If the Culture Ministry is nowhere to be found [in America], cultural life is everywhere.

Frédéric Martel,
in De la culture en Amérique (Culture in America)
Editions Gallimard, 16 novembre 2006

Veteran Pave skimmers know we think the French notion of ring-fencing culture is folly. One can no more legislate the continuation of a culture than boost its vitality with wishing and hand-wringing. These are notional approaches to culture and they are impractical, misconceived, and, ultimately, useless. Culture is vital -- it is lived -- not notional -- not thought up by cultural ministries. Vital cultures, good or bad, prevail over spent cultures, good or bad.

Yet the French spend a good deal of time fretting about American culture and inventing wand-waves to deaden its appeal, to make it go away.

A FRENCH AUTHOR'S SINGULAR TAKE ON
AMERICA'S PLURALISTIC CULTURAL LIFE

PARIS December 27, 2006 (IHT) - Since World War II, the French have been variously surprised, dismayed, irritated and outraged by the power of American culture and its effect on France and the world. ... What France's cultural elites have rarely done, however, is examine how both serious and pop culture actually work in the United States [preferring instead] to hide behind "a certain ideological anti-Americanism."

This according to Frédéric Martel, a French scholar, author, and sometime government aide, whose hefty De la culture en Amérique (~620 pp.) "challenges the conventional view in Paris that (French) culture financed and organized by the government is entirely good and that (American) culture shaped by market forces is necessarily bad."

CULTURAL LIFE EVERYWHERE
No-Culture America's Thriving Culture

"My first idea was to compare France and the United States, but when I arrived in America, I realized things were much more complicated. The United States is a continent, and you can't compare a continent with a small country or a decentralized country with one that is highly centralized.

"... The idea is to see how a 'countermodel' works. If the aim is to fight American cultural 'imperialism,' we need to know it from the inside. If we want to modernize our own system, which needs new resources, it is useful to see how things can function without huge public investment."

And that is a fair debate to have, a debate worth having. French smarties have done more to deaden French culture with blather and phony ideas about cultural distinctiveness and soi-disant superiority than any American impingement. Instead of cultural polemicists who argue gauzy notions disembodied from facts, M. Martel sensibly begins with the facts.

"What really annoys me is the way our [French] cultural elite uses ideology to protect its privileges. It says that our culture defines a certain idea of France, that the alternative is Americanization. But it's really only defending itself against the popular classes. We cannot have 10 percent of our population stemming from immigration and deny them their culture."

... "The government will still finance the arts, but we don't need a minister defining culture. We need thousands of people defining culture. Power should flow bottom-up, not top-down. That's the debate I want to provoke in the new year."

He seemed to be looking forward to a fight. "That's why my book is about France," he said, "while being about America."

[Hat tip: Omri]

PFFT (What is this?): Facts first 4 | Rayonnement français 4

Bonjour ,

Martel est un soixante-huitard attardé fils du mouvement communautariste homosexuel américain.
J' écoute son émission tous les samedi présente sur France Culture depuis Septembre.
Il ne voit la Culture que sous sa forme industrielle.
Le titre de son émission est révélateur: "masse critique" !!!!
Il semble se contenter de critères quantitatifs pour appuyer sa thèse.
D'autre part il pointe de nombreux défauts du système yank:
-Prix d'entrée prohibitif au spectacle
-Présence d'un puritanisme obsessionnel
etc ,
La génération des soixante-huitards , comme Martel , délirants sur la Mecque yankee est par bonheur en voie de disparition en France.

hello,

Well, i think the bad aura of amercican culture is only due to hollywood, but that i think is more a product base merchandising that really culture (there are ecceptions though).

The US have a rich culture, no doubt about that.
The problem is culture should basicaly be a non profit activity, as it is useless, not that it cannot make money, but it's not its goal.
it's just personnal enlightment, that is my point of wiew.

It is not aimed to make money but it needs some, weither it comes from the gouvernement or another entity, someone at a point must choose where this money must go, therefore where those funds go is subjective to the apreciation of a minority.

but i think there must be a difference between pop culture, wich is very much a product, and other kinds of culture wich generate 0 profit.

Someone has to protect this non profit why not the governement?

Partiality will not be different regarding the politicaly correct, weither it's an individual, an university, or a governement, they all have in fine the same interest.

Le commentaire de AnitYanks est délirant et totalement contradictoire. Moi j'aime bien ce que fait Martel en général. D'abord il est né en 68 si je me souviens bien ou en 1969, ce n'est donc pas un soixante-huitard ! Ensuite, confondre les soixante-huitards et les communautaristes c'est à peu près ne rien savoir ni des Etats-unis... ni de la France ! Quant à l'émission de France Culture de Martell (que je ne connais pas) je ne vois pas comment elle peut etre a la fois pro-Yankee et critiquer le prix d'entrée prohibitifs des spectactles et dénoncer le puritanisme obsessionnel. Bref AntiYanks il te faut arreter de dire n'importe quoi ! Sinon on va être anti-AntiYanks !!! Emmanuel

@Emmanuel Bardie

Bonjour,

1)Naître en 68 et être soixante-huitard n'est pas contradictoire.

2)J'ai beaucoup réfléchi sur 68.
Ce mouvement se présentait comme une continuation des luttes du Mouvement Ouvrier Français [Ce qu'il a été en partie; la grande grève ouvrière de juin 68 le montre] et du projet COLLECTIF qui en découlait.
On a assisté à sa dérive toujours croissante vers les revendications de types communautaires [Femmes , homos , minorités régionales , minorité musulmane etc] qui sont issues du "projet" INDIVIDUALISTE yankee.
Ceci est tout bénéfice pour la Droite française qui préfère de beaucoup les crétins hurlant derrière les chars de la """gay pride""" [Rien que le nom trahit l'origine US de cette abjecte manifestation] , aux manifs portant des revendications salariales.
On la comprend bien cette chère Droite .

3)L' émission de Martel a remplacé celle d' Elisabeth Lévy . Cette dernière a été chassée comme une malpropre.Elle avait le tort de dénoncer cette invasion de la posture américaine en France. [gay pride etc] .
C'était aussi une adversaire courageuse des mensonges US au Kosovo et de leurs relais médiatiques en France.
Son éviction et son remplaçant sont donc tout un symbole…

4)Je n'ai pas lu le livre de Martel , mais vu son émission ….
Le livre de Martel [d'après une critique du Monde ou du Figaro que j'ai lue] contiendrait les réserves que j'ai dites [puritanisme etc].
Bien sûr pour ceux qui veulent encenser en permanence les USA , une critique , même minime, des USA est odieuse .

there is a real chance to debate an interessant subject here, lets not focus on weither Martel is pro US or not ;)