Scott Hanna was just telling me about how he made gospel connections to Les Miserables in the talk he gave today. Valjean showed his penitence through restraint and compassion in everything he did (in stark contrast to the way he behaved before he was saved by the priest). Javert insists that people don't change and that they're merely numbers (a bit of a Satanic line of reasoning).
For some reason for me, I just connect with the girl characters' sad love lives in the story.
It's not even like I'm in love with them or I think we have things in common or anything, I just feel sorry for them. The other night my eyes watered listening to "I Dreamed a Dream." The song can be listened to again now that the Susan Boyle thing is getting pretty old. My favorite verses are when she sings about the unknown man in her life (presumably Cosette's father). Somehow the words are very innocent and hopeful at that point, which makes her character's tragedy more real.
Of course one of my favorite songs of all time is Eponine's soliloquy, "On My Own." Do you think it's weird that in every single movie version of Les Miserables, they cut the character of Eponine completely? The movies are far more in-depth than the musical is as well. The writers of the musical must have known and were very inspired to include her because the emotion of her character can be expressed so well through song.
The point is, it's silly of me to connect with the girly stuff. I should connect to the gospel stuff (or at least the guy stuff (I do though -- the student rioters I think have a lot of Hemmingwayish themes)). Perhaps my gospel is connecting to worlds that have as little to do with my world as possible. I've seen it before. Sometimes we have plenty of knowledge about what we're supposed to be passionate about -- but when all the cards are on the table, our true gospel comes out.
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