"It's the Feeling of Being Edward Hyde!"

Now that I have officially finished...

Comments and Thoughts on Crime and Punishment: (spoilers)

It's like Les Miserables set in Russia! Prostitutes! A central character with heaps of inner conflict! Cute college students! Hypochondria! A central couple who are utterly adorable! Crooks! And everyone dies!

*cough*

All right. I fully admit to having squeed for five minutes when Dounia and Razumihin were married. And they invited Zossimov, which made sense, and Porfiry, which makes no sense whatsoever, because as far as I can tell, Dounia didn't know him and Razumihin disliked him by the end.

And I also squeed over Sonia and Rodya, for they were my OTP. But this book is so slashable! Rodya/Porfiry (E!/R); Razumihin/Rodya (that's the equivalent of 'Ferre/'Jolras); Luzhin/Rodya (think Thenardier/Valjean, if you can); Zossimov/Razumihin (Joly/Bossuet, without a single doubt); Sonia/Katerina (Erm. Eponine/Azelma is the closest I can get); Sonia/Dounia (they rhyme! It's like 'Ferre/Prouvaire. And they'd be Cosette/Eponine); Arkady can be slashed with anyone, in a Courfeyracian manner (though Courfey is nicer); so can Rodya, really, though in an E! way. Razumihin/Rodya is my slash OTP.

Even though none of the characters are very like Miz characters, I can provide slash parallels! Razumihin is extremely Bossuet, however.

It is a Good Thing, this book.

And I have a quote: "Stop! Enough of your vile, nasty anecdotes, depraved, vile, sensual man!" I can't help it. I find that incredibly funny. It just doesn't come across seriously. Particularly as it's Rodya saying it, and that is one of the last things you'd ever expect to hear out of dear Rodya.

The translator failed to translate any of Arkady's constant French comments, ergo I'm hard pressed to understand them.

Have I mentioned how beautiful Sonia/Rodya is? It's not Marius/Cosette, because Marius/Cosette is happier, and quite definitely Dounia/Razumihin. It's more like 1998 Movie!Miz Valjean/Fantine. Yes. That's rather it.

>_> Arkady shouldn't have shot himself. That girl he was going to marry adored him. It was sad and pathetic and she will likely be better off without being married to him but I should imagine it'll be awful at first for her.

Andrey is a funny little man. I'm inclined to like him. He's got a whacked-out Utopia in his head, as far as I can tell; he's a bit incoherent.

I need to write Arkady's wife fic, Andrey fic, Dounia/Razumihin fic, Polenka fic, and some slash, because it runs rampant waving Rodya's sock.

Polenka, for the record, is Katerina's eldest daughter, and Rodya asks her to pray for him in one of the most adorable bits of the entire book. Older!Polenka presents a thousand fic opportunities.

Katerina died of consumption, and right before she died, she began bleeding, and the "blood that stained the pavement red was from her chest", implying that the blood was coming right out of her chest, which confuses me considerably. How in hell? If anyone knows... yeah. O_o Please tell me.

Oh, and there's this exchange between Rodya and Arkady:

"From all your half-tipsy stories, I am positive that you have not given up your designs on my sister, but are pursuing them more actively than ever."

"Upon my word! I'll call the police!"

"Call away!"

This is something else Rodya strikes me as never being able to say seriously. It's more of something Razumihin would say.

All right. I shall really shut up about this now.

But I'd like to say that the Epilogue is beautiful, and Sonia and Rodya are utterly darling once Rodya stops trying to torture Sonia. And to think Rebecca says she doesn't want to read it because it's the Epilogue. Doesn't she realise that it's only called that because the climax is over, but it's still necessary if one wants to know what happens next? Doesn't she realise she'll miss out on the saddest, sweetest part of the book?

Harumph. Her loss.

...Is there a fandom? Or am I the only fan?

"Ah, Ca Ira, Ca Ira, Ca Ira: Have You Heard Of Marie Antoinette?"

Oh, and for ladybretagne, I present 'Ferre/Courfey. Such strange little things they be, too.

( The Tenderest Loves of All )

And then there's this. Original poetry. Tell me--is it really original, or has this been done fifty-thousand times before?

Touch the Sky

Touch the sky, they said
Go ahead, touch the sky
And he did, and he stood on his tiptoes and reached up his hands
The sky was soft and cool
And rushed over his hands like the springs
Under the boxwood bushes
All through his yard
The sky was beautiful and sweet
And the clouds the brushed by
Warm and fuzzy like the
Orange cat
That wandered through the slats of his gate

And then they said, touch the sun
The sky is yours
Touch the sun, go ahead
And he did, and he lifted his face and stretched out his fingers
And
The sun burnt him
He pushed it away from himself
And sucked on his fingers to take the pain away
He lost his balance and fell back to the ground
The burning in his fingers felt
Like when he accidentally set his hand down
On a burner on his stove
And the scars were back

So he lay on the ground,
And slowly he sat up, and he soaked his fingers in the mud
And that was cool, and the pain began to go
He smiled, and hugged his knees, watching the sunlight
Spatter

Touch the sky, they said
Get up, touch the sky
But he shook his head
And he
Touched
The
Earth