French Culture-Wars: Céline Vs. Céline

Louis-Ferdinand Céline

Genre: Modernism
Influenced: Henry Miller, Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., William S. Burroughs, Jean-Paul Sartre, Charles Bukowski, Samuel Beckett
Famous Works: Voyage au bout de la nuit (Journey to the End of the Night), Mort à crédit (Death on the Installment Plan), Bagatelles pour un massacre (Trifles for a Massacre)
Political Controversy: Released rambling antisemitic pamphlets before onset of Second World War; convicted in absentia as collaborator with Vichy regime
Romantic Interests: Whores, dancers, the abyss
Themes: Nihilism, nausea, misanthropy, the underworld, urban squalor, familial discord, bodily discharges, mortality
Pet Peeves: Petit bourgeoisie values, modernity, mercantilism, Jews, the decline of the west
Other Activities: Doctor, veteran of the Great War
Critical Reaction: "Movement toward adulthood—into the world, that is—becomes equated with progressive disassociationism, submission to the disintegrative process; and adulthood itself becomes, as it were, the inevitable end product, metaphor for decay in the entropic universe." - Alvin Greenberg
Quotable Quote: "I could hear the stampeding herds trampling the flowerbeds . . . The numberless legions of thirst . . . They were battling to lick the bottom of the pond . . . sucking mud, worms, slime . . . They’d plowed up the whole place, disemboweled the earth . . . a chopped-up crater for three miles around, rumbling with disaster and drunks."


Céline Dion

Genre: Adult Contemporary
Influenced: Mariah Carey, Seal, global anti-Francophone sentiment
Famous Works: D'amour ou d'amitié (Of Love or of Friendship), Tellement j'ai d'amour pour toi (I Have So Much Love for You), My Heart Will Go On
Political Controversy: In response to the American government's slow reaction to Hurricane Katrina, asked "How come it's so easy to send planes in another country, to kill everyone in a second, to destroy lives? We need to be there right now to rescue the rest of the people."
Romantic Interests: Older, bearded, cherubic bald men
Themes: Love, the heart, saccharine romance
Pet Peeves: Papparazi, anything that stands in her way
Other Activities: Established a restaurant, released a line of eyeliner and perfume, gives to charity
Critical Reaction: "[Dion's] sentimentality is bombastic and defiant rather than demure and retiring....[she] stands at the end of the chain of drastic devolution that goes Aretha-Whitney-Mariah. Far from being an aberration, Dion actually stands as a symbol of a certain kind of pop sensibility—bigger is better, too much is never enough, and the riper the emotion the more true." - Keith Harris of Rolling Stone Magazine
Quotable Quote: "I missed my family and my home, but I don't regret having lost my adolescence. I had one dream: I wanted to be a singer."


Winner/Loser: Tout le monde