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March 1, 2004
Obesite C'est Moi
Found this Seattle-Post Intelligencer article, "Seattle is Closer to France than Texas," on Blogdex. The author, political cartoonist David Horsey, discusses the annual cartoon art festival in Carquefou, France, where he found that many of the children's prize-winning cartoons depicted strongly anti-American (and especially anti-Bush stereotypes). Included were mocking images of American fast food (some of which may have been cribbed from Triplets of Belleville), but others showed Uncle Sam running over the Statue of Liberty on a bicycle, or Bush riding a tank (Strangelove-style) into war.
I think I'd be careful before I took this event to indicate a pure hatred of America in Europe (something I think the author overstates). The situation, featuring liberal-left cartoonists such as Ted Rall, was probably at least a little self-selective politically. But to my mind, the event does illustrate effectively how much Europeans have invested in American politics.
The article shows 1-2 of the prize-winning cartoons. Anyone know where I can find more?
Posted by chuck at March 1, 2004 10:05 AM
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Comments
With all due respect, bashing Americans on their food culture somehow seems appropriate given that Americans were the ones to provoke French outrage first by coining terms such as "freedom fries", "freedom toast", and insisting on drinking wine from California. Then again, these are just French kids drawing those cartoons. In the U.S., it was adults who were saying stuff like that on mainstream media.
Posted by: woojay at March 1, 2004 5:05 PM
Oh, I agree that the jokes about food culture are certainly appropriate (and funny) given the embarassing neologisms, "feedom fries" and "freedom toast." The similar gags in "Triplets of Belleville" (inlcuidng a chubby Statue of Liberty) were hilarious.
I do think that children's cartoons, drawings, or games can often be a window into the political climate, but I don't intend that as a criticism here. I think the France-baiting in the media (even by certain politicians) has been ridiculous and simple-minded. Sorry if I didn't make that clear in the original post.
Posted by: chuck at March 1, 2004 5:22 PM
I think my comment was intended to criticize the author's defensivess, and that may not have come across very effectively. I was blogging pretty early in the morning (for me 10 AM is early), so that entry may not have been very clear.
Posted by: chuck at March 1, 2004 5:30 PM
Oh, _I_ must have been the one being unclear. I understood the original point of your post. I was just stating my reaction after seeing the French kids' cartoons, independent of the article or your post. Now that I read my original comment again, it does sorta sound like a rebuttal, but that wasn't my intention at all :)
Posted by: woojay at March 1, 2004 8:16 PM
Okay, that makes _a lot_ more sense. Thanks for the clarification. :-)
Posted by: chuck at March 1, 2004 9:49 PM
Chuck,
If it's 10 AM in your time zone, what time is it in France? Time for croissant and cafe au lait or time for a chunk of creamy camenbert with a nice crusty bread and a glass of wine? :)
Posted by: Francois Lachance at March 2, 2004 8:48 AM
I think it's time for a cafe au lait pretty much any time.
Posted by: chuck at March 2, 2004 10:20 AM