Ryan 'reassessing' bid

OOh la la, now we's gettin' into French poésie?

I actually reread this thread to see where you went off the road. It's like this:

It's a cultural thing.

No one is really talking about the fact that a married couple has the right to do what they mutually agree upon, even if others think it's kinky. Even if the guy married some soft-porn star. It's understandable that he would want a beautiful wife, and in his field it's probably preferable.
It's that once this behavior becomes knowledge those involved WILL be repudiated BECAUSE of the kinky behavior.

So what took him so long to 'get it'?

Now let's get to Valéry.
Completely over my head.

Really interesting quotes though:
http://www.quotationspage.com/quotes/Paul_Valery/

I just didn't like the one you pulled, being that we have no idea of love (yes or no) in this instance. Like Deb said above, she 'hopes it was worth the money'. If that was the case, and it was just for money, it's like that joke about the guy who marries for money:

'He ends up paying for it!'

But again, it's not worth getting involved in what 'kind' of marriage it was. When this manner of garbage comes out in America, it's time to go home to your own kind.

Now on to how I knew you were French just from your post.

I got this great book called 'Culture Shock' actually what I'm going to quote she takes from a book called 'Cultural Misunderstandings':

"Cultural analysis is an act of humility, in which you attempt to forget, for a moment, your own way of seeing and briefly replace it with another way, knowing you can never adopt that culture and never understand it. It is too easy to treat opaque situations as if they were transparent; and thus never really understanding them. Like the process of learning another language, cultural understanding is difficult and sometimes painful. But the more you learn; the more perceptive you become."

I just loved that line about opaqueness.

And this is what I'll never get about the French. They are SO smart. Their analytical capabilities are incredible. (I have a daughter who just passed the 'BAC', and what she had to learn for 'gestion, informatique, et economie', I learned in my third year of college when I had already chosen my major in international business.).... But then they do this weird 'alternate universe french bizarro switch' and come out with something (faribole) like:

"Love is being stupid together."
-- Paul Valéry

Like where the hell did THAT come from. (BTW, I had to look up faribole.)

And as for Richepin: critique du texte a l'américaine:

1ère paragraphe : On dirait qu'il a faim!
2èmè paragraphe : ça y est, je sais ce qu'il veut...
3èmè paragraphe : phrase cléf:
'Je serai sincère et tu seras folle,'
Il ne promis rien apart de la passion. Ces Français... des jolis mots: 'je t'écriras un poème' (I'll call you tomorrow)!

Je ne connais jamais les allusions, ça on n'apprend pas aux Etats Unis.

J'apprécierais une correction, vous êtes prof de la littérature française, non?

I didn't mean my response to be a provocation. I meant only to try to show you why you struck a nerve on that thread.
I'd read other (law related) posts of yours, and although perhaps there are slight (French/ American) differences in the building of a case (Peterson), you clarifified things and were supported by other posters.
You seemed surprised by people's reaction to your suggestions (here).
Which is what I meant by: 'its a cultural thing'

I occasionally have the problem in the other direction. I mean one thing, polite, appropriate; and the other person (French) gets offended and thinks I insulted them. Humor doesn't always translate. (like my 'bizzaro' comment: it's not like the word bizarre, it's from a comic strip, it's like 'weird to me'- 'cute')

I find this subject fascinating. As you obviously find French literature.

Oh, and one of the main points of the books I quoted is that whereas with some exotic cultures you KNOW you don't know what's going on, with French/ American relations you find yourself THINKING you've understood the sense of something, only to find out that you missed something, or misconstrued something. And you're caught off guard, wondering what happened.
Like the Ryan thing. For you, I think (unless you were just pulling everyone's leg- and the joke went too far...) you actually imagine that Americans should be capable of separating this whole divorce/sexual story and putting it aside, and understand the kind of marriage it obviously was, and move on.
For Americans, he now stinks. I mean like really. It's gross. We see him and it's gross. He should just go back where he came from and stop stinking up our party (GOP).

I thought that I could add something to your knowledge (Vous apporter quelque chose)
Je ne pensais pas vous insulter.

As for the Arab 'culture'. I believe that nothing good comes from dealing with them. Their word are lies before they come out of their mouths, they are barbaric and actually love blood and death. They are taught hatred from their mother's milk, as my mother-in-law says: 'you can't trust them until they've been buried for 40 years.'

Best Wishes, Sarah

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