Pajamas Media

36 Comments

1. Typewriter King:

I’ll echo Tom Wolfe in anticipating eight more American Centuries. Some of them may be Pan-American centuries, rather than US of A centuries, but they’ll occur with or without the Old World’s blessings.

On the point of insularity, it should be noted that hermits and shut-ins have been known to pen some of the best regarded works. Indeed, a real Renaissance in written literature may require colossal upheaval that isolates creative minds to no outlet but pen and paper. Right now, these minds may follow more collaborative paths than composing the Great American Novel.

Or, alternatively, a collapse of today’s copyright laws and stigma on ‘fan fiction’ could elevate the status of writings out of today’s generation. Some of the best works of the past were what today we’d recognize as fan fiction. King Arthur and Robin Hood stories, novelized from folk tales, were clearly fan fiction. Who is to say some teenager’s adaptation of Anne Rice’s ‘Vampire Chronicles’ won’t one day receive similar critical praise?

Oct 16, 2008 - 2:52 am 2. Gary Ogletree:

A lot of European superiority smells like envy, actually it reeks. And we don’t pay them much attention, as if most Americans could care less about European happenings. I suggest we have a We Appreciate Europe Week. Yes, we love you, we really do. Come see the Grand Canyon and ride a donkey.

Oct 16, 2008 - 4:12 am 3. RE:

So what? Nobel prizes have become a political correctness joke.

Lacking in courage of their own convictions, Americans seeking the approval from the European collectivist groupthink community are really a pathetic bunch. It’s the few that refuse to prostitute themselves to political correctness that deserve respect and recognition.

Oct 16, 2008 - 4:43 am 4. Boris:

Has this Engdahl guy never read George Saunders?

But the Nobel committee is usually about a decade behind the times. Pinter deserved the prize years ago. And Roth is well overdue too.

It is too bad the quality of the writing doesn’t matter as much to the committee as it used to.

Oct 16, 2008 - 5:30 am 5. john from cinncinati:

infidel and proud of it.i just wonder how this is gonna play under sharia law. will the intellectuals be the first in the refurbished showers?

Oct 16, 2008 - 5:41 am 6. TomJW:

The euros are just enjoying themselves before the moslems won’t let them read anymore.

Oct 16, 2008 - 5:56 am 7. Cato:

I suppose it would be superfluous to point out that the Greeks looked down their noses at the vulgur, insular, and less sophisticated Romans whose civilization built upon theirs but was in fact more tolerant, more cosmopolitan, extended its citizenship widely, and provided great economic opportunity.

Oct 16, 2008 - 6:12 am 8. Marina:

Who still treats the Nobel price seriously? Especially the Literature and the Peace ones? This year they have gone so law that they’ve awarded an anty-Capitalist with the Economy price. And remember all the scum like El Baradei, Koffi Annan, Arafat etc. who were “honored” by the price as well? They don’t like American literature and can award a disgusting nobody like Jelinek. Gosh! The only name of the Nobel price should be treated like a joke.

Oct 16, 2008 - 6:50 am 9. david levavi:

Is there much daylight between the European view and that of the NYT Book Review?

Is Toni Morrison our greatest novelist? Don Delillo? Cormac McCarthy?

Is Tom Wolfe who has his finger on the American pulse like no other author chopped liver?

The cultural elites in Europe like those right here at home are entirely politicised. Comfortable, full bellied, well heeled leftists one and all.

Oct 16, 2008 - 7:01 am 10. Marina:

Btw, Günter Grass was awarded with the Nobel price in literature and then suddenly told the truth about his Waffen-SS membership. Was it a problem for the Cometee? Did anyone rise a question of dishonoring him (they couldn’t get their money back, I suppose, but the title?)? The guy was a Nazi! Who cares? He’s a Socialist now, he thinks CORRECTLY. Nobody cares. He sells his new stupid book now in Germany and it sells very well. That’s the Nobel price. Great. And THESE people dare to criticize American literature for being not politically suitable enough. That’s pathetic.

Oct 16, 2008 - 7:11 am 11. Stevo:

Hi all

Just wanted you to know that there are still some Europeans who are not brain-washed into the anti-American rubbish that passes for intelligent thought these days.

Some of us still know what America did for us in the past, is doing now and what she may, I fear, be forced to do for us again in the future. Whilst I disagree with some of your summing up (though I appreciate that it was summing up and therefore cannot ever be wholly accurate) I do understand that America has stepped into the breach many times in order to save Europe – frequently from itself!

