On the Importance of Throwing Things: Pelting as Popular Politics

Abstract:Aggrieved crowds throw objects in protest that dole out insult and injury in equal measure. Despite the motley things in a crowd's arsenal, there is a pattern to pelting and the range of causes for which rocks, tomatoes, eggs, pies, milkshakes, shoes, and water bottles are thrown with regularity. Pelting overcomes distance by touching the body of a powerful enemy by proxy. In hitting the sublime body with "matters out of place," the crowd relocates the sovereign aura within itself while transgressing the boundaries of high and low. This essay considers pelting in all its joyous, violent, fun, furious, and law-breaking glory and, therefore, as a medium and metaphor of the crowd.