or Powell's or me• • •
"Mike and Jon, Jon and Mike—I've known them both for years, and, clearly, one of them is very funny. As for the other: truly one of the great hangers-on of our time."—Steve Bodow, head writer, The Daily Show
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"Who can really judge what's funny? If humor is a subjective medium, then can there be something that is really and truly hilarious? Me. This book."—Daniel Handler, author, Adverbs, and personal representative of Lemony Snicket
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"The good news: I thought Our Kampf was consistently hilarious. The bad news: I’m the guy who wrote Monkeybone."—Sam Hamm, screenwriter, Batman, Batman Returns, and Homecoming
May 18, 2007
Bernard Chazelle, Public Enemy Number One
As we know, it is against the law for informed commentary about other countries to appear in the United States. Bernard Chazelle has just broken this law. Even worse, it's about France.
Posted at May 18, 2007 09:08 AM | TrackBackFortunately, I'm guessing this desperado will be kept safely out of the pages of the NYT.
Posted by: Donald Johnson at May 18, 2007 10:17 AMAmong my many pet theories is my belief that the reason many Americans like to poke fun at France is because of the whistling-past-th'-graveyard sense of how both the US and France had revolutions at roughly the same time, both steeped in the ideals of the enlightenment, and how we were comparatively lucky that ours was a lot less bloody. I don't like to make fun of the French myself, because I think if I did, they'd just respond by making fun of my predisposition towards really long, rambling sentences. And that would suck.
Posted by: Jonathan Versen at May 18, 2007 12:32 PMMy father spent a great deal of time in France in the last years of his life and he loved it there. What he could not get over was how much more the French enjoyed life than Americans do. On one trip to France he fell ill on the airplane and his girl friend Hugette called a doctor who actually made a house call to the apartment, gave my father a thorough medical exam, gave him a shot of adrenalin after which my father recovered nicely. My father asked him how much he owed the doctor who replied “nothing” packed up his bag and left. Over here in America it is hard to imagine a doctor making a house call much less not charging anything.
I am sure, as Bernard points out, that France has problems but I think they also have a future where as I am not so sure we do. Thanks for the link to Bernard’s excellent piece.
