Date: Sun, 12 Jan 2003 20:42:59 -0800 (PST)
From: Maldoror <insektus-AT-yahoo.com>
Subject: Re: American Francophilia


> The French are
> critical in general because they think it helps them
> be better people,
> Americans are obscenely nice because they think it
> makes them better people.
> Both ways of being become "bad" habits.  Without
> understanding this truth
> (and assimilating it) no real communication (or
> comparison, for that matter)
> can take place.  The French and Americans have
> always had this love/hate
> relationship.  The French think they can pick out
> value in American culture
> and they love lots of things about America. 
> Unfortunately, it is not always
> a part of American mainstream culture.  Woody Allen
> is an icon in France,
> for example (as is Michael Moore, David Lynch,
> Tarantino, etc).  Americans
> can call into question French taste (jerry Lewis and
> woody Allen are learned
> pleasures, I'm sure) but at the same time they
> recognize French taste to be
> of superior quality.  And this is precisely because
> they are "demanding".
> The French are not afraid to have screaming matches
> and real intellectual
> debates with one another, for they've learned to
> distance themselves
> (enough) from the ideas and don't live "criticism"
> as personal attacks as
> much as Americans do.  And I am also generalizing
> here, but just to make the
> point that a lot of observations being made are very
> superficial ones that
> are merely anecdotal and not necessarily
> "productive".  We're not talking
> about what makes Americans & the French tick and why
> they are the way they
> are.
> 
> And though the French are often as Maldoror
> described when traveling in the
> former NA colonies, it is helpful to remember that
> only the French colonists
> made it their "mission to civilize" - with all the
> litigious implications.
> They set up schools and other infrastructures for
> the native populations
> (certainly their objectives were as ruthless as any
> other
> colonist/imperialist nation). But they had a grander
> vision of "raising"
> their colonies to the same level of quality as
> themselves - they had hopes
> of them becoming "equal" in their perfect colonial
> dream turned nightmare.
> I'm not sure other imperialist nations were as
> preoccupied with such
> questions.
> 
> A vous!
> Jaclyn
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Deborah Wyrick"
> <Wyrick-AT-social.chass.ncsu.edu>
> To: <postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu>
> Sent: Sunday, January 12, 2003 3:30 AM
> Subject: Re: Re: American Francophilia
> 
> 
> > On the one hand:  the Raelians
> > On the other hand:  U.S. media coverage of the
> Raelians
> >
> > Thanks to Robert, Tobie Lynne, and all others for
> an entertainly
> informative discussion (and Noui for inaugurating
> it, albeit in quest of
> hard information, which I wish I could supply but
> can't).
> >
> > Deborah Wyrick
> >
> >
> >
> >      --- from list
> postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
> >
> 
> 
> 
>      --- from list
> postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---


====
'if you believe in nothing, you'll never be disappointed.'   
-anonymous 


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