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#gamins
semioticapocalypse · 4 months
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Helen Levitt. Harlem Boys with a black cat. New York. 1940
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visualratatosk · 2 months
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The Beasts and Children from «The Metro Diary [of Random Scenes and Encounters], 5
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dolphin1812 · 10 months
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This chapter is full of fascinating historical details:
“At the epoch, nearly contemporary by the way, when the action of this book takes place, there was not, as there is to-day, a policeman at the corner of every street”
The book was published in the 1860s and largely took place in the 1820s-1830s, so the police force grew quite dramatically in 30-40 years. This point helps demonstrate that the statistics about children on the street were probably undercounts, but it also illustrates the extent to which the image of authority (in that police officers on every corner are very visible) changed just within Hugo’s lifetime.
The growth and transformation of Paris is similarly visible. Gamins hide in houses “in the process of construction,” and “unenclosed lands” imply the existence of enclosed ones that bring land under private ownership.
Hugo still insists that Parisian gamins are different and better than gamins elsewhere, although he concedes that it's awful that there are so many children on the streets.
The comparison to the ancien régime is fascinating. While it's possible that 18th-century and 19th-century France were similarly bad for children, I wonder if Hugo's intent was to stress the evils of the old monarchy more than to portray the 19th century as an improvement (given the criticism of monarchical systems throughout the novel and his distaste for the idea of a return to the monarchy under the Restoration). Since he idealizes the gamins so much, there's a good chance it's the latter, but it still was an effective way of illustrating the horrors of the ancien régime. The last example genuinely seems like a horror story:
"Under Louis XV. children disappeared in Paris; the police carried them off, for what mysterious purpose no one knew. People whispered with terror monstrous conjectures as to the king’s baths of purple. Barbier speaks ingenuously of these things. It sometimes happened that the exempts of the guard, when they ran short of children, took those who had fathers. The fathers, in despair, attacked the exempts. In that case, the parliament intervened and had some one hung. Who? The exempts? No, the fathers."
If anything, though, these examples seem like a continuity. Louis XIV's use of trivial charges (being Protestant was seen as a political threat by the monarchy, but focusing on hats specifically makes it seem trivial) to gain convicts to work in the galleys is similar to Jean Valjean's imprisonment in the same structure for stealing bread. Although they focus on different matters, both instances suggest a continuing injustice around convicts and the criminal justice system that needed to be addressed.
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chicinsilk · 1 year
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US Vogue February 15, 1960
Photo Evelyn Hofer
vogue archive
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runmarlyrun · 3 months
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rosepompadour · 5 months
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I wish you would have been the one to kiss me first — but now I only wish that you might kiss me soon, and again, and last.
Edna St. Vincent Millay in her diary entry for January 10, 1913
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berenixium · 2 years
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Space Dimension - Incorrigibles Gamins
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two-ii-tango · 11 days
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faith characters doing Normal People things because i am SICK and TIRED of this fandom being allergic to happiness
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manawari · 9 months
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When you think they are normal students, but they are not.
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baconshakincomics · 6 months
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semioticapocalypse · 4 months
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Terence Spencer. Children playing hide and seek. London. 1970
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dolphin1812 · 10 months
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And we’ve reached the political link!
“The whole of the monarchy is contained in the lounger; the whole of anarchy in the gamin.”
“Whoever you may be, if your name is Prejudice, Abuse, Ignorance, Oppression, Iniquity, Despotism, Injustice, Fanaticism, Tyranny, beware of the gaping gamin.”
The word “beware” conveys a sense of threat, implying that the gamin is dangerous to the authorities (given that France was a monarchy again). Hugo had similarly mentioned that Parisians were “cats” that could be stirred up into ferocious predators if they felt angry enough at injustice, suggesting that gamins - with their inherent subversiveness and hatred of “oppression” - could be key to this. In fact, they go further than simple rebelliousness, with Hugo tying them to “anarchy.”
The idealization of the gamin, however, continues, and here it’s uncomfortable in that Hugo implies their suffering grants them wisdom. While watching the gamins find joy in spite of their suffering was nice in that it showed how the arts and fun are necessary for all, this makes their poverty a lesson more than an injustice.
I love the ambiguity about what happens when he grows up, though. The comment comes right after the “beware,” suggesting that he’s a threat then. Still, we don’t know exactly how, adding some mystery to the implicit threat.
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intheyard · 2 months
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Better Best Friend For Real. Who gets that? For Aiden.
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qbdream · 10 months
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marbleluvrofliberty · 9 months
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normalize enjolras getting into petty arguments with gavroche like in the brick
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luziferdraws · 1 year
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Tinkaton is an icon and I WILL FIGHT YOU
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