#Bouzingo

[pilferingapples]

Bousingot Bouzingo Bousingo

@everyonewasabird​  you mention in your post on Les MIs 5.3.2 (and I hope you don’t mind my quoting you out-of-post!, but this got. Long.), 

(If I’d had to guess where in Les Miserables Hugo defined the word bousingot for the reader, I absolutely wouldn’t have put it here, after the rebellion is done, after all our favorite countercultural rebels are dead…. but maybe that’s because I’m too used to Borel reclaiming it, and normal people think of it as a pejorative term. Here, it’s the police’s term for the insurgents.)

Indeed! “ Bouzingo/Bousingot/Bousingo”  was a word with a lot of connotations-- not unlike “ Romantic”  or, if it comes to that, “ Socialist” :P  But I think we’ve got enough versions of it for a sort of general Romantic consensus XD  :

Hugo’s version here is, of course:

From time to time, parties re-sole their old insults. In 1832, the word bousingot formed the interim between the word jacobin, which had become obsolete, and the word demagogue which has since rendered such excellent service.

“ Demagogue”  being something Hugo himself had been called by this point, and , as suggested, right in line with “Jacobin” -- it means, well , “ the reds” , and the cold war US sense of “ the reds” isn’t a bad way of translating it, either-- a term  that can mean either genuine political radicals or just someone a conservative doesn’t like for “ lifestyle”  reasons :/ Either way, fair game for a little police brutality!

More confirmation of them as Favorite Police Targets from George Sand in Horace,  via the novel’s main narrator, who is...left-sympathetic but politically more or less apathetic, like a more self-assured Grantaire, really (translation Zack Rogow, bolding/italics mine):

...They always find themselves naturally carried away by riots.  The youngest go just to observe, others go to take part; in those days almost everyone threw himself into it for a moment and then quickly withdrew, after having delivered and received a good few blows.   This activity didn't change things on the surface, and the only alteration produced by these efforts was a doubling of the fear of the shopkeepers and brutal cruelty on the part of the police. But not a single person who so casually disturbed public order back then need blush at the present hour for having had a few days of youthful warmth.   When youth cannot demonstrate the greatness and courage of its heart except by attacking that  society, that society must be evil indeed! 

They were called Bousingots because of the sailor hats of that name, made of shiny leather, which they adopted as their rallying sign.  Later they wore a scarlet headpiece in the form of a  military stocking cap ,  with a black velvet band all around it.  Pointed out again and again, to the police,  and attacked in the street by stool pigeons, they next adopted a gray  hat, but they were no less frequently rounded up and mistreated.  Their conduct has been much denounced; but I  don't think the  government has been able to  justify that of its own officers,  veritable assasssins who beat to death a good number of Bousingots while shopkeepers looked on, showing not the slightest indignation or pity. 

The name Bousingots stuck.  When le Figaro , which kept up a teasing and caustic opposition under the loyal management of M. Delatouche, changed hands, and little by little changed its stripes, the name Bousingot became an insult; after that there was no mockery too bitter or unjust with which to smear them.  But the true Bousingots remained unmoved...

The narrator’s description of a  “ true Bousingot”, his friend Jean Laraviniere,   seems familiar, as a personality:

...his face was pleasant, his  appearance original, as were his wits.  He was generous as he was brave, and that was no small measure.  His instinctual combativeness, as it's called in phrenology, drew him impetuously into every brawl, and he always brought along a cohort of intrepid friends, fanaticized by his coolheaded heroism and his bellicose joyfulness... He was a blusterer, a carouser, if you will; but what a loyal personality, what magnanimous devotion! He had  all the eccentricities of his role, complete recklessness about his impetuosity, all the swagger of his position.  You might have laughed at him; but you would have been  forced to love him. He was so good, so naive in his convictions, so devoted to his friends!

It doesn't sound too far from 

...a good-natured mortal, who kept bad company, brave, a spendthrift, prodigal, and to the verge of generosity, talkative, and at times eloquent, bold to the verge of effrontery; the best fellow possible; he had daring waistcoats, and scarlet opinions; a wholesale blusterer, that is to say, loving nothing so much as a quarrel, unless it were an uprising; and nothing so much as an uprising, unless it were a revolution; always ready to smash a window-pane, then to tear up the pavement, then to demolish a government, just to see the effect of it...a man of caprice, was scattered over numerous cafes; the others had habits, he had none. He sauntered. To stray is human. To saunter is Parisian. In reality, he had a penetrating mind and was more of a thinker than appeared to view.

