Here’s a reflection on nationhood through the lens of bilingualism, product packaging, and mixed vegetables.
“The French and the English cannot be made to say exactly the same thing, not even in the blunt, literal language of generics. And this unharmonizability, one fears, is but the exact linguistic reflection of the irreducible discreteness of the can’s various contents (this is not a mash, but a mix), which in turn is but the alimentary mirror of unending human conflict.”
(Via The Book Bench)
