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This book is full with so many interesting facts about Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone De Beauvoir, Martin Heidegger and other existentialists.
A Sweeping History of 20th century Existentialism + a good intro for fans of "The Good Place*"
Review of the Vintage Canada paperback edition (2017) of the Chatto & Windus hardcover original (2016)
Sarah Bakewell performs an impressive and engrossing feat of condensing the lives and works of a few dozen Twentieth Century philosophers and sometime fiction writers and playwrights into a relatively slim 400+ pages. It is a personalized story as well, as she often mentions when she herself discovered these same writers in her own reading life and shares comments on favourite passages and books.
Despite their often paradoxical defenses of "odious regimes" (Heidegger - Nazism & Sartre - Communism) the human love of freedom of choice and individualism still shines through in these life histories. The stories are especially humanized through the often quirky anecdotes that Bakewell has collected e.g. once Sartre and Beauvoir saw a sea elephant (ie. sea lion) being fed in a zoo. It had its snout in the air as fish were being poured down its gullet by the zookeeper. Later in life, if Sartre ever felt glum all Beauvoir had to do was remind him of that story, Sartre would stick his nose up in the air and all would be right again with the world.
Aside from a crash course in Existentialist writings, there is trivia aplenty about writers such as Jean Genet and Albert Camus and many others. Did you know that E.M. Forster wrote a 1909 short story "The Machine Stops" that basically predicted the internet and tablets/smart phones? I'd never heard of it before until reading about it here.
All this and also the greatest valedictory passage ever. this side of Roy Batty ("I've seen things you people wouldn't believe, etc...") in the original "Blade Runner," and written by Simone de Beauvoir even 23 years before her passing. It is at the top of page 313 in the Vintage Canada edition, towards the end of Chapter 13.
Don't let the $10 words like Phenomenology and Existentialism intimidate you. Think of them as simply "experience without preconception" and "freedom of choice" and relax and learn. You are in the hands of a master communicator/educator with Sarah Bakewell.
*
My thanks to Liisa for this book! A return thank you is on its way to you.
Review of the Vintage Canada paperback edition (2017) of the Chatto & Windus hardcover original (2016)
Sarah Bakewell performs an impressive and engrossing feat of condensing the lives and works of a few dozen Twentieth Century philosophers and sometime fiction writers and playwrights into a relatively slim 400+ pages. It is a personalized story as well, as she often mentions when she herself discovered these same writers in her own reading life and shares comments on favourite passages and books.
Despite their often paradoxical defenses of "odious regimes" (Heidegger - Nazism & Sartre - Communism) the human love of freedom of choice and individualism still shines through in these life histories. The stories are especially humanized through the often quirky anecdotes that Bakewell has collected e.g. once Sartre and Beauvoir saw a sea elephant (ie. sea lion) being fed in a zoo. It had its snout in the air as fish were being poured down its gullet by the zookeeper. Later in life, if Sartre ever felt glum all Beauvoir had to do was remind him of that story, Sartre would stick his nose up in the air and all would be right again with the world.
Aside from a crash course in Existentialist writings, there is trivia aplenty about writers such as Jean Genet and Albert Camus and many others. Did you know that E.M. Forster wrote a 1909 short story "The Machine Stops" that basically predicted the internet and tablets/smart phones? I'd never heard of it before until reading about it here.
All this and also the greatest valedictory passage ever. this side of Roy Batty ("I've seen things you people wouldn't believe, etc...") in the original "Blade Runner," and written by Simone de Beauvoir even 23 years before her passing. It is at the top of page 313 in the Vintage Canada edition, towards the end of Chapter 13.
I think with sadness of all the books I’ve read, all the places I’ve seen, all the knowledge I’ve amassed and that will be no more. All the music, all the paintings, all the culture, so many places: and suddenly nothing. They made no honey, those things, they can provide no one with any nourishment. At the most, if my books are still read, the reader will think: There wasn’t much she didn’t see! But that unique sum of things, the experience that I lived, with all its order and its randomness — the Opera of Peking, the arena of Huelva, the candomblé in Bahía, the dunes of El-Oued, Wabansia Avenue, the dawns in Provence, Tiryns, Castro talking to five hundred thousand Cubans, a sulphur sky over a sea of clouds, the purple holly, the white nights of Leningrad, the bells of the Liberation, an orange moon over the Piraeus, a red sun rising over the desert, Torcello, Rome, all the things I’ve talked about, others I have left unspoken — there is no place where it will all live again. - Simone de Beauvoir as quoted in At the Existentialist Café
Don't let the $10 words like Phenomenology and Existentialism intimidate you. Think of them as simply "experience without preconception" and "freedom of choice" and relax and learn. You are in the hands of a master communicator/educator with Sarah Bakewell.