He served as a connecting link between the Friends of the A B C and other still unorganized groups...

right? 

So there's an image of A Bouzingo as a character, at least:  loud, leftist to a point that would seem absurd to Reasonable, Moderate types, violent in that cause , a constant target/enemy of the police.  This seems consistent across sympathetic writers; even le Figaro, in the mocking article The Red Bouzingo, gives them the same general assessment, albeit from an unsympathetic POV:

The bousingot is inexhaustible, he will leave his mark like the camaraderie, the piqueurs and the jeunes-frances.  If one were still writing books, one would put him in the books; if one still had theaters, one would drag him over the theaters by his beard and by his hat.  The bousingot belongs to painting, statuary, to trestle-stages, to the Cockaigne pole, to Chinese shadows, to blockades at the intersection, he’s the sea-foam of politics, the flower of the ridiculous, the prototype of all exaggeration.  By nature he’s a being of 93 in politics, honorably refined for his fashion, a royal bird for his habits.  We’re waiting for Poulaine slippers.

Again: dangerously republican, dramatic to absurdity ; yet,even le Figaro concludes “ They’re not evildoers. “ 

And of course Philothee O’Neddy, the only person I’ve got quotes from who can and does actually claim the title for himself, says they were, rather intentionally, “laughable” in their exaggeration,but sincere in their politics.  

..and of course, that above all else, they were  bouzingo, no S, no T.  Ah well, what message is ever perfectly preserved across the ages? XD 

I suspect this is one of those (many) places where Hugo fully expected the audience to need no more than his nod at a term to understand both the reference and the opinion he had on the subject, but here we are now, and it’s an excuse for me to assemble a small run of references instead XD

#Bouzingots Bousingots Bouszingo #Bouzingo #LM 5.3.2 #long post

[clove-pinks]

Eighteen-Thirties Thursday: Newspapers and Their Readers

I am obsessed with this print by Victor Adam, Les journaux et leurs lecteurs, depicting the stereotype reader of various French newspapers, in the Rijksmuseum collection. Although it's dated c. 1830-1854, the clothing of the caricatures is very 1830s.

A merchant reads Le Commerce. (Are his feet tucked into some kind of warmer?)

Children read Le Journal des enfans.

A rare look at working class people in fairly realistic portraiture: a grocer reads Le Constitutionnel and a grisette (younger working woman, often employed as a seamstress) reads La Gazette des Tribuneax.

A man in knee breeches, in this economy? Of course he's l'ultra-royaliste reading La Gazette.

Swanky, obnoxious outfit, long hair, reading Le Charivari illustrated magazine—it's a bousingot Romantic! The hat is characteristic.

The fashionable man reads La Mode (and looks great doing it).

#Eighteen-Thirties Thursday #1830s #fashion history #men's fashion #romantic era #dress history #newspapers #french history #fashion #historical men's fashion #bousingots #bouzingos #romantacism

[oldbookist]

mfw i see romanticism trending on tumblr but it’s just dark academia aesthetics and not brawling in a theater or walking a lobster on a leash

#reject classicism return to bouzingo #romanticism

[dying-suffering-french-stalkers]

kin ask meme: you seem like a combeferre or a jehan!

Oh I definitely projected a little onto Combeferre in high school lmao. Think I also RPed him (badly) in this funky little Pinterest group (???) for like a month

Edit: I am assuming you meant Jehan Prouvaire, not Jehan Frollo du Moulin lmao

#for real though i am a perfect mix of combeferre's analytical side and jehan's romanticism #i would attend a medical lecture and a bouzingo party with equal enthusiasm #also iirc wasn't ferre into super early p.hotography? it was less than 7 years old at that point #les mis #combeferre #jehan #asks #kin meme

[thegreatchainingofbeing-blog]

Only a Romantic Army will stop the philistines.

Theophile Gautier was there at The Battle of Hernani to defend Victor Hugo’s 1830 play.

#Hernani #romantics #theophile gautier #romanticism #victor hugo #1830s #paris #bouzingo #thegreatchainingofbeing #iandrewforsyth

[fremedon]

omg I want to ask SO many things about all your LM WIPs but: Wolf Interval?:D

Poetry Smash Bouzingo orchestra fic! Which so far doesn't even have Bahorel in it; this mostly exists as extensive notes towards an argument between Prouvaire and Combeferre over even temperament. (Combeferre thinks it's a mathematical marvel of the modern age, Prouvaire thinks it's a travesty, Grantaire takes Prouvaire's side even though he can't actually hear the difference: "If too many perfect fifths piled on each other sound like a howling animal to our ears, who are we to tame the wolf just because we can't tolerate that much perfection?")

