Apres le jour

[tealin]

So ... what was up with Bastille Day this year?

I mean, not in France; obviously there were parades and fireworks and stuff. I mean in the U.S. of A. I never remember this much attention being paid to Bastille Day outside of 'Learning about the culture is just as important as learning the language' bloody useless French class. Did I just never notice it before? Is it a California thing?* Or is it, as I cynically suspect, because we have a new administration and thus it's OK to not hate France anymore so anyone with an international perspective is celebrating this by overcompensating?

*very much doubt this

Comments

[yazzydream.livejournal.com]

Lol. Not even mentioned in New York. I bet it's a Cali thing.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

To be fair, it was mostly on the radio, so I think it's more likely an NPR thing.

[pippins-nose.livejournal.com]

It's not a California thing, because I too noticed this... at least, everyone on twitter was mentioning it :/ I figured it somehow became... an internet fad or joke this year....?
In conclusion, I have no idea either, but am just as bewildered.

[fairy-gany.livejournal.com]

Yaaay, you like us again !
We like you more too, since you've elected Obama.

By the way, don't say rude things like that about your french class, I'm sure it must have been fascinating ! (hahaaaa, I doubt it)
...And do you really call it "Bastille Day" ? Hahahaha ! It much more the opposite of a Bastille day (poor little prison, all taken by crazy savages from the little people).
HOORAY !

[last-archangel.livejournal.com]

I don't think it's very good for one's Karma to celebrate a day which marks the deaths of so many civilians. Days like that should remembered, but not celebrated.

[aspectabund.livejournal.com]

Hah, I hadn't ever heard of Bastille Day until you blogged it. :I Which is odd, now that I think of it, since I'm Canadian and our government likes to make a big show of doing French things to appease the Quebeckers.

I shan't forget the date now though - it's held the day before my birthday, no less. C:

[noodledaddy.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah, like NPR took marching orders from G. Bush.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Perhaps because the French Revolution occurred after Quebec fell to the British? I sometimes wonder what would have happened to Quebec if it had still been a dominion of the French crown while said crown was being chopped off...

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Weeelll, most Americans can't say 'quatorze juillet' ... it'd either be 'Cat-oars Juliet' or 'Cat-oars Joo-yay' the way 'croissant' becomes 'cruss-ONT'. It's a marvel they can remember Cinco de Mayo, though there's a much larger endemic Mexican population than French, and until this year, no one had enough of an interest in France or its national day to bother even trying to pronounce it...

[noodledaddy.livejournal.com]

That sounds like a job for Harry Turtledove. It really sounds like an interesting scenario; so many dynamics would have been dramatically changed.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

Well presumably Louisiana would be a good example, but I know nothing about what went on there during that time ...

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

They do pick up on popular sentiment, if it is pervasive enough to reach to the collective subconscious of the folks who run the circus ... I can easily see them running pieces mocking the anti-French nomenclature of Freedom Fries while at the same time gradually, unconsciously, forgetting France exists. Besides, plenty of media organizations you decry as 'liberal' and 'anti-Republican' were gung-ho for the invasion of Iraq, at the time – I wasn't listening to NPR on account of being in Canada but it proves the press can shun its political prejudices to chase a story, or that it's run by human beings who are just as prone to mob psychology as the rest of us, take your pick.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

My French class ... WAS AWFUL.

Not that, you know, I'm bitter about not being able to speak French or anything ...

[beckychan.livejournal.com]

I totally didn't notice/hear anything about Bastille Day.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

I believe the only person to be killed in the storming of the Bastille was the prison director, but I may be wrong ...

[noodledaddy.livejournal.com]

We had an anchor at the TV station in San Diego who liked the idea of broadcasting in a second language. She thought the language should be French.

Yes, this was the same anchor who not know who the noted Spanish artist who died was (PICK-ah-so) and who, after having to fill in on the noon news for a week, was heard to say "Man, these eight-hour days are killing me."

[tony-cliff.livejournal.com]

Back in tha day, when I was in SF, there was a huge Bastille Day party. Shut off some streets and whatnot.

I've never heard of anyone celebrating it up here, though, despite all our products having to share half their design space with that language.

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

But the French in Canada are French-Canadian, not French French (even my Francophobic dad makes that distinction, possibly because he's married to one) – they've been more or less cut off from France for 250 years, and at the French Revolution were part of the British Empire whether they liked it or not. San Francisco has a French consulate and enough of a French population to have a French Catholic parish ... I learned the history of this at Christmas and have since forgotten it, but it's got a history at least.

[tony-cliff.livejournal.com]

C'est magnifique!

[poisonedwriter.livejournal.com]

I also noticed quite a few Bastille Day promotions here in Atlanta, and it definitely took my by surprise. I even think my bloody bank had some sort of deal going on if you took advantage of it on the 14th.

I mean, I'm not complaining, but since when has the US population in general cared?

[noodledaddy.livejournal.com]

I do not believe I am Francophobic. I see a once-great nation that has fallen from its perch because of a lot of linguini-spined decisions. From not letting American planes fly over on their way to bomb Khadafy’s palace, to selling a lot of WMD supplies to Iraq and Iran, France has a recent history of not acting as a friend of our country. Not the people of France, the government. I supported not buying French products after these events, but I also support not buying Communist Chinese products for the similar reasons.

If I was Fracophobic would I like Ratatouille so much (the food and the movie)? Sure, I do not like French wine, but I dislike all wine. I’d love to visit France. From Normandy to Paris to Menton, there is a lot to see (and eat). Éclairs (and their modern equivalent, the e-clair) Boeuf Bourguignon, French toast, I love them all. If I were Francophobic I’d hate the French people. The one French person I’ve gotten to know half-way decently I happen to like a lot. Then again, I hope one day she will move here and make a certain someone very happy.

I also do not like the socialist mindset of a lot of people there, but then we're doing a drag race to the same place ourselves.

[ubiquitouspitt.livejournal.com]

I didn't notice anything different this year.

I think you're deluding yourself |: )

[furtech.livejournal.com]

This year I think it was because they did a fantastic fireworks show involving the Eiffel Tower (pretty neat).

Generally, the only notice it gets are intellectual outlets (NPR, etc.) and fanatics of Les Mis (me). I got my cast-used tricolore out!

[twirlynoodle.livejournal.com]

But (despite what my French teacher thought) ... it isn't ... that revolution ... (not that it makes that much difference)

[ndgmtlcd.livejournal.com]

New France covered what is now Quebec and Southern Ontario and Louisiana but also all spaces in between, all along the Mississippi river, thanks to its many Amerindian allies.

In the best of circumstances after the French revolution and Napoleon's antics, New France would have ended up independent like Brazil, blocking its neighbours to the East and West who would have had a Northern and Southern expansion instead. Which means that the USA, after becoming independent, would not have gone much far over the Appalachians and would instead have grabbed Newfoundland from the British and spilled into Cuba, and other parts of Caribbean including the sections of South America known as Venezuela and the neighbouring Guineas.