Black Beauty: The Autobiography Of A Horse

Seeing as I just gave a presentation on Anna Sewell's novel Black Beauty (published in 1877) for a Children's Literature course and the said book is one of my favourite books in the world, I thought it would be a really good idea to spare a post for Black Beauty.

The book doesn't seem to be very widely known these days, so I'll give a brief plot description: The story is narrated by a black horse who describes his life as he changes owners and experiences all kinds of different social settings through these owners. Numerous concerns about horses' and, occasionally peoples' well-being are addressed throughout the book.

Black Beauty's owners include:

• Squire Gordon of Birtwick Park, the ideal home where the horses are treated with respect and are provided with good quality of everything. It is in this home that the narrator is named Black Beauty, and his name changes many times in the course of his life.
• Lord and Lady of Earlshall who are of the highest social class, and especially the Lady thinks that the stylishness of the carriage she rides is more important than the horses' well-being. This results in Black Beauty being introduced to the bearing rein, a cruel device which forces the horse's head up and, in the long run, causes pain and difficulty in breathing.
• Jerry Barker, a London cab driver who, together with his family, is one of the most ideal people imaginable – kind and considerate of the horses he works with, content with his life despite poverty and often hard working conditions.
• Nicholas Skinner's livery stables, where the master is brutally hard on both the horses and their drivers, his aim being to have them work hard and earn as much money as possible until they are too worn out to go on.

I read this book for the first time when I was about ten years old, and I've been reading it over and over again ever since. Black Beauty is one of the cases where it wasn't originally written with child readers in mind – in fact, Anna Sewell herself stated her aim in writing was "to induce kindness, sympathy, and an understanding treatment of horses". Her dedication to raise this awareness was probably heightened by the fact that an accident in her teenage years left her unable to walk, thus being entirely dependent on horse-drawn transportation. Sewell's book did hit the goal it was aiming for, bringing up much discussion about the treatment of horses in Victorian England. The bearing rein, which was one of Sewell's main concerns, was eventually abolished, and it is thought that Black Beauty did a great deal for that change to happen.

The reason why Black Beauty is nowadays found in the children's section in bookstores and libraries is that the publishers decided to market it as a children's book, perhaps because of the simple, child-friendly language it is written in, or because it was felt that Black Beauty and the other anthropomorphic horse characters would be most plausible to children. However, I feel that I've gotten more and more out of the book as I've grown up. Black Beauty deals with some pretty heavy themes and even though they didn't seem too difficult for me to deal with as a child, I think it really requires an adult understanding of the historical events of the time and the idea of social classes to get the most out of this book.

Black Beauty's readership seems to consist of mainly "horse girls", which I am as well, but I think it would make a fairly interesting read to others than horse enthusiasts as well – especially for readers who are interested in the Victorian period, the effects of industrialism and/or social classes. If you feel at all interested in any aspect of the book that I've mentioned here, it'll be really worth your time to read it – and as it's quite a short book with easy language, it won't even take much of your time!

Listening to show tunes is NOT embarrassing!

Back when I was still using Spotify Free, there was (probably still is) an annoying ad about the Private Session application which allows you to listen to music without sharing with other users what you listened to. I only heard the ad in Finnish, but the liberal translation would be something like "now you can listen to those Broadway tunes and nobody will know!"

Excuse me? Not only is the ad suggesting that some genres of music are somehow more socially acceptable than others, but it's picking show tunes as the number one guilty pleasure! Why should I be ashamed of listening to stuff from Les Misérables and The Sound of Music, for example, when they've been immensely popular and loved by thousands of people for dozens of years? I can think of at least a handful of types of music that I would consider much more "embarrassing" if I wasn't of the opinion that everyone should just listen to whatever they like, screw the public opinion.

I'm going to make a music-related confession right now, and it won't even hurt: I listen to One Direction when I clean my apartment. There, have I now officially made myself a most despicable human being with a shockingly low taste in music? 

If you're not too disgusted by my revelation, you could state your opinions on taste in music vs. social acceptability. Do you feel like you can't be open about the music you listen to because everyone would think you're a dork?

