Maybe you've spent your life around especially ethical people, but my experience of others is that nothing Beauvoir has done that you've described so far differs from normal human all too human daily behavior that I've witnessed with my parents, with various partners, with friends,
with my two grown children and their partners. I agree that we shouldn't idealize Beauvoir as some kind of feminist saint, if that is your point, but then again there are good arguments against saints: Orwell has some in his essay on Gandhi. After all, Beauvoir was a talented writer and philosopher and that's why I read her today, not because I ever believed that she or anyone else is a flawless role model.
The reason that the petty exploits of Beauvoir and Sartre are important is that, despite their both being rather despicable human beings, they claimed to be 'saints' of a particular sort and were treated as such by gullible leftists in the post-war period.
I just finished reading No Exit. In the middle of reading that play, I started to dig deeper and found this history, and it made the play that much more disturbing as it seems to parallel this real like experience. I think there's even a character named Olga in the play? Just curious if you or anyone else has read this or seen these overlaps. Thank you for your research and writing!
“When Estelle arrives in hell, she has a vision of her own funeral, where Olga stands dutifully by her sister. In another vision, Estelle sees Olga dancing with a man named Peter, whom Estelle herself sometimes used to see on the side.”
This is a whole new angle into contemporary French philosophical/intellectual culture, that's for sure.
Maybe you've spent your life around especially ethical people, but my experience of others is that nothing Beauvoir has done that you've described so far differs from normal human all too human daily behavior that I've witnessed with my parents, with various partners, with friends,
with my two grown children and their partners. I agree that we shouldn't idealize Beauvoir as some kind of feminist saint, if that is your point, but then again there are good arguments against saints: Orwell has some in his essay on Gandhi. After all, Beauvoir was a talented writer and philosopher and that's why I read her today, not because I ever believed that she or anyone else is a flawless role model.
The reason that the petty exploits of Beauvoir and Sartre are important is that, despite their both being rather despicable human beings, they claimed to be 'saints' of a particular sort and were treated as such by gullible leftists in the post-war period.
I just finished reading No Exit. In the middle of reading that play, I started to dig deeper and found this history, and it made the play that much more disturbing as it seems to parallel this real like experience. I think there's even a character named Olga in the play? Just curious if you or anyone else has read this or seen these overlaps. Thank you for your research and writing!
I've read No Exit. I don't remember a character named Olga - Garcin, Estele, Inez (?) - but the whole tripartite structure is... curious.
Beauvoir definitely modelled characters upon Olga--see her novel, "She Came to Stay".
“When Estelle arrives in hell, she has a vision of her own funeral, where Olga stands dutifully by her sister. In another vision, Estelle sees Olga dancing with a man named Peter, whom Estelle herself sometimes used to see on the side.”
This is a whole new angle into contemporary French philosophical/intellectual culture, that's for sure.
That's interesting. Sartre was involved with Olga's sister - Wanda. So there are definitely parallels there.
Yeah, they were an... interesting bunch.