Fantine 1983-1986

In 1983 Fantine loses her job at the factory and turns to sex work.

In 1986 she is arrested following street harassment and, after experiencing violence from the police, dies without ever seeing Cosette again. Valjean reveals his identity and is arrested, escapes, rescues Cosette and brings her to Paris.

Mix

  1. 9 to 5 - Dolly Parton
  2. Papa Dont Preach - Madonna
  3. Running Up that Hill - Kate Bush
  4. Neighbourhood Girls - Suzanne Vega
  5. When Am I Going to Make a Living - Sade
  6. Janet Jackson - Nasty
  7. Dry Weather - Crass
  8. Greatest Love of All - Whitney Huston
Hungry but we won't give in
Hungry but we're going to win

Liner Notes

well i kind of hate adaptations which focus on the sexiness of sex work as Fantine's key problem rather than the intersection of misogyny and capitalism, but i'm not into the 80s and was down to the wire on my design references, and if you google it you get the impression we were all zooming down the hyperneon vaporwave bisexual lighting superhighway for the decade. so this album design comes courtesy of vintage editions of Blow Job magazine, and those legs likely belong to Cynthia Brimhall (Playboy's Playmate of the Month in October, 1985) but sourcing images like this can be tricky.

9 to 5 starring Dolly Parton was one of the highest grossing films of the year. This is from the soundtrack. Madonna was among the biggest female stars of the 80s; I've chosen Papa Don't Preach song to represent Fantine being fired from the factory due to its release year, and because it's less about an unwanted pregnancy than about the role of patrician judgement & power plays in that situation.

Kate Bush is another iconic 80s sound, & the enigmatic Running up that Hill is here to suggest impossible struggle. On this album, I choose to interpret the cry for someone to understand what the experience is like on the other side as a political statement.

Suzanne Vega is new to me, but was recommended by Rate Your Music as one of the best female releases of the year. I don't like how most adaptations do the Fantine sex work plot - they are routinely more lurid & dehumanising than Hugo. Fantine's problem is that she can't keep a good job and she is being exploited by people she trusts; it's not sex. Sweet Dreams are Made of This is from the correct year for the album, but it's exactly the way I dislike this story to be told. Neighbourhood Girls is a more mysterious song, and I like the dissociative edge, in which Fantine evaporates first into the city, and then into the sewer, alongside thousands of other unnamed like her. It's easy to miss the lyrics of the mellow When Am I Going To Make A Living, which is about anything but easy listening.

Nasty by Janet Jackson was written after experiencing sexual harassment. I chose this & the next song for Fantine's self-aware rage at her arrest, which comes through far more strongly in the book than in many films. The early to mid 80s was the heyday of post-punk. Dry Weather is from the album Penis Envy, a female-fronted album from the band Crass. Bata Motel - about misogyny in general - and Systemic Death - about social murder - were also on my shortlist.

The Greatest Love of All picks up on the detail of Fantine in hospital hearing the children playing outside, and dreaming that it is Cosette, as well as Cosette's symbolic role as the Future Of France. I've always hated that the musical gives Fantine thee big love song, but it's about her love for that asshole who does not deserve 3 minutes of her time on stage, when her story is a love song for her daughter. This song isn't here to be ironic. I've tried to choose abrasive songs where possible, to give these historic people access to the rage of punk & funk, but as often as not, Les Miserables does not feel like that to read. It's a Romantic, rather fairytale-like book, in which Fantine is permitted a death that transcends the mere human; the horror Hugo writes about sounds like Jackson and Crass, but his tone is ultimately one of warmth and hope. Without that, it would be unreadably horrible. Really, the more I've listened to this one, the more I've fallen profoundly for it as a Fantine song. Find your strength in love