At the Existentialist Café (63 page)

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Authors: Sarah Bakewell

Tags: #Modern, #Movements, #Philosophers, #Biography & Autobiography, #Existentialism, #Literary, #Philosophy, #20th Century, #History

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67
  Plays in Prague: ASAD, 358.
Dirty Hands
was staged in Nov.,
The Flies
in Dec. 1968. See Contat & Rybalka (eds),
The Writings of Jean-Paul Sartre
, I, 89.

68
  ‘Is he passé?’: Antonin Liehm,
The Politics of Culture
(New York: Grove Press, 1973), 146 (interview with Milan Kundera, tr. P. Kussi; originally published 1968).

69
  Words have weight: Havel,
Letters to Olga
, 306 (10 April 1982).

70
  ‘Everything goes’: Philip Roth, in George Plimpton (ed.)
Writers at Work: the Paris Review interviews
, 7th series (New York: Penguin, 1988), 267–98, this 296. (Interview by Hermione Lee, originally published in the
Paris Review
(Summer 1983–Winter 1984).

71
  Becoming the heir: Kohák,
Jan Patočka
, xi, translating Patočka, ‘Erinnerungen an Husserl’, in Walter Biemel (ed.),
Die Welt des Menschen

die Welt der Philosophie
(The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1976), vii–xix, this xv; Patočka also describes Husserl’s reluctance to share him with Heidegger: x.

72
  Whole evening on a few lines: Shore, ‘Out of the Desert’, 14–15.

73
  Patočka’s sessions: Paul Wilson, introduction to Havel,
Letters to Olga
, 18, citing Václav Havel, ‘The Last Conversation’ (1977), in
Václav Havel o lidskou identitu
(
Václav Havel on Human Identity
), ed. Vilém Pri
em & Alexander Tomský (London: Rozmluvy, 1984), 198–9.

74
  ‘Solidarity of the shaken’: Patočka,
Heretical Essays in the Philosophy of History
, 134–5.

75
  Charter 77: ‘Charter 77 Manifesto’,
Telos
, 31 (1977), 148–50. Also see Jan Patočka, ‘Political Testament’,
Telos
, 31 (1977), 151–2. On this, see Kohák,
Jan Patočka
, 340–47.

76
  Philosophers: Aviezer Tucker,
The Philosophy and Politics of Czech Dissidence from Patočka to Havel
(Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2000), 2–3.

77
  Regular questioning: Michael Zantovsky,
Havel
(London: Atlantic Books, 2014), 182.

78
  Havel’s last meeting with Patočka: Paul Wilson, introduction to Havel,
Letters to Olga
, 18, citing Václav Havel, ‘The Last Conversation’ (1977), in
Václav Havel o lidskou identitu
(
Václav Havel on Human Identity
), ed. Vilém Prečan & Alexander Tomský (London: Rozmluvy, 1984), 198–9.

79
  ‘What is needed’: Patočka, ‘Political Testament’,
Telos
, 31 (1977), 151–2, this 151.

80
  Patočka’s death: Kohák,
Jan Patočka
, 3; Zantovsky,
Havel
, 183–4.

81
  Patočka’s funeral: Klíma,
My Crazy Century
, 350–51.

82
  Patočka’s papers: Shore, ‘Out of the Desert’, 14–15; Chvatík, ‘Geschichte und Vorgeschichte’.

83
  ‘The relentless persecution’: Paul Ricœur, ‘Patočka, Philosopher and Resister’, tr. David J. Parent,
Telos
, 31 (1977), 152–5, this 155. Originally published in
Le Monde
(19 March 1977).

84
  Greengrocer: Havel, ‘The Power of the Powerless’, 41–55.

85
  ‘Here and now’: ibid., 99.

86
  ‘Existential revolution’: ibid., 117–18.

Chapter 13: Having Once Tasted Phenomenology

1
    ‘The possibility’: BN, 568.

2
    ‘From elsewhere’: Beauvoir,
A Very Easy Death
, 91–2.

3
    One cannot have a relationship with death: Beauvoir,
Old Age
, 492.

4
    ‘It deprives us of phenomenology’: Richard Wollheim,
The Thread of Life
(Cambridge, MA: Yale University Press, 1999), 269.

5
    Camus crash and manuscript: Lottman,
Albert Camus
, 5.

6
    Beauvoir and death of Camus: FOC, 496–7.

7
    Sartre and death of Camus: Sartre, ‘Albert Camus’, in
Situations
[IV], 107–12. Originally published in
France-Observateur
(7 Jan. 1960).

