Comments on: Pre-history of the jingle http://www.mutuallyoccluded.com/2009/04/pre-history-of-the-jingle/ media & film, design, philosophy, politics Sat, 13 Mar 2010 18:51:33 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7.1 hourly 1 By: joneilortiz http://www.mutuallyoccluded.com/2009/04/pre-history-of-the-jingle/comment-page-1/#comment-123 joneilortiz Tue, 28 Apr 2009 19:50:57 +0000 http://www.mutuallyoccluded.com/?p=1700#comment-123 In a post on Graham Robb’s <i>The Discovery of France</i>, "a fantastic study brimming with fascinating portraits, meticulously reconstructed scenes and bizarre facts about a country before it was centralised, homogenised and tamed by its rationalist hub, Paris", <i>Strange Maps</i> notes in passing that the <cris> was designed not only to solicit the passerby but also, perhaps, to ease memorization in a somewhat-foreign language.<br><br><blockquote>Up until the early 20th century, Robb suggests, it still seemed the other way around. It was Paris that was being colonised, by its provinces: “By the mid-nineteenth century, half the inhabitants of Paris came from the provinces and most of them did not consider themselves Parisian. Migrants spent as little money as possible while away from home. Mentally, they never left their pays (…) In certain Paris streets, the sounds and smells of villages and provincial towns drowned out the sounds and smells of the capital. <b>For many, their street cry was the only French they spoke.</b>” </blockquote> In a post on Graham Robb’s The Discovery of France, “a fantastic study brimming with fascinating portraits, meticulously reconstructed scenes and bizarre facts about a country before it was centralised, homogenised and tamed by its rationalist hub, Paris”, Strange Maps notes in passing that the <cris> was designed not only to solicit the passerby but also, perhaps, to ease memorization in a somewhat-foreign language.

Up until the early 20th century, Robb suggests, it still seemed the other way around. It was Paris that was being colonised, by its provinces: “By the mid-nineteenth century, half the inhabitants of Paris came from the provinces and most of them did not consider themselves Parisian. Migrants spent as little money as possible while away from home. Mentally, they never left their pays (…) In certain Paris streets, the sounds and smells of villages and provincial towns drowned out the sounds and smells of the capital. For many, their street cry was the only French they spoke.”

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