America used to stand for the best of Europe. The freedoms, enterprising traits, mores and expressions that this new country encompassed were taken from the old countries, brought over by the emigrants and cherry picked for the best and most workable ideas. Now America stands for the best that Europe once was. Freedoms and democratic ways that we used to take as a given right are subsumed by the EU or merely ignored by our increasingly undemocratic leadership caste. For those of us with the eyes to see, America is the bastion of those things taken from us, or willingly surrendered, by our own people.

I live in Britain and would regard myself as very pro-British (unlike the vast, vast majority of Europeans, I have willingly served in my country’s armed forces). However as I watch my nation being destroyed in the attempt to turn it into a socialist utopia, a mere grouping of regions in the EU, America is becoming ever more of an idealised land that I feel more affinity to than the nation I was born in and love dearly.

My greatest fear is that you will elect a man who bears more similarity to our European professional politicians than to the American people Senator Obama wishes to lead. Whilst I cannot believe that the strong walls that protect America from the socialist/apologist insanity that is sweeping Europe will collapse in 4 (or years, I think the walls will be more sparsely manned and the gates left open and poorly protected during his period in office. If America is not there to remind people how a truly free people live, where will the people of Europe look to for hope, aid and affinity when finally they see their freedom has been sold down the river by the snake-oil salesmen they, in their ignorance, elected into office?

I have no say in the choice of the next American President, when I give up on Britain and emigrate to the Unites States I too will have a vote, but whilst I do not have a voice in the selection, I still have a concern in the outcome.

I have drifted off topic a bit there (sorry about that) but I just wanted you to know that not all Europeans are Euro-Snobs and there are still some of us cheering for America.

Oct 16, 2008 - 7:48 am 12. Stevo:

Sorry, where I wrote “4 (or years”, I didn’t mean to put the smily – it should say “four (or eight) years”.

Stevo

Oct 16, 2008 - 7:50 am 13. Anonymous:

I’m British and have to say that my post school education kicked off with American literature, art and music. Hemingway. Fitzgerald, Steinbeck filled a void and I was off on a curve which has never abated. The New Journalism was a revelation with Wolfe, Capote et al writing with a verve and intelligence totally missing from home grown writers. This even translated to music with US blues and jazz creating modern sounds completely different to the garbage spewed on our radio stations. And with a drive and excitement much classical stuff could not muster. Dylan came along with knowingness, literacy and a total lack of music biz marketing. I work in advertising and even my hero’s were from your side of the Atlantic, creating ads so alive connective and honest we just stood and gaped. Even my clothing reflects an adoration of classic US style and the Japanese have carried this to an obsessive degree. I play electric guitar and all my instruments are Japanese Fender and Gibson, both brands so synonymous with Americana they are joined at the hip. My amp is a wonderful US handbuilt Carr with such an emphasis on high quality components and construction the organic sounds it produces just cannot be replicated. Then the films? Even the cognoscenti’s, Truffaut, Godard and the rest of French New Wave took their cues from US noir gangster films. So summing up, for Europe to now disparage the US is nothing short of ignorance and a flighty dalliance with the new marxism being foisted upon us by a rapacious EU.We dally with Islam to our dire peril and for me that is the root of the problem because a total system which denies individuality is inimically at odds with US self reliance and freedom. The other week I bought a DVD of a concert in the US in aid of Eric Clapton’s Crossroads drug and alcohol centre. Apart from the artists, mainly American who played their socks off and a natural fusion of black and white I watched the audience. Old(ish), young, again black and white but with such an unself conscious appreciation of the vibe and music coming off the stage nothing mattered apart from a shared experience and enthusiasm. That for me is how barriers break not an obsessive multiculturalism being foisted upon us over here. We had our Blair who did his best to destroy Britain. You’ll get your Obama soon, cut from the same cloth of mendacity and self absorbed leftism based on envy. He won’t ruin America but he’ll come close. Hopefully he’ll be gone after the grand awakening of one term. Long live the US!

Oct 16, 2008 - 8:21 am 14. Nina Carlotti:

Though the European comments were fatuous, what I deplore most is the opportunity they offer the know-nothings in our own country to vaunt their far more fatuous populism. The current Republican Party’s clear distaste for people of culture grieves me deeply. It was not always so.
And by the way, “Cato,” I don’t think your namesake would have misspelled “vulgar.” I think that says it all, really.

