A few years ago I was watching The Hunchback of Notre Dame (I admit it, it was the disney version). In the story there is an underground city of gyspies called "the court of miracles". This place was contrasted to "the court of justice," where Frolo, the minister of justice in Paris, was in charge. The court of justice was a place where those in power imposed their rule on the people of the city. The court of miracles was the place where the marginalized and persecuted built community outside of and against the ruling relations. Of course, that's not how the disney movie put it, but I have a tendency to read a lot into disney cartoons.
Anyhow, I was excited about this idea. In a lot of ways it connected to my research into the resistance of enslaved Africans during the era of the transatlantic slave trade. The court of miracles was a sort of kilombo (runaway/maroon community), where new relationships were built beyond and against the current system.
Little did I know how accurate this comparison was. A week or so ago, I was reading Karl Marx's account of the enclosurement movement in Europe. This movement basically turned land previously used for subsistence agriculture into land for pasturing sheep, whose wool was sold for profit as part of the emerging cloth manufacturing industry. What this meant was that thousands of people were thrown off their land and turned into vagabonds. As if this wasn't enough, the States of Europe passed laws which said that anyone able to work but found begging or wandering about was subject to cruel torture, enslavement, and even execution. Against this persecution many of the uprooted formed clandestine communities. Marx writes that "by the middle of the 17th century a kingdom of vagabonds (truands) was established in Paris" (Capital Vol. 1, pgs. 736-7). What this connection does is relate being a vagabond to two things: being dispossesed and creating new, autonomous and insurgent forms of community.
That suites me just fine! I consider myself a present-day vagabond. And when I look around me and see folks who are un(der)employed, who do not own the places in which they live, who must slave to survive or face the consequences---when I see all of this and the despair that it breeds, I know that we need autonomous spaces more than ever. The Court of Miracles, my blog, is the digital expression of my efforts to create this kind of space. It's the idea of a mobile community of resistance.
But there is something important about the disney movie. In that movie the citizens of the court of miracles are also the people who make the feast of fools (a peasant festival) come alive. During the festival, the people who usually must hide, come forward and turn the world upside-down and inside-out. Everyone in all of Paris joins in, breaking out of the roles proscribed by dominant social relations. This is crucial because revolution, resistance, and transformation are often at their most radical when, through expressions of creativity and communal celebration, people re-connect to what is essentially human in us all. Just a few thoughts on a few lines that made a few more connections....
Anyhow, I was excited about this idea. In a lot of ways it connected to my research into the resistance of enslaved Africans during the era of the transatlantic slave trade. The court of miracles was a sort of kilombo (runaway/maroon community), where new relationships were built beyond and against the current system.
Little did I know how accurate this comparison was. A week or so ago, I was reading Karl Marx's account of the enclosurement movement in Europe. This movement basically turned land previously used for subsistence agriculture into land for pasturing sheep, whose wool was sold for profit as part of the emerging cloth manufacturing industry. What this meant was that thousands of people were thrown off their land and turned into vagabonds. As if this wasn't enough, the States of Europe passed laws which said that anyone able to work but found begging or wandering about was subject to cruel torture, enslavement, and even execution. Against this persecution many of the uprooted formed clandestine communities. Marx writes that "by the middle of the 17th century a kingdom of vagabonds (truands) was established in Paris" (Capital Vol. 1, pgs. 736-7). What this connection does is relate being a vagabond to two things: being dispossesed and creating new, autonomous and insurgent forms of community.
That suites me just fine! I consider myself a present-day vagabond. And when I look around me and see folks who are un(der)employed, who do not own the places in which they live, who must slave to survive or face the consequences---when I see all of this and the despair that it breeds, I know that we need autonomous spaces more than ever. The Court of Miracles, my blog, is the digital expression of my efforts to create this kind of space. It's the idea of a mobile community of resistance.
But there is something important about the disney movie. In that movie the citizens of the court of miracles are also the people who make the feast of fools (a peasant festival) come alive. During the festival, the people who usually must hide, come forward and turn the world upside-down and inside-out. Everyone in all of Paris joins in, breaking out of the roles proscribed by dominant social relations. This is crucial because revolution, resistance, and transformation are often at their most radical when, through expressions of creativity and communal celebration, people re-connect to what is essentially human in us all. Just a few thoughts on a few lines that made a few more connections....
1 comment:
"a mobile comunity of resistance." I'm going to quote you on that. I'm thinking about writing a historical fiction novel based around the court of miracles, I might just look you up if it is a succsess. Cheers! -John
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