#robert darnton

[enlitment]

Asking for a friend...

What, if anything, would you interpret into La Nouvelle Heloise being an 18th century man's favourite book?

No this is not about any history blorbo why do you ask...

Oh boy... I have only read some passages from it, because romance is not really my genre and I have a distinct feeling that the history which surrounds it is thousand times more interesting than the book itself.

That said, I'll combine all my useless JJ knowledge to give the best possible answer I can!

First of all, it cannot be overstated how massively popular it was when it came out, so it's actually kind of a mainstream choice (some people apparently paid an hourly fee just to rent the damn book)! It mainly struck a cord with women readers, but plenty of men read it as well. And cried over it (one guy even claimed he cried so hard it cured his cold somehow).

I know this will probably sound like an insane comparison, but I kind of think of it as an 18th-century equivalent of Fifty Shades? Both in terms of popularity and it being rather risqué, just less overtly so. For instance, there is definitely a Ménage à trois element to the story that will be very familiar to any poor, unfortunate reader of Rousseau's own Confessions...

My diagnosis? You reached for LNH if you wanted to read something that was actually quite raunchy, but which was so carefully wrapped in sentimental pathos with JJ's weird moral lessons sprinkled on top that it gave you plenty of plausible deniability (unlike, let's say, Bijoux or something more overt).

Definitely not a story about some horny Swiss idiots making their lives needlessly complicated. You could practically feel the virtue radiating from every page and penetrating your very soul! Ah, what bliss!

tl;dr: 1. a pretty mainstream choice for the time 2. as much as it pains me to say it JJ is unfortunately a damn good writer capable of throwing you on an emotional roller-coaster in just a few pages - so a part of me gets the appeal? 3. a sort-of-smut for people who would likely have hang-ups about reading actual smut or at least admitting to it (this would likely apply to a lot of people in the 1700s)

If you haven't read the chapter Readers Respond to Rousseau: The Fabrication of Romantic Sensitivity in Robert Darnton's The Great Cat Massacre please please do, it's amazing, it's funny, it's one of the best things I've read this year! It also involves some primary sources, most of which are - I'm sorry to say - fan mail to JJ.

On the other hand, if you're a man who's read Confessions six times, there's a high chance you might just be a bit of a sub... <- no, you appreciate the truth and virtue above all, obviously!

[hawkwinglb]

Peculiar and interesting bits of 18th-century French cultural history: Robert Darnton's THE GREAT CAT MASSACRE

Robert Darnton, The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History. London: Little, Brown. 2009. First published 1984. Blackwell’s affiliate link. Cover art for The Great Cat Massacre I’m more familiar with Darnton’s work on book culture in pre-Revolutionary 18th century France and on censorship both then and more generally. The Great Cat Massacre is a peculiar and peculiarly…

[somerabbitholes]

greetings. do you know any books that talk about the history of books/novels? 🌸

I think these should be good —

A History of Reading by Alberto Manguel: essays on what reading is, what it has been historically and philosophically

The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester: a history of the Oxford dictionary and how that came about/was put together

Bookshops by Jorge Carrion: less a history of books, more about reading and bookstores and the cultural value of the space. It's one of the most beautiful books I've ever read; the prose is so silky and poetic

The Library, a Fragile History by Andrew Pettegree: basically what it sounds like; about the institution, its personal and public life, and finally its cultural and political value

The Case for Books by Robert Darnton: looks at how writing and books and have been approached by societies, and through it, looks at how and if a case can be made for the material form of it to be preserved

The Book, a Global History by Michael Suarez and Henry Woudhuysen: an edited collection of essays about book-making, writing, and reading from all over the world

The Novel Before the Novel by Arthur Ray Heiserman: a history of the novelistic form; tries to position it in the development of modern intellectual history and modern pursuits of truth

If you want something very serious, there's The Novel: A Biography by Michael Schmidt and The Theory of the Novel by George Lukacs, although I wouldn't recommend Lukacs to start your reading with.

happy reading!

