Misunderstanding in Moscow, written in the 1960s but not published in French until 1992, six years after her death. Set in summer in the mid 1960s, SiMisunderstanding in Moscow, written in the 1960s but not published in French until 1992, six years after her death. Set in summer in the mid 1960s, Simone de Beauvoir wrote this novella in her fifties. A simple story told plainly of a long married bourgeois sixty-year-old French couple on holiday in Moscow. Deceptively simple story that has depth. Confronting approaching old age, that takes a different environment with a different language and culture to reevaluate oneself and marriage partner objectively, both of them....more
As I read towards the last page of The Reprieve, the timing has echoes of the present machinations in Europe. Europe is historically a bad neighbourhoAs I read towards the last page of The Reprieve, the timing has echoes of the present machinations in Europe. Europe is historically a bad neighbourhood. They can't smell their own bad breath.
Published 1945. There's much to reflect on and appreciate. To my understanding, the Existentialist cannot be racist. From example of Sartre's essays iPublished 1945. There's much to reflect on and appreciate. To my understanding, the Existentialist cannot be racist. From example of Sartre's essays is evidence enough. That is at odds with the story here. Why is it necessary to point out the race of the jazz musicians? Negroes are referred to more than a few times through the story, on one occasion, p.229 'For an instant Mathieu was engulfed. But he promptly recovered himself, he stood marking time behind a Nigger, he was alone during the opening bars, Ivich had vanished, he no longer felt her presence.' This translation was published 1947. I'm intrigued to know how accurate the nouns are to the original french. On the other hand, for 1945, the accepting attitude to homosexuality is progressive. As I say at the start, there's a lot to reflect on, as in when Mathieu and Ivich visit a Gauguin exhibition at a museum. The novel is set in Paris, the conversations being the literary equivalent to an art house film. I do like the idea of a 'cynical clairvoyant'.
My take away from The Age of Reason is, SPOILER ALERT A young French philosophy teacher spends most of his time and energy in these pages trying to find the money for his partner's abortion, as becoming a husband and father would intrude on his freedom. The end result of realised self awareness of what he has lost and gained gives the reader an understanding of Existentialist philosophy. Well it did for me. Having read Sartre's essays certainly helped....more
24 Feb. 2020. Review as I go, by chapter as this is a big read, both deep in page and subjects covered. 513 pages. Originally published under the title24 Feb. 2020. Review as I go, by chapter as this is a big read, both deep in page and subjects covered. 513 pages. Originally published under the title Le Longue Marche in 1957. First published in English in 1958. From the back cover synopsis: 'Written in the 1950s, it attacks the "bourgeois democracies" which wanted to keep the People's Republic a pariah state. And there is much emphasis on the subjects which the author holds most dear - birth control, female emancipation and the great educational programmes which were forced on the Chinese peasantry. But the best books are written in sympathy. De Beauvoir helps us to understand Communist China.' Roy Hattersley
Contents Preliminaries 1. The Discovery of Peking 2. The Peasants 3. The Family 4. Industry 5. Culture 6. The Defensive Effort 7. The First of October 8. Cities of China Conclusions and Index
Preliminaries September 1955 The book opens with De Beauvoir in a plane over the Gobi Desert flying east with eight other passengers. 'the last three were on their way to China as guests of the government. At Bandung Chou En-lai had made the invitation good not only for the Conference nations but extended to include every country in the world: "Come and see." Not a little surprised at it and at our own selves, we were taking advantage of the offer.' 'Ancient China did not interest me much. For me, China was this patient epic that starts in the dark days of (Malraux's) Man's Fate and ends on the First of October, 1949, in an apotheosis on the Tien An Men; China, for me was this stirring and reasonable revolution which had not only delivered peasants and workers from exploitation, but had rid an entire land of the foreigner.'
'I was sure ahead of time that China would not resemble any of the countries which are solidly anchored in capitalism. I also suspected that China would differ from those where socialism has already triumphed.'
