simmo wrote:

NerblyBear wrote:I really don't think anyone could make the claim that French literature could compare with English literature. Too many great English writers.

Baudelaire, Flaubert, Rousseau, Zola, Proust, Camus, Sartre, Vian, Perec.....

Don't forget Hugo.

There are about three *great* English writers that I can think of. These are: Shakespeare, Carroll and Hardy. Hugo crushes them all. Plus the fact that Shakespeare didn't even exist. Plus the fact that most of the British seem to only love to debate the question whether he was a homo or not.

NerblyBear, you are out of your mind.

Even though I lived in London for a couple months, this isn't really hard for me.

vockins wrote:99.44% of Frog music is fucking horrible. There's Berlioz, Satie, and Debussy and whatnot, but most of it is garbage. Frogs win in everything else.

Spot on. (Also, Messian, Gainsbourg, Metal Urbain)

France, no contest.

Mark wrote:

Adam CR wrote:

simmo wrote:
Baudelaire, Flaubert, Rousseau, Zola, Proust, Camus, Sartre, Vian, Perec.....

If Chapter 22 can't have Da Dook, then you can't have Rousseau or Camus.

Fair's fair.

Yeah, everyone knows Demis is Greek

Oh wait... That's Roussos

Please,don`t forget Voltaire, Louis-Ferdinand Céline,Pascal and Alain.
Sartre wouldn`t be on my list.He was such a mediocre philosopher and a bad novelist.

Hmph.

I'm with the Rabbit on this one. Both nations can be equally arrogant and nasty in their own unique ways, and brilliant in others.

In terms of cultural or hisorical interest, I'd go with France.

But when it comes to music, England has kicked France's ass all over the place. Wire, Gang of Four, the Stranglers, Joy Division, PiL, all that shit. Maybe I haven't been paying attention or listening in the right places, but I've never heard a French band that gets anywhere close to this level of greatness.

The closest it's come for me has been a Belgian band, TC Matic, which put out some great post-punk, although I believe they originated from Flanders.

You guys can't possibly try to make the claim that French literature has been greater than English literature, can you?

Yeah, you've thrown out the great names, like Proust, Baudelaire, Flaubert, Balzac, Stendhal, Rousseau and Montaigne, but how can you compare them with this list:

Byron, Shelley, Shakespeare, Blake, Pope, Johnson, Sterne, Dickens, Fielding, Austen, Swift, Eliot (George and T.S.), James, Woolf, Joyce and Goldsmith?

Asshats.

Joyce was Irish.

Sterne is obscure at best.

sorry no..

Voltaire..

you're wrong my dear..

NerblyBear wrote:

vockins wrote: Frogs win in everything else. Except armed conflicts with Germany.

I really don't think anyone could make the claim that French literature could compare with English literature. Too many great English writers.

NerblyBear wrote: Eliot (George and T.S.)
Asshats.

T.S.Eliot was american.

Chapter Two wrote:Joyce was Irish.

Plus T.S. Eliot was born American.

Plus Byron and Shelley both left England and didn't return.

Plus Jonathan Swift spent most of his life in Ireland (and was born in Dublin)

Also, Sterne was born in Tipperary.