8
    Camus an ethical thinker: ‘Simone de Beauvoir tells Studs Terkel How She Became an Intellectual and Feminist’ (1960), audio interview, online at:
http://www.openculture.com/2014/11/simone-de-beauvoir-talks-with-studs-terkel-1960.html
.

9
    Wright’s death and suspicions: Rowley,
Richard Wright
, 524–5. Bismuth salts: 504.

10
  Wright’s haiku: some are included in Ellen Wright & Michel Fabre (eds),
Richard Wright Reader
(New York: Harper & Row, 1978), 251–4. Others are online:
http://terebess.hu/english/haiku/wright.html
.

11
  Merleau-Ponty’s death: Ronald Bonan,
Apprendre à philosopher avec Merleau-Ponty
(Paris: Ellipses, 2010), 12; Gandillac,
Le siècle traversé
, 372; Emmanuelle Garcia, ‘Maurice Merleau-Ponty: vie et œuvre’, in Merleau-Ponty,
Œuvres
, 27–99, this 93.

12
  Sartre on Merleau-Ponty’s death: Sartre, ‘Merleau-Ponty’, in
Situations
[IV], 225–326, this 320. Originally published as ‘Merleau-Ponty vivant’, in
Les Temps modernes
, 17e année, 184–5 (Oct. 1961), 304–76.

13
  Jaspers warning of early death: Gens,
Karl Jaspers
, 50 (Gertrud Jaspers to Arendt, 10 Jan. 1966).

14
  Heidegger and Gertrud Jaspers telegrams: ibid., 206 (Heidegger to Gertrud Jaspers, 2 March 1969; Gertrud Jaspers to Heidegger, 2 March 1969).

15
  Jaspers on Norderney: Jaspers, ‘Self-Portrait’, 3.

16
  Arendt helping the Heideggers: Woessner,
Heidegger in America
, 109–11.

17
  Arendt on Heidegger: Arendt, ‘Martin Heidegger at Eighty’, in Murray (ed.),
Heidegger and Modern Philosophy
, 293–303, this 301. Originally published in the
New York Review of Books
(Oct. 1971).

18
  Heidegger knew what was expected: Petzet,
Encounters and Dialogues
, 91.

19
  Book-dealers’ windows: Gerhart Baumann,
Erinnerungen an Paul Celan
(Frankfurt am Main: Suhrkamp, 1992), 58–82, this 66; James K. Lyon,
Paul Celan and Martin Heidegger: an unresolved conversation, 1951–1970
(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2006), 168.

20
  Poem: Paul Celan, ‘Todtnauberg’, in
Poems of Paul Celan
, tr. Michael Hamburger (London: Anvil Press, 1988), 292–5 (in German and English).

21
  ‘Desert-like’: Heidegger,
Sojourns
, 37.

22
  ‘I will be allowed’: Safranski,
Martin Heidegger
, 401 (Heidegger to Kästner, 21 Feb. 1960).

23
  ‘Hotels’ and ‘set free’: Heidegger,
Sojourns
, 12, 19.

24
  Athens: ibid., 36, 39–42.

25
  ‘This single gesture’ and ‘knew how to inhabit’: ibid., 43–4.

26
  Cameras: ibid., 54.

27
  Cup of Exekias: ibid., 57, and 70n20. It is in the State Collection of Antiquities in Munich.

28
  ‘Where is it written?’ and ‘According’: Heidegger, ‘ “Only a God can Save Us”:
Der Spiegel
’s Interview with Martin Heidegger’, in Wolin,
The Heidegger Controversy
, 91–116, this 106. The interview was published only after his death, in
Der Spiegel
(31 May 1976). The translation, by Maria P. Alter and John D. Caputo, was originally published in
Philosophy Today
XX (4/4) (1976), 267–85.

29
  Conversations with Welte: Safranski,
Martin Heidegger
, 432, citing Welte, ‘Erinnerung an ein spätes Gespräch’, 251. On Heidegger and the theme of homecoming, see also Robert Mugerauer,
Heidegger and Homecoming: the leitmotif in the later writings
(Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2008), and Brendan O’Donoghue,
A Poetics of Homecoming: Heidegger, homelessness and the homecoming venture
(Newcastle upon Tyne: Cambridge Scholars, 2011).