*
Spoiler
Yes, TV's "The Good Place" has more to do with Sartre's "No Exit" than you might think. ;)My thanks to Liisa for this book! A return thank you is on its way to you.
An exploration into the social milieu into which existentialism emerged. Centring on Sartre and de Beauvoir, this is both a lively history as well as an interesting exploration into the philosophical concepts.
The book concentrates mainly On Heideggar and Husserl and their influence on the Existentialists. Obviously ww2 and Nazism were seminal in coalescing the philosophy, then again you could always do Vipassana meditation and you have a less wanky philosophy than the one that liberated millions of fake beatnicks, queers and other dickheads and inspired them to become neo-liberal and free Capitalists. Fuck off.
I once had a fella who told me that I was an Existentialist. "Gee, thanks," I said all those years ago, having no idea what the philosophy entailed, but it sounded cool, so I rolled with it. Now that I've read this nifty chit-chat of a book, I'm convinced my guy had no idea what it meant either. If he had actually read about Existentialism, he would've name-dropped like there was no tomorrow, and I would already know how to pronounce the philosophers' names. But nope, I had to train my inner voice to play with French-ness while reading this book. (Sartre is "SART." De Beauvoir sounds like " duh beau-VWAH." or "duh beau-VWAR." I alternate between both in my mind because I am an ignorant honky.) There is also lots of German, which, strangely, is not a problem for my inner phonetic workings. (Das Hammerding. Zuhandenheit. Bring it.)
MOVING ON. Existentialism stems from an even longer word and concept known as Phenomenology. (Fee-no Mee-no lo-gee?) These philosophies approach religious or spiritual terms—we have "rapturous" moments; the philosophies speak of humanity becoming "dissolved" by a metaphysical power; humans are always searching for "meaning" and "purpose." Simone de Beauvoir could stare at a table and feel joyous because it was HERE with her and acting in all its TABLE-ish functionality. (Sartre never got much of a kick out of the "table" thing. He got transported into squeamishness by anything gooey or "viscous." He maybe got freaked out by a chestnut tree once—"It simply sat there refusing to make sense or tone itself down." This line makes me giggle. Goddamn tree! Knock it off!)
Overall, this book takes an extremely biographical approach to Existentialism. It devotes a handful of chapters to each heavy-hitter—the top three being Sartre, de Beauvoir, and Heidegger. And the following big names are given more like "supporting character" status: Arendt, Merleau-Ponty, Jaspers, Camus, Kierkegaard . . . It was a unique approach to a philosophy book. The author writes as if these people were her friends—sharing ideas, squabbling, traveling, fighting wars . . . However, the last chapters are a huge buzzkill as all the folks grow old, lose their minds and die. This is a good reason to avoid biographical approaches to topics.
But because this book has a fun and casual tone, it's like a conversation; it is FUN to read about this knotted, complicated philosophy. It ties Existentialism into history; it's a school heavily informed by wartime of the 20th century. It offers a fantastic perspective for anyone who finds themselves thrown into this crazy existence on Planet Earth (this is all of us). And it's a good book for people who think tables and trees are awesome.
Oh, and here's a joke quoted from the book . . . Jean-Paul Sartre walks into a cafe, and the waiter asks what he'd like to order. Sartre replies, "I'd like a cup of coffee with sugar, but no cream." The waiter goes off, but comes back apologizing "I'm sorry, Monsieur Sartre, we are all out of cream. How about with no milk?"
MOVING ON. Existentialism stems from an even longer word and concept known as Phenomenology. (Fee-no Mee-no lo-gee?) These philosophies approach religious or spiritual terms—we have "rapturous" moments; the philosophies speak of humanity becoming "dissolved" by a metaphysical power; humans are always searching for "meaning" and "purpose." Simone de Beauvoir could stare at a table and feel joyous because it was HERE with her and acting in all its TABLE-ish functionality. (Sartre never got much of a kick out of the "table" thing. He got transported into squeamishness by anything gooey or "viscous." He maybe got freaked out by a chestnut tree once—"It simply sat there refusing to make sense or tone itself down." This line makes me giggle. Goddamn tree! Knock it off!)