[mortalityplays]

Hello! I just saw your fascinating post on book smuggling in ancien régime France, and was wondering if you'd be willing to share the title of the book you're reading about it. TIA, veuillez agréer l'expression de mes sentiments distingués, etc.

The main two books I've been reading are 'The Newspaper Press in the French Revolution' by Hugh Gough, and 'Revolution in Print: The Press in France 1775-1800' by Robert Darnton and Daniel Roche.

My research is specifically into the material changes that came about during the revolution, how they impacted labour organisation in print workshops, and how public relationships to print news changed. If you're interested in book piracy during the ancien régime, I would (also) recommend Darnton's other book 'Pirating and Publishing: The Book Trade in the Age of Enlightenment'.

[newhistorybooks]

"Standing at the summit of Robert Darnton’s towering intellectual career, The Revolutionary Temper plunges the reader into the coffee shops, workrooms, and alleys of pre-revolutionary Paris. Following the traces of songs and rumors, insults and discontent, Darnton allows us to eavesdrop, almost miraculously, on whispers nearly two and a half centuries old. Here is the hive mind of ordinary people in extraordinary times, as they shake loose the thought and feeling of ages past, and decide—slowly, and then all at once—to begin the world anew."

[cliozaur]

There isn’t much to say after an amazing analysis by @patron-minette. The quartet discussed through the prism of circus archetypes is just a chef’s kiss!

I have a couple of observations and questions, though. Returning to Hugo’s surprising talent as a horror writer, there are two moments that I find particularly horrifying. One is Claquesous, a perfect character of a horror fiction: without a face, without a voice (except for that coming from his stomach), without a name. Emerging from the darkness and disappearing into darkness. “Vague, terrible, and a roamer” (which may hint that he is, as we’ll later find out, a police informant). I don’t want to encounter someone like Claquesous in my nightmares! And the second is Montparnaase: “a child” and a murderer, who “had all vices and aspired to all crimes” — it’s a truly horrifying combination. Hugo definitely gave more attention to this enfant terrible than to any other of member of the quartet, but I still believe that this archetype deserved even more blood-chilling stories!

And the whole concept of Babet, “thin and learned,” — doesn’t it contradict Hugo’s claim that “the third lower floor” is inhabited by ignorance? He is indeed learned and smart, and this makes him dangerous. So, it’s not always ignorance that poses a problem.

The topic of tooth pulling made me think of Robert Darnton’s description of Le Grand Thomas, a tooth puller from the Pont-Neuf, who was “the most famous character in eighteenth-century Paris, aside from the public hangman.” In the early nineteenth century, experienced tooth pullers were still in high demand as the only way to alleviate the suffering caused by tooth pain was to have them pulled. I am not sure that Babet was a good tooth puller, but he chose quite a popular and lucrative craft.

[veramoraez]

É importante poder sentir um livro, a textura do papel, a qualidade de impressão, a natureza da encadernação. Do livro: A questão do livro, Robert Darnton

[deliciousobservationbird]

Parrot, Pangi, The NPPP, and Protest Humour

In 2009, in a seminal piece of work named after a particular study on the power of humour as an act of rebellion, Robert Darnton confessed that “There is no better way to ruin a joke than to analyse it or overload it with social comment.”

So, sorry NPPP. I’m going to take your joke and, not only analyse it, I’m going to charge it with social commentary, symbolism, and also meaning. Consider it, an act of rebellion, of protest, provoked by your faction name.

What is the NPPP? Who are Parrot and Spoke? To answer those questions I must say: Welcome to the Lifesteal SMP. A server where if you die, you lose a heart. Lose all your hearts and you get banned.

Within the opening days of Season 4 there was the expected primordial chaos, which was then followed by the expected still-chaotic ordering and solidifying of alliances. Two players, both alike in their goals, quickly found themselves at the opposite ends of the Lifesteal SMP hierarchy:

The first (Pangi), had many hearts and many allies. He was able to achieve the goal of most Lifesteal players by gaining 20 hearts and was one of the first to do so.

