I’m sorry, but I’m currently in love with this paragraph in the brick: “One might almost say that affinities begin with the letters of the alphabet. In that sequence, O and P are inseparable. You might just as well say O and P as Orestes and Pylades.”
Like, I have things to ramble about but also it’s like literally three am for me so this is short and probably confusing
If you’re part of the Les Mis fandom and hear E and R, you’ll probably think Enjolras and Grantaire. Aka, ‘you might as well say E and R as Enjolras and Grantaire.’ A modern version of the fame of O and P.
Also, there’s so much symbolism with the whole alphabet thing? Like, if we use the first letters of their names, P comes after O, making them ‘inseparable’. Apply that to Enjolras and Grantaire, you’ve got ‘EFG’. Not inseparable, but close together. And if E stands for Enjolras and G for Grantaire, F must stand for something. Maybe France. France, and it’s people, separates Enjolras and Grantaire, but also makes sure there is no space left between them. The cause keeps them together and apart.
The above doesn’t really apply if you take into account the fact that Grantaire is referred to as R (I just… live for puns, flawless naming on Hugo’s part, excepts for when he, you know, left out the first names of half his characters). It can be argued that in the original drafts Grantaire’s name was Grange (he would’ve signed as G that way). But if you stick to Grantaire deciding to sign as R, that also can represent a lot of things. Grantaire removes himself from Enjolras, he’s a rejected Pylades and he acknowledges it, furthering the distance between their two letters.
There are more surviving images of Antinous than of any other Roman. Hadrian was Extra As Fuck. Can you imagine how many statues of Antinous he commissioned? Get you a man that does That.
And then 1500 years later Victor Hugo came along and was like “Enjolras was Grantaire’s Antinous” and people still be like “they’re friends!” Bitch, Hadrian did not have hundreds of sculptors carving Antinous’ beautiful calves for you to be spreading these lies.
It’s a tricky one. Do I think Enjolras returns Grantaires feelings when we are first introduced to Les Amis? No. It says in the text that he disdains him, and that Grantaire is an ‘unaccepted Pylades’ – something that obviously will come up later in the text.
Do I think Enjolras hates Grantaire? Absolutely not. Disdain is far from hate, and he never sends him away even though it’s clear he has the unspoken authority in the group to do so. The fact he decides (grudgingly) to trust Grantaire with Barriere Du Maine speaks volumes about the fact that maybe he has hope for him, and would like Grantaire to prove himself to the group – and to him.
Do I think it’s still unrequited by the time we get to their death scene? No. The transformation in Grantaire and the title of the chapter referencing Orestes and Pylades says everything – Grantaire is no longer an ‘unaccepted Pylades’. Enjolras has accepted him for that role; ergo, he returns his affections, even if sadly only briefly and even if in a way that’s up to debate. Because really, it’s not a sudden revolutionary passion that has transfigured Grantaire, it’s his love for Enjolras.
“On sunny afternoons when he’s in the apartment, he gets a pillow from the couch and follows the sunlight across the living room floor, perfectly on the path of the carpet, sprawling and smiling and lazy, usually ending up right in Grantaire’s path on his way to the kitchen by the time the sun starts going down.”
even if smoo hadn’t nagged me to do this i couldn’t have resisted doing fanart for this ficlet of lady_ragnell’s, it was just a really really lovely image and gave me a chance to play with lighting and posing and drawing enjolras consistently.
¯_( ಠ_ಠ)_/¯ 