Ohhh [fictional Character With Worse Mental Health Than Me] Save Meeeee From This Cruel World.

Ohhh [fictional character with worse mental health than me] save meeeee from this cruel world.

The Commune in Kay

I finished Susan Kay’s Phantom just a few months ago. I wanted to highlight Kay’s interpretation of Erik’s Commune experience as there is a lot I think she got right. And a lot she didn’t. 

I agree with Kay that Erik must have been in Paris at the time of the 1871 Paris Commune as the Palais Garnier was nearly a completed structure by this time. If Erik worked on the foundations, he must have been there from the beginning, in 1861. Kay writes that Erik is already living in the cellar when the Commune began. It made the perfect hideout. 

But I disagree with Kay that Erik would have stayed hidden for the entirety of the Commune. I think at the very least he would have come out to watch the fires at the end. I think Erik delights in chaos - which is why he is always creating it. I don’t think he would have cared about the Commune politically, but I think he would have been very much interested in the arson. 

Does Erik have a political worldview? For all the references to the Commune and anarchy that Leroux slipped into his character, Erik doesn’t seem to stand for anything other than himself. Or rather, he represents so much as to be a mess of a character. Leroux associates him with the Commune and with anarchic terrorism (the chandelier, the threat to explode the Opera) yet what Erik seems to desire most is to be part of the bourgeoisie. He crashes a fancy dinner party, he decorates his home with care, he yearns to be seen walking in the park with a pretty wife. These are not the desires of an anarchist. He is everything at once and therefore completely mysterious. Kay’s Erik’s singular focus seems to be his own internal angst. It makes sense that Kerik pretty much ignores the Commune. Except for that one Communard he kills in the cellar. 

Kay didn’t seem to do as much research on the Commune chapters as she did for some of the other sections of her novel. Although, at the time she wrote her story research was much harder; she didn’t have the luxury of the internet and Google translate. But it’s clear she didn’t find this topic interesting or important to her story. See the above excerpt. The Commune didn’t surrender. It was defeated, massacred. Many many people died. I can’t imagine that anyone was over the horror of it in a mere month. The city itself had suffered physical trauma that would take years to rebuild. But Kay moves her story forward quickly. Erik has a soprano to meet. 

The Angel of Music

So I made some things

And last but not least, this one is for me and my Raoul stans:

I feel so funny

danse macabre

(closeups below)

"i just feel like boys are easier" -- parent who is going to emotionally neglect their amab kids