I do very much intend to write the rest; I read a whole book on musical temperament just for this scene and I have opinions about it now.

#asked and answered #meme #WIPs #wolf interval

[prudencepaccard]

you know how cities have "Keep [City] Weird" campaigns?

that, but for Romanticism

never forget the Hernanistes, and Bouzingo, and eclecticism, and the grotesque, and Hugo just generally being a complete lunatic

@pilferingapples

[midautumnnightdream]

The Bouzingo Dude made a reference to Tannhäuser riot of 1861, which was the first time I heard that name, so I looked it up and oh boy.

Tannhäuser (German: [ˈtanˌhɔʏ̯zɐ]; full title Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg, "Tannhäuser and the Minnesingers' Contest at Wartburg") is an 1845 opera in three acts, music and text by Richard Wagner. /.../

Tannhäuser's first performance in Paris was given on 13 March 1861 at the Salle Le Peletier of the Paris Opéra. The composer had been closely involved in its preparation and there had been 164 rehearsals. /.../

At the first performance the opera was initially well-received, with disturbances including whistling and cat-calls beginning to appear in Act II, and becoming prominent by the end of the third act. For the second performance much of the new ballet music was removed, together with some actions that had specifically provoked mockery, such as the piping of the shepherd in Act I. At this performance however the audience disturbances were increased. This was partly due to members of the wealthy and aristocratic Jockey Club, who objected to the ballet coming in Act I, since this meant they would have to be present from the beginning of the performance (disrupting their dining schedule). It was alleged that they distributed whistles to the audience. A further incentive to disruption was the unpopularity of Princess von Metternich and of her native country of Austria. At the third performance on 24 March (which Wagner did not attend) uproar caused several interruptions of up to fifteen minutes at a time. As a consequence, Wagner withdrew the opera after the third performance. This marked the end to Wagner's hopes of establishing himself in Paris.

― wikipedia

whaaa??

#adfghjk some people #at least Romantics disrupted their own plays lmao #(okay there was also the whole political anti-Napoleon III undercurrent going on) #(but still) #(does the 19th century theatre Ever chill? Evidence suggests not) #Richard Wagner #Tannhäuser #Jockey Club #just 19th century things #just Romanticism things

[theradioghost]

What is the nerdiest academic or semi-academic thing you're into and what are your favorite facts related to said thing?

I think the answer might be my devotion to the lesser-known (at least in North America?) Romantic poets. I’ve got my Felicia Hemans rant, for one thing, but I’m also very fond of the Bouzingo? My favorite fact about the Bouzingo is literally everything on their Wikipedia page, and also that Petrus Borel Was A Werewolf, Maybe.

#ps if you want to know more about the Bouzingo go check out pilferingapples her blog is Great #Anonymous #asks #my posts

[aflamethatneverdies]

Courfeyrac is very much There for various Romantic shenanigans, but he's a bit like Gautier with "But Practicalities??" Dancing wildly through the streets all night is an awesome concept, but his feet hurt and really he wanted to fall asleep hours ago? Anyone who thinks stealing a skeleton is a great idea has never tried to transport one through several quarters, in the dark, while keeping it more-or-less in one piece. (He has never quite forgiven Prouvaire for that one. (1/2)

Or Bahorel for laughing at him when the skull dropped on his foot. Or Combeferre for saying he deserved it while bandaging him up) (2/2)

I have nothing to add to this beautiful headcanon except this: 

Courfeyrac was draped over the sofa at a salon in the Latin Quarter, his eyelids drooping heavily, his hat askance, his cravat abandoned to some charming young woman. He refused the third cup of coffee that was offered to him.His head was spinning from lack of sleep and he was pretty sure he had just vomited on the fashionable Turkish rug in the middle of the room. He could not tell for sure, because time kept its warp pace and he had no idea how long he had been at this party, it could have been years or months instead of several hours, which his pocket watch showed. 

‘Is it fashionably late to make excuses to leave?’ he shouted to Bahorel amid the noise of the talk, ‘I’ve danced with charming young women for hours till my feet hurt, even participated in a cancan, which I suspect is illegal and drunk some of the punch and passed out, I think I’ve reached peak fun times.’ 

There were people talking, reciting poetry, putting on a dramatic performance. Someone was even juggling knives. In the far corner a piano was being played upon, rather badly. Courfeyrac who had taken piano lessons in his youth, because of his older sisters, could tell it was off-key and it pained him to hear it.    

