[wideawake]

There's quite a bit of talk about how culturally deprived we Americans are.

I honestly don't see it.

When you look at French or German bestseller lists, self-help books and books on football and cuisine are perennial winners. Not much different from Americans.

Martin Amis is no greater a novelist than Updike. Amelie is no more impressive a cinematic achievement than Moonstruck. An empty room with one flickering track light is no more profound than the Photorealist school.

The Europeans are no longer great generators of cultural artifacts - they are connoisseurs of their own and others'.

Their plastic arts and literature have been as degraded by postmodernity as America's.

[Antoninus]

There's quite a bit of talk about how culturally deprived we Americans are.

Yeah. Most of it comes from Eurotrash types and their American toadies who think Chris Ofili is a genius for his Blessed Virgin Mary and we Americans who dared call it garbage are cultural illiterates. If being culturally rich is being swamped with "art" smeared with elephant sh!t, call me a barbarian.