[lit-ideas] Bartlett Maven Muffs Bush Gab With Flim Flam Oversight

  • From: Eric Yost <eyost1132@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 07 Mar 2005 00:23:30 -0500

As implied by the Maud Newton blog, Bush's speech writer probably relied 
on a quotation book rather than any knowledge of literature. I can 
imagine the dialogue in the drafting process:

"Yeah, yeah, throw some Kay-muss in there. Kay-muss was French wasn't he?"
"Sounds French."
"Yeah, Rove gives thumbs up. Put the Kay-muss in. It'll show Dubya 
respects their turf."
"Roger that. Kay-muss is a go."


_____

http://maudnewton.com/blog/
Shockingly, White House speechwriter fails to grasp existentialist nuance
[Political ]

Ronald Aronson points out that:

     A careful reading of The Fall reveals that President Bush's quote 
from Albert Camus in Brussels was an astonishing mistake. Many of our 
European friends may now be laughing up their sleeves at the United 
States' head of state.

     To those who know Camus, a White House speechwriter may have 
created a spectacle, in which the president unwittingly parodied himself.

     The quote, "freedom is a long-distance race," was ripped from its 
context, one that establishes beyond doubt that Camus' words were not 
meant straightforwardly.

     [...]Camus' character, while sounding resolute and tireless about 
pursuing freedom, making it seem daunting and thankless but the mark of 
a true human being, is really prattling on about freedom. He is 
intimidating people with it, using it for purposes of self-interest and 
does not at all believe in it. The grand-sounding phrase about freedom 
being a "long-distance race" is just another piece of flimflam.

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  • » [lit-ideas] Bartlett Maven Muffs Bush Gab With Flim Flam Oversight