The other player (Parrot) had a different experience. He found one main ally in Spoke but quickly found the initial phase of Season 4 to be a harsher climate than he had expected. He was low on hearts, allies, and he and Spoke had to skim-off the bases and resources of other players.

The weird almost-meritocracy based class and wealth system of Lifesteal SMP becomes quickly apparent. There’s material wealth in the form of bases, villagers, and farms, and then there’s the unique Lifesteal currency in hearts. Material wealth and heart-wealth are the two separate markers of a player’s status. It is possible (and interestingly, most common) to only have one of the two.

Take the “Three Hearts Trio” for example. It’s clear that they lack in heart-wealth, which would put them down at the bottom of the Lifesteal hierarchy; however, their base was a site of immense material wealth. It was the choice target of Parrot and Spoke’s “re-appropriating” of resources. Their material wealth allows them to rise in the hierarchy and gain a particular protection due to the important resources and exports their base is able to provide the server.

Pangi (the wealthy player mentioned before) from the beginning, had set his eyes on the ambitious target of becoming the most powerful player, of being the top of this ever-present hierarchy. He gains the heart-wealth early on in the server and, due to this strength, is able to take a comparative risk by setting up a base near spawn. He is able to spend time on decoration and aesthetics and by doing so, shows off his ascension to the top. Pangi gained both material wealth and heart-wealth and so established himself as part of the ‘upper class’ of Lifesteal.

So, within Lifesteal Season 4 there is already a sense of an established hierarchy and order. The heart-rich are able to get heart-richer and grind raids with ease, whereas the heart-poor become heart-poorer, dying to stray arrows, vexes, and creeper explosions. Dying to things that aren’t even a consideration the more powerful players would need to make. There comes a need (from at-least one end of the hierarchy) for some sort of upheaval, a reversal of this social order. There comes a need for a carnival. 

By carnival, I refer to the concept of a traditional European Christian festivity (although comparable to Purim in parts) that stood in opposition to Lent. Carnival was a period of openness and freedom that was to be let out and acknowledged before the solemeness of Lent was to set in. Darnton says “Carnival was high season for hilarity, sexuality, and youth run riot-a time when young people tested social boundaries by limited outbursts of deviance, before being reassimilated in the world of order, submission, and Lentine seriousness.”

Mock trials were held and plays were produced where (within this particular context of carnival) dissent and acts of rebellion were almost encouraged. Established powers such as the pre-reformation Church were able to be challenged and the more personal enforced social norms were up-turned. As Marjolein't Hart puts it “[carnival] allowed the articulation of the idiomatic "world turned upside down", a funny and subversive way to play with established rules and hierarchies.”

She, and other historians, stressed the usage of carnival as a release of tension, a safety valve that allowed discontent people, usually at or near the bottom of their particular social hierarchy, a way of expressing their displeasure openly due to the fact it got masked or understood as a form of humour, often satire. By making these jokes, the possibility of a different reality gets aired. Elizabeth Hansot points out that “the joke is in the structures we create, structures that frame some individuals or groups arbitrarily at the expense of others.”

So, you may be thinking, that’s all well and nice but what have Parrot, Spoke and the NPPP got to do with some pretty old European folk customs?

Well, within Lifesteal there are several established structures that form the Lifesteal norm. Ideas that are taken for granted eg. that every player wants to achieve power in the form of material wealth and heart-wealth. Ideas that there is a correct way to go about this ‘inevitable quest’.

Steps for a successful Lifesteal experience:

Firstly, you want to gain allies. Don’t make enemies where you don’t gain from doing so.

Secondly, in order to gain heart-wealth, material wealth should be obtained beforehand. Either you, or one of your allies, should set up a secret base stacked with villagers and potions so you can gear up for step 3.

