompanies them. There are legal reasons why we have to protect ourselves so strongly, mainly because if we don't, then later on we could lose the rights to our own work. And violating this not unreasonable request will definitely impact the possibility of ever posting any other illustrations up here again. Thank you in advance for your understanding.
See you next month. Sometime. Still not sure yet. Keep checking.
July 1, 2000. Not Bastille Day, after all. Blame Trout for that.
I had planned to post the entire end sequence as a whole block in two weeks. However, something happened. My proofer, the ever-cooler-headed Trout, said, and I quote, "Do NOT post this section and another together. Are you nuts? You post 50+ pages in one night and they'll expect you to do it every time. Post this section. Finish the other one, get it proofed and fixed, and then keep it snug and warm till August. You wanted to get a month ahead on the writing anyhow. Do it this way and you'll give everyone what they want without raising expectations unduly, and you'll still get to take a vacation after this. All you have to do is post in August, no real work." Besides, "There are too many highs and lows in it to blithely jump to a new section anyhow...."
I think that's a lovely idea. It's my deadline, I'll do what I want with it. Rather than post on the 14th, though, I'm splitting the difference down the middle and posting the first one earlier, and so Sanctuary finishes in August instead. Just like that. Wow, I'm breathing easier already!
August, btw, is also when Resurrections is finally slated to go to press. I've had to change illustrators for the project due to deadline problems and the meeting thereof on the part of the original illustrator. So, the book goes to press in August. However, the publisher has a four to five month turnaround. Which means that with a fair wind and a clear horizon the book will be out on the shelves by Christmas.
I can already hear the screaming. I know, I thought it'd be two month turnaround, too, but they're backlogged. Not my fault. Besides (and keep this in mind): traditional publishers have a turnaround time of anywhere between eighteen months to two years. So quitcher bitchin. :-)
I've updated the Bibliography and fixed some stuff in the Oddities that was broken, and got a couple new letters. Other than that, well...
Once again, that joyous refrain: one more segment to go, and Sanctuary's done....
June 6, 2000. 3PM. In Paris it's 1AM on the 7th. A happy anniversary for the website, a not-so-happy one under other circumstances, but only if you believe everything Victor Hugo wrote ;-)
Update on Resurrections in the store... hopefully by the time I upload the last segment of Sanctuary, you will be able to buy the first book. I will be putting a link button on the front page for Barnes and Noble.com so that you can order it directly. Also, be sure to tell your local book retailer to order it, carry it, make it their best friend, whatever it takes. I will also post the ISBN number for you to give them so they can do so. Meanwhile I'm already setting up out here to do some in-store book signings. Oboy! I feel like Pinnochio; the Blue Fairy's gonna make it a real live book! :-)
Okay, enough giddiness. Next month we will see the last section of Sanctuary, at which point we will be either 2/5 or 1/3 of the way through the entire work. I don't know about you all, but I'm anxious to get this adventure out of first gear :-) I had always intended Sanctuary to be just what its name implies, a haven, the eye of the storm, the part where I set up a great deal of what is going to carry through for the rest of the work; Resurrections was, let's face it, where the ground rules were laid, where those parts of the story which do not follow Hugo's version are detailed and explored. But I'll tell you, this so-called "nice quiet interlude of a book" has been one of the hardest things I've ever had to write, not just because "quiet" is harder to write than "busy" but because I'm covering some subjects I had to research the hell out of and there were some considerations of characterization I had to work out before I wanted to commit them to paper. You'll know what I'm talking about when you get to it. Meanwhile, there's yet another little research piece I'd like to share with you all, concerning the branding of prisoners in France and elsewhere.
According to my best data, prisoners were not branded with their numbers. Frankly, if you think about it, it's just not feasible; they'd have to have some kind of interchangeable number set, heat each one up individually, replace the used ones, etc. etc. So much for that idea.
It turns out that the brand depended on the crime and the punishment. A sentence of hard labor rated the letters T.F., for travaux forcés, literally "hard labor." A life sentence incurred the addition of the letter P for travaux forcés en perpétuité, "perpetual hard labor." And such a brand was not given on the chest, or on the forearm, it was made on the shoulder, or high up on the arm like a polio vaccination scar. Branding, while common before the 19th century, later died out in favor of the infamous "yellow passports," although many tried to bring back some form of physical identification (one doctor at the turn of the 20th century actually advocated the injection of paraffin in certain designs for the various offenses). The formal practice of branding ended in 1832.
