Happy New … Oh No, Here We Go Again …
Columnists, News, Pop Culture - Tweet this! January 6th, 2009The year is only six days old and French Bashing still seems in vogue in certain circles. SuperFrenchie has just posted an alert over a “reality show” from ABC, which involves actors playing rude Americans in Paris. We’re not quite sure who’s bashing whom, or what the purpose of the show really is, but do check out SF’s blog for reactions and lively discussion.
On another front, this one being in the Gulf of Aden, the news of French successes against Somali pirates is being greeted with sarcasm by Jennifer Fermino – are we Italian? – of the New York Post. Harping on France’s 1940 surrender, which we remind our non-French readers, is as funny to the French as 9/11 is to Americans, Fermino plays loose with history and claims the French have not had a military success on water since 1884.
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January 16th, 2009 at 11:36 am
Please use objective arguments instead of personnal attacks. You definitely don’t know anything about my personal culture. You don’t know who I am. So please be more cautious.
January 16th, 2009 at 11:44 am
Your view is historically irrelevant. The word “Europe” was used for the first time with a cultural meaning in the 7th century, and also in Carolingian times. “J’appelle Europe simplement une unité historique, une incontestable, une indéniable unité historique, une unité qui s’est sconstruite à date fixe, une unité récente, une unité historique qui apparaît dans l’histoire nous savons exactement quand, puisque l’Europe en ce sens, l’Europe telle que nous la définirons, telle que nous l’étudirons, est une création du Moyen-Age” Lucien Fèbvre L’Europe, genèse d’une civilisation (ch. 1)
January 16th, 2009 at 12:28 pm
“You definitely don’t know anything about my personal culture. You don’t know who I am. So please be more cautious.”
Exactly. You are constantly making personal judgements in a trollish fashion, and je suis en train de vous rendre la pareille.
As for Lucien Fèbvre: as I said before, the Annales school, although somewhat valid, is outdated. The study of history didn’t stop with these post-war schools, and least of all with Lucien Fèbvre.
But it’s typical of totalitarian regimes to shun true, avant-garde studies and choose their “official” savants, often mediocre and outdated, but suited to their message.
That is, you choose Fèbvre because what he says suits you; you do not take into account that since Fèbvre, enormous amounts of ink have been spilled, and that his school is no longer the unique reference on the subject.
But as you know, that’s how totalitarian regimes work. “Whenever I hear the word ‘culture’, I reach for my pistol”
January 16th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
Leave totalitarianism where it is. It is off the topic. This is mere amalgam.
Fernand Braudel, 1987 : “Un historien de l’humanisme, Franco Simone, vient de nous mettre en garde contre la prétendue unité de l’Europe: ce serait une illusion du romantisme. Lui répondre qu’il a raison et tort à la fois, c’est dire en un mot que l’Europe est , au même instant, unité et diversité; ce qui semble à la réflexion aller de soi. Les chapîtres précédents ont montré une Europe engagée dans un même destin d’ensemble par sa religion, sa pensée rationaliste, l’évolution de la science et de la technique, son goût de la révolution et de l’équité sociale, ses réussites impériales”
Grammaire des civilisations (III-1 L’Europe ch IV Les unités de l’Europe)
January 16th, 2009 at 3:38 pm
Yet another postwar historian. Of course he thinks like this. He’s just another old Annaliste.
By the way, he died two years before 1987, so I doubt that’s when he wrote it, rather more the date of the edition you have…
The Annales school is essentially conditionned by its postwar milieu; the trauma of the two world wars is vivid, and one may not say that the school is detached from it. It is in that (well-meaning) milieu that the CECA was born, but I believe that it, with its unabashed and very recent intrusions into the world of culture (recent declarations by the commission; certain comic books spread out to children; certain ludicrous things such as when, the other day, I had to cook pasta with a can of mushrooms with a “european mushroom” seal on it…) which I do not like.
In other words, I like the existence of a European Economic Community, but when they attempt to enter the domains of culture, I believe they are acting from false premises.
January 16th, 2009 at 5:05 pm
Published just now in The Magpie:
“”The French have no word for entrepreneur,” said it all. He probably reckons they have no word for propaganda either, and let’s face it, he and his crew would know all about that.
Indeed, when the French refused to unquestioningly jig to America’s tune in the Middle East, there was almost instantly a tsunami of anti-French jokes by talk show hosts, comedians and on the net centred on the very questionable premise that the froggies are cowards. Example `For Sale E-Bay: one French World War Two rifle, never been fired, dropped only once’. Clever maybe, untrue certainly, and all because the French leadership did not unquestioningly render up large chunks of their youth as cannon fodder in a fight they didn’t start or believe in.
Terrorism was one thing, Saddam and Iraq very much another. Freedom Fries indeed!”
Very hope-inspiring! Let’s see if Bush’s departure leads to French-bashing becoming unacceptable, as a staple of the older régime.
January 20th, 2009 at 11:52 am
A.W., Bush was very devisive. I hope too that his departure will diminish French bashing.