I don't disagree that France has been in what one might call a big identity crisis for a good while now, or that it's in a sad state. To some extent that's true for many Western countries right now, but it's worse in France and it's been going on for longer. But to use that argument to throw all contemporary French literature out of the window, or at least all contemporary French literature that decides not to use the out-moded passé simple, that goes a bit far. 
After all, a civilization that is having existential issues can still produce interesting literature or art. And for all the Islam-related issues France has, those immigrants have had their impact on French literature, and I don't just mean in L'Etranger (where they weren't immigrants anyway, but I digress), perhaps even revitalized it to some extent by bringing in new ideas and ways of looking at things.
After all, a civilization that is having existential issues can still produce interesting literature or art. And for all the Islam-related issues France has, those immigrants have had their impact on French literature, and I don't just mean in L'Etranger (where they weren't immigrants anyway, but I digress), perhaps even revitalized it to some extent by bringing in new ideas and ways of looking at things. My point about the Arabic language channels had far less to do with religious issues than it did with linguistic ones. Having significant minorities that refuse to even speak one's language is a looming problem in one way or another. The implied rejection of (or failure to even be exposed to) the historic culture of the country is a part of it, certainly, but not the whole picture.
Interestingly enough, one of the non-French foreign books I was thinking about getting is the much-talked-about and very controversial Deutschland Schafft Sich Ab. I'm not sure if I agree with it but I think it is worth a read. The real issue, to my mind, is less of a personal confessional nature per se and more of the cultural baggage that religions bring along. If any country has large bodies of immigrants that speak a different language and reject many or all of the fundamental premises of the society they have moved to, that country has problems. The message should be that if one wants to take advantage of a nation's opportunities to get rich, that person must accept its core social contract. But I digress.
While language does evolve naturally, the question is really WHY the passé simple is not present. Is it due to a natural evolution? If so, then why is the contrast between a relatively recent writer like Camus or Sartre with a fully contemporary writer so pronounced? To take the metaphor farther, what you are talking about sounds more like a language revolution, rather than a language evolution.
Yeah, I'm not sure if they'll vote for Sarkozy again. I know I'd have my doubts, personally. I'd probably still vote for him in 2012, but reluctantly. If the French PS wasn't such a prehistorical monstrosity, I'd say Sarkozy well deserves to be taken down a notch.
I'm not saying everything he's done or tried to do is right, just that the alternative party (the Socialists) is living in a little fantasy world.
You have to admit he's rather failed at turning things, though, and while part of the blame for that obviously lies with the elements in French society fighting the necessary changes tooth and nail, part of it is his needless antagonizing and annoying of, well, just about everyone. I was more impressed by Sarkozy when he was just Minister of the Interior.
Yes, there is the antagonism. However, I am amazed that so many people in France could be so short-sighted. They make the average US voter look positively sagacious sometimes.
See, that first point is the one that really bugs me. Languages evolve. You don't look down on people who fail to write in 19th century English, why would you down on people who fail to write in 19th century French? The reason people don't use the passé simple anymore isn't that it's too hard - it's arguably easier than the alternatives they're using now. It's just that somehow it fell into disuse, just like plenty of words and tenses and cases and grammatic rules in any other language. And really, if you're going to complain (quite rightly so, I should add) about French people wallowing in entitlements, one would think you wouldn't encourage their being stuck in the past in their literature at the same time. Because that's really the only thing you can call the stubborn refusal to stop using a tense that has fallen into disuse in the spoken language a long time ago. If France is to stop mooning over its achievements of the past and actually try to have some achievements in the present for a change, that means letting the past be the past and looking forward, in grammar like in anything else.
I just happen to believe that the reduction of the richness of the language is indicative of a wider trend of reduction of the richness of the culture. It's highly unscientific but I feel it viscerally.
I couldn't agree more, but then I spent one of the best summers in my life in Montréal with my then-girlfriend, so I would think that way about Québec. 