I'm bringing this all up because I have (once again) taken a few liberties with the concept, since Hugo never actually said that Jean Valjean was branded at all. It's only later versions that use that conventionality (and I personally find it hard to believe that, had Javert known Valjean was branded, he wouldn't have at some point said "well, if the mayor has no brand, then I'm mistaken, aren't I?")
Well, that's about it... see you all back here for the last section, uploading on Bastille Day—if you're not all out at the X-Men movie premiere, that is....
May 7, 2000 Yes, it's a week late. Blame Canada.
Remember what I said about the next section being too darn big? Remember what I said about the next section being the LAST one? Well, I lied. I split up the posting into one little section and one big one. There will be two more postings that I can see: the first will be on the 2nd Anniversary of the website, June 7 (yaay!) and what hopefully will be the LAST posting of Sanctuary will be on... July 14! Bastille Day! Think I can do it? Let's watch and find out!
I got a lot of mail this time out. Nothing much else, though. Except of course, this month's entry in the ongoing Bad Translation/Bad Writing debate. This will come as a bit of a shock to everyone, so sit down before you read further.
Ready? Everyone knows Marius and Cosette's wedding date, don't we? February 16, 1833. Mardi Gras. Guess what? I've consulted a perpetual calendar for 1833. The sixteenth of February was a Saturday. Mardi Gras, otherwise known as (literally) Fat Tuesday, is the day before Ash Wednesday, which is in turn the first of the forty days of Lent during which prayer, fasting, and reflection are encouraged. It is a time where personal sacrifice is essential—one may give up a favorite food or an activity, to commemorate the sacrifice made by Jesus Christ on Good Friday, which is the day of the crucifixion. The last day of Lent is the day of the resurrection, Easter Sunday. Unlike Christmas, which is a solar holiday and celebrated on the same date every year, Easter is a lunar holiday, determined by the Sunday after the first full moon following the Spring Equinox. Nevertheless, Mardi Gras always lands on a Tuesday.
Historical fact tells us, in the form of many, many biographical notices, that Victor Hugo chose that particular date, 16 February 1833, for the wedding night of Marius and Cosette because it had a special significance for him: it was the night he himself consummated his relationship with his mistress Juliette Drouet, the woman who would be his steadfast companion for the rest of his life, more than his wife, more than his friends, more than anyone else. She was performing in his play "Lucrèce Borgia" in the role of the Princess Negroni, and had been in that role since February 2. Two weeks later, after a performance, she sent a note to Hugo, asking him to come to her. He did just that. It is noted more than one place, by both Hugo and Drouet, that they "made love to the sound of the revelers in the street."
There can be no question that there was a Carnivale going on, then. But how to explain the discrepency between the day and the date?
Here's where my new-found teaching skills come into focus. Class, open your own copies of Les Misérables to Book 5: Jean Valjean; section 6: The White Night; chapter 1: February 16, 1833. Two pages into the chapter we read that M. Gillenormand is thrilled that their marriage is on Mardi Gras, and even quotes a charming little ditty about it. My French-language first edition clearly refers to "un mardi gras," but it does not actually say the 16th was a Tuesday. In the Penguin translation (Norman Denny) the phrase Mardi Gras is used, and Fahrenstock/MacAfee do the same. But some of my uncredited translations translate the phrase itself: Shrove Tuesday. And that, in a nutshell, is where the problem lies.
To illustrate the point, we may attend "Christmas parties" that are actually held on days other than Christmas, which is in actuality the 25th of December. We are not denoting the actual date, but the festivity surrounding it. Similarly, Mardi Gras itself is the Tuesday before the first day of Lent. But as anyone who has ever been in the remote vicinity of Louisiana in the early spring comes to learn, the entire Mardi Gras experience covers the entire week beforehand, culminating in the actual Tuesday in question. Therefore, though the 16th was a Saturday, Mardi Gras itself fell on the 19th.
Having said that (here we go again) that leaves a major plot problem in Resurrections. Many of the references to the wedding that I made place it as occurring on the actual Tuesday. The following day is referred to as Ash Wednesday. So, my problem is this: change the day from Tuesday to Saturday, or change the date from the 16th to the 19th.
Following my usual practice in such situations, I again chose the path of least resistance, and just changed the number 16 to 19. That solves the problem neatly: Hugo never said it was the Tuesday itself; therefore, the dead (Hugo) are right and the living (yours truly) are not wrong. For my part, I think it's a kind of poetic justice, no matter how you look on it, that in the season of personal sacrifice, the holiest time of the Christian calendar, Jean Valjean gave up his only child for Lent.
Okay, enough of that. I'm exhausted. Class dismissed.
(frightening personal note number 5: my ex-wedding anniversary is the 18th of February. Whew! That was close....)
April 1, 2000 surprise!
I finished the next section much more quickly than I thought I would, and rather than sit on it I decided to post it today and try to get back to a once-a-month schedule. Unfortunately it looks like I won't be able to finish up by the June anniversary. The next sections just look too darned big. Well, section. Section six is the last section of Sanctuary. I know where my problem was, I didn't make the preceding sections quite big enough; I took three parts to upload what should have been two. Even though this early section makes up for the late one, it doesn't solve the problems I had early on. Hopefully Book Three will be better paced. Certainly it will be a bit different than this one. Like a real sanctuary, this book was a place to take a bit of a breather before life catches up to the characters again. It's a place for introspection, so that a new direction can be chosen. Things have been pretty easy for the cast so far this book—that's about to change in a big way.
I don't have anything else to put up this time except the section, but I did get something really cool I'd like to share, something I've been looking for for almost twenty years, since I was in High School reading A Tale Of Two Cities in Sophomore English and falling in love with French history and literature—even that literature written by Englishmen ;-). In the 60's there was a comic book called the Inferior 5 (a parody of the Fantastic Four) and the heroes were somewhat less than heroic: White Feather (a coward), Dumb Bunny (a ditzy blond), Awkwardman (self-explanatory), the Blimp (flies, is round, etc.), and Merryman (an unfunny guy in a jester's outfit). In one issue, from 1967 (the year after I was born), they go back in time to the French Revolution and get recruited by Sir Chauncey Berkeley, aka the Crimson Crysanthemum. Seems he's supposed to rescue this nobleman from the Bastille, but he needs help. The nobleman in question's name is Charles Darnit, aka the Marquis St.-Evreman. It gets worse. Unbeknownst to anyone, Darnit's lookalike Sydney Cartoon has already gotten Darnit out and is impersonating him in the hopes that he will die a heroic death and be beloved by millions... and then the Inferior Five ruin it all by saving him at the last moment. Meanwhile, the Crimson Crysanthemum was captured during the escape by his arch-nemesis, Citizen Chauvenist, and it's up to the Inferior Five to rescue him as well....
In other words, twenty years before most of the current Scarlet Pimpernel fanatics were even born, a comic book created a witty, irreverent, well-researched and craftily executed crossover parody. Oh, and it is not a Mary Sue! Amazing, isn't it?
Ted Sturgeon was an optimist—in truth, more than 90% of fanfic is crap. But every now and again you find a work that uses the medium to its full potential, and reaffirms the viability of "interpretive media." It took me almost two-thirds of my life to locate my own copy of this comic, but it was well worth the wait.
It makes me wonder whether or not anyone will care enough about my work to go searching it out in thirty years or so. I'd like to think so, certainly, but I can't see that far ahead. I could be very wrong.
Good stories transcend time; that's why the "classics" are finding a new audience today. That's also why I don't read fanfic anymore, certainly not web-based fanfic, and never fanfic based on original works I really really like, such as The Scarlet Pimpernel, A Tale Of Two Cities, or Les Misérables. The stuff that's out there now is, with painfully few exceptions, garbage, and I don't have the time to go mucking through it looking for the shiny bits. So, I wait. I figure if it's any good it'll be around later, long after the rest have dried up and fallen away like dead skin. A good story is always worth waiting for.
March 23, 2000 sorry I'm late...
In case you were wondering why the page didn't get updated on time, no, I'm not sick, and no, I haven't stopped writing it. My life has been in a bit of a mess lately, which has eaten up all my spare time. In addition, teaching turns out to be a tiring job! And they always made it look so easy!
But don't worry. I really really want to keep the book on track, which means that this book should conclude in June, then I get a break, then jump into Book Three. To that end I have written a double-post's worth of material this time, and will try to finish up this particular section by the middle of next month. Note I said "try:" this means that if I have to alter the schedule again a little, I will. I am not going to make myself ill trying to meet a self-imposed deadline.
I got a slew of letters this time around, which is good, because that's about all the material I have for this update. Well, besides the book, of course. If you'd like to know how Book One is progressing on its journey to "real live bookdom," that is addressed in The Blotter.
Other than that, not much going on around here. Maybe next month...
oops added note: I found some more money for the Treasure Box in the Oddities section. I just uploaded it... sorry!
February 18, 2000 Hey! Where'd the book go?
Good question. The first part of Pont-au-Change, "Resurrections," has been taken off the website. This is not a bad thing. It is being polished, re-edited, given a fresh coat of paint, and will be submitted to the publisher once the paint is dry. To that end I've taken Book One off the site early.
So when will it be back up? Bad news, it won't. Under the publishing arrangement I have made, the company publishing Resurrections has the exclusive right to publish the book in any medium for three years. They may print their own electronic version of it, but it will be for sale, not for free. So if you haven't got your copy of the first book off the site, you'll have to wait for the book to show up on BarnesandNoble.com. Or Amazon.com. Or your local bookstore.
There will be some differences between the draft that got printed on site and the one that will be available in the stores. Nothing major, but it will read a bit less stiltedly than it did. And the illos... droooool! Oh yes, if you liked the way it looked online, you'll love the way it looks on your shelf! It should be available by the 2nd anniversary of the website, around the time that Sanctuary is concluded and Book Three begins.
Meanwhile, while I've been arranging book things and so on, I haven't quite gotten to finishing the next installment of Sanctuary. Don't worry, it'll get done, just not by the end of the month. So I'm updating some other stuff in the meantime, such as....
...The Huge New Gallery Acquisition! That's right, even more illustrations from Les Misérables have surfaced! Longtime reader and supporter Mersault unearthed another hundred and fifty or so illos from Jeanniot (who didn't so much illustrate the thing as attempt to animate it—I mean, look at all the pics he did!). The Gallery now takes up a huge chunk of webspace, but Oh Well! No hardship there! This puts the Gallery at around 500 illos. Yikes!
I managed to get a few more things loaded into the Odds & Ends (though I'm still not done with some of the banner gifs, sorry). And we got a few new letters. All this and Andy Rooney, this week on... well, you know.
January 31, 2000: Oh, goodness, where to begin...
Item 1: Yes, I saw Les Misérables on the 23rd. My God. It was fabulous. And the actor playing Jean Valjean (Ivan Rutherford) was ill, so I saw his understudy, Randal Keith, who was so effing fantastic that I can't imagine the first string Valjean was any better! And although I was seated waay up at the back of the mezzanine, I could see perfectly, and I was so close to the exit that I was one of the first in the restroom during the intermission! Which, in a sold-out house, is no mean feat, let me tell you! Having now actually seen the play staged I will be updating my review in the Media Comparison Checklist at some point in the near future.
Item 2: I got the results of my exam back, and yes, I am now a teacher. Substitute teacher, to be sure, but keeping 30 fifth graders in line is not easy, either! The phrase "herding cats" comes to mind, as a matter of fact. But so far, so good! If anything really interesting happens, I'll be sure to post it. Meanwhile, the SS Teaching Career is on course at full steam!
Item 3: Not much to update on the website this time, a new section is begun, I finally finished the review of the newer Classics Illustrated version of Les Misérables, and I have a very cool Oddity. And that's it. It's been a slow month for the site.
Which brings us to Item 4, which consists of two parts, the Good News, and the Bad News. As per tradition, the latter will be given first:
The Bad News: The pending publishing deal announced last year has fallen through. It has been over a year with no movement from them, and it looks as if there will be none forthcoming. Therefore I have requested my manuscript be returned to me.
The Good News: I have a new publisher. It will be an interesting arrangement, to be sure, since it is not a traditional publisher. It will require some changes made on this page; for example, for the length of the publishing contract the book will have to be removed from the website. However, since I envisioned this work to be made up of five or six separate books anyway, this will only necessitate the removal of Book One: Resurrections. However, Book Two: Sanctuary will continue to be posted until completed, at which point it will be removed for publication, and so on, hopefully at the established rate of one a year, until the entire work is completed.
I know what you're thinking: why should I, the Reader, purchase a hard copy of a book I've already read for free? Well, there's several reasons. First, you all seem eager to own a "real" book version of Pont-au-Change, at least according to the emails you keep sending me. Second, what has been put on the website has been a work in progress; even as we speak I have five proofers and editors poring over Resurrections to help me boil down a definitive "final" draft for publication. And third, it will be illustrated! That's right, my good friend Ed Garcia, whose work has graced many a comic book, has agreed to produce ten or twelve illustrations for Resurrections in the style of the old Les Misérables illustrations found in the Gallery on this very site. Ed is extremely talented and able to imitate nearly any style of art I've ever thrown at him, so I'm quite eager to see the results of his interpretations of the characters! When I have it back I will post some of the art on site so you can get a glimpse of what will be an exciting turn for this project!
And that's the State of the Website Address for the year 2000. Thanks for reading, thanks for your unfailing support, and especially thanks for sticking around! I hope you'll all continue to hang in there for the bold new direction this is taking. As I've pointed out before (and will continue to point out), without all of you, this whole exercise would be nothing but a vanity project for an audience of one. What a boring proposition that is!
December 31, 1999: Information is power. The more information one has, the more grasp of a situation one has, and the ability to act accordingly. It's a maxim that is as true today as it was a hundred and fifty years ago. The difference is that today, the exchange of information flows faster.
And the only thing that travels faster than information is false information. We have a tendency to take anything written in a book as fact, rather than interpretation of fact. And if the misrepresented fact is translated from another language, so much the worse. It's like a giant game of "Telephone."
Why am I bringing this up? It's a preface to an explanation. You see, I've allowed myself to take the word of a translation over the original source, reinforced by others' acceptance of the translation, and written myself into a corner. All over the translation of a single word.
I have in my hands the pride of my Les Misérables collection, purchased from a book dealer in Switzerland. It is a first edition set, printed in Belgium in 1862. Belgium was the first printer of many of Hugo's works in exile, simply because much of his work was banned by Napoleon III and therefore illegal to print in France. So his material would be printed in Belgium and smuggled over the border for distribution in France. Les Misérables was printed in Belgium and shortly afterwards in France and simultaneously in translated editions around the globe. But the French edition had some passages edited in order to pass the censor's eye; this has become the "official" version of the work. The Belgian edition is unexpurgated, however; it is the version that Hugo completed and with which he was well satisfied. It's like having the director's cut, in other words. I read French much better than I speak it, and so I have been steadily making my way through the work since I got it several months ago. Which leads me to the following observation:
Javert is not a Gypsy. Hugo makes no such claim to it. It is in fact a combination of a translator's error and an assumption of meaning. To explain further:
The sole reason anyone believed him to be of Romani descent is due to a single line in the chapter in which Javert is introduced. The line as written reads, in the original Wraxall translation, "...an inexpressible hatred of the race of Bohemians to which he belonged." This is unfortunate in and of itself, as Bohemia was an actual separate country, not a part, as it is today, of Western Czechoslovakia, and "Bohemian" in the modern sense means a hedonist, a libertine. But I digress. The word "Bohemians" is indeed the word Hugo used, or, in his case, "Bohèmes," but it is the fact that translators afterwards attempted to put a synonym to this that we run into trouble.
The Penguin translation renders the phrase "race of Bohemians" as "vagabond order." The best known modern translation, the one most current readers are familiar with, the Lee Fahrenstock translation (with which, I have mentioned previously, I am less than happy) renders it further as "Gypsy race." This is just plain sloppy translating. Bohemia has little to do with the Roma, either as a state of existence or a state of mind. To substitute the word "Gypsy" for it is beyond irresponsible; it is no more an acceptable synonym for "vagabond" than "Jew" is an acceptable synonym for "miser."
One might argue back that one might infer Javert's Romani background by the fact that his mother was a fortune teller. That is all well and good, but one need not be Romani to be a card reader. It is not, nor has it ever been, an exclusive occupation to that people. Therefore that is a conclusion, to use a legal phrase, based on facts not in evidence.
That being said, here's where I come in. I have arranged a large portion of background around the assumption that Javert is, in fact, Romani. Hugo does not say he is. Therefore I have two choices: continue as I have, and therefore continue the mistake and add authenticity to it (a thought that really didn't sit well with me), or, alter what I have written and discover a new way to convey what I consider to be a major character trait and the explanation of some of his behavior. It's a hard choice to make.
My decision was to keep the works as written, after all. It's certainly easier, some might say lazier, but when I made this decision I took it upon myself to do justice to the mistake. In other words, I made certain that I researched the idea, so I would not base my interpretation on stereotypes. To that end I have made great use of the what might be deemed the "official" Roma website, Patrin, which is not only informative from a research standpoint but it is a fascinating documentation on a people which has been alternately ignored and debased through a good deal of history. I recommend the site to anyone interested in the subject, it may open your eyes a little about the world we live in.
One note further: by making Javert Romani I do not intend to portray him as representative of an entire people, any more than I intend to portray Valjean as a representational Frenchman, or other various characters to come later representative of their respective countries or origins. His background (as I have envisioned it) is unique to the character, as we are, all of us, unique to our personal history and environment. Furthermore, I make no excuses for him or his actions; his beliefs and his prejudices are his own, not mine.
That having been said, there is not much to add. Change of gears:
There are some new letters (and hey! We found Worf-boy a date! What am I, a matchmaking service? ;-) ) but nothing more to the rest of the site. I had hoped to have more illustrations for the Gallery but the book I've been waiting for for two months to get here from Australia has illustrations I already have scanned, all but the frontspiece, so I'll wait on that.
On the personal front, I get my exam results back next week. I've begun selling as much collectible junk as I can on EBay in order to finance my career change and impending move. Yes, I'm moving out of the Victorian. The landlord is a complete tweek who seems unable to keep an appointment or make a single repair, and there are squirrels all inside the walls and they're driving the cats buggy! As to where I'm going, I'm not sure yet, but since I'm looking at relocating back to Southern California it's a safe bet there won't be many Victorians down there. I will keep the Notes posted as things happen... as usual....
Oh, and one more thing. Next month I will be updating my review of the musical version of Les Misérables in my Media Comparison section. Why? Because Santa brought me a ticket to go see the National Touring Company in LA over my birthday weekend! I must have been a very good girl this year!
I would wish you all a happy millenium, but I'm one of those "it doesn't start till 2001" people. So I'll just wish you all a plain ordinary vanilla Happy New Year, one that will hopefully continue to find us all healthy and happy and with a few bucks in our pockets.
Until next month... next year....
December 1, 1999: Nothing new to report on my move towards teaching; this weekend I take my credential exam. I'll have the results back in a month, then I can start throwing my resume around. Meanwhile I'm looking at a temporary job to make sure I have enough income through the new year.
I found yet another illustrated edition of Les Misérables to add to the Gallery. It's not only abridged, but "revised and edited." Meaning someone took the story and dumbed it down. Actually it's got some cool stuff in it, a map of France with the cities and locations mentioned in Les Misérables, a map of Paris with the same, a French pronunciation guide, a summary of the political situation in France at that time, a bibliography on all this information, and a short biographical sketch of Victor Hugo. All this aside, I thought the first paragraph of the introduction was pretty funny. To wit: "In preparing this abridged version of 'Les Misérables,' the editor has tried to make a book which would be interesting to American boys. All long descriptions have therefore been left out, and a good many narrative portions as well...." That pretty well sums it up....
And that's pretty much it. I still have not heard back regarding getting this thing published. I have to say that the longer this goes on, the less hope I have, but there's always the possibility of a pleasant surprise, right?
I'm not saying much about this segment being posted; it pretty well does the job of speaking for itself. There may be a few references that aren't readily understood, but a quick application of an encyclopedia will remedy that right away. I suppose I could have explained them in the text, but it always seems ridiculous to me when characters have to explain things to one another that they already know, the sole purpose of which is to clue in the reader. So, if you don't know it going in, you'll know it coming out, that's for sure... think of it as teacher training on my part.
I am going to try to make one more posting before the end of the year. I would say the end of the millennium, but since that's a year away, I hope I'll be halfway through the next book by then. :-)
Until next time....
November 14, 1999: Well, my banking career is over... and I feel great! Three weeks to go till I take my teaching certification exam, and then... whee! Meanwhile I'm making enough on eBay selling off my unwanted books and comics and toys to take care of my present bills, so that frees up tons of time to write. Good thing, too. I'd like to finish the present storyline during the next posting. Then I can move onto new territory, some new characters, some old characters I'll bet you never thought would show up in this... I'm looking forward to it. Nothing more boring than someone leading a nice pleasant life.
I want to thank everyone who emailed me regarding my new career move and the death of my uncle, your words of encouragement and sympathy mean a lot to me. The fact that I was more warmly treated by a bunch of near strangers than I was by the people I worked with for two and a half years says something about a) bankers and b) the power of the internet. Someone in a chat room reminded me of the quote from Mary Poppins about "that's what banks do to people." Well, there you go, if you can't believe Mary Poppins, who can you believe? :-)
I've updated one of the media reviews, the long-promised review of everyone's favorite interpretation, the original Classics Illustrated Les Misérables comic book. Also I've updated some of the Oddities lists, especially regrouping all the Broadway musical props I've been able to find on eBay and a couple of really off-the-wall items. The next scheduled upload of the book is still a few weeks away. As it turns out, the day I take my exam. So it might be a little late, or a little early, depending on how things go for me between writing and studying.
Meanwhile it's raining and I have no job, but I have just enough money to be comfortable enough not to have to do any temping for a couple more weeks. I could get used to this :-)
October 31, 1999: I did not know if I would be able to put this page up on time. My life has been tumultuous in the past month. I am preparing to move from a downstairs apartment to an upstairs apartment, I am leaving my job at the bank to pursue a career as (don't laugh) an English teacher, and one of the most ardent supporters of my writing career over the years, my Uncle Dick, passed away a couple of weeks ago.
I had thought to share his life with you in this posting, but it's still too new, too fresh, to put it into direct words. I think the best tribute I could have offered him was the fact that, when I came home from his funeral, I finished the next section of the book. He was the kind of man who would be horrified to think of himself as being the cause of someone else's discomfort or inconvenience. And he was someone, throughout my childhood and into my adulthood, that I could show my stories to or discuss the stories I had read and liked, and didn't like. I know my mother loves everything I write; whether it's true or not, that's what she says. But I knew my uncle would give me a straight answer, from a professional standpoint. He taught English for many many years, and when my own teachers tried their damndest to stamp out the spark of creativity in me ("Girls don't write science fiction" "You write very well, but I don't understand it, so I can't give you an A on it") he kept it alive for me. I think that is why I am finally going to enter the field myself, not only to teach, but to undo the damage done by the unfortunately large number of small-minded teachers across this country who seem determined to kill the love of reading and writing in children before it can fully develop. That, and the fact that I think I'd be pretty darned good at it :-)
I wasn't going to go this deeply into it, but I wrote it anyway, so I'm not deleting it. And that's where my life has been this last month. We'll just have to wait and see where it is next month.
On reflection, just now, re-reading what I have written here, remembering what I have written in the story this past month, it's uncanny how something I have already plotted years ago seems to have intermeshed itself with what is happening now. It has been said that art is the mirror of the soul. I hope that I have not reflected too much, but I fear I have not done enough.
And before it is thought that I regret my uncle could not be here to read this chapter, or indeed the rest of the book, it must be understood that the exact opposite is true: for in a universe where time and space exist simultaneously, wherever he is now, the book is finished, and he has already read it. I envy him, in that he knows the final version of this work, and I wish that he would send me a copy, so I might know it too.
October 3, 1999: Welcome to the new site! Kinda different, yet kinda familiar... the new front page isn't quite what I wanted, but it's close for now. I'm not very good at coding those tables, so I'll take the design I've got.
As promised, I have two sections posted this time, the end of Part Three, and the entirety of Part Four. Part Five should upload Halloween weekend. Boo!
Some of the things from the old site were lost, either by Crosswinds (the jerks) or while moving. If you run into a file that's not here, give me time to upload them or fix the links if I can't. The book's up, but much of the Oddities section and all the Gallery is not yet available. You know how it is, the first few weeks after you move you're still living out of boxes :-)
Also I added, finally, the review of the CBS Radio Mystery Theater version of Les Misérables. I separated the Media Comparison area from the Oddities section, made it a whole new subfile, so I can manage it accordingly.
Add to that a couple more letters, stir, and it makes its own sauce! Well, now that we're all settled in, I'm hard back to work on the thing, and hope to Sanctuary as scheduled next spring. Are you excited? Heck yeah I'm excited! What are you reading this for, go read the book!
What? You read the book first? You mean you don't read the Notes before reading the next posting? Well fine then! See if I care!
August 15, 1999: Okay, so this month's post is a little short. What do you want? Blood?
Still working on the review of the CBS Radio Mystery Theater program. Hopefully I'll have it for next post, at the end of the month. By now most of you have realized I try to post new stuff twice a month, book segments on or about the middle of the month and various & sundry other items at the end of the month, like Gallery pics and Oddities and so on. I'd have the review done but I've only made it through the tapes once; I seem to keep falling asleep while listening to it. Wonder why?
I promise that September's book posting will be big, finishing up the current section (Strangers in a Strange Land) and maybe even beginning the next one. People and situations are getting introduced that will have repercussions through the rest of the project, so I'm trying to make sure everything is laid out just right... otherwise it'll fall in on me in a couple of years, and wouldn't that be embarrassing?
By the way, publication update: the outline for all the books is finished (and wasn't that a fun project! Not) and in the hands of my pal at A Certain Publishing House That I Can't Name Till Something Concrete Happens. Cross fingers, toes, and eyes while he shows it to his boss... and hope I don't have a stroke before then from nerves!
Oh, and check my Ebay auctions here because I'm selling some of my Les Misérables volumes and musical-related items!
Happy Motoring!
July 25, 1999: I was going to hold off putting up some new Gallery pics and stuff till the 31st, but then I got a letter that had to go up.
I haven't had this much fun since my high school writing teacher gave me a "C" not because I wasn't the best writer in the class, but because I didn't sell enough candy bars to support the literary magazine. I ought to get personally insulted by total strangers more often!
Speaking of bad writing, I'm still working on the review of the CBS Radio Mystery Theater version of Les Misérables, but it is as you may imagine a long, hard road... I was really hoping for something other than I got, but on the other hand, I have an almost-complete set of Mystery Science Theater 3000, so I'm used to pain on this level... hopefully by Upload Day on the 15th I'll have it done. Assuming I have another chapter of my crappy derivative book ready to go first.
Thanks to everyone who remembered Javert's birthday on July 20th, even without the quickie reminder I posted on the front page, and I'll see you in two weeks... with I'm sure a few more letters to post :-)
July 14, 1999:
I found this quote (from Babylon 5 no less!) on a website that was listed a few down from mine on the Boycott Yahoo! link page... and it struck me as being eminently appropriate to the subject at hand. After all, we associate Jean Valjean with the Bishop's candlesticks, and Javert of course with stars. But if you look at it from another perspective, the reverse is equally true: Valjean, the spiritual side, sees the infinite in the guise of the star, while earthbound, narrow-focused Javert, who has only just come to acknowledge that the light exists at all, can see little more than is given off by a candle.
Not much to report, except for the new review (I have another one still in the works...) and a couple of toys in the Oddities section. And of course my newest bestest toy ever... I have finally managed to acquire a souvenir brochure from the first Australia company. Yes, that one. Anthony Warlowe, Debbie Byrne, and oh yeah what's-his-name—Philip something—as Javert. Mine mine mine mine mine. God I love EBay.
Well, have a happy Bastille Day, and see you in around a month!
June 30, 1999 and we're two weeks away from uploading another section... but again I decided to upload some small things early so I don't have to do them later.
Among my newer cool acquisitions are two more media versions of Les Misérables, a radio play done in the 1980's by CBS Radio Mystery Theater, and the coveted, can't-believe-I-found-it 1979 animated version, the one I've been drooling to get my mitts on since I saw the preview accidentally tacked onto the back of a copy of Rikki Tikki Tavi I bought at the flea market one Sunday. While the links for these have been updated, the reviews are not yet completed and will be uploaded with the second part of Sanctuary.
Other than that and a few other bits, I am frantically writing my life away trying to get Sanctuary moving. It's like pushing a freight train. Once it gets rolling it will stop for nothing, but the problem is that first big shove.
Meanwhile, back to the writing board I go....
June 6, 1999, 3pm Pacific Daylight time—which means it's midnight of June 7 in Paris; adding back the hour difference for DST that was not observed there 167 years ago, that would have made it 1am. Now follows a moment of silence....
....
And so to work. First, I took all the "Notes" entries from Resurrections and put them in an Archive. Otherwise the scrolling will become deadly in here. Besides, we're now on book 2, a whole new exciting adventure, and there'll be plenty to talk about to fill up this page....
This opening section was a real bear to write. Namely because I'm operating out of four different biographies of Victor Hugo and they have four almost completely different timelines for Hugo's settling down in Guernsey. This makes it awfully hard to write a "definitive" version of events since I'm not sure who's lying and who's just plain wrong. One of the biographies puts it all in a nutshell—"with the exception of Napoleon, more has been written on the life of Victor Hugo than on any other Frenchman in history." I'm inclined to believe that!
What this means is, in order for me to bend my story around the "facts", I'm going to be screwing up a few of them. Oh sure, like that doesn't happen a lot in "historical fiction" (that guy Cate Blanchett was schtupping in "Elizabeth" for example... that broke my suspension of disbelief for that film, but oh well, Geoffrey Rush was cool as usual). And then there was "Shakespeare In Love", but I was willing to forgive that movie everything! And then there's "Anastasia", both the original movie (Yul Brenner... what can I say?) and the animated remake. I love them both. I don't believe for a minute they're based in any kind of reality related to mine, other than the fact that Czar Nicholas had a daughter by that name, but again I can forgive that slight lapse in Absolute Truth. Which is a joke anyway. History is written by the winners.
So, any of you Hugo scholars out there, this is for you: I'm aware that I'm getting things mixed up a bit... I mean it's one thing to rewrite the ending of Les Misérables but quite another to rewrite the life of a "real" person. But this is still fiction. Cut me a little slack. Or, in those words I have taken to heart: "Hey, it could happen!"
Okay, so maybe it couldn't. But wouldn't it be neat if it did?
Enough bowing and scraping—"Never apologize; never explain." But Oscar Wilde said it best: "There is no such thing as a moral or an immoral book. Books are either well-written or badly written. That is all." Replace the word "moral" with "correct" and that pretty much sums it up. If it's good, who cares if it's "right?"
We'll see exactly who cares and who doesn't, as Book Two progresses into the dark unknown territory beyond the familiar ground we've already covered, or in this case, covered over....
