Sign in with Facebook
Nooilforpacifists's Reviews > Paris to the Moon
Paris to the Moon
by
by
This is a collection of Gopnik's New Yorker articles from the year he lived in Paris; tough duty, but someone's got to do it. Read long ago, but two points stand out:
French fax machines, if they failed to transmit, showed the code translated as "distant error"--I.e., the fault couldn't have been with ME, it must have been on the other end. Many 20th Century French Generals might fit that description.
After writing one piece, Gopnik turns it over to the magazine for fact checking. He warns those quoted to expect a call. Universally, they are alarmed; fact checking, apparently, is unknown in France. Instead, Gopnik speculates, French periodicals must have THEORY checkers--the facts don't matter so long as the theory sounds elegant when expounded as the saucers pile up at Lex Deux Magots cafe.
French fax machines, if they failed to transmit, showed the code translated as "distant error"--I.e., the fault couldn't have been with ME, it must have been on the other end. Many 20th Century French Generals might fit that description.
After writing one piece, Gopnik turns it over to the magazine for fact checking. He warns those quoted to expect a call. Universally, they are alarmed; fact checking, apparently, is unknown in France. Instead, Gopnik speculates, French periodicals must have THEORY checkers--the facts don't matter so long as the theory sounds elegant when expounded as the saucers pile up at Lex Deux Magots cafe.
Sign into Goodreads to see if any of your friends have read
Paris to the Moon.
Sign In »
