But the systems, throughout Europe, are at fault. This state of affairs can be traced to the debate, in the fifties, about the so-called two cultures. Children were told that they had to learn sciences instead of classical languages. Then, already, this was a very broad subject for debate. I touch on it here, since agreement is now total that language, as a means of expression, as a vehicle for accurate communication, is in steep decline.
Examples here are flagrant.
Nobody listens to politicians, mouthing floods of nonsense, because the essential, the Hauptsache, is the image they project visually. Put in literary terms, the bande dessin is bigger business than the book. You understand that education obsesses me because my own was very bad. No sciences at all, rags and rudiments of what I call basic necessities. Not a good preparation for a man who becomes a writer.