Now you can start to evaluate the position of each player and faction on the server. Who is poor enough to be an easier target, yet rich enough that you can gain something from the kill?

The NPPP take these pre-existing Lifesteal norms and use the framework of their alliance to protest and mock it. Their name “The No-Pants People Party” stands in opposition of former teams in previous seasons (“Men Of Battle” “People Of Gallantry” etc.) in its lack of grandeur and use of —what’s often considered— low-brow humour.

The NPPP takes one of the key beliefs of Lifesteal, that the natural desire of players is to gain wealth and power, and turns it on its head. They take the armoured leggings (which offer the second most armour points within an armour set) and refuse to wear them. They take the pre-established order of allies-gear-hearts and stand outside of it. The NPPP are able to acknowledge the expected course of action and satirise it. They make enemies with powerful allied players, they refuse to set up their own permanent base for grinding, and they mock the caution of powerful players by using The NPPP’s circumstantial group identity as players with few hearts to emphasise their refusal to ‘play the game’, to drive home the mockery they make of Lifesteal norms by not wearing trousers.

In doing so, they are effectively protesting the expected hierarchy of Lifesteal from the bottom of said hierarchy. They are not acting on game theory or rationalism. The NPPP act in defiance of the norms, they challenge players like Pangi who have more allies and have more wealth and are able to wield their unique privileges (gained from stepping outside the expected frame) to force an upheaval in the previously-solid social structure.

Just as the jester is able to mock the king due to their station, the eccentricity of the NPPP allows them the privileges of being underestimated and allowed to carry on their humorous protest. As Hansot says, it also allows them “To make a claim for oneself with a note of humour, i.e. to establish role distance, can save face in advance by creating a self that will not be discredited by lack of success or ignored by being predictable”.

They can use this open defiance of norms and loud satirising of established Lifesteal structures to weaponise every outcome. When The NPPP clash with players like Reddoons, Woogie, or Pangi, each victory is symbolic of the great upheaval The NPPP caused and also celebrates their ‘underdog story’. It both defies structures and also reinforces them. The inherent humour and absurdity of basing collective group identity on a refusal to wear trousers also endears them to the viewers of the Lifesteal SMP as well as endearing them to each other.

The NPPP are able to very quickly establish this collective group identity due to the obvious visual markers that differentiate themselves from their enemies. They characterise “pants-wearers” as being greedy, untrustworthy, and as natural enemies to the NPPP. They signify which social group they belong to, through their choice in armour wearing but it’s the use of humour that helps keep the group together and help promote collective action. In an article regarding the usage of humour within the workplace Hansot remarks that “[humour can be used] as a way of marking ethnic or kinship boundaries or of channelling hostility and mobilising solidarity among people who are forced to interact frequently and intimately.” The NPPP usage of humour regarding their faction acts as a way of signalling who does or doesn’t belong in their group as well as helping to strengthen the bonds between established members.

The NPPP use this humour and make jokes (often crass ones) about their circumstances to the extent that they can even deny their own losses. Each NPPP loss is considered as a fruitless victory for their opponents as they still exist within the Lifesteal norms, where the resources and time taken to win are a loss in a season wide battle of attrition. The viewers are also more likely to be sympathetic and supportive of The NPPP as Hart notes that “Jokes often weaken the defences of an audience and render the listeners more amenable to persuasion.” The NPPP use this humour and are able to joke with the audience such that the audience sees their refusal of norms are interesting, engaging, and charming and will make up for the backlash The NPPP get from refusing to follow the given path within the Lifesteal SMP.

So when Parrot and Spoke decided to defy expectations by refusing to wear a useful piece of armour and making penis jokes, they were (unintentionally) mimicking the European tradition of Carnival and humorous protests and defiance of established social practices and structures. Their usage of humour as a tool of persuasion for viewers, a method of bonding for people within their group, and most importantly: their usage of humour as an act of opposition against more powerful enemies shows the oft-overlooked versatility and importance of jokes. 

