B E B E R E

Different means of sacrifice for a common cause? Different expressions of a shared feeling?

Their relationship sounds an awful lot like the “deal” that Diego Riviera and Frida Kahlo had. Kahlo felt her husband to be a great man with great appetites, so allowed him his indiscretions – much like Beauvoir did with Sartre.

Not a huge fan of Sartre myself, I’d often wondered what de Beauvoir saw in him. I remember seeing a televised interview with the couple where he was always calling her those little names like “poussin” or “ma petite carrotte,” etc. Housewifey things as if to be poking fun at her life’s work and philosophy.

***Simone Weil (a modern-day Jeanne D’Arc), who graduated ahead of her at the Ecole Normale Superieure, would have nothing to do with her, from accounts I’d read, as she considered her a little bourgeoise.

Have not gotten through La Deuxieme Sexe, but maybe will some day. I remember reading and loving her Sang des Autres – an account of giving one’s self up for a cause, and, in my opinion, a great possible 'epanouissement' of Sartre’s Existentialism.