French Minister of Culture Admits She Doesn't Read Books
Posted on October 29, 2014
The French Minister of Culture has caused a scandal by declaring that she hasn't read a book in more than two years. Fleur Pellerin was being interviewed about how exciting it is for France's own Patrick Modiano to have won the Nobel Prize for Literature when she made an epic gaffe.
According to the BBC that the kerfuffle all started when Minister Pellerin blew an interview big time. She was asked which of Nobel Prize winner Patrick Modiano's books was her favorite. She replied that she hasn't read any of his works. But it gets worse. She then revealed that she hasn't read any books at all in the past two years. She says she's "too busy" but the entire point of her job is to promote French arts and literature.
The gaffe is especially embarrassing considering how short Modiano's books are. She could have studied up a bit for the interview and read a couple of his books the day before. It's not like he wrote War and Peace.
She attempted to rally by revealing that she did manage to find time to have lunch with Mr. Modiano to celebrate his win, although one can hardly imagine what they talked about. If you are the Minister of Culture whose job is to go to lunch with your country's Nobel Prize-winning author politeness demands that you study up a bit, if only not to look like a complete imbecile.
The interview aired on a Sunday evening talk show and the interview caused a huge reaction on French social media. Minister Pellerin said that she's just too busy to read novels, but that she does read a lot of notes and the news on Agence France Press. She says she "admits" to not reading for pleasure, and could not name a favorite author when pressed. It kind of sounds like the French version of the infamous Katie Couric - Sarah Palin interview.
Minister Pellerin oversees the budget for French literary matters and her admission has horrified the literary world. Claude Askolovitch wrote an editorial for the French Huffington Post demanding that she resign, calling her views "barbaric." He was appalled at her indifference to the Nobel Prize winner's works and to literature in general. He was shocked that one could become a Minister of Culture without being a reader. Without the uplifting benefits of great literature, he said, we are all a bunch of technocrats and bookkeepers without souls.
He also said her crimes were much worse than those of disgraced Budget Minister Jerome Cahuzac, who is in hot water for hiding finds in an offshore account. He said that Minister Cahuzac lied about his offshore account because he knew it was wrong and did not want to be found out. Minister Pellerin did not even bother to lie during the interview, which just goes to show how unimportant great literature is to her. He says she is a terrible example to the children of France who now know that reading is not important and that one can easily be a culture minister without a knowledge of books. It is unclear whether Minister Cahuzac managed to put aside his financial shenanigans for a few moments each day to find time to read some decent literature.
In any event, the whole thing is a PR disaster. Perhaps someone should interview the next proposed Minister of Culture to determine what, if any, views they actually hold on culture.