At the Existentialist Café (55 page)

65
  Selecting safe elements: for example, American philosopher Marjorie Grene attended Heidegger’s lectures and read
Being and Time
in the early 1930s. She agonised over the Nazi question for sixty years, then wrote in her
Philosophical Testament
(1995) that she would have liked to dismiss Heidegger as unimportant but could not, and therefore had decided to preserve what was essential in his thought, assimilate it to a ‘more adequate framework’, and abandon the rest. Marjorie Grene,
A Philosophical Testament
(Chicago & La Salle, IL: Open Court, 1995), 76–9. Grene’s
Heidegger
(New York: Hillary House, 1957) was one of the first books devoted to Heidegger in English.

66
  ‘Solicitude’: BT, 157–9/121–2.

67
  
No
character:
Arendt & Jaspers,
Hannah Arendt/Karl Jaspers Correspondence
, 142 (Arendt to Jaspers, 29 Sept. 1949).

68
  ‘Heidegger has no character’: Sartre, ‘A More Precise Characterization of Existentialism’, in Contat & Rybalka (eds),
The Writings of Jean-Paul Sartre
, II, 155–60, this 156. For more on the notion of character in Sartre, see Webber,
The Existentialism of Jean-Paul Sartre
.

69
  ‘The darkening of the world’: Heidegger,
Introduction to Metaphysics
, 40.

70
  ‘Thin stammering’ and ‘The manifold uncanny’: Heidegger & Jaspers,
The Heidegger–Jaspers Correspondence
, 151 (Heidegger to Jaspers, 1 July 1935). This is the ‘Ode on Man’ chorus from Sophocles,
Antigone
V, 332–75, this 332. Heidegger’s German version is:
‘Vielfältig das Unheimliche, nichts doch / über den Menschen hinaus Unheimlicheres ragend sich regt’
(GA, 13, 35). The line could be rendered more conventionally as ‘Wonders are many, and none is more wonderful than man’ (tr. R. C. Jebb) or ‘Many things are formidable, and none more formidable than man!’ (tr. Hugh Lloyd-Jones). The word translated as ‘formidable’ or ‘wonderful’ is
deinà
(
deinos
), also meaning ‘terrible’; it features in Heidegger’s later discussions of technology. Heidegger’s translation, ‘Chorlied aus der Antigone des Sophocles’, is in
Aus der Erfahrung des Denkens
, 35–6; he had it privately printed in 1943 as a birthday present for Elfride (GA, 13, 246n).

71
  
Die Kehre
: This interpretation was first put forward in 1963 by William J. Richardson, an extraordinary American scholar who, as he said, developed it while living ‘in quasi-isolation as chaplain to a group of Benedictine nuns in a renovated Black Forest cloister’. William J. Richardson, ‘An Unpurloined Autobiography’, in James R. Watson (ed.),
Portraits of American Continental Philosophers
(Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1999), 147, cited Woessner,
Heidegger in America
, 200. See Richardson,
Heidegger: through phenomenology to thought
. His interpretation has mostly prevailed since, though some do differ: see for example Sheehan,
Making Sense of Heidegger: a paradigm shift
.

72
  Rejecting Berlin job, and ensuing quotes below: Heidegger, ‘Why Do I Stay in the Provinces?’, in Sheehan (ed.),
Heidegger: the man and the thinker
, 27–30; see also editor’s note
30n
.

73
  Brender: see Walter Biemel, ‘Erinnerungen an Heidegger’, in
Allgemeine Zeitschrift für Philosophie
, 2/1 (1977), 1–23, this 14.

74
  ‘All things become solitary and slow’: Heidegger, ‘The Thinker as Poet’, in
Poetry, Language, Thought
, 1–14, this 9. The line has been inscribed as a sign above a bench in Todtnauberg.

75
  ‘Personal destiny’:
Hannah Arendt, ‘What Remains? The Language Remains’, in P. Baehr (ed.),
The Portable Hannah Arendt
(New York: Penguin, 2003), 3–22, this 5–6 (an interview with Günter Gaus on West German TV, 28 Oct. 1964). Their escape: Young-Bruehl,
Hannah Arendt
, 105–8.

76
  Husserl not leaving Germany: Van Breda, ‘Die Rettung von Husserls Nachlass und die Gründung des Husserl-Archivs — The Rescue of Husserl’s
Nachlass
and the Founding of the Husserl-Archives’, 47.

77
  ‘He was a strongly monological type’: Max Müller, ‘Martin Heidegger: a philosopher and politics: a conversation’, in Neske & Kettering (eds),
Martin Heidegger and National Socialism
, 175–95, this 186 (interview of 1 May 1985).

