Tag: oh interesting

pilferingapples:

thecoffeetragedy:

I should look at how many times it’s mentioned that Feuilly is a fan-maker in the text, because looking at the fandom sometimes it’s 90% of what he ever talks about (the remaining 10% is Poland of course).

OKAY BUT THIS IS ACTUALLY A REALLY INTERESTING ASPECT
historically I mean
and first, in answer to your question: Twice, Hugo mentions it twice, once in the introduction and once in the constructing of the barricade

and this is important, because in that first intro mention a person might just think “Oh, he’s a fan maker”

but at the barricade it’s specific that his fingers are used to painting the delicate folds of fans

He is specifically a fan PAINTER

and guys at the time were almost NEVER fan PAINTERS, apparently (according to people like @maedhrys  and tenlittlebullets  who’ve done research on actual French-language sources)— guys made FANS, they worked in the shops, they might draft designs, but when they did the actual hands-on work it was almost always fan CARVING— carving the patterns into the wood or bone or whatever slats that make up solid folding fans. Better paid work, and more “manly” probably, what with the carving and all. 😛

So what I’m saying is there’s actually room to talk about this a LOT MORE for his character, there’s a whole realm of plot bunnies to explore there— why is he doing “women’s”  work, is it a very very SMALL fan painter’s shop so there’s not that kind of segregation, did he start painting when he was a little (underpayable, don’t-let-him-near-the-carving) kid and then just sort of aged up into being a pro (and now he’s a skilled worker and the bosses don’t want to move him whoops) , is he working in The Most Progressive Fan Shop in Paris? Does he get flack for this from other workers (did he start hanging around students partly because they don’t KNOW enough to bug him about having a Woman’s Job, and it was nice to just not have that conversation sometimes?), is he a sort of shift boss Because Sexism, are most of his non-political friends women, ARE the women he knows non-political? THERE’S SO MUCH WE CAN DO WITH THIS.

LET’S TALK ABOUT FEUILLY BEING A FAN PAINTER.