Oct 16, 2008 - 8:51 am 15. Fred X:

Most Europeans are very pro American. There is a university based elite that believes in leftist authoritarianism and hates the independent thinking America fosters. I experienced this in Brazil where I had Portuguese and European neighbors. A Norwegian phd history student visited. After a while of talking I got her to admit she is against democracy. With her and her leftist crew in charge of everything I took as an implicit predicate of this idea. After seeing this I had to remark to myself “Maybe this is why Nazism occurred in Europe”

Oct 16, 2008 - 9:14 am 16. kelly k:

“I’m British and have to say that my post school education kicked off with American literature, art and music.” I noticed that in England and Ireland. I had to laugh at how many young college students knew JD Salinger and John Kennedy Toole practically by heart. And when Europeans friends come to visit me, they want to see the Mississippi (Twain) and the prairie (Cather). But their regret that I don’t live in Faulkner-O’Connor-Williams-Welty land is palpable.

When you look at all the Nobel people mentioned in the article, what do they all have in common? Far left politics. There’s always been a certain amount of anti-American snobbery. But since about five minutes after WWII ended, Communists and Socialists have been obsessed with painting the US as a den of inequity. How could they not? If the best system in the world is socialism, then how do you explain the US? It’s evil, that’s how! Evil and stupid. And fat. And insular. Did I mention stupid?

Oct 16, 2008 - 9:50 am 17. TomJW:

14. Nina Carlotti:
Oct 16, 2008 – 8:51 am

Dear Fool:

The topic is “Euro-Snobs Slight American Literature”, or by the time you commented you forgot? The comments are appropriate for the topic under discussion.

If by ‘culture’ you mean the european inability to reproduce because they are taking longer childhoods, then I don’t need ‘culture’. I can and do enjoy child raising, reading or ballet while being an adult.

I am quite insulted by the fact that I must be assumed to Republican. I hope the weather is fine in your little world.

Oct 16, 2008 - 9:54 am 18. deguello:

Anonymous: Bravo! You hit the nail in the head.We need to use this time to build an effective resistance movement to the wave of soft-totalitarian sewage,about to break over our heads here in US. Best Regard!s

Oct 16, 2008 - 10:20 am 19. Roark:

The Nobel Prize (for 9 out of 10 categories) is nothing more than an orgy for leftist hacks in their respective fields. It’s a joke.

Oct 16, 2008 - 10:29 am 20. jerry:

I cannot say it any better then Kipling:

I went into a public-’ouse to get a pint o’ beer,
The publican ‘e up an’ sez, “We serve no red-coats here.”
The girls be’ind the bar they laughed an’ giggled fit to die,
I outs into the street again an’ to myself sez I:
O it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, go away”;
But it’s “Thank you, Mister Atkins”, when the band begins to play,
The band begins to play, my boys, the band begins to play,
O it’s “Thank you, Mister Atkins”, when the band begins to play.

I went into a theatre as sober as could be,
They gave a drunk civilian room, but ‘adn’t none for me;
They sent me to the gallery or round the music-’alls,
But when it comes to fightin’, Lord! they’ll shove me in the stalls!
For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, wait outside”;
But it’s “Special train for Atkins” when the trooper’s on the tide,
The troopship’s on the tide, my boys, the troopship’s on the tide,
O it’s “Special train for Atkins” when the trooper’s on the tide.

Yes, makin’ mock o’ uniforms that guard you while you sleep
Is cheaper than them uniforms, an’ they’re starvation cheap;
An’ hustlin’ drunken soldiers when they’re goin’ large a bit
Is five times better business than paradin’ in full kit.
Then it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, ‘ow’s yer soul?”
But it’s “Thin red line of ‘eroes” when the drums begin to roll,
The drums begin to roll, my boys, the drums begin to roll,
O it’s “Thin red line of ‘eroes” when the drums begin to roll.

We aren’t no thin red ‘eroes, nor we aren’t no blackguards too,
But single men in barricks, most remarkable like you;
An’ if sometimes our conduck isn’t all your fancy paints,
Why, single men in barricks don’t grow into plaster saints;
While it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Tommy, fall be’ind”,
But it’s “Please to walk in front, sir”, when there’s trouble in the wind,
There’s trouble in the wind, my boys, there’s trouble in the wind,
O it’s “Please to walk in front, sir”, when there’s trouble in the wind.