Maybe the NPPP was intended to be just a joke about not wearing trousers but its context gives it these extra connotations and meanings that support Parrot, Spoke, and whoever allies with them, in their open protest against the common ideals of Lifesteal culture.

Sorry NPPP! Hopefully I didn’t ruin your joke too much, but to be fair - you can’t use humour to engage and delight without inviting some (perhaps unexpected) consequences.

Disclaimers: I'm not a professional linguist and I'm also not an expert in mediaeval European folklore and traditions. There are more layers to it the more meta you get, so I mainly stuck to within the Lifesteal canon to avoid complications and to avoid making this even longer. A point could be made about how the status of an admin can be understood within Minecraft and how that contributes to the carnival-like warping of hierarchies but that was *insanely* meta. Also I had the idea for this and started writing it at 1/ 1:30am thinking it would take like 20 minutes max. I awoke from a trance where I opened my eyes to 5 pages of text with citations at 5:20am. I slept before posting to make sure it’s coherent but at this point it’s as coherent as I can make it.

Sorry for being insane btw (:

[adarkrainbow]

I talked previously of an article that explored one aspect of the oral versions of Little Red Riding Hood (right here), but I realized... Maybe people are not aware of the main dfference between the “oral” versions of Little Red Riding Hood and its “literary” counterparts. 

And this difference can be best summed up by the issue of a comic book. Not just any comic book: issue 14 of the famous and excellent “Sandman” comic book, created by none other than Neil Gaiman. I don’t think this comic needs any introduction now - and even if I had to do one, it would hard to sum it all up easily, as this is a vast, complex and deep but immensely fascinating comic series (as expected from any of Neil Gaiman’s works). 

Issue 14 takes place during a specific arc - the Cereal Convention arc. The protagonist of this volume of the story is a young girl trying to find back her missing little brother, and who is escorted in her quest by a Chesterton-like character who clearly knows more (and is more) than what he seems... And during their journey they stop by a motel where a “Cereal Convention” is happening... Which turns out to be a thin cover for a convention of serial killers, here to share their particular “hobby”, gush over their personal stars and debate over the details of their job. (This arc is a true balancing arc between dark comedy and full-on horror).

During their stay at the motel, the Chesterton-like character (Gilbert) tells the protagonist (Rose) about a disturbing version of “Little Red Riding Hood” - which actually serves as a metaphor and warning for the situation they are in (especially since one of the “guests” of the convention is a dangerous pedophile-killer, who wears a wolf-eared cap in a parody of the Mickey Mouse hats). The version of the Little Red Riding Hood story here is presented by Gilbert as an “original version” of the story, predating Charles Perrault’s own story (he also claims that Perrault invented the “red hood” part of the story). Now, I want to clarify something: while it is a real oral variation of “Little Red Riding Hood”, it is not the “original” story, or rather it is impossible to prove. Again, this was one of the “folklorist misconception” that ruled over research in the 20th century (the comic was from the 90s), that oral, countryside versions of the tale HAD to be the “original” versions predating the literary tale (when the truth is that half of them are younger than the literary tale, and the rest we cannot prove). So while this version exist, I do not support the concept that it is an older version than Perrault’s story.

Or rather I do not support it “yet”, because I need to check the book Neil Gaiman took the story from - which he revealed in interviews to be 1985′s “The Great Cat Massacre” by Robert Darnton. I know this book is quite famous and divisive, and I haven’t read it yet, so I cannot actually judge more or speak further of the nature of this variation. But I will check it one day and update my thoughts. 

But putting beyond all that, I need to say that this comic and this issue was the first time I ever heard of the oral variations of Little Red Riding Hood, it opened up to me a whole world of darker fairytales hidden behind the real ones (before I only knew of the edits the Brothers Grimm did, like turning evil mothers into wicked stepmothers), and this story stayed ingrained in my mind, and for me it will stay without a doubt the quintessential “darker, oral variant of Little Red Riding Hood”. And while I actually couldn’t find back the tale as such in my researches, all the oral variants of the tale I found included the elements mentioned in this issue one way or another (one folkloric variation had for example the meat part, without the wine ; and another had the stripping section, but with different details). If you have checked my previous post on the “pins and needles” articles, you’ll recall the nasty bit where the wolf feeds the girl her granny’s sexual organs.

