What a great photo, Audrey! You were just a kid :).
I thought it was just Americans who hate 'brains'. I find the US profoundly anti-intellectual. It makes a kind of sense, in the context of a country settled by pioneers who went out into the wilderness, cleared the land, built their own homes, and if necessary, as Daniel Boone once did, "ciled a bar' (killed a bear). You didn't need "book larnin' " to do that, so historically it hasn't been valued in the US. But paradoxically, since we don't have titres de noblesse, people use university diplomas for prestige. US colleges and universities even have rings that often look like chevalières, which students may buy.
We all hate pretentiousness, but I still think the French are more willing to appear intelligent. In the US people sometimes feign stupidity to keep from being judged. I remember a very pretty American girl who admitted to me that when she had an opinion about something, she stated it thus: "I have a friend who thinks that..." (then she'd give her opinion, but attribute it to the "friend"). Va savoir!
I remember when I was a kid that being "'un intello'" was the worst defect ever and either meant that you were wearing oversized glasses or that you'd act as a "'Monsieur or Madame Je-sais-tout'" during your classes. "'Intello"' was insulting in a way...it rejected a certain élite of peers that were born in a book (not in a "'choux'", nor in a "'rose"') and that were likely to marry another "'intello"' and have "'intello"' babies.
I don't know if this kind of rejection exists in the Anglosaxon society, as children are very early pushed to be competitive?
In France, the expression, "'la culture c'est comme la confiture, moins on en a, plus on l'étale..."' (Francoise Sagan) truly expresses the thin line there is between intellectuals (real one, smokers, dreamers, who inspire innate knowledge) and "'baratineurs"' (le '"baratin'" being the "'confiture"' in that case).
And Julia you are right, quotes, hints...are often made to acquire your interlocutor skills and references and to eventually locate him on the social ladder. Which is sad in a way.
During an interview for my university admission admission I was asked "'Alors mademoiselle quel est votre violon d'Ingres?''. This is an example of the art of alluding, a little snobbish I''d say.. and totally French.
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I thought it was just Americans who hate 'brains'. I find the US profoundly anti-intellectual. It makes a kind of sense, in the context of a country settled by pioneers who went out into the wilderness, cleared the land, built their own homes, and if necessary, as Daniel Boone once did, "ciled a bar' (killed a bear). You didn't need "book larnin' " to do that, so historically it hasn't been valued in the US. But paradoxically, since we don't have titres de noblesse, people use university diplomas for prestige. US colleges and universities even have rings that often look like chevalières, which students may buy.
We all hate pretentiousness, but I still think the French are more willing to appear intelligent. In the US people sometimes feign stupidity to keep from being judged. I remember a very pretty American girl who admitted to me that when she had an opinion about something, she stated it thus: "I have a friend who thinks that..." (then she'd give her opinion, but attribute it to the "friend"). Va savoir!
I don't know if this kind of rejection exists in the Anglosaxon society, as children are very early pushed to be competitive?
In France, the expression, "'la culture c'est comme la confiture, moins on en a, plus on l'étale..."' (Francoise Sagan) truly expresses the thin line there is between intellectuals (real one, smokers, dreamers, who inspire innate knowledge) and "'baratineurs"' (le '"baratin'" being the "'confiture"' in that case).And Julia you are right, quotes, hints...are often made to acquire your interlocutor skills and references and to eventually locate him on the social ladder. Which is sad in a way.
During an interview for my university admission admission I was asked "'Alors mademoiselle quel est votre violon d'Ingres?''. This is an example of the art of alluding, a little snobbish I''d say.. and totally French.