I'm hoping this is intentional self-parody.
« Winner Take Not-Enough | Main | Dobson's Choice » We Are The Poseurs We've Been Waiting For17 Feb 2008 04:51 pm Comments (23)
And, oh my god, they were speaking french! 
i think it's sweet, cute, adorable even
In fairness, Adam Gopnik was raised in Montreal and was Paris correspondent for the New Yorker for some years. So he has a better excuse for knowing French than, say, John Kerry. And it is interesting to examine how Obama draws on Hopi, Kabbalah, and American progressive maxims to create an aural melange that is at once new and vaguely familiar.
What's Hopi for "I know how hard it is for you to put food on your family"?
Speaking of self-parody, why would someone need an excuse to learn French? And aren't we allowed to like the French again now that Chirac is out of office, or have I been left off the mailing list again?
I thought it was rather charming actually, just a couple of guys having fun with language. What's wrong with that?
I was sort of hoping they'd find out for certain where the saying actually comes from rather than discussing if it could work in French. Whether something can or can't work in French says nothing on whether it's plausibly Hopi. (My guess is it's just a phrase from a self-help book or lecture. Many of these were attributed to the Hopi as they're seen as these wise people, but unlike some other Indian tribes comparatively few self-help readers are likely to know one)
Hilarious. Actually, I don't get why "Nous sommes ceux que nous attendions" isn't as euphonious as "We're the ones we've been waiting for." Actually, it would sound better as "C'est nous que nous attendions" or "Le changement que nous attendions -- c'est nous." I can actually totally imiagine Ségolène Royal saying that. But then again, who cares?
Ross, there is a difference between poseurs and the merely pretentious. Also, I really don't get what's so unusual or pretentious about this exchange. We're reading other people's email! Who hasn't written goofy stuff in email? The French translation is goofing off, the "tikkun olam" bit is a good catch of a subtle reference, and the only suspect for twee-ness I can figure is referring to the Weathermen's incoherent, decorative Maoism as "Chinoiserie." Which actually I thought was kind of perceptive.
I'd been hoping this - http://rossdouthat.theatlantic.com/archives/2007/12/the_myth_of_welfare_queens.php - was an intentional self-parody but apparently it isn't.
Those folks at the Atlantic sure are getting a great deal on the hyper-prolific Ross Douthat.
I think Obama's "We are ..." line comes from the screenplay of the upcoming "Matrix: Re-Elections".
"TheBannedMoeLarryAndJesus" For someone who is banned you sure are active. Possibly if they unbanned you you'd find something else to do. In any event was there a point to your little link?
What's wrong with this exchange? I see nothing embarrassing about it at all. Moreover, it's hard to think of anyone as intelligent and perceptive and articulate as H.H. as a poseur.
Looking for sources a few years old I find two that credit the saying to African-American activist June Jordan. http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2004/jan/12/uselections2004.usa http://www.dailycal.org/article/3657/alice_walker_women_can_solve_mideast_crisis So I guess that possibly answers that.
Looking up June Jordan it seems pretty clear she's it. Stuff like that bugs me until I figure it out. Anyway carry on.
"Also, I really don't get what's so unusual or pretentious about this exchange." In private e-mail? Nothing. When you post it on your website to let everyone know that you guys are just oh-so-worldly and sophisticated, it's unusual and pretentious. Keep in mind that the New Yorker wouldn't have posted this without the permission of both writers.
Helter once again, so what? It's a cute little curio by two genuinely smart and erudite guys. Why's that sticking in your craw?
It's weird how people read all these subtle and supposedly meaningful multicultural references into Obama's rhetoric. It's just cotton candy, folks, there's no there there. There's going to be a lot of very disappointed folks when they find out that their demi-god Obama has feet of clay like every other politician.
Ah yes the cynics are out in full force I see. I was hoping that this post was self-parody, since Ross has little room to be calling someone else a poseur.
Oh come on, that was so obviously a joke. The idea that limousine liberals can't laugh at themselves is just a stereotype.
Change change hope. hope hope change. change hope hope. hope hope change. change, hope, hope change. change hope hope hoping to change change hope hope hoping change. change of hoping change. changing hoping change. change change hope. hope. hope . hope. a hope of change. change, change a change. hope hoping hope hope change. believe in changing change and hoping change. change hope hope change. Repeat 100 times and voila: you have ran for President of the United States of America.
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It's The New Yorker and the guy's name is Hendrik Hertzberg. What do you expect?
Posted by Mike | February 17, 2008 7:13 PM