30
  Fritz Heidegger and the
Fastnacht
speeches: Raymond Geuss, ‘Heidegger and His Brother’, in
Politics and Imagination
(Princeton & Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2010), 142–50, this 142–3. On Fritz Heidegger generally, see Zimmermann,
Martin und Fritz Heidegger
; Safranski,
Martin Heidegger
, 8–9, citing Andreas Müller,
Der Scheinwerfer: Anekdoten und Geschichten um Fritz Heidegger
(Messkirch: Armin Gmeiner, 1989), 9–11; and (esp. for ‘Da-da-dasein’ and ‘supermarket on the moon’) Luzia Braun, ‘Da-da-dasein. Fritz Heidegger: Holzwege zur Sprache’, in
Die Zeit
(22 Sept. 1989).

31
  ‘It withdraws from man’: Heidegger,
Parmenides
, 85, cited in Polt,
Heidegger
, 174.

32
  Suggesting amendments: Safranski,
Martin Heidegger
, 8; Raymond Geuss, ‘Heidegger and His Brother’, in
Politics and Imagination
(Princeton & Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2010), 142–50, this 149.

33
  ‘For years’: Sartre, ‘J’écris pour dire que je n’écris pas’ (undated note), in
Les Mots
, 1,266–7.

34
  
Sartre By Himself
. The film was shot in Feb.–March 1972 and first shown
at Cannes on 27 May 1976. On watching it together: Beauvoir ‘A Farewell to Sartre’,
Adieux
, 85. On watching TV despite near-blindness: Todd,
Un fils rebelle
, 20.

35
  Refused to be sad: Sartre, ‘Self-Portrait at Seventy’, in
Sartre in the Seventies
(
Situations X
), 3–92, this 4.

36
  Strokes, memory, teeth: Hayman,
Writing Against
, 416–17.

37
  ‘Nothing’: Beauvoir, ‘A Farewell to Sartre’,
Adieux
, 65.

38
  ‘Sartre,
petit père
’: Todd,
Un fils rebelle
, 30.

39
  Pro-Communist views, anti-Semitism book, violence: Sartre & Lévy,
Hope Now
, 63–4, 92, 100–103. The interviews were originally published in
Le nouvel observateur
(10, 17, 24 March 1980).

40
  A lesser evil, ‘a thought created’: ibid., 73.

41
  Beauvoir’s opinion: Ronald Aronson, ‘Introduction’, ibid., 3–40, this 7.

42
  Aron’s opinion: ibid., 8, citing Aron, ‘Sartre à “Apostrophes” ’,
Liberation/Sartre
(1980), 49. Other people also had concerns: Edward Said wrote of meeting Sartre and Beauvoir in Paris in 1979, and being shocked at the extent to which Lévy spoke on Sartre’s behalf over lunch. When Said asked to hear Sartre speak for himself, Lévy hesitated then said he would do it the next day. He did, but from a prepared text that Said suspected was written by Lévy. Edward Said, ‘Diary: an encounter with Sartre’,
London Review of Books
(1 June 2000). On the wider context of the interview and Sartre’s collaboration with Lévy, see J.-P. Boulé,
Sartre médiatique
(Paris: Minard, 1992), 205–15.

43
  Photographers: Hayman,
Writing Against
, 437, referring esp. to a shot clearly taken with a long-range lens in
Match
.

44
  ‘His death does separate us’: Beauvoir, ‘A Farewell to Sartre’, in
Adieux
, 127.

45
  Aron’s and Sartre’s deal: Aron,
Memoirs
, 450.

46
  ‘Touching articles’: Aron,
The Committed Observer
, 146.

47
  Aron’s death: Stanley Hoffman, ‘Raymond Aron (1905–1983)’,
New York Review of Books
(8 Dec. 1983).

48
  Beauvoir’s work in late years: Bair,
Simone de Beauvoir
, 611–12; ASAD, 69.

49
  ‘These funny sort’ and ‘such an unlikely thing’: Forster & Sutton (eds),
Daughters of de Beauvoir
, 19, 17 (Kate Millett interview).

50
  Cirrhosis: Bair,
Simone de Beauvoir
, 612–13.

51
  Death, funeral and reading: ibid., 615–16.

52
  ‘I think with sadness’: FOC, 674.

53
  ‘One of those cloche hats’: Beauvoir,
Old Age
, 406.

54
  ‘Childish amazement’: ASAD, 9.

55
  ‘I was born in Paris’: ASAD, 10.

56
  ‘Heidegger: the pursuit of Being’: Murdoch’s Heidegger manuscript (typed version, corrected in her hand) is in the Murdoch Archive at the University of Kingston, KUAS6/5/1/4; a manuscript version is at the University of Iowa. Parts have been published in an edition based on both texts by Justin Broackes: Murdoch, ‘
Sein und Zeit
: pursuit of Being’, in Broackes (ed.),
Iris Murdoch, Philosopher
, 93–114.

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