Bahorel put away the pipe he was smoking and raised his eyebrows. He was thoroughly enjoying himself at this salon, he had acquired a reputation as an outrageous member of the petit cenacle. The young men and women flocked around him as he easily moved from talking about Robespierre to talking about art and theatre.  

He looked at Courfeyrac closely and noticing his friend’s haggard appearance and sleep deprived face said gently, ‘Can you walk? I’ll call a cab.’

As the cab rattled along the narrow streets, Courfeyrac lightly closed his eyes.

‘Why is it that I always find myself in impractical situations, with you two? Remember when you and Jehan asked me to help you in smuggling a skeleton across half of Paris?’

‘Vaguely.’ Bahorel said with a twinkle in his eyes. 

Courfeyrac was wide awake now, ‘I should write a manual on how to transport skeletons: Bouzingo edition. First, don’t get caught in the rain while supporting the damn thing. Second, make sure you have a good excuse when dealing with curious gendarmes and no, this is the skeleton of a pretty young lady who is now haunting Paris as a ghost and we hope to unite her with her lover, does not count, be sure to inform Jehan of that. Thirdly, do I need to continue?’ Courfeyrac said as they reached his lodgings. 

Marius was still not home from wooing his lady love, a good thing, Courfeyrac thought as they collapsed on the bed, he would have hated to have woken his roommate up. 

‘Thirdly,’ Courfeyrac said with more emphasis, ‘Don’t let the skull fall on your feet while trying to navigate the streets in the dark and have your friends laugh at you.’

‘I am chastened and ashamed, I did not mean to, Courfeyrac.’ Bahorel said with a dramatic flourish which made Courfeyrac think his friend would have made a better Hernani than any living actor in Paris. 

Bahorel helped Courfeyrac to clean up and discard his hat, shoes and waistcoat. Courfeyrac slipped into his bed and smiled, ‘It was a good joke, running around with the skeleton. I tell this story to everyone, they laugh and I enjoy it. Though, it was less comforting to end up with a broken foot and having to explain to Combeferre how it was I got the injury. I wish to pay him back for the insult. He had the nerve, the absolute nerve….’ 

‘For what?’ Bahorel was grinning. 

‘To say that I had deserved it.’ Courfeyrac said ruefully, ‘The worst part was that he wasn’t actually wrong.’          

#now we're being silly #hi I'd like to say that this is a 100% silly blog #please don't expect quality posts #thank you Autumn for this! <3 #midautumnnightdream #my fanfic #headcanons meme

[amelancholycharm]

FRENCH ROMANTICS FANDOM FRIENDS!!!

First, an apology for Dropping Out Of Society for a while there - I started a new job in September which I LOVE - but has been pretty much CONSUMING MY LIFE UTTERLY...

Which brings me to my request:

Next week, for aforementioned Awesome New Job, I get to run a cool workshop  in which I’m going to try to recreate, in some small way, a bit of the Wild Bouzingo Lifestyle (to the extent possible in 2.5 hours a day with high school students.)

We plan to to Saunter, Write And Draw Things, drink coffee, observe people, sing in public, dress up, etc. etc, - maybe even take our pet lobsters for a walk in the park, who knows.

But first I want to set the scene! I need some   brief stories & readings that will give these guys a taste of what we’re trying for without making them feel like it’s Homework.  I don’t want to overwhelm, just develop a vivid image of what these guys were like.  

SO....

Hit me with your favorites - anecdotes, quotations, poetry, the works - what do YOU think would help these crazy kids feel like it’s 1830 all over again????

#thank you! #I miss you guys!

[pilferingapples]

' why are my ancient ass posts going around again' and other terrifying tumblr life questions

#at least they aren't Bad ones #or ones with Old Art (the horror the horror ) #like I genuinely don't mind these if you rbed them it's not a problem don't feel bad yeesh #just very ' how did these get found' #(the one on Bouzingo fashion is good. Keep circulating those tapes. more ribbons.)

[clove-pinks]

"Sir Walter Scott?" I laugh coldly, studying you with detached scorn. "Is that really the best you can do? Not even Coleridge?"

You attempt to reply—but too late! The elegant walking stick in my hand is now leveled at your breast.

"BOUZINGO BOUZINGOT BOUSINGO!" I chant the words in a stentorian voice and the air crackles with an arcane force not seen since the reign of Louis XIII.