Movie musicals: Les Misérables

First up on my long list of movie musicals is the most recent one: Les Misérables, directed by Tom Hooper. A movie version of the widely popular musical had been under discussion since the late 80s but became reality in 2012. Earlier, not-sung movie adaptations of Victor Hugo's epic had been famously disapproved by the Mizzie fandom – with good reason.

I was very excited when it was announced that Tom Hooper would be directing the film, because I liked The King's Speech a lot and got the impression that he had a distinctive, realistic style. I was even more convinced of that when I heard that all the singing would be done live.

Before I go on, I should probably give a warning that most of what follows will probably be just an incoherent jumble of names and song titles for someone who hasn't seen the movie and/or doesn't know anything about the musical. Some plot details will also be discussed.

Les Misérables premiered in Finland on February 22nd. I saw it that day, and again in less than a week's time. And then two times more. That's the first time I've ever bothered to see a movie in the movie theater more than twice, and that's because Les Mis is such a huge experience. Not huge in the sense that is usually associated with musicals – no bright colours (except Enjolras' coat and flag...), no shiny costumes, no massive dance numbers – but there was so much to see, to hear, and especially to feel, that it was impossible to appreciate every aspect of it at the first watch.

I'm even having a hard time writing this post because I don't know where to begin! Alright, I'll start with the main character – Jean Valjean, played by Hugh Jackman. Jean Valjean has got to be one of the most challenging male lead roles in the musical theatre world, considering the requirements of vocal range (crazy high note alert!) as well as acting skills. The ability of carrying around an unconscious grown-up man is also needed. He's on stage (or screen) for almost the entire time, so if the portrayal of Jean Valjean goes somehow wrong, it pretty much ruins most of Les Mis. I have great respect to any man on Earth who can make a good Jean Valjean.

While it was quite clear that Hugh Jackman might not be the Tenor with a big T who can sing Bring Him Home like it's a piece of cake, I found his ability to act through singing very captivating. He really gave me chills as convict-Valjean in the beginning, and every time he came face to face with Russell Crowe's Javert. Speaking of Crowe – I know there's one or two people who will agree with me on this, but I loved his singing voice and I always imagined Javert as the kind of person who doesn't express emotions very strongly, which I think is exactly what Crowe did with the role.

I was happy with most of the main actors really. Eddie Redmayne as Marius and Samantha Barks as Éponine had such lovely voices and went so well together that it was really a shame that their duet, A Little Fall of Rain, was cut down so much, especially as it's potentially my favourite song in the musical. Speaking of Barks, I really liked how they cast West End performers as well as those big Hollywood names. If I have my facts correct, the student revolutionaries are all West End boys, led by Aaron Tveit who has performed on Broadway.

There was another really sad cutting-down in addition to ALFOR, and that was Drink With Me. It is one of the most touching moments in the musical, and I really have a soft spot for all the student boys' group songs. I guess it was, together with the womens' Turning after the barricade falls and Thénardier's creepy song in the sewers, one of those songs that just had to be sacrificed a little in order to keep the plot moving on and not stretch the movie into four hours. But I'm still sad...

Okay, back to the actors that I liked (I can see that this is going to be the most incoherent blog post in the history of the Universe). There are no words in the world to express how it warms my Mizzie heart to see Colm Wilkinson, the original 1985 Jean Valjean, as the bishop who shows the way to the "new" Jean Valjean. And though I kind of missed the lovely Fantine&Éponine harmonies in the end, it was the bishop's rightful place to be there.

There were some other little differences between the movie and the stage musical, and as uncritical as this is going to sound, I didn't find any of these changes disturbing. For example, Fantine's I Dreamed A Dream gets into a whole different level of anguish when it's sung after she becomes a prostitute. Speaking of Fantine, I have to say that Anne Hathaway surprised the heck out of me, having only seen her in a couple of very light, comedic roles. That woman definitely deserved her Academy Award.

There were two little scenes that are not in the stage musical and which I think served the plot wonderfully. The first one happens in the very beginning, when Jean Valjean is is still a convict and Javert asks him to "Retrieve the flag", which displays Valjean's famously inhuman strength and makes the Fauchelevent rescue and Javert's suspicions about his identity much more understandable. The other little addition that I liked is actually showing that Valjean and Cosette escape to a convent after Valjean takes Cosette away from the Thénardiers – instead of them just disappearing somewhere and re-emerging ten years later in Look Down. 

