#Clairemiserables Les Platitudes

One text exercise I often do is list out the simple generalizations characters make about the world and the way it works. It's something I've used in arts ethnography as a tool to identify potential cultural assumptions that may be present in a piece of theatre. Les Miserables is chockful of such statements, often contradictory. This is one reason I think the politics of Les Miserables is particularly malleable: based on the staging or arrangements or performances, certain messages may be given more weight. I decided to create a concept poem of pure presuppositions as articulated by characters in Les Miz.*

*Obviously, this libretto has been edited frequently: I am using the pre-2000 Broadway version since that is the one I grew up on, thanks to the Complete Symphonic Recording and the 10th Anniversary Concert.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=urxk4mveLCw

(Javert has most of them because he is Extremely Preachy.)

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Sweet Jesus doesn't care

At the end of the day you're another day older

And that's all you can say for the life of the poor

It's a struggle, it's a war

And there's nothing that anyone's giving

One more day standing about, what is it for?

One day less to be living.

At the end of the day you're another day colder

And the shirt on your back doesn't keep out the chill

And the righteous hurry past

They don't hear the little ones crying

And the winter is coming on fast, ready to kill

One day nearer to dying!

At the end of the day there's another day dawning

And the sun in the morning is waiting to rise

Like the waves crash on the sand

Like a storm that'll break any second

There's a hunger in the land

There's a reckoning still to be reckoned and

There's gonna be hell to pay

At the end of the day!

At the end of the day it's another day over

With enough in your pocket to last for a week

Pay the landlord, pay the shop

Keep on grafting as long as you're able

Keep on grafting till you drop

Or it's back to the crumbs off the table

You've got to pay your way

At the end of the day!

My dear, we all must stay alive!

Poor men, rich men, leaders of the land

See them with their trousers off they're never quite as grand

All it takes is money in your hand!

Lovely ladies

Going for a song

Got a lot of callers

But they never stay for long

It's the same with a tart as it is with a grocer

The customer sees what he gets in advance

It's not for the whore to say "yes sir" or "no sir"

Not for the harlot to pick or to choose

Honest work, just reward

That's the way to please the Lord

Men like you can never change

Men like me can never change

Every man is born in sin

Every man must choose his way

Not that we begrudged a sou

It's no more than we Christians must do

God rewards all the good that you do

Those who follow the path of the righteous

Shall have their reward

And if they fall as Lucifer fell

The flame, the sword

And so it must be

For so it is written

On the doorway to paradise

That those who falter and those who fall

Must pay the price

I do not doubt you mean it well

But now there is a higher call

Who cares about your lonely soul

We strive toward a larger goal

Our little lives don't count at all

Truth is given by God to us all

In our time

In our turn

Never know your luck

When there's a free for all

Every man will be a king

Every man will be a king

There's a new world for the winning

There's a new world to be won

Dogs will bark

Fleas will bite

There are ways that a people can fight

This only goes to show what little people can do

And little people know when little people fight

We may look easy pickings but we've got some bite

So never kick a dog because he's just a pup

We'll fight like twenty armies and we won't give up

So you'd better run for cover when the pup grows up

Though we may not all survive here

There are things that never die

What's the difference, die a schoolboy

Die a policemen, die a spy?

The law is inside out

The world is upside down

Once a thief, forever a thief

God on high, hear my prayer

In my need, you have always been there

The summers die, one by one

How soon they fly, on and on

You can take, you can give

Let others rise to take our place

Until the earth

Is free!

Well someone's got to clean 'em up, my friends

Bodies on the highway, law and order upside down

Someone's got to collect their odds and ends

As a service to the town

Well, someone's got to clean them up, my friends

Before the little harvest disappears into the mud

Someone's got to collect their odds and ends

When the gutters run with blood

It's a world where the dog eats the dog

Where they kill for bones in the street

And God in His Heaven, he don't interfere

Cause he's dead as the stiffs at me feet

I am the Law and the Law is not mocked

There is nothing on earth that we share

I should have perished by his hand

It was his right

It was my right to die as well

Nothing changes

Nothing ever will

Every year another brat, another mouth to fill

Same old story. What's the use of tears?

What's the use of praying if there's nobody who hears?

Turning, turning, turning through the yearsTurning, turningMinutes into hours, and the hours into yearsMinutes, hoursNothing changes, nothing ever canNothing changes, nothing ever canRound about the roundabout and back where you beganRound about the roundabout

Round and round and back where you began!

Love is the garden of the young

When I look at you, I remember Eponine

She was more than you deserved, who gave her birth

But now she is with God and happier, I hope

Than here on earth!

God forgive us the things that we do

Beggar at the feast! Master of the dance!

Life is easy pickings, if you grab your chance

Everywhere you go, law-abiding folk

Doing what is decent, but they're mostly broke!

Watch the buggers dance, watch 'em till they drop

Keep your wits about you and you stand on top!

Masters of the land, always get our share

Clear away the barricades, and we're still there!

We know where the wind is blowing

Money is the stuff we smell

And when we're rich as Croesus

Jesus! Won't we see you all in hell!

Take my love

For love is everlasting

To love another person is to see the face of God!

Do you hear the people sing?

Lost in the valley of the night

It is the music of a people

Who are climbing to the light

For the wretched of the Earth

There is a flame that never dies

Even the darkest night will end

And the sun will rise

They will live again in freedom

In the garden of the Lord

They will walk behind the ploughshare

They will put away the sword

The chain will be broken

And all men will have their reward

Who will join in our crusade?

Who will be strong and stand with me?

Somewhere beyond the barricade

Is there a world you long to see?

Do you hear the people sing?

Say, do you hear the distant drums?

It is the future that they bring

When tomorrow comes!

Who will join in our crusade?

Who will be strong and stand with me?

Somewhere beyond the barricade

Is there a world you long to see?

Do you hear the people sing?

Say, do you hear the distant drums?

It is the future that they bring

When tomorrow comes!

Aah, aah, aah

Tomorrow comes!