You talk o’ better food for us, an’ schools, an’ fires, an’ all:
We’ll wait for extry rations if you treat us rational.
Don’t mess about the cook-room slops, but prove it to our face
The Widow’s Uniform is not the soldier-man’s disgrace.
For it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ “Chuck him out, the brute!”
But it’s “Saviour of ‘is country” when the guns begin to shoot;
An’ it’s Tommy this, an’ Tommy that, an’ anything you please;
An’ Tommy ain’t a bloomin’ fool — you bet that Tommy sees!

One thing Obama will learn is that once he is President the Euro-trash will treat him with racist disdain no matter what he does to please them. European elites hate us for what are, not what we do.

Here is a message for the Europeans the next time they come crawling to America to save them from their follies:

An’ Tommy ain’t a bloomin’ fool — you bet that Tommy sees!

An’ Tommy is go’in to tell them — you can all go on to hell! (apologies to Kipling)

Oct 16, 2008 - 10:42 am 21. Jim:

“There is a university based elite that believes in leftist authoritarianism and hates the independent thinking America fosters. I experienced this in Brazil where I had Portuguese and European neighbors. A Norwegian phd history student visited. After a while of talking I got her to admit she is against democracy. With her and her leftist crew in charge of everything I took as an implicit predicate of this idea.”

The European tendency is for authority and culture to flow from above. Anything else is deride as “crude” or “common” or “populist”. Culture is a socuial service the government provides; it is the duty of goverment to build and support opera houses and opera companies, symphonies, ballet comapnaies and on and on, and there must be ministries of culture with committees of properly educated and indoctrinated experts to manage all this. The same attitude applies in government. There must always be a class of experts who are charged with managing society. They may be born to that status or these days, they may be born into the class that educates them to assume their duties.

Having a Swede or a committees of Swedes judge literature is like having Russians judge a surfing competition – why Sweden rather than Ireland, a country who has had roughly the same size population over the centuries and a literary tradition that dwarfs Sweden’s? Well, Nobel had the money and he endowed the awards organization in Sweden and Norway. That’s their qualification – money.

For all of Horace’s assertions that Europe is the center of the literary world – where was this rutabaga educated, the Sorbonne? – the simple fact is that there has been more literature, and more interesting, coming out of China in the last couple three decades, and this committee of Sven and Ole has in all that time chosen, what is it – one, two, Chinese authors for recognition. That about sums them up.

Oct 16, 2008 - 1:44 pm 22. Will Sharpe:

“The fact is that Europeans don’t like us, and they never have.”

This is the worst kind of overgeneralization; since an American has not received a Nobel Prize in some time and the European press shows no hesistation to criticize US domestic and internaitonal policies, we should be lead to believe that Europe has always disdained our existence? As someone who has recently spent a long stint in Europe studying I ran into countless Europeans–of various nationalities–who possessed a genuine interest and respect for the American people. Certainly, many of those I spoke with were vocal and candid in airing their concerns, perceptions, and assumptions about America, but that made them more endearing since they look to the US as a source for guidance on the world stage in a similar vein to the period after WWII. Now I cannot speak for the European elites; my conversations took place on a “common” level in streets, bars, museums, classrooms, and the like, but we should avoid sweeping generalizations such as Europeans don’t and never will like us–it’s just not true.

Oct 16, 2008 - 2:28 pm 23. Nine-of-Diamonds:

“they look to the US as a source for guidance on the world stage in a similar vein to the period after WWII.”

No. Their fond remembrance of an idealized America bears little resemblance to the history of European-American relations.

Are there minorities & subcultures within Europe that admire the US? Absolutely. But consider:

The US was hated during the Civil War for disrupting the flow of Southern Cotton to the Continent.

It was hated during the late 1800’s for its interest in acquiring foreign colonies – usurping the Europeans’ “rightful” place.

It was hated during WWI as an inexperienced, bumbling ally that had sat out most of the war.

It was hated during the interwar years as a mongrel nation. Nothing but immigrant rejects & plutocrats. No old-fashioned “Democracy” for those enlightened Yoo Ropeons, you see. Communism and Fascism were the new craze & here to stay.

Look behind the superficial rah-rah’ing of WWII and you’ll find that the US was hated even then. The same old WWI narrative of “cowardly” Yanks sitting out the war was revived – all because Roosevelt didn’t plunge us into THEIR bloodbath fast enough to suit them.

I could go on and on about Vietnam, the Gulf War, Reagan’s reception in Europe, and so on but I hardly think it’s necessary.

