"The Anti-Anti-Americans"

[Bux]

Paris Journal: THE ANTI-ANTI-AMERICANS, A summer of obsessions in France. Issue of 2003-09-01. Posted 2003-08-25.

... The special summer feature in Le Figaro was a happy, undisturbed account of a trip taken on the old Route 66 by a French journalist. (“The gastronomy,” he concluded gravely, “is, frankly speaking, peculiar.”) ...

The article, in spite of my carefully chosen citation, is not at all about food, but worth reading to fans and critics of France and the French.

[John Whiting]

Another strange, temporary summer spectacle is the Paris Plage, the absurd and touching brainchild of Bertrand Delanoë, who is the green and gay mayor of Paris. The Plage, an artificial beach that extends along the Right Bank of the Seine, from the Tuileries gardens to just past the Île Saint-Louis, complete with beach shacks, cafés, and strolling musicians  . . .The French genius for order, however, insured that the thousands of tons of sable that were shipped in by barge to make the Plage possible are neatly packed in linked wooden boxes—making the beach, in the end, the world’s oddest, longest, narrowest sandbox. What is startling is the gravity with which people stretch out in the sandbox and apply sunscreen and lounge in chairs and read books while the tourists walk by.

Gopnik's condescending tongue-in-cheek report totally misses the atmosphere of this delightful venue. I went unwillingly, dragged along by my wife, and was completely charmed. What Gopnik dismisses as "gravity" is in fact the rare phenomenon of a crowd of individuals and families quietly enjoying themselves in a civilized manner. No screaming brats, no shouting parents, no lager louts. We happily took a couple of free comfortable sunloungers (in Britain you pay for the deck chairs) and watched the passing parade. Then we strolled along to the "rock face" being climbed by intrepid little six- and seven-year-olds, supported by ropes and pulleys handled by supervisors below. We stopped at a cafe and had decent salads at reasonable prices -- no junk food in sight. (In fact no advertising of any sort, except for very discreet labels on some amenities identifying sponsors.) We watched children and adults dash through mazes of gentle overhead showers and "sea spray". As for the "world's oddest sandbox", it was a perfectly sensible way to keep the sand from drifting over the palm-tree-lined promenade.

But then, Gopnik would find all this rather down-market. His idea of entertaining his little boy was to treat him and his little girlfriend to cake and hot chocolate at the Ritz -- every week.

Edited August 30, 2003 by John Whiting (log)

[Bux]

But I think it is generally startling for Americans to see the seriousness with which the French apply themselves, or appear to apply themselves, to liesure activities. On the whole I love the gravity of French manners, but to most Americans I suspect they seem the very essence of social comedy. The problem with Americans, if I may loosely stereotype the world for a moment, is that they appear to be unable to restrict or control their screaming brats at all, while the problem with the French is that they seem not to have any screaming brats. I'm not sure which is the scarier society.

My reading of Gopnik's behavior in regard to his son's infatuation with another five year old is quite different from yours. I thought that chapter in From Paris to the Moon was a touching piece, albeit a missed opportunity to teach his son a lesson in the value of money and political correctness.

[John Whiting]

My reading of Gopnik's behavior in regard to his son's infatuation with another five year old is quite different from yours. I thought that chapter in From Paris to the Moon was a touching piece, albeit a missed opportunity to teach his son a lesson in the value of money and political correctness.

The real missed opportunity, as I see it, was to bring his children to some sort of awareness that the life they lived was not the norm -- that they were living in a very rarified atmosphere indeed. But then, after an enthusiastic initial response to _From Paris to the Moon_, I gradually came to the conclusion that this was an insight which Gopnik himself had not achieved. Unlike Michael S. Saunders (_From Here, You Can't See Paris_), James Bentley (_Life and Food of the Dordogne_), or Peter Graham (_Mourjou_), I can't imagine him slipping easily into the life of a French village. In fact, as in this essay, he seems most at ease when he's dropping names.

Edited August 30, 2003 by John Whiting (log)

[menton1]

]. Unlike Michael S. Saunders (_From Here, You Can't See Paris_), James Bentley (_Life and Food of the Dordogne_), or Peter Graham (_Mourjou_), I can't imagine him slipping easily into the life of a French village.

