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PARTISAN REVIEW
London strikes the returning traveler as dull and almost provincial com–
pared with Paris; just as it is not simply the unfortunate location of
Bonn that makes German public life seem unbelievably
petit-bourgeois
compared with French. Is it the fact that NATO is centered in Paris,
and that both the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, and the steel-coal
High Authority in Luxembourg, derive from a now partly flagging
French impetus? Is it the pervading feeling that with Germany at best
a glacis, and Britain primarily a link between Europe, North America
and the Commonwealth, Europe stands and falls with France? Or is it
just that the French are still the most alive, the most articulate, the
most intelligent and, when all is said and done, the most civilized na–
tion on the Continent? Anyone may take his or her choice; what is cer–
tain is that after even a short stay in France, the rest of Europe seems
either dull or disagreeable or both, especially Germany. The current
prosperity and stability of the Federal Republic is no optical illusion,
but it is bought at the price of a narrow resurgent nationalism, a phil–
istine self-satisfaction, and a spiritual torpor that has to be seen to
be
believed. Whatever the Germany of Adenauer may have to contribute
to the Europe of tomorrow, leadership will have to come from elsewhere.
But can France-shell-shocked by war, defeat and occupation, finan–
cially insolvent, and rent by social conflict-do anything but infect her
neighbors with her own disease? The question has an odd ring, but
since it has become the fashion to pose it let us see what the French
think of their own chances. Travelers' tales are notoriously unreliable,
and even travelers to this year's XIth International Congress of Philos–
ophy at Brussels (August 20-26) are not necessarily in the best position to
judge the prospects of a French come-back in the sciences and human–
ities, though there seems to be an impression that the French contribu–
tion was as outstanding in these fields as it has long been in art, literature,
films and the theater. Besides, philosophy-as who should know better
than the Europeans, who have produced such quantities of the stuff–
fills no empty stomachs; not at any rate in the short run, and we are
all very much pressed for time these days. Malenkov, they say, is
ante
portas,
or at least round the corner. Nor should much reliance be placed
on the notorious ability of the French to make more convincing speeches,
and write more coherent books and articles, than their German neigh–
bors. Bonn may seem a village compared with Paris, and the German
politicians (with one or two obvious exceptions) scarcely fit to rank
beside their French colleagues; but the mark is a good deal harder
than
the franc.
If
German newspapers, films and plays are abysmally dull,
parochial, badly written, and downright old-fashioned, compared with