Now maybe the pictures do not load or you do not want to read them, so here is a brushed and rushed recap of the variation told by Gaiman:

A girl (no “red hood” involved) was told to bring her grandmother milk and bread. As she was walking through the woods, she met a wolf who asked her where she was going and she told him. The wolf rushed to the grandmother’s house, killed her, sliced her flesh on a plate, and poured her blood in a bottle, before wearing her clothes and getting into bed. When the girl arrived, the wolf-grandma encouraged her to eat “some meat” and drink “some wine” left in the pantry. The girl obeyed, but each time the cat of the house screamed at her “Slut! To eat the flesh and drink the blood of your grandmother!”. Afterward the wolf asked the girl to undress before climbing into bed with him/her ; the girl removed one piece of clothing after another, each time asking her grandma where she should put it, and the wolf answering “Throw it in the fireplace, you won’t need it anymore”. And then the end of the story plays out as Perrault’s... 

[enlitment]

Okay is it just me or does this police report on Diderot low-key make him sound like your typical YA novel protagonist?

(full disclosure: reading d’Hémery's notes in Darnton's book back in February was my gateway to Diderot)

[racefortheironthrone]

Following up on your French Rev Ask about the European monarchs response to it. I read up on Brissot and apparently historians like Robert Darnton and Sylvia Neely have found evidence that Brissot was a foreign agent/asset and that he might have instigated war to serve their interests.

I believe the accusation against Brissot personally was that he was a police spy for the ancien regime, not a foreign spy.

[sahelstudies]

just finished reading Robert Darnton's The Great Cat Massacre and Other Episodes in French Cultural History. i'm traumatized, but it's a good book

to-do's

psychology and education notes

really go to the historiography class

[lina-does-anthro]

anthropology tbr

will i read all of these? no lol. but the ones with ** I'd really like to

owned

Gender, Race, Class, & Health by Amy Schulz and Leith Mullings

Archaeological Theory: An Introduction by Matthew Johnson

Wayward Women: Sexuality and Agency in a New Guinea Society by Holly Wardlow

Vanishing Voices by Suzanne Romaine and Daniel Nettle

Population: Quantity vs. Quality by Shirley Hartley

Writing Anthropology edited by Carole McGranahan

Anthropology: A Student’s Guide to Theory and Method by Stanley Barrett

The City Cultures Reader edited by Malcolm Miles et al.

textbooks I might skim ;

A History of Anthropological Theory + Readings by Paul Erickson and Liam Murphy

Sociocultural Anthropology: A Problem-Based Approach by Maggie Cummings et al.

Cultural Anthropology by William Haviland et al.

at library

** Terror in the Mind of God: The Global Rise of Religious Violence by Mark Juergensmeyer

** Censors at Work: How States Shaped Literature by Robert Darnton

Context & Method in Qualitative Research edited by Gale Miller and Robert Dingwall

Designing & Conducting Ethnographic Research by Margaret Lecompte and Jean Schensul

Fieldwork in the Library: A Guide to Research in Anthropology and Related Area Studies by R.C. Westerman

The Call of the Mall by Paco Underhill

to find

Field Ethnography: A Manual for Doing Cultural Anthropology by Paul Kutsche

** Deculturalization and the Struggle for Equality: A Brief History of the Education of Dominated Cultures in the United States by Joel Spring

The Essence of Anthropology by William Haviland et al.

Research Methods in Anthropology by H. Russell Bernard

** Anatomy of a Civil War: Sociopolitical Impacts of the Kurdish Conflict in Turkey by Mehmet Gurses

** Material Perspectives on Religion, Conflict, & Violence by Lucien van Liere and Erik Meinema

[ninja-muse]

23 Books for 2023

(Or: books I want to read but also some general goals)

Tagged by @agardenandlibrary​ and @a-ramblinrose​. Thank you!

