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
June 07, 2008
Sarko L'Amerloque
By: Bernard Chazelle
Diane Johnson quotes Yasmina Reza:
[Sarkozy] is American in the worst sense of the word.
This statement is bullshit in the worst sense of the word.
Sarkozy is quintessentially French in the worst sense of the word.
I don't know him personally but I know his type well. I grew up with people just like him. Sarko's distinctive traits have nothing to do with his Jewish, Greek, Hungarian, or Catholic origins, even less so with his so-called American tastes. (Not sure what that means. He knows diddly-squat about American culture.) He grew up in Paris and that's all you need to know. He is without a doubt the most provincial French president since Rene Coty. People mistake his pandering for cosmopolitanism. He loves America so much that he never bothered to visit the country until he was a cabinet minister. Some love.
This is a man who does not think twice before heckling someone on TV: "Casse-toi, pauvre con" ("Get lost, asshole" using the "tu" form that every French child aged 5 and above learns to avoid when addressing strangers.) He is not an aggressive pitbull in the neurotic Seinfeldian sense of "Have a nice day!" -- "Why are you telling me that? Why shouldn't I have a nice day? Do you think I need you to have a nice day? Who the hell do you think you are: some kind of god who hands out "nice day" passes to strangers?" Sarkozy is more like: "Ok, so 2+2=4" -- "No, 2+2 is not 4! This is the sort of mistake only a moron can make: 2+2 is not just only 4, it's really truly absolutely 4. I'm sick of idiots who don't get that."
There was a weird hope he would use the presidency to shake things up. But it looks like he conquered power only to upgrade his sexual partners. And that, you can say, is French in the worst sense of the word. (The upside is that it's hard to drop a nuclear bomb and to have sex at the same time.)
— Bernard Chazelle
Well, not to defend Sarko, but the loss of temper that provoked the "affaire pauvre con" occurred right after he had been "tutoyer"-ed by a guy who also insulted him ("Ne me touches pas. Tu me salis" is not exactly a nice thing to say). Of course, I agree with you on the larger point that Sarkozy is extremely provincial and seems to be have used the presidency mainly to get Carla Bruni to sleep with him. But then, most French citizens dislike him so much now, after barely a year in l’Élysée, that I doubt they will re-elect him. Compare that with our fake-populist criminal in chief. Americans were so happy with his performance that they elected him (or, to be more accurate, let him steal the vote) yet a second time.
Posted by: Pepito at June 7, 2008 04:16 PMYes, Bernard, that's all fine, but I was really hoping to get a sense of what you think of the man.
Posted by: catherine at June 7, 2008 04:40 PMThe upside is that it's hard to drop a nuclear bomb and to have sex at the same time.
Someday I plan to do a one-man show called "Sex vs. Guns."
Posted by: Jonathan Schwarz at June 7, 2008 05:20 PMPepito: you're right. But I'd expect a president ito have enough self-discipline not to take the bait.
The problem with the Bush comparison is that, compared with Bush, everyone looks good!
catherine: Even though I didn't vote for him I thought his election might shake the French out of their complacency. But he's proven once again that if power corrupts then absolute power corrupts absolutely. I don't mean corruption in the traditional sense but in the way he's been relentless in enjoying the perks of power. After the election he said he needed to retire
to a monastery for a couple of days to take stock of what had happened. I saw nothing wrong with that. Instead he went to sunbathe on the deck of a billionaire friend's yacht.
Also, he gave an unforgivable speech in Senegal in July 2007. I defended him earlier against the charge that his use of the word "scum" was racist. (He never said scum and his use was not racist.) But the speech he gave in Dakar dripped with racism:
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This man (the traditional African) never launched himself towards the future. The idea never came to him to get out of this repetition and to invent his own destiny.
The problem of Africa, and allow a friend of Africa to say it, is to be found here. Africa’s challenge is to enter to a greater extent into history.
Africa’s reality is that of a great continent that has everything to succeed, but that does not succeed because it cannot free itself from ts myths.
That last quote is a classic case of polite, quasi- neoliberal racism. It's almost enough to make you long for the crude old-fashioned type.
Posted by: Sajia Kabir at June 7, 2008 08:14 PMI thought dropping a nuclear bomb was sex for the overclass.
But maybe that's Schwarz's point, above.
this the new thing in commenting: "space commenting"
Wow is this entry DISAPPOINTING.
My god ! Are we progressives in here ? Damn !
Sarko was expected to "shake things up" ? HOW ?
THIS GUY WORKS FOR THE CORPORATIONS ! He's a fucking sellout ! HOW THE HELL WAS HE GOING TO SHAKE THINGS UP ? WHAT DO YOU MEAN ?
YOU DOWN WITH CORPORATIONS NOW ?
Posted by: littlehorn at June 8, 2008 03:26 PMSorry about that outburst i'm a little ... drunk.
Still.
This guy is far-right. How could you even start for even a split second to have esteem for him is beyond me. And I have a hard time holding myself from using caps again.
Posted by: littlehorn at June 8, 2008 03:30 PMBernard, I was trying to be funny. Apparently I failed. But thanks for the additional info. His Africa comments just reek.
"Africa’s challenge is to enter to a greater extent into history."
No, actually Africa's challenge is to get the imperialist powers out of its history.
Posted by: catherine at June 8, 2008 04:37 PM"He conquerede power only to upgrade his sexual partners"
Bernard, completely agree with you. Carla is much more hot than Cecilia.
A man who has an stable relation and, the best of all, is happy in bed, sexually satisfied, is a man who can focus better at what he does.
Would you like a president not sexually happy? Tired of his 10-year marriage?
I say Sarkozy is very hot, too. A conqueror, a French guy in the best sense of the word. He seems to be very passionate, too.
Posted by: Lucia Gonzalez at June 8, 2008 07:26 PM"it looks like he conquered power only to upgrade his sexual partners"
Bernard, do i detect a hint of envy here?
Just joking.
Posted by: Christopher at June 8, 2008 07:34 PMWhat Sarkozy meant about Africa was that since he defines "history" as basically the pedigree of conquering nations, Africa has never conquered. He's more or less correct, because the ancient Egyptians never got farther than Syria.
But this is an imperialist's view of history. Africa has always been in history. You'd really have to have skipped a lot of high school to be unaware of that.
Also, what's more "American" that claiming to love a country you have never seen?
Posted by: Baldie McEagle at June 9, 2008 08:23 AM