Are they sorry for their past perceptions of us?

Sure they are. Euro academics salivate over how many rapes GI’s committed during D-Day. They fondly recall the USSR and grumble about having to live in a “Unipolar” world. They lecture the US about slavery – no doubt proud of their own conduct in China, the Belgian Congo, West Africa, and countless other regions. They damn the US for not fixing the post-colonial pestholes they themselves created. And when we do, we’re “practicing imperialism all over again”.

Keep this in mind whenever European “friends” sadly shake their heads and pine for the “old America” to return. They’re as disingenuous as the “progressives” who now weep for the demise of “the old John McCain”.

Oct 16, 2008 - 8:59 pm 24. John Donohue:

No one gives credit to the US for the following. In summer 1945 the entire world lay exhausted, destroyed, chaotic, demoralized and penniless. Meanwhile the US was vastly strong, wealthy, unharmed and energized. And….not only did we have a stupendous fleet of ships and bombers that could reach every corner of the world, we had a weapon that could destroy an entire city from one plane. Moreover we had stupendous production facilities to pour forth a large arsenal of these bombs.

There was nothing that could stop the United States from taking over control of the entire world. Nothing.

But what happened? The fastest, deepest disarmament in history. The return to going to college, making love and babies, building out the continent, music and laughter, computers, transistors and rockets to the moon.

Those disdainful historians who counter by saying “Yes but you then waged the Cold War and eventually asserted financial market imperialism on the world”… My answer is: Even if that were true per your implication — and it is not — taking over the world in 1945 by force would have been a lot easier.

So why didn’t we? It’s against our principles. The entire world was delivered from enslavement because of American values.

Show me a European or Asian culture that could have achieved this position and then done the same: declined.

John Donohue
Pasadena, CA

Oct 16, 2008 - 9:44 pm 25. John Donohue:

One of the sharpest chains of causality I have read about this was written by Leonard Peikoff in “Ominous Parallels”. Kant was a reaction to the Age of Reason. The Germans took Kant, stripped him of his niceties and created Ficte and Hegel and German Romanticism. Marx emerged from this line and with it a disdain for the Bourgeoisie. Meanwhile, in the US mid/late 19th Century, with an exploding Bourgeoisie, a certain “upper crust” came into being anyway. They had Europe-envy. It became highly fashionable for the sons of ’society’ to study in Europe. Guess what they studied.

American literature has either been indistinguishable from that disgorged in this European flavor, or else “So American” (Bourgeois values) that it must be ridiculed by an intelligentsia still flying those German Romantic/Marxian colors. The philosophy and politics are woven into the aesthetic value judgement, such as voiced above by the punch-drunk Mr. Engdahl.

John Donohue
Pasadena, CA

Oct 16, 2008 - 10:15 pm 26. (un)Cultured American:

Perhaps the elite of Europe suffer from the reverse of Stockholm syndrome?

I certainly won’t be loosing sleep over their (seemingly) ingrained inability to like me.

I really could not care less.

Oct 16, 2008 - 11:56 pm 27. foureights:

Europe a great place? Please explain to me why over the last fourhundred years MILLIONS of europeans moved to the “backwards” and “oppressive” United States. Seams as if the peoples of Europe, (as well as the rest of the world) vote with their feet as to which lifestyle suits them. Let’s see, constant wars and inter-contenetal conlicts, ingrained tribal conflicts which go back centurys, rigid class structure which is very alive and well in Europe, and currently a stifling program of Socalist enforced poverty and leftist insanity. While in the United States, ignorant savages all, they encourage individual opportunity, upward social mobility, and the promise of the protection of life, liberty and the persuit of happiness. Shocking!

As far as I’m concerned, Europe can go to hell the next time they need America to bail them out.

Oct 17, 2008 - 5:10 am 28. A Clay:

Let’s not forget that 50% of France and 50% of the Netherlands want to immigrate here. There are 30,000+ Frenchmen in the Bay Area alone, all here to escape the scleroticism of Europe. The elites (particularly media elites) don’t speak for the middle classes of Europe, they speak for the Democrats in the US.

Oct 17, 2008 - 8:38 am 29. mwl:

How well do Nobel Prize winners do in the marketplace?

American novelists like Stephen King may never win a Nobel Prize, but they’re still laughing all the way to the bank.

Oct 17, 2008 - 11:59 am 30. Wolf Pangloss:

The Nobel Prize committee loves American Fiction when it is disguised as Environmental Alarmism or Economics. They just don’t love American Fiction when the author and audience knows it’s not real.