Speechless, you gasp as your waist is constricted by unseen powers. Atop your head, your new silk hat squeals in protest as it collapses in on itself to form a conical shape; the fabric of your sleeves strains in the opposite direction, swelling to form mounds of virago.

I smile blandly at your predicament.

"Un peu chargée," I observe, regarding your transformation.

with apologies to @pilferingapples

#bouzingo bouzingot bousingo #romanticism #1830s #i need to leave work i keep laughing about this

[vapaus-ystavyys-tasaarvo]

Dear Fellow Romantics, Bohemians, Bouzingos and Other Terrorizers of Polite Society!

Are you ready to go to war against censorship and classicism? Do you wish to defend artistic freedom? Are you just itching for a good old-fashioned theatre riot?

Join Hugo's Romantic Army in the name of freedom, justice and true art!

Here is your red ticket! Spread the word and bring as many trustworthy allies as you can!

The Battle Plans:

Meet up on Slack on Saturday July 1st at 4pm GMT

Wear your flashiest outfit! Preferably with lots of red!

The show will be 1h25min plus intermission (barring interruptions due to classicist counterattacks)

It is in French but subtitles will be provided

If you need to know more, contact me or consult this pamphlet.

(... Okay if you have no idea what I’m talking about, we’re watching a 2002 French TV movie called La Bataille d’Hernani which is about the stormy events surrounding the premier of Victor Hugo’s play Hernani in 1830.)

#les mis group watch #la bataille d'hernani

[dying-suffering-french-stalkers]

I'm getting a history-lover vibe from you. Yes? No? Subjects of interest?

Yes, very much so!  (Was it the sudden T.E. Lawrence spam yesterday that gave it away? :P)  I am interested in quite a few areas of history.

I love the age of sail, especially the golden age of piracy, though I seem to have picked up more about the Royal Navy at that time than about the actual pirates due to my love of Norrington from POTC.  (One time I got to infodump about naval discipline to my friend group; I don’t think they knew what they were getting into.)  Sea-stories hold a great deal of interest for me in both literature and film.  Pirates of the Caribbean 1-3 are some of my all-time favorite movies.  I love the history of the Mutiny on the Bounty (and I will heartily defend the 1962 film over the 1935 one despite the former’s inaccuracies).  I’m also a big fan of Stevenson’s Treasure Island, and Disney’s Treasure Planet was my CHILDHOOD JAM.  Finally, I’m always here for a good Errol Flynn swashbuckler like Captain Blood or The Sea Hawk.

The French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars are also really fun to learn about.  I particularly love the Sharpe and Hornblower series even though I technically haven’t finished either one yet, whoops.

Thanks to my love of Les Misérables, I know rather a lot about 1830s Paris.  A few years ago I wrote a massive research paper on the bouzingos, or Jeunes-France, the first self-proclaimed avant-garde movement which came to inspire the “bohemian artist” archetype.  The members got up to some truly legendary shenanigans, the most famous of which included drinking alcoholic foam/cream out of (arguably real) human skulls, holding impromptu brass concerts in the yard while naked, stirring up theatergoers to protest Classicism, and more.  Also, Gérard de Nerval once walked his pet lobster on a ribbon in the public square.

As mentioned earlier, one of my more recent subjects of interest is T.E. Lawrence, or “Lawrence of Arabia” (how he hated that epithet!).  He came to play an important role in the Arab Revolt during WWI, aiding its original leaders in organizing and leading various guerrilla military campaigns, and later fighting hard (if unsuccessfully) to ensure that the Arab leaders got what they had been promised by the English and French.  He was an immensely interesting (and concerningly relatable) man who acted and experienced terrible things during the war, yet remained heroic despite his reluctance to admit as such.  He was friends with some of the most influential figures of the time, many of whom remembered him very fondly.  Lawrence’s two books, Seven Pillars of Wisdom and The Mint, are modern classics in their own right and I can’t recommend them enough!  As if that wasn’t cool enough, the 1962 film Lawrence of Arabia is consistently ranked among the best movies ever made.

Other areas of interest include World War I poets (e.g., Siegfried Sassoon, Robert Graves, and Wilfred Owen, partly because of Lawrence’s friendship with the first two), the Vikings, the American Revolution, and film history.

#wow sorry this got super long #i just love history y'all #history #about the blogger #long post #asks #Anonymous

[thegreatchainingofbeing-blog]

Mathilda Lund will not bend to male artists, she never compromises her poetry for men.

#thegreatchainingofbeing #literature #avant-garde #iandrewforsyth #paris #bouzingo #poetry