'When you travel by air, appearances are abrupt.' This statement by de Beauvoir reminds us this is the 1950s.
'In Paris I had seen the Peking Opera: I now imagined glittering traditions blending with the innovations of an effervescent present. "This land, both completely new and infinitely old" - the slogan engengered other seductive syntheses; I had anticipated China, at once orderly and fantastic, where poverty had the mildness of abundance, enjoys a freedom unknown in other Eastern places.'
'Six weeks later I crossed the Gobi again, in the opposite direction. It lay golden under a bright sun; snow-capped mountains glistened off in the distance. China had changed. Black, gray, rose, these were not suitable any more, no symbolic colour would do: China had become a reality. The seeming richness of images translates their radical poverty: the true China had infinitely exceeded the concepts and the words with which I had tried to visualize and foregauge it. China was no longer an idea; it had assumed flesh and bone. It is that incarnation I am going to tell you about.'...more
'Sartre is a true post-colonial pioneer. His ethical and political struggle against all forms of oppression and exploitation speak to the problems of 'Sartre is a true post-colonial pioneer. His ethical and political struggle against all forms of oppression and exploitation speak to the problems of our own times with a rare courage and cogency.' Homi K. Bhabha....more
"So why choose one toothpaste over another? In this useless profusion, there's an aftertaste of deception. There are a thousand possibilities, but the"So why choose one toothpaste over another? In this useless profusion, there's an aftertaste of deception. There are a thousand possibilities, but they're all the same. A thousand choices, but all equivalent. In this way, the American citizen can squander his obligatory domestic freedom without perceiving that this life itself is not free." Simone de Beauvoir New York January 1947
Non-fiction travel. First published in France 1954. First published in Great Britain 1998
In 1947 Simone de Beauvoir made her first trip to America - four months - not a 'serious study' but a 'faithful account' "because concrete experience involves both subject and object, I have not tried to eliminate myself from the narrative. That is why I have adopted the journal form." "Although written in retrospect, this journal - reconstituted from notes, letters, and memories that are still fresh - is scrupulously accurate." (from the Preface) Page 36, Advertising: "The constipated girl smiles a loving smile at the lemon juice that relieves her intestines. In the subway, in the streets, on magazine pages, these smiles pursue me like obsessions. I read a sign in a drugstore, 'not to grin is a sin'. "
Objective - Subjective, the Existentialist can see both simultaneously, which is cool. A child sees the world through new eyes. De Beauvoir observes the New World through old world eyes. The translation from French of an existential perception describing observations of a new environment and culture has a strong sense of nothing being lost from one language to another.
A very good Forward by Douglas Brinkley, 1996. He describes de Beauvoir as 'The Existential Tourist.' De Beauvoir was aged 39 in 1947.
Synopsis In 1947 Simone de Beauvoir made her first long-awaited trip to America, travelling intrepidly from coast to coast by car, train and Greyhound bus. America Day by Day is her absorbing account of her travels around the country, from New York to Hollywood, New Mexico to Texas, Louisiana to Washington, DC. She rode a pony through the Grand Canyon, listened to jazz in New Orleans and, with Nelson Algren as her guide, visited the dives and flophouses of Chicago.
America Day by Day bursts with descriptions of landscapes and cities, and with exhilarating analyses of American architecture, advertisements, food, politics, clothing and sexual mores. De Beauvoir was disturbed by the poverty and segregation she encounted, but was delighted by American energy and friendliness. Many of de Beauvoir's observations remain startlingly fresh and relevant today, but the book is also a fascinating period piece on postwar America.
'A forgotten gem . . . America Day by Day, hidden from us for nearly fifty years, comes to the reader like a dusty bottle of vintage French cognac, asking only to be uncorked' New York Times
'She thrills at the sparkling wealth of the country, at New York's cosmopolitanism, and at the wonders of the landscape' Sunday Times...more