From Look Down, I can make another "smooth" transition to Gavroche (played by Daniel Huttlestone), to whom I paid special attention when I last saw the film. The setting for his verses in Look Down worked really well; his jumping in an out of the disapproving bourgeois carriages expressed the "Paris is my playground" kind of thing that is so essentially Gavroche. And the line This is a land that fought for liberty, now when we fight we fight for bread gives me chills every time I hear it. Such a big idea dressed into a couple of simple words – lyric-writing at its best.

So, I've been pretty much praising all the actors and the changes that were made from stage to screen. But, to assure that I haven't been watching this movie through rosy-pink glasses, there is one thing that, after the couple of first times that I watched through, caught my attention in the not-most-positive way. That thing was the Thénardier couple. Yes, they gave me some seriously good laughs throughout the film and of course they are meant to serve as the occasional comic relief, but I'm starting to think that Helena Bonham Carter and Sacha Baron Cohen didn't quite succeed in it in the Thénardier way. Seeing Sweeney Todd a couple of weeks ago kind of lessened my respect for Bonham Carter's portrayal of Madame Thénardier because it seemed to me like she was doing the same thing as she did with Mrs Lovett. And Sacha Baron Cohen did... the Sacha Baron Cohen thing. What was that accent he used? Not French, I think...

All in all, I must thank Tom Hooper and the entire production team for what they did with my favourite musical, and the actors for the dedication they obviously showed to their roles. I was in fact so excited by this movie that I watched the Academy Awards ceremony for the first time in my life, and I might have squealed for joy when Les Mis got its well-deserved award for sound mixing. I can't wait to order the DVD and to watch this movie at home. Or, even better, at my parents' home where they have the surround sound system.

Do you hear the people sing, singing the song of angry men...?

Movie musicals are awesome

My first movie musical experience must have happened when I was something like four or five years old, because watching The Sound of Music with my family is one of the earliest memories I have. Later in life I learned to appreciate the "original" stage musicals as well, but the passion for movie musicals has never left me – but it seems to me that a lot of stage musical enthusiasts despise the movie versions with an equal passion.

Why is it that every time a movie version of a musical is announced to be on the make (like Tom Hooper's Les Mis, to take a recent example), the internet gets filled with fans of the stage show who are convinced from the very beginning that whatever the casting and the production team may be like, the movie version is going to butcher the original gem and be an utter disgrace in every possible way? It only gets worse and worse with every bit of new information that gets published: "No freakin' way, that girl can't sing or act anything like the original stage actress X, now I'm gonna go search every Youtube video featuring her and shout out in the comments section how much I hate her." "Mr original stage actor Y is going to be spinning in his grave when this dude tries to sing his songs, besides his hair is totally the wrong colour for this role." "What?? They changed the place of song Z? THAT IS A SACRILEGE!" Youtube, Facebook, Broadway World.com, and of course the various fan forums... You simply can't escape the hate surrounding the soon-to-be-seen movie musical. Luckily, the positive buzz of excitement is also present at some level at least, but you know how it tends to be with all things in life – the negative side always seems a lot bigger than the positive side.

While I admit that of course no movie in the world is absolutely perfect and movie musicals often make... bold choices for example in sometimes casting actors who aren't very confident singers, I still think movie versions of musicals are one of the greatest things in the world. I'll tell you why.

First and foremost: For an average person who doesn't have heaps and heaps of money to spend in whatever in the world they want, theatre tickets are rather expensive, especially as musicals tend to be more expensive than regular theatre. And if you're living in a little country where the level of musical theatre isn't quite up to your standards, you can add the price of the plane tickets in the lot. So what are you going to do as a poor musical freak who can't live without regular doses of Family von Trapp and All That Jazz? You go and buy the DVD which costs about 20 euros at the most (sometimes you have to pay shipping costs as well because even musical DVDs are hard to find over here), and watch it as often as you need to.

