Octavio Paz, the great Mexican poet, once cataloged the differences he observed between his country and mine. “The North Americans are credulous and we are believers; they love fairy tales and detective stories and we love myths and legends,” Paz writes. “They are optimists and we are nihilists—except that our nihilism is not intellectual but instinctive, and therefore irrefutable. We are suspicious and they are trusting. We are sorrowful and sarcastic and they are happy and full of jokes. North Americans want to understand and we want to contemplate. They are activists and we are quietists;
...more