Perilous Times - Thomas D. Lee

The Adventures of Amina Al-Sirafi - Shannon Chakraborty

The Magician’s Daughter - H.G. Parry

Labyrinth’s Heart - M.A. Carrick

Digger - Ursula Vernon

The Night Watch - Sarah Waters

Emily Wilde’s Encyclopaedia of Fairies - Heather Fawcett

All the Hidden Paths - Foz Meadows

The Remarkable Retirement of Edna Fisher - E.M. Anderson

A Sleight of Shadows - Kat Howard

A Power Unbound - Freya Marske

The Frugal Wizard’s Guide to Surviving Medieval England - Brandon Sanderson

Bookshops and Bonedust - Travis Baldree

The Hexologists - Josiah Bancroft

The Great Cat Massacre - Robert Darnton

read at least one of T. Kingfisher’s horror novels

finish at least two of my Storygraph challenges

start Music from the Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century by Richard Taruskin

read 10 classics (including plays and poetry) (2/10)

read 10 20 Canadian authors (14/20)

read at least one book off my TBR shelves per month (12/12)

review at least one book on Tumblr per month (12/12)

read more books off my TBR shelves than I haul

Tagging @howlsmovinglibrary @thelivebookproject​ @readingaway​ @brideofsevenless @sixofravens-reads @moondustbooks @starsandsteelandbrokenglass @janeandthehivequeen

[cliozaur]

Timid and melancholic argot transforms into something shameless and jovial in the eighteenth century. There’s more imagery related to mines and miners here, with processes happening underground, imperceptible on the surface, Restif de La Bretonne, who “excavated in the masses the most unhealthy gallery” and so on. After the significant effort put into rehabilitating argot in the previous chapters, Hugo now condemns “the laughing argot,” presenting it as something potentially dangerous.

Oh, I like how he interprets what was going on in the eighteenth century. Of course, it was not the Enlightenment itself or the philosophes to blame for the transformation of argot. They were all about light and progress. The blame lies with some sophists. Hugo unintentionally touches on a valid point: the philosophes were too elitist to care about reaching the masses. They were more interested in educating the public which is not synonymous with the common people or the masses. In fact, they often disdained the masses. Oh, the things they wrote about the people, presenting them as conservative, most loyal subjects of the monarch! Hugo laments that their writings were banned or even burned, but the public was not particularly interested in them (except for Rousseau, this guy was a real bestselling star), they wanted to read trashy fiction which is now really forgotten. They did not want to be educated, instead they developed “low taste” in literature: pornography, soapy romances, and scandalous revelations. And Restif de La Bretonne was on a high end of this literature. (Robert Darnton has much to say about the forbidden bestsellers of the Ancien Régime.) Some of these texts incited “the hatred of the unfortunate classes lights its torch at some aggrieved or ill-made spirit which dreams in a corner, and sets itself to the scrutiny of society. The scrutiny of hatred is a terrible thing.” This hatred and fear can lead to what Hugo calls “jacqueries.”

And then Hugo shifts attention to Revolutions vs. jacqueries. Chapters about the June revolt are coming soon, and it’s time to remind readers why revolutions are inherently honourable and good. Hugo suggests that the eighteenth century could have ended with a jacquerie if not for the French Revolution. A jacquerie embodies chaos, unchecked violence, revenge, and destruction. In contrast, the revolution, according to Hugo, is moral and lawful, albeit cruel. While this idea might sound good in theory, Hugo may be idealizing the impact of the revolution on the nineteenth century a bit too much! The closing image of barefooted rag-pickers guarding the treasure is quite utopian. I suppose that the conclusion might be that argot cannot have the same destructive impact of inciting people to jacqueries anymore. Or maybe I got it wrong.