And the French acknowledge it too, really, judging by the disproportionately large success enjoyed by Québecois artists, actors and writers in France (and the rest of the world; I don't really see any French cultural export products of the past few decades that can match the Cirque du Soleil and Céline Dion, in terms of international success).
And the French acknowledge it too, really, judging by the disproportionately large success enjoyed by Québecois artists, actors and writers in France (and the rest of the world; I don't really see any French cultural export products of the past few decades that can match the Cirque du Soleil and Céline Dion, in terms of international success). The Québecois are nearly as left-wing in economic terms as the French, from what I can tell, but I suppose they have the advantage of being balanced by the rather conservative rest of Canada (excepting Ontario and BC, I suppose). One could make a good case that Québec has the best of both worlds in terms of the European vs. American mentality.
Very interesting idea. I want to think on that more.
Political correctness is the pettiest form of casuistry.
ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius
Ummaka qinnassa nīk!
*MySmiley*
ἡ δὲ κἀκ τριῶν τρυπημάτων ἐργαζομένη ἐνεκάλει τῇ φύσει, δυσφορουμένη, ὅτι δὴ μὴ καὶ τοὺς τιτθοὺς αὐτῇ εὐρύτερον ἢ νῦν εἰσι τρυπώη, ὅπως καὶ ἄλλην ἐνταῦθα μίξιν ἐπιτεχνᾶσθαι δυνατὴ εἴη. – Procopius
Ummaka qinnassa nīk!
*MySmiley*
Maurice Druon - The Accursed Kings
- 13/12/2010 08:19:21 PM
7695 Views
Thank you for giving this review - I had forgotten the name of the author and series.
- 13/12/2010 09:29:59 PM
1573 Views
You're welcome (and thanks for the correction, edited).
- 13/12/2010 10:23:55 PM
1607 Views
I know it's not "literary". (EDITED)
- 13/12/2010 10:42:33 PM
1502 Views
And with regard to your edit, I don't have a problem with passé simples myself.
- 13/12/2010 10:53:59 PM
1929 Views
But how can one read any French literature at all without encountering the passé simple?
- 15/12/2010 03:39:37 AM
1728 Views
The point is it is a "literary" tense
- 15/12/2010 10:19:59 AM
1712 Views
Why would I read a lower style of book (I won't use the term "literature" to describe them) ?
- 16/12/2010 06:11:36 AM
1512 Views
I don't want to start a fight here, but your attitude is seriously starting to grate.
- 16/12/2010 06:54:30 PM
1782 Views
I don't care. Start a fight.
- 16/12/2010 08:24:22 PM
1685 Views
Well, or we can have a civil debate on French culture, I suppose... also fun.
- 16/12/2010 09:09:20 PM
1671 Views
- 16/12/2010 09:09:20 PM
1671 Views
Well, I'm up for that, too.
- 17/12/2010 05:48:39 AM
1658 Views
Good.
- 17/12/2010 09:01:37 PM
2014 Views
- 17/12/2010 09:01:37 PM
2014 Views
Ah - I support the subjunctive!!!
- 18/12/2010 05:10:38 AM
1873 Views
But you don't think its disappearance corresponds to a decline in American culture?
- 18/12/2010 01:29:43 PM
1660 Views
- 18/12/2010 01:29:43 PM
1660 Views
About the passé simple, what Camilla said. As for medieval vocabulary...
- 15/12/2010 07:17:44 PM
1679 Views
That looks like a really fascinating series.
- 13/12/2010 10:56:52 PM
1627 Views
Step up your French lessons!!!
- 13/12/2010 11:50:21 PM
1815 Views
That is a great reason to learn French.
- 14/12/2010 07:29:54 PM
1537 Views
Ooooh
- 14/12/2010 07:41:03 PM
1465 Views
I'm really not quite sure how you managed that.
- 14/12/2010 08:09:55 PM
1618 Views
- 14/12/2010 08:09:55 PM
1618 Views