French Anti-Americanism

Although I do my best not to sully my brain with anything from the NYT, I did find a little ditty this morning that had me laughing.

A forthcoming book, "The Arrogance of the French: Why They Can't Stand Us - And Why the Feeling Is Mutual" (Sentinel), by Richard Z. Chesnoff, is less concerned with argument than with sentiment. But it ends with a list of French products to boycott, for those so inclined, and includes some French phrases the savvy American tourist might find handy when faced with French hauteur and hostility. ("Please be polite," is the translation of one, "we didn't raise pigs together.")

Ha, I remember coming across that phrase about the pigs a few years back. The 3 French people at the table with me had a difficult time explaining it to me. If I remember correctly, it's just a way of telling someone not to be or act too familiar when, in fact, they don't really know you well at all.

Oh, and I like that 'faced with French hauteur and hostility' bit. One of the very first phrases that He Who Never Obeys Me taught me when I settled here was 'Moi, Monsieur/Madame, je vous emmerde, moi' which if gently translated would be a slightly more colorful version of Rhett Butler's famous declaration to Scarlett. I can't tell you how many times I'd walked into a shop or adminstrative office and been given a dose of French hauteur, especially when I made mistakes in my French. How many times I was mocked. I was desperate for a way to express my anger, hence the phrase. Not that I dared use it much at the time (I have in more recent years) but it was comforting to know that I could whip it out in a time of need. Back then, I was patient.

Back then. Now, I simmer. And sometimes the vapor escapes. The other day, upon seeing yet another 'book' on display with a title calling Americans stupid, mean and obese, I blew a fuse, in perfect French, mind you.

I simmer and at the same time, have learned to be cold. For instance, I now can go through the line at the supermarket without a smile and a thank you to the cashier. After all, she doesn't offer either, does she. And she insists on putting my change and receipt down on the da*n conveyor belt instead of in my outstretched hand.

Speaking of cold, there's this store that sells only frozen food that we started going to about a year ago (it avoids trips to the supermarché) and the first two times we went the employees were the typical no-smile no-thank you kind. I liked the food I could buy at this new store but could not stand the thought of giving my money to yet more gloomy gusses. I wrote to the company and complained. They wrote back and said they would do better. I was stunned. To our great pleasure, the staff now greet customers and bid them 'Good day' as they leave. And they do smile. And I gladly leave my hard-earned money behind me.

But, hey, I'm digressing here. The NYT article.

The accumulated evidence of France's flaws can be compelling, but what pale stuff this is compared with Francophobia's French counterpart! Next month, the University of Chicago Press will publish a book that attracted much attention when it first appeared in France, in 2002: "The American Enemy: The History of French Anti-Americanism" by Philippe Roger...

Mr. Roger, who teaches at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris, almost single-handedly creates a new field of study, tracing the nuances and imagery of anti-Americanism in France over 250 years. He shows that far from being a specific reaction to recent American policies, it has been knit into the very substance of French intellectual and cultural life.

Mr. Roger does not fully explain the reasons for an antipathy so far out of proportion to any nation's flaws, but his book stuns with its accumulated detail and analysis. Addressing his French readers, Mr. Roger argues that through this obsessive anti-American discourse, "we are shackled, unbeknownst to ourselves, to a whole past of repugnance and repulsions."

Maybe 60 million complaint letters would do the trick.

Hat tip: Freep