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August 18, 2006
WB: Being and Nothingness
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Interestingly enough, my first thought upon seeing the title of the post was of Jean-Paul Sartre’s Being and Nothingness, of which I had to read for a college class, on further inspection I found out Sartre was the head of the Organization to Defend Iranian Political Prisoners from 1964 till the victory of the Islamic Revolution. I had no ideal. Odd the things one finds on these matters. Also found out Sartre was friends with Camus of which I also had no idea.
Here is a short transcript of an imaginary stand-up comedy bit by Sartre, c.1943 that we read in class:
SCENE: an underground cafe in Nazi-occupied Paris. Sartre and the
entire audience wear black. Everyone wears a beret. Sartre, standing in
front of a red brick wall, delivers witty bon mots and asides between
long pauses. Every line gets a hearty guffaw. An example of his
material: “I don’t want to say my girlfriend Simone de Beauvoir has a
dynamite set of fun-bags, but if she got killed by the SS I think I’d
mourn those tits unto death.” Sartre intermittently makes furtive
glances from side to side, as if…”paranoid” about something? He ends
with this bit:
Jean-Paul Sartre: In closing, I’d just like to read a bit from my
latest book, _Being and Nothingness_. If you’ll indulge me, comrades?
Ladies and germs and gendarmes?
[An explosion is heard in the distance. Sartre and the crowd seem to
take notice for about one second, then resume their attention]
[JPS clears his throat, takes a long sip from a demitasse of espresso,
finds his bookmarked page, then intones]
I carry the weight of the world by myself alone without anything or any
person being able to lighten it… I am abandoned in the world…alone
and without help, engaged in a world for which I bear the whole
responsibility without being able, whatever I do, to tear myself away
from this responsibility for an instant. [RAUCOUS LAUGHTER] Thank you
and don’t forget to tip your waitress! [SARTRE BOWS SLIGHTLY, HIS
MASSIVE BLACK-FRAMED COKE BOTTLE GLASSES SLIDE OFF HIS NOSE AND HIT THE
STAGE. HE PICKS THEM UP WITH DIGNITY AND GRACE.]
[APPLAUSE]
I’m doing another show at midnight! So unless I’m killed by the
Gestapo, be here or be square! Goodnight! Until then [WAVING] au
revoir! [MORE APPLAUSE]
[THE CROWD FILES OUT SILENTLY]
Oh yes! If we all get through this, you might catch me at a rock
concert in Ingolstadt in 1969 or so.
[A few members of the crowd filing out look back at Sartre, eyes
furrowed, grim visages of quizzical looks.]
[Sartre fades into the backstage set, slowly, almost imperceptibly,
like the Cheshire Cat’s smile, and only Sartre’s beret remains twenty
minutes later.]
-CURTAIN-
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 18 2006 18:10 utc | 1
Lol @ “My Sharona” in Bush’s Ipod.
That’s perfect. 🙂
Posted by: A frequent visitor | Aug 18 2006 19:32 utc | 2
If it wasn’t for Sartre, Woody Allen would never have made it as a stand-up comedian. Ever read any of his old work, before he got caught up in his tiresome solipsistic sexual neuroses?
Satre and Camus were friends, indeed, until they had a permanent falling out, principally on the Algeria question.
Anyway, Ronald Aronson wrote a book about their relationship two years ago. Google around if you are interested, there are many more compelling reviews on the web then this simple synopsis.
I went through my Camus phase shortly after toilet training, much like the President. Now, I’m more of a Sartre fan.
Posted by: Malooga | Aug 18 2006 19:41 utc | 3
cheers for sartre here too, my portal into philodophy, leading to husserl, merleau-ponty (my favorite) & hegal & others — indispensable
Posted by: anna missed | Aug 18 2006 20:00 utc | 5
Sarte may have been the better, and more interesting, philosopher, but Camus was the better writer, by more than just a long shot.
Posted by: billmon | Aug 18 2006 21:33 utc | 6
Being an intellectual dimwit here, but is Camus reading by Dubya just a Rove spin to get the French to fuck Hezbollah?
Posted by: Cloned Poster | Aug 18 2006 22:21 utc | 8
Sartre and Jeanson were busy smuggling money to FLN while W was taking his first crack at ‘My Pet Goat.’
Interesting reading.
Posted by: biklett | Aug 19 2006 0:42 utc | 9
Cloned:
In my opinion, the report of Bushs’ reading Camus makes him a laughingstock. If I were him I would be trying to find who wanted to back door me like that. Everyone knows the man is an idiot, and having him do a “Book Report” on such a sophisticated author just makes him look more ridiculous, not less. Maybe there is a Moon mole in the White House Press Office? What a delicious thought (fantasy).
Posted by: Elie | Aug 19 2006 1:54 utc | 10
Butt, Elie, ever given consideration to the thought that Jr. may like being backdoored? ;-p hehe…
On a serious note, I have mentioned before, with every act or undertaking by these jackels, –and I mean every single one– seems to have a under current of dark abnormal sexual deviance to them. Or is it moi? Welcome to Sadian Empire.
“Why don’t NRA buddies Charlton Heston and Ted Nugent get in the closet, put down their real guns and use their love guns on each other” – From riot grrl rockers L7’s ~Suzi Gardner
Posted by: Uncle $cam | Aug 19 2006 3:56 utc | 11
@ Uncle $:
I’ve thought for some time that the entire power structure of the current empire had to do with who was up whose, literally. “Turd-blossom”? It’s Karl likes being backdoored. The Bohemian Club? Anybody’s guess.
“Call me butt love,..”
Posted by: catlady | Aug 19 2006 7:29 utc | 12
“Is Camus reading by Dubya just a Rove spin to get the French to fuck Hezbollah?”
I think Elie is right. It’s probably an attempt to counteract the recent resurgence of the Bush-is-an-idiot meme. The PR boys chose Camus because they knew it was a name that every American with a year of state college would recognize.
The thought of Bush reading Camus has put a smile on my face that will last all day.
Posted by: ch | Aug 19 2006 11:18 utc | 13
I read “The Stranger” when I was six. Seriously. I found it in the bathroom by the toilet, so I picked it up and started reading. It was much more interesting than the stuff they were trying to get me to read. I got a good deal of the absurdist and existential stuff, but I was clueless about the historical underpinings.
For that matter, history did not make sense at all to me until my thirties. I saw it as the useless memorization of facts — something I was not very good at. Only after I was old enough to to have experienced historical change myself did I come to understand that history of the chronicle of change, and the human faculty to effect change against all odds.
Posted by: Malooga | Aug 19 2006 13:48 utc | 14