I absolutely LOVED every word of Michael Saunders "From Here, You Can't See Paris". Probably also because I love the South-West of France, as well. Thank you for mentioning it!

I don't know if you aren't being a little unfair, Gopnik's book did point out some interesting cultural differences, particularly the one where his wife took care of the son's medical emergency on her lunch hour! His writing style may be a bit uppity, but I think this is a very interesting issue, the Anti-anti Americanism in France. Any word about Bernard Henri-Levy is of great interest, the man is a jewel. I thought that Gopnik's article had some very salient issues and was also quite informative.

[John Whiting]

I find much of interest in Gopnik's _Paris to the Moon_. His chapter on "The Crisis in French Cooking" is a useful starting point from which to explore modern French cuisine. "The Balzar Wars" is fine reporting, but anyone who can start with the sentence, "The Balzar . . . happens to be the best restaurant in the world.", is not to be trusted. It was never more than a reliable upper-middle-class academic venue where you could eat a predictable meal with predictable people, and after all the high drama, it still is.

Gopnik is prepared to bend the facts to fit his story line. His riotously funny attempt to cook a seven-hour leg of lamb for Alice Waters brings Susan Hermann Loomis into the plot as fellow-chef, so that his forgetting that celcius is hotter than fahrenheit necessarily implicates her in the error, which is absurd. Finally at the end he writes, "I have come to suspect that what is called a seven-hour lamb was really meant to be seven-hour mutton." But de Groot's recipe is clearly titled, "Mademoiselle Ray's leg of mutton of the seven hours (Gigot de Mouton de Sept Heures)" and begins, "This can, of course, be prepared with a leg of lamb, but there is rather more of an aromatic flavor in the old flesh of the mutton . . ." As for the heat of the oven, his later instructions are, "Let it cook, as slowly as possible, for 7 hours." Is it possible that both Gopnik and Loomis (a careful culinary scholar), however distracted, had failed to read the recipe? I suspect that, as with many fine story-tellers, the partition was down between his memory and his imagination.

Edited August 31, 2003 by John Whiting (log)

[pirate]

I was first alerted to Balzar in 1974 by French acquaintance and went a number of times until about half a dozen years ago when all those mentions in American foodie magazines made it very touristy. I read Gopnik's article on the restaurant in the New yorker when it first appeared (after I had stopped going). Gopnik's article is filled with journalistic exaggeration and dramatization. I agree with John Whiting's assessment of the restaurant.

[Bux]

Unfortunately, I least like Gopnik's writing when he speaks of cooking, particularly French cooking. Of all the things about which Gopnik speaks, cooking is the one onwhich I may be most fit to comment. Check out my past arguments here on his cooking chapter in Paris to the Moon. For that reason alone, I have to take all of his writing with a grain of salt. Nevertheless I enjoy most of what he writes about Paris and suspect he's more on the mark where his strengths are greater than mine. Perhaps, that's only a product of my ignorance in those same areas.

Menton's "absolutely LOVED every word of Michael Saunders 'From Here, You Can't See Paris'. Probably also because I love the South-West of France, as well." together with John Whiting's comments about Gopnik's suspected inability to slip easily into the life of a French village are key points in my understanding John's lack of appreciation for Gopnik. Gopnik is an urban intellectual who earns his living talking to other urban intellctuals who associate ideas, talents and accomplishments with individuals who have names and whose names have meaning to a large, even international, community. Gopnik and I share an environment that is apt to make us unfit to easily slip into the life of a French village. As a result, perhaps, I don't see that as a failing. I've not been brought up to believe the mark of a good man is his ability to slip easily into the life of a French village. French villagers drop names like Geroges, Henri and Pierre all the time. We just have no reference points for the names.

The issue of missed opportunities in childraising is perhaps a bit removed from this forum, but one that interests me deeply, having missed many of them in my day both as child and a parent. The one thing I don't regret is not having my child accept the norm as normal. Nevertheless, you do a disservice by implying Gopnik's life in Paris was abnormal, or that he spend much time or money in luxurious surroundings. I suspect it was the normal life of an intellectual ex-pat American on assignment in Paris drawing a middle class salary. What parent would saddle his five year old child with the undermining sense that they life he led was not a normal one.

Few of us are above bending the facts to make our posts more interesting. My guess is that I don't finish reading many of the posts that don't make an attempt to be interesting. John's posts are always interesting.

[John Whiting]

Gopnik is an urban intellectual who earns his living talking to other urban intellctuals who associate ideas, talents and accomplishments with individuals who have names and whose names have meaning to a large, even international, community. . . . I've not been brought up to believe the mark of a good man is his ability to slip easily into the life of a French village.    . . . The one thing I don't regret is not having my child accept the norm as normal. . . . I suspect it was the normal life of an intellectual ex-pat American on assignment in Paris drawing a middle class salary. What parent would saddle his five year old child with the undermining sense that they life he led was not a normal one.

Speaking as an urban intellectual who has spent his life with other urban intellectuals, I have no problems with this. I too would have great difficulty slipping into the life of a French village, not least because I don't speak French. But the three authors I cited were all urban intellectuals who saw that an understanding of village life sheds a useful light on the contemporary urban lifestyle. None of them are preachers; mostly they are story-tellers. They also convey vividly the information that the regional cuisine for which we now pay so generously has largely been a post WWII artifact unaffordable by the preponderance of peasants. (Food historian Rachel Lauden documents this in great detail on the entire world stage.)

Much depends on one's use of the word "normal". I don't think it's necessary to instill a feeling of guilt in order to make a child from a prosperous Western family aware of the extraordinarily tiny minority of which he is privileged to be a part, nor how the resources of the rest of the world have made this possible.

[vmilor]

Thanks Bux for posting a stimulating article and giving some of us an opportunity to dissent.

One gets the following impression from Gopnik piece: The life in Paris is becoming increasingly conventional and steeped in self interest. French are now not really interested in politics abroad and Paris is becoming a city of monuments without a soul, like Venice. Not much is happening on the intellectual scene either. Most objections to US policy lack vitality and the most creative thinkers today are those "anti- anti Americans", i.e. those who virulently attack the anti Americans.

Admittedly I am neither French nor a student of recent intellectual trends in France but I find an absence of basic honesty in this technically proficient and very cleverly written piece. For one thing the phrase "anti American" is misguided and self serving. Of all nationalities I have observed it is only among Americans that I hear the argument" you(or they) are criticizing our government so you do not LIKE us". This is quite childish. I can see that some ethnic groups, right or wrong, can hold grudges against some others for historical reasons. I mean a Tutsi can be an "anti Hutu". In contrast, French, even those who are vehemently against the policies of the current administration hold very dear views of individual Americans and of American society. Having an American wife of Anglo Saxon stock has never hurt my relations in France and this is also true for the liberal and politically radical circles.

Second, I have been in France quite a few times in the last 2 years and can attest that the notion of French people retreating to a moldy homebound life which is also cartoonish is simply untrue. I have spoken to a number of individuals from all walks of life and whenever I broached the topic of Iraq and the neoconservatives, the French responded with great vitality and I was impressed about their level of sophistication and knowledge of Middle Eastern affairs. With all respect I can not say the same for the great majority here. The point Gopnik is missing is that French intellectuals(not unlike true gourmets who relentlessly react against even minor signs of decline in their favorite eating establishment) exaggerate any sign of decline in the cultural intellectual life. For instance a brilliant commentator, Philippe Meyer, coined the term of "Veniceification of Paris" to draw attention to the standardization and lack of vitality and increasing conservatism in cultural/intellectual life in Paris. (A PARISIAN's PARIS is available in Amazon). Rest assured: as long as there are so many brazen and perceptive intellectuals there is always hope for safeguarding cultural and intellectual traditions in this nation even though they may be beset with temporary setbacks.

There are so many omissions in the Gopnik piece which I found disheartening. How can a journalist worth his salt extensively quote a man (Bernard Henry Levy) who hails the Pakistani Secret Service as the mastermind of terrorists without laying out the close ties between this institution and its US counterparts/masterminds? If Pearl was murdered because he was privy to such secret knowledge (which is possible) then how can the murderers be deemed to be nihilistic? Clearly the murderers are sub-human and sub-animal but they are target oriented and professional. I suppose for true nihilistic murders one should again look at one's backdoor and dwell on high school shootouts in a country where renewing a driver license is met with more bureaucratic obstacles than buying a murderous weapon.