Oct 17, 2008 - 7:52 pm 31. Wolf Pangloss:

John Donahue, good point about the US declining to annex the world after WW2. Cinncinnatus wasn’t only the model for Washington’s refusal to consider the crown of an American King, but for America’s refusal to become a worldwide imperial power after WW2, or indeed to actually seize any oil out of Iraq after the first or second Iraq War.

Oct 17, 2008 - 8:30 pm 32. John Donohue:

Correct on the oil and add: we allowed Imperialism on us in 1952 when Eisenhour did nothing to stop the Arab nations from nationalizing the assets of US firms, especially oil. And….ongoing since then.

I actually do not support the defense of absolute property rights of American buisness assets overseas; companies should NOT count on the US Government to recover stolen property out there. By protest and diplomacy, maybe; but by war and subtrefuge…that is not appropriate.

John Donohue
Pasadena, CA

Oct 18, 2008 - 12:36 pm 33. Yo Blair:

This article is meaningless. It’s another case of uninformed over-generalization about Europe. Europeans do not hate America. They love America, everybody who has traveled there or has read research about the US/Europe relationship (see the Pew opinion polls) knows that. There has been some tensions during the Bush administration but, frankly, everybody will agree that the Europeans are not the only ones to blame.

Now, dear conservative Americans, it is time to wake up and realize that the US alone is not going to make it in the 21st century. The same holds true about Europe. It’s time to work together. That will mean painful compromising and accepting differences. But that’s the price of survival I guess. I can elaborate on this if you wish, but it seems pretty obvious.

Last comment: I was glad that, for once, the author of the paper broadened the attacks beyond the usual French-bashing and included other countries (because, if there is one pro-American country in Europe it’s… France).

Oct 18, 2008 - 3:41 pm 34. Per Andreas:

Last time I checked you had a vice presidential candidate seperating your country into “pro-America” areas, and a congresswoman who wants to investigate here collegues for “anti-american sentiments”.
No wonder you guys are insecure on Europe.

The fact of the matter is that the Nobel Literature Price has been ridiculed for years even in Sweden. This guy don´t represent all Swedes.

And Europeans are not somehow gentically wired to “hate” you. Get over it. True, democratic presidents are always more popular. Roosevelt was a hero of giant proportions in Europe – here in Norway every city has got a street named after him. He´s one of very few people who are honored with a statue in our capital city. Wilson was very popular, as was Kennedy. And I´m sure you noticed that 200 000 met to see Obama speak in Berlin. Contrary to what you believe, that was not because they hope that he will destroy the USA. It´s because they believe and hope that Obama can help bringing USA and Europe closer together again. And that shouldn´t be that difficult a job for him – Bush has already done much to reverse the damage caused by his first term.

Oct 20, 2008 - 3:19 pm 35. Dave Surls:

“I cannot say it any better then Kipling:”

You said it just fine. That’s exactly what Euro-anti-Americanism is all about.

They don’t need us to fight fascists or guard against communists any more, yet our armed forces are still over there, not to mention the fact that our foreign polices are, in their eyes, making them vulnerable to terror attacks by America’s Muslim enemies, because most of the Euro nations are nominally American allies.

It was the same thing during the Vietnam War. Since we were fighting against people who were no threat to the Euros (the PAVN and NLF weren’t likely to land in the Bay of Biscay) anti-American protests were as common as dirt in Europe.

A few years earlier, however, when we were fighting to free them from Nazi tyranny, there were no big anti-American demonstrations, or little ones for that matter (well, the Germans might have organized anti-American demonstrations, but they were a little too busy dodging bombs to take to the streets in protest).

Euro-anti-Americanism is about naked self-interest, and nothing more.

Oct 20, 2008 - 3:33 pm 36. Brit:

Hmm. But what I don’t understand is why you all seem to care so much. We’ve got used to the fact that nobody much cares for us around the world (just ask someone with British and Irish passports which one they actually use). When I heard this report it went in one ear and out of the other, the whole idea of a prize for literature is a bit nuts, and not very American I would have thought. I’m still happy to read Thomas Pynchon and Joseph Heller (and Chinau Achebe and Haruki Murakami).

Oct 23, 2008 - 6:25 am

Write a Comment

Name:	(required, displayed)
Email:	(required, not publicized)
URL:	(optional, displayed)
Comments: