There was an episode of The Simpsons a few years ago, in which Homer inadvertently accepted a job from a 007-style supervillain trying to conquer the world with a death ray. The villain asked homer whether he'd like to see France or Italy destroyed, and Homer answered France. "Funny," said the bad guy, "no one ever says Italy."
That episode aired back in the mid-nineties, showing that the animosity between the French and the Americans long pre-dates the Iraq war, 9/11 or even the election of George W. Bush. The French have resented American "cultural domination" for decades, while Americans' stereotype of the smelly, cowardly Frenchman has been around as long as I can remember. But things really got ugly during the buildup to the invasion of Iraq, which the French not only refused to join but actively tried to sabotage, to the point where some commentators said it was time to start treating France as a non-ally, if not an actual enemy.
Things have cooled down somewhat since Saddam was deposed, but the scars remain. A string of anti-American books have topped the French best-seller charts for some time (including works by anti-globalization "farmer" José Bové and 9/11 conspiracy whackjob Thierry Meyssan), and the past couple of years have seen several American authors respond in kind, with books like Our Oldest Enemy and The French Betrayal of America. Vile France, by National Review Online and Men's Health contributor Denis Boyles, is the latest.
Boyles actually lives in France for part of each year, but after reading Vile France it's hard to see why he'd subject himself to such torture. (In the unlikely event that this book is translated into French, one wonders whether they'll let him back into the country at all.) He's already rolling by page 3:
In just the last half-century or so, France has been guilty of eagerly abetting the Holocaust; perpetrating more postwar anti-Semitic acts than any other country in Europe; enabling and supporting state-sponsored genocide and slaughter in Africa and Asia; attacking unarmed civilians on foreign territory; arming enemies of Western democracies; treating its young with disdain and its elderly with a neglect that is often fatal; suppressing conventional human rights, especially the right to free speech; protecting murderers and war criminals from justice; pursuing a foreign policy in which mendacity is a strategy used against both friends and enemies; polluting the earth while rhetorically demanding planetary hygiene from others; pursuing illegal trade activities; engaging in massive, systemic corruption and greed; worshipping self-seriousness; and undermining American foreign policy whenever possible, no matter how many lives that costs. France looks great and seems swell, but it acts hideously. It's the Ted Bundy of European nations.
All that, and they don't bathe either. As you can probably tell, Vile France is an in-kind reply to a country that has gotten under Boyles' skin once too often. The France described by Denis Boyles is militarily impotent, culturally inert, economically stagnant, governed by a hopelessly corrupt, out-of-touch business, media and governing elite, hopelessly overtaxed, racist, anti-Semitic, too lazy to work more than 35 hours a week and too self-centered to keep its most vulnerable citizens from dying cruel deaths during a brutal vacation-season heat wave.
Article comments
1 - D L Ennis
France, as is all of old Europe, a culture-stagnate dead society of bitter people. If they ever get their wish of seeing America’s downfall, and they may, they will be at the mercy of any country that comes for them. We are all that keeps them safe.
D L
2 - Ray Flynn
I liked this book - in fairness to the author he did make it pretty clear up front that when he talked about France being 'vile' and such he was talking about the France of the French ruling elite and not the France of the average French person.
3 - Dan Clore
Do you have any reason to put quotation marks around the term "farmer" when referring to farmer José Bové? (Or to omit the diacritical marks, thus misspelling his name, for that matter?)
4 - SFC Ski
Maybe it's because Bove has become more known for championing agricultural and other issues rather than actually farming. Like me, the author might not have the facility for diacritical marks, I don't have great luck with umlauts, either.
This sounds like a great satire, bound to cause an outcry amongst the hypersensitive and the politically correct. One can only hope so.
5 - Pat Cummings
Fixed José Bové to include the diacriticals. For anyone who needs it, this resource will let you cut-and-paste these characters (straight from the second column) into your posts...
6 - Damian P.
Thanks, Pat. I'll have to bookmark that site.
7 - Mat Brewster
I recently lived in France for 10 months and found the French to an interesting, generous, wonderful people. Not once did any French person accost me for being an American or make any negative remarks about the American people.
Sure there were negative comments about George Bush and some of his policies, but these comments were kept soley to that and didn't spill over to personal comments or to the culture that elected him.
In fact the only negative comments I heard made about a culture was when I returned to the US. When hearing I lived in France many Americans launch into a diatribe about how lazy, stupid and awful the French are.
I realize this is simply one man's personal experience, but it happens to be mine. I have no expert knowledge on general French policy, or their history. I'm sure there is plenty of negative to be found. As their is with any country.
I live by the words a hippie once told me:
First take the plank out of your countries eye,
and then you will see clearly
to take the speck out of the snotty European countries eye.
8 - Pat Cummings
This book review has been selected for Advance.net. You’ll be able to find this and other Blog Critics reviews at such places as Cleveland.com’s Book Reviews column.
9 - Rach
I may take a look at this book-thanks to the review. I used to live and work in France and find French people to be a lot like liberals in the US, but I like them anyway...the French, I mean.
When the French speak poorly of us, it's obviously bad form, but when Americans speak poorly of the US in front of the French, what is that?