Someone is hating on Les Miz: Shorter David Denby: I am too far above the average Murican to like this musical that the common person loves so much. Oh, and one of his excuses for hating it? The book is not relevant.
Is it sacrilege to point out that the Victor Hugo novel, stripped of its social detail and reduced to its melodramatic elements, no longer makes much sense? That the story doesn’t connect to our world (which may well be the reason for the show’s popularity)? Jean Valjean becomes a convict slave for nineteen years after stealing some bread for his sister’s child. He has done nothing wrong, yet he spends the rest of his life redeeming himself by committing one noble act after another, while Javert pursues him all over France. Wherever Valjean goes, Javert shows up; he’s everywhere at once, like the Joker in “The Dark Knight,” who was at least intended to be a fanciful creation.
You just wonder what he thinks of Captain Ahab in Moby Dick. “Really, he’s so overly focused on the whale. Why doesn’t he just stay ashore and not think about it so much?”
The Afghan Geniza: Who knew that Afghanistan held Jewish religious treasures? And that the Taliban didn’t find and destroy them?
Intifada number three: They’re working hard at making it so. Probably want to accent the “nonviolence” by, you know, not throwing stones and molotov cocktails.
Anyone out there suprised by this? The “moderate” Muslim Brotherhood president of Egypt is a Jew-hater. But don’t worry, they’ll explain it away as old views that he no longer holds. After all, the interview is from 2010. I’m sure he’s really changed since then.
There’s a strain of “intellectual” who has to prove how much smarter they are by denigrating anything that other people like.
These are the people who will tell you that such and so a band is terrible because of their metre or that you overpaid for that crappy car as you’re telling them about the car you bought yesterday.
Don’t worry about the third Intifada, the “protests” will be “mostly peaceful.”
You know, until the Jews break the strained truce and respond to the snipers hiding behind rock-throwing children.
Or don’t respond so the PLO has to take matters into their own hands, ala al Dura.
I never did learn if the Palis murdered al-Dura to add artistic verisimilitude to an otherwise bald and unconvincing narrative, or if they were just content to lie about there being a dead body delivered to the doctors. I hope it was the latter, but I would not have put it past those exalters of child “martyrdom” to murder him.
As for the “relevance” and believability of Les Miserables, Shakespearean plays with fantastical plots and characters are still considered classics, the last time I looked, and properly played are very entertaining. In any case, I’d say to Mr. Denby: Chacun a son gout.