Everyday French refinement flourished separately from France’s official ideology.
Evidence
Humanity has always been more at home in France than elsewhere. But the French themselves were not aware of this. Their books simply contained the ideology which everyone already recognized. The better things in life still led a separate existence: the special tone of voice, the feats of gastronomy, the brothels and the cast-iron urinals. — Theodor W. Adorno, Max Horkheimer, Dialectic of Enlightenment, 203
Categorization
- CANDY: The image of gastronomy, brothels, and cast-iron urinals as monuments of humane living is a light, quotable jab.
- XREF: connects to: Antilleans pursue French refinement to prove cultural adequacy to themselves
- yield-rescued: below the book’s yield-target cutoff, included anyway for connecting to: Antilleans pursue French refinement to prove cultural adequacy to themselves