[19.6.05][Andrew Stevens] WASHED UP ON THE LEFT BANK The Observer's Alex Duval Smith on French intellectual decline: "The London-based French writer Daniel Depland looks with desperation at the state of intellectual and creative life across the Channel. 'London is bubbling with ideas and France is asleep. Sartre had intellectual clout but he was also committed. He went and stood at the Metro exits to promote his La Cause du Peuple pamphlet, and his influence was such that Charles de Gaulle did not dare send him to jail. 'French intellectuals today are narcissistic self-publicists with no humility. We're living in an era of entertainment and they are right in the middle of it,' said Depland." More (and also more) on the 100th anniversary of Sartre's birth. [permalink]
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