78
  Husserl’s Prague letter: ‘Lettre de M. le professeur Husserl: An den Präsidenten des VIII. internationalen Philosophen-Kongresses Herrn Professor Dr Rádl in Prag’, in
Actes du huitième Congrès international de Philosophie à Prague 2–7 septembre 1934
(Prague: Comité d’organisation du Congrès, 1936), xli-xlv.

79
  ‘Heroism of reason’: Husserl, ‘Vienna Lecture’, in
Crisis
, Appendix I, 269–99, this 290–99.

80
  Publication of
Crisis
: David Carr, ‘Introduction’, in Husserl,
Crisis
, xvii.

81
  Husserl’s last words: Ronald Bruzina,
Edmund Husserl and Eugen Fink: beginnings and ends in phenomenology, 1928–1938
(New Haven: Yale University Press, 2004), 69, citing translated notes made by Husserl’s daughter Elisabeth Husserl Rosenberg, ‘Aufzeichnungen aus Gesprächen mit Edmund Husserl während seiner letzten Krankheit im Jahre 1938’, in the Husserl Archives. On Husserl’s illness, see also David Carr, ‘Introduction’, in Husserl,
Crisis
, xvii.

82
  ‘He died like a holy man’: Malvine Husserl & Karl Schumann, ‘Malvine Husserls “Skizze eines Lebensbildes von E. Husserl” ’, Husserl Studies 5(2) (1988), 105–25, this 118.

83
  Fear of desecration of grave: Van Breda, ‘Die Rettung von Husserls Nachlass und die Gründung des Husserl-Archivs — The Rescue of Husserl’s
Nachlass
and the Founding of the Husserl-Archives’, 66.

84
  Heidegger missing funeral: in a 1985 interview, Max Müller recalled that Heidegger ‘was missing from Husserl’s funeral, like most colleagues of his faculty, because he was ill’. Max Müller, ‘Martin Heidegger: a philosopher and politics: a conversation’, in Neske & Kettering (eds),
Martin Heidegger and National Socialism
, 175–95, this 187.

Chapter 5: To Crunch Flowering Almonds

1
    Sartre proselytising for Husserl: Merleau-Ponty, ‘The Philosophy of Existence’, in
Texts and Dialogues
, 129–39, this 134. Beauvoir reading him: POL, 201.

2
    ‘Like waking up’: Wilson,
Dreaming to Some Purpose
, 234.

3
    Sartre’s drug experience: Sartre, ‘Notes sur la prise de mescaline’ (1935), in
Les Mots, etc
., 1,222–33; also POL, 209–10; and
Sartre By Himself
, 38.

4
    Naples: Sartre, ‘Foods’, in Contat & Rybalka (eds),
The Writings of Jean-Paul Sartre
, II, 60–63.

5
    Contingency notebook: Flynn,
Sartre: a philosophical biography
, 15. On the history of
Melancholia
and other manuscript versions in the Bibliothèque nationale, see M. Contat, ‘De “Melancholia” à
La nausée
: la normalisation
NRF
de la contingence’ (21 Jan. 2007), at ITEM (L’Institut des textes et manuscrits modernes):
http://www.item.ens.fr/index.php?id=27113
. (Revised version of article originally published in
Dix-neuf/Vingt
, 10 (Oct. 2000)

6
    Pebble, doorknob, beer glass: Sartre,
Nausea
, 9–10, 13, 19.

7
    ‘I must say’: ibid., 9.

8
    ‘I slumped on the bench’: ibid., 190.

9
    ‘Some of These Days’: ibid., 35–8. Sartre writes that the song is sung by a ‘Negress’, but George Cotkin points out that it was more likely to have been the Jewish singer Sophie Tucker, whose signature tune it was: Cotkin,
Existential America
, 162.

10
  ‘Beautiful and hard as steel’: Sartre,
Nausea
, 252.

11
  Ghost story: Sartre,
Words
, 95–6. Lucien: Sartre, ‘The Childhood of a Leader’, in
Intimacy
, 130–220, this 138.

12
  Berlin tree: Gerassi,
Sartre
, 115 (interview of 23 April 1971).

13
  ‘It’s not just a question’: Sartre,
Words
, 101.

14
  ‘There is a part of everything’: quoted in Francis Steegmuller,
Maupassant: a lion in the path
(London: Macmillan, 1949), 60.

15
  Necessity idea from film: POL, 48.

16
  Chaplin: POL, 244. Keaton: ASAD, 197.

17
  ‘Wet with existence’: Sartre,
Nausea
, 148.