Unlike some (elitist?) musical fans who seem to think that if you didn't become a fan through the original stage show you don't have the right to be a fan at all, I think it's wonderful how the movie versions reach such a large audience and often make new fans of musical theatre. Like I mentioned above, my first musical experience was through a movie version, and I know many others like me. I love it how easily you can get a friend totally hooked up in your favourite musical by simply having them watch the movie with you, and snap! your life gets so much more entertaining when you and your friend have a common interest!

Also, when you have a musical on DVD, you can sing along while you're watching it! If I had a bunch of musical-minded friends it would be so much fun to arrange sing-along movie nights...

It's always a stunning experience to see a really talented stage performer managing the very difficult task of portraying subtle emotions all the way to the back row of the audience – but film as a medium does certainly provide some very nice advantages. In a good movie production, the power of the music and the lyrics is even further enhanced by the use of different sorts of camera angles and detailed sets that would be impossible to replicate on stage.

So, now that I've established the fact that movie musicals are awesome, I can start using this blog to discuss the ones I've seen – there are also a bunch that I haven't seen yet but will some day! Let this post serve as a sort of introduction to all the movie musical related stuff that is going to follow.

First post! Nicholas Nickleby

I'm really excited to write my first post on this blog! I had to choose something good to write about, of course, so I decided to begin with a great British classic novel that I just finished reading: Nicholas Nickleby by Charles Dickens. On my introduction page, I state Dickens as one of my favourite writers, even though I have to confess that Nicholas Nickleby is my first and, so far, only Dickens experience. What can I say – I just instantly fell in love with Dickens' way of storytelling.

I actually got interested in Nicholas Nickleby through Les Misérables, one of my favourite musicals. Trevor Nunn and John Caird, the original directors of Les Mis, had previously directed a massive production of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby for the Royal Shakespeare Company and I heard that there were some similarities between the two masterpieces. So, when I needed a good book to take with me on the Easter holidays (I never travel anywhere without a book in my luggage) I decided it was time to meet Nicholas Nickleby.

Basically, Nicholas Nickleby tells about a young man (the title character) who has to find a way to support himself and his family after his father dies. His uncle Ralph isn't much of a help and the relationship of the two men grows more and more strained in the course of the story. Nicholas' road of life leads him to a most inhumane boys' boarding school you could ever imagine, and then to a traveling theatre company full of, well, interesting personalities. He also befriends poor Smike, a young man who serves as the symbol of capital misery in the story. A subplot follows Nicholas' sister Kate back in London, with Uncle Ralph trying to make everything (especially the money) go his way.

I did notice some similarities between this and Les Misérables. In both of these there's the main character who tries to find a good way to live his life, and while this character's life is the central part of the story, the reader still gets a fairly wide view of the general society at the time, and its problems. Both of them feature a large cast of very interesting characters and use some pretty amazing coincidences as plot devices.

However, Nicholas Nickleby is by far the lighter one to read, and not only because Dickens doesn't share Hugo's habit of inserting marathon-length essays of kings and plumbing systems in the book. The way he describes his characters and settings has the kind of magic that makes me almost unable to put the book down and shows me everything as if I had a TV screen right in front of me. Also, the irony of the narrating voice is simply delicious – I think I discovered something like that already in Jane Austen's narration, but here it's even clearer.

I did find it kind of bizarre that the women in this novel tend to faint a lot – or at least feel faint. However, I think much of this can be amended by the fact that many of the characters (both male and female) are drawn quite obviously as caricatures. And still, these characters really don't take the seriousness away from the plot. Who knows, maybe the ladies in Dickens' times couldn't breathe properly in those big dresses and that's why they get swept off their feet so often.

I would definitely recommend the novel to pretty much anyone who likes to read – and I have to mention the 2001 miniseries The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby as well, which in my opinion is quite an excellent TV adaptation which keeps in all the necessary bits and does fantastically with Mr Crummles' theatre troupe especially. I might post something about it in the future – for now, I'll just say that it is the source of my obsession with top hats. You simply can't look at this picture of James D'Arcy as Nicholas Nickleby without noticing how classy he looks with his top hat on.

That's it for my first post on Music & My Mind... I can't wait to see what's going to follow!