>Well, he's basically considered as one of their own in France He's just as French as Chopin :) >What I'm trying to say it's that I find very interesting this

>Well, he's basically considered as one of their own in France He's just as French as Chopin :) >What I'm trying to say it's that I find very interesting this distinction between mainland Europe vs UK + USA when it comes to books and the so-called "high culture". You'd think that 70+ years of mass consumption and Western mono-culture would have totally erased any differences by now but there are still some hold-outs. Established erudite culture, for lack of a better term, is less permeable to pop-culture. Strong cultural institutions are a good bulwark against acculturation. Churches played that role for a long time.