18
  Honey and sucking: BN, 628–9. For a note on how to translate ‘
le visqueux
’, see BN, 625n.

19
  Marcel gave him the idea: Gabriel Marcel, ‘Existence and Human Freedom’, in
The Philosophy of Existence
, 36.

20
  Fronds of algae:
Sartre and Jacques-Laurent Bost in
Sartre By Himself
, 41–2.

21
  
‘Il y a’
: Levinas,
On Escape
, 52, 56, 66–7. Levinas developed the ideas further in ‘Il y a’, an article of 1946 incorporated into
De l’existence à l’existant
(
Existence and Existents
) in 1947. His friend Maurice Blanchot also used the concept.

22
  ‘As if the emptiness were full’: Levinas,
Ethics and Infinity
, tr. R. Cohen (Pittsburgh: Duquesne University Press, 1985), 48 (radio interviews with Philippe Nemo, Feb.–March 1981).

23
  ‘As though they no longer’: Levinas,
Existence and Existents
, 54.

24
  Escape through art, etc.: Levinas,
On Escape
, 69, 73.

25
  Observed similarities: see Jacques Rolland, ‘Getting Out of Being by a New Path’, ibid., 3–48, this 15 and 103n4; and Michael J. Brogan, ‘Nausea and the Experience of the “
il y a
”: Sartre and Levinas on brute existence’,
Philosophy Today
, 45(2) (Summer 2001), 144–53.

26
  Reading Husserl and Heidegger too much: Sartre,
War Diaries
, 183–4. He returned to Heidegger during the war, reading it in German. Amazingly, no full French translation of
Being and Time
appeared until a privately printed one by Emmanuel Martineau in 1985, then a Gallimard publication by François Vezin in 1986. See Gary Gutting,
French Philosophy in the Twentieth Century
(Cambridge: CUP, 2001), 106n.

27
  Should not accept brute Being: Levinas,
On Escape
, 73.

28
  ‘A swelling, like a bubble’: Sartre,
Witness to My Life
, 16 (Sartre to Simone Jollivet, undated letter of 1926).

29
  Phenomenologists’ novels not dull: Beauvoir, ‘Literature and Metaphysics’, in
Philosophical Writings
, 275.

30
  Beauvoir encouraging suspense: POL, 106. Whodunnit:
Sartre By Himself
, 41.

31
  Sartre’s and Gallimard’s titles: Cohen-Solal,
Sartre
, 116.

32
  Heavy head: Beauvoir,
She Came to Stay
, 164.

33
  ‘But the situation is concrete’: cited by Merleau-Ponty, ‘Metaphysics and the Novel’, in
Sense and Non-Sense
, 26–40, this 26.

34
  ‘Reality should no longer’: POL, 365.

35
  ‘It’s a table’, and other remarks here: Sartre,
War Diaries
, 83–5.

36
  ‘I’m no longer sure’: MDD, 344.

37
  Women in the École normale supérieure: Moi,
Simone de Beauvoir
, 49.

38
  Merleau-Ponty’s looks: Beauvoir,
Cahiers de jeunesse
, 362 (29 June 1927).

39
  ‘Limpid’, and mother liked him: MDD, 246–8.

40
  Happy childhood:
Emmanuelle Garcia, ‘Maurice Merleau-Ponty: vie et œuvre’, in Merleau-Ponty,
Œuvres
, 27–99, this 30, citing radio interview with Georges Charbonnier (22 May 1959). Merleau-Ponty’s happy childhood is also mentioned by Beauvoir in MDD, 246 and FOC, 70.

41
  ‘Is present, the dough’: Sartre,
The Family Idiot
, I, 141.

42
  ‘He is not violent’ and ‘I feel myself’: Beauvoir,
Cahiers de jeunesse
, 388 (29 July 1927).

43
  ‘A small band of the chosen’ and most other remarks in this and following paragraphs: MDD, 246–8.

44
  ‘Oh, how untormented’: MDD, 260.

45
  Brother: Beauvoir,
Cahiers de jeunesse
, 648 (12 May 1929).

46
  ‘Invulnerable’: Lacoin, Zaza, 223; MDD, 248. See the letters in Lacoin,
Zaza
for the whole story, especially 357, 363, 369.

47
  Bourgeois hypocrisy: Bair,
Simone de Beauvoir
, 151–3; MDD, 359–60.

48
  Haircut: Sartre,
Words
, 66.

49
  ‘About contingency, violence’:
Sartre By Himself
, 20.

50
  Sartre’s gang: MDD, 336.

51
  Beauvoir not wanting to follow mother: POL, 77.

52
  ‘There was a kind of balustrade’: POL, 23.

53
  ‘We dropped it’: Beauvoir,
Beloved Chicago Man
, 212 (Beauvoir to Algren, 8 Aug. 1948).

54
  Failures in honesty: see Todd,
Un fils rebelle
, 117; Bair,
Simone de Beauvoir
, 172.