FR online review

[Thomas Eckhardt]

Steven Shaviro's quite wonderful review, which Jentery thankfully 
pointed us to, addresses, among other things, the question of an 
"overarching theme" in AtD. As much delight as I get from merely 
following the bouncing ball (and the pleasure is indeed, as Shaviro 
says, extraordinary), I assume that the discussion will necessarily 
return to this subject.

> and, if I never told you - I greatly admire the enthusiasm with which 
> you Germans listers go at TRPs work. I cannot imagine how hard you 
> labor for your prize. His language, idioms, allusions are not "native" 
> to you.  I have long since forgiven you for the arrogance of the young 
> German with whom I spoke nearly 20 years ago, who insisted we have "no 
> culture". We do, and you show it the highest regard......Thanks kids, 
> take a collective bow....

Oh, but this is for purely selfish reasons. We just don't have a writer 
of that stature. So, being junkies for great literature, we have no 
choice but to grudgingly learn what "going AWOL" or "being 86'd" means, 
find out who that Henry Adams was, and put up with snide remarks about 
Beethoven along the way...

There are indeed Germans who claim that US-Americans have no culture. I 
find them enormously irritating.

Thomas