The author wants to be a writer and we all have to suffer
Are You Enjoying Our Linguine? (2025)
31–40 of 86 posts
Re: Are You Enjoying Our Linguine? (2025)
#32In other words: nothing has changed since Henry James wrote about Americans in Europe.
Re: Are You Enjoying Our Linguine? (2025)
#33I'm not sure if I like this piece but it's interesting. I just come away with the sense that the author feels something is off and did the best he could to articulate it but didn't quite put the finger on why things are off. I'm not sure I can do so either. Something about cultural and monetary pressure, how people respond to incentives for better or for worse. People crave the new and different and authentic, they f…
I was just on my phone in an Italian gelato shop in Belgrade, looking up what "stracciatella" means in the context of gelato so I didn't sound like an idiot or struggle to communicate with the employee.
I understand the latter, but just as one datapoint, I would not think you sound like an idiot for asking "what exactly is this that you're selling?"
Re: Are You Enjoying Our Linguine? (2025)
#34I kinda disagree with the general sentiment of the article. IMO the author mistakes a low context social style for imperial tastelessness. I, a Korean, lived in the US for a decade so I do have experience with this "imperialism" the author tries to illustrate. However, the American behavior the author is describing is more attributed to how American social norms don't force anyone to "read the room" and "know your pl…
As an Italian, I feel the exact same. This guy just doesn't know how to seriously talk about imperialism, globalization and over-tourism from a geopolitical and economic prospective, so instead he talks about things more at his level: gelato, coffee, and quirkily decorated restaurants. With a bad, paternalistic attitude as well. BTW we all hate those hipster burger places (which now turned to doing smash burgers), an…
Well cheeseburgers taste really good haha
Italians are posting about it on TikTok, and Italians are watching it on TikTok. It's not complicated.
Re: Are You Enjoying Our Linguine? (2025)
#35In a sense "Americans" don't really exist.
The people the article describes are a very small subset of the American cultures: the ones with intellectual curiosity and money to travel to another country.
For each American tourist you see in Europe there are at leas a dozen, back in the U.S., that don't travel, don't have curiosity for a foreign culture or don't even have any curiosity at all.
And, then, what moral grounds do Europeans have to talk about "invasion" or "imperialism"? The golden eras of Europe where built on exactly that. At least they're conquering you with dollars, not guns. The 3rd world European colonies of 19th century weren't that lucky.
You know what this article smells like? It is typical European insularity. Europe is still a continent with people that spent the last 3000 years in wars among themselves. Actually, Italians only stopped wars against other Italians on the 19th century, after unification.
Re: Are You Enjoying Our Linguine? (2025)
#36On formatting: having the big-text snippets occur before they do in the main body was jarring. I think it's more normal practice to lift out specific quotes after they have occurred in the text, not before. On content: if it's any consolation, America is doing this to America as well. Locals everywhere are wringing their hands over stylistic homogenization, Instagrammability-driven design choices, and rapidly increas…
Quite a few publications do this and it's really annoying, yeah.
Re: Are You Enjoying Our Linguine? (2025)
#37But seriously, why is it such an impossibility to get an iced coffee over there. You have affogato! You can take a caffe americano and pour it over ice!
Re: Are You Enjoying Our Linguine? (2025)
#38I kinda disagree with the general sentiment of the article. IMO the author mistakes a low context social style for imperial tastelessness. I, a Korean, lived in the US for a decade so I do have experience with this "imperialism" the author tries to illustrate. However, the American behavior the author is describing is more attributed to how American social norms don't force anyone to "read the room" and "know your pl…
As an Italian, I feel the exact same. This guy just doesn't know how to seriously talk about imperialism, globalization and over-tourism from a geopolitical and economic prospective, so instead he talks about things more at his level: gelato, coffee, and quirkily decorated restaurants. With a bad, paternalistic attitude as well. BTW we all hate those hipster burger places (which now turned to doing smash burgers), an…
I think the last part was touching on how Italians are also doing this and coming to tacky restaurants or etc? It feels like the author is guilty about being complicit in it to me
Re: Are You Enjoying Our Linguine? (2025)
#39I kinda disagree with the general sentiment of the article. IMO the author mistakes a low context social style for imperial tastelessness. I, a Korean, lived in the US for a decade so I do have experience with this "imperialism" the author tries to illustrate. However, the American behavior the author is describing is more attributed to how American social norms don't force anyone to "read the room" and "know your pl…
As an Italian, I feel the exact same. This guy just doesn't know how to seriously talk about imperialism, globalization and over-tourism from a geopolitical and economic prospective, so instead he talks about things more at his level: gelato, coffee, and quirkily decorated restaurants. With a bad, paternalistic attitude as well. BTW we all hate those hipster burger places (which now turned to doing smash burgers), an…
“No one goes to those hipster burger places making smash burgers now, they’re too crowded.”
- Yogi Berra
Re: Are You Enjoying Our Linguine? (2025)
#40In a sense "Americans" don't really exist. The people the article describes are a very small subset of the American cultures: the ones with intellectual curiosity and money to travel to another country. For each American tourist you see in Europe there are at leas a dozen, back in the U.S., that don't travel, don't have curiosity for a foreign culture or don't even have any curiosity at all. And, then, what moral gro…
The author talks about the Roman and Renaissance eras specifically during this, so I don't think he would disagree that they have previously done the empire and colonizing stuff. He even says maybe that's why Italy attracts so many tourists on purpose, right?