Without wishing to repeat myself, I am not suggesting that you are not entitled to criticise John’s blog. However, I wish that you would concentrate on what he actually writes rather than the “rubbish” that you have heard “from so many Americans over the last decade”.

It is my suspicion that you hate Americans much more than you (erroniously) believe that John hates France.

Anyway, I will let John fight his own battles. The Franco-American Deconstructionalist will certainly return in the near future.

James

I tried to draw a line under this but since you insist on having the last word I thought I ought to make my feelings clear.

I don’t think that because John’s writing is toungue-in-cheek that it is unworthy of “real sincere criticism”, but whereas I’m sure your criticisms are sincere they seem to be increasingly hectoring and hysterical.

The basic thrust of your argument seems to be that anyone who is American AND happens to criticise France’s social system is automatically representative of the “imperialist” US “right-wing” that was responsible for the bankrupting of “poor black and working class white americans”.

So, I ask you, who is really being “sterotypical and narrow”?

If it had been me (a British national) or even a French writer, would the comments have upset you so much?

At no time does John compare France unfavourably to the US yet you protest to him that “not every country must follow Americas way of doing things”. You have entirely imagined slurs about “lazy intellectuals living off the state and smoking gitanes” and “existential losers” – your words, not his. I’m quite certain he would have even more uncomplimentary things to say about the States, but this is not a blog about America, is it?

Feel free to invite your friends to the debate Gerry, but please try to stick to the text.

Given that The Deconstructionist blog offends you, I think that you should take the ‘course of action’ you recommended to John concerning “Les Nouvelles” (i.e, don’t read it).

Your comments are welcome but I think we can draw a line under this one and agree to disagree.

James

This country is more my home than anywhere else on Earth, so whatever criticisms I might make of it, are those of an insider, rather than of a supercilious foreigner.

The point of these blogs is discuss peculiar aspects of grenoblois and French life, and to explore how they are the products of a particular history, so that we may be conscious of them, understand them, and not take them for granted. Whether we like them or not is irrelevant, for the purposes of this blog.

I don’t think John is in any way making claims for American superiority here – in fact the US isn’t mentioned in the article at all.

The Franco-American Daily Deconstructionist is irreverent but acerbic and tongue-in-cheek and shouldn’t be treated as an all-out assault on the French way of life.

Grenoble Life is also a democracy. If you wish to pen an article offering your own take on French life and culture feel free to contact me with suggestions.

James

Shonah