Overall, this book takes an extremely biographical approach to Existentialism. It devotes a handful of chapters to each heavy-hitter—the top three being Sartre, de Beauvoir, and Heidegger. And the following big names are given more like "supporting character" status: Arendt, Merleau-Ponty, Jaspers, Camus, Kierkegaard . . . It was a unique approach to a philosophy book. The author writes as if these people were her friends—sharing ideas, squabbling, traveling, fighting wars . . . However, the last chapters are a huge buzzkill as all the folks grow old, lose their minds and die. This is a good reason to avoid biographical approaches to topics.
But because this book has a fun and casual tone, it's like a conversation; it is FUN to read about this knotted, complicated philosophy. It ties Existentialism into history; it's a school heavily informed by wartime of the 20th century. It offers a fantastic perspective for anyone who finds themselves thrown into this crazy existence on Planet Earth (this is all of us). And it's a good book for people who think tables and trees are awesome.
Oh, and here's a joke quoted from the book . . . Jean-Paul Sartre walks into a cafe, and the waiter asks what he'd like to order. Sartre replies, "I'd like a cup of coffee with sugar, but no cream." The waiter goes off, but comes back apologizing "I'm sorry, Monsieur Sartre, we are all out of cream. How about with no milk?"
informative
medium-paced
Perf intro for existential dabblers. I think they get a thing or two wrong but I DONT REMEMBER WHICH!! :D
Early in this fantastic introduction to existentialism/historical biography of it’s most prominent thinkers, Bakewell mentions that for a while, existentialism had fallen out of fashion with academics. This gave me pause. I struggled to remember if one of our many philosophy professors had covered the existentialists when my bestie and I were in college – I couldn’t remember any of them every mentioning it. I checked with her, because she is my second brain, and she confirmed that I am not senile, and that over the course of our 2-year Liberal Arts degree, the entire existentialist movement had been gracefully glossed over by the faculty. Before I fell in love with Simone de Beauvoir a couple of years ago (https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/1888684165), all I had ever known about her, Sartre and Camus had been learned pillaging my mother’s library, and not at all from an academic context. But I found myself agreeing wholeheartedly with Bakewell: while the existentialists were put on the shelf for a while, I find their history and their thinking more relevant than ever, and well-worth exploring – or re-exploring!
“At the Existentialist Café” is one of those fantastic non-fiction book that is so well-written that it proves hard to put down, that explains complicated events and ways of thinking in simple terms yet does not talk down to the reader who may not be a phenomenology expert, and where the obvious love the author has for her subject does not make her forget it's darker facets.
Most people know the names of Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Maurice Merleau-Pointy and Martin Heiddeger, but not much about their lives, their ideas and their impact on culture. Sarah Bakewell discovered Sartre’s fiction as a teenager, and has clearly never fallen out of love with existentialism. With wit and compassion, she puts the philosophers in their social and historical context to illustrate how they came to develop their philosophy and how the course of history, especially World War II, influenced their thinking and their work. The biographies are not deep dives, but go a long way to make the work easier to relate to and make sense of.
Bakewell is also quite honest about her subjects’ ambiguities, contradictions and struggles to apply their philosophic principles to their lives as honestly as possible – which obviously opened the doors to may conflicts, fights and serious falling outs between them. But as she points out herself, people are often more interesting than idea, and these people were exceptionally interesting, partially because of their flaws.
As mentioned previously, I think that Bakewell is right to argue that the existentialists’ emphasis of authenticity and freedom are issues that concern us now more than ever, in the hyper-connected yet bizarrely shallow world we live in. But I also understand how mis-understandings and clichés have been factors that put the entire movement out of fashion in the 1990s and early 2000s. I feel like those years were less cynical, less morally confusing and less dangerous than the point we are at now, and that it must have felt like a bummer to think about being in bad faith and being responsible for one’s existence at a point where we were just excited about the new millennium.
To me, this is a fascinating subject, and I find significant overlaps between existentialism and many aspects of Zen Buddhism (both of which can be described as philosophies of action), and also with the ideas behind what one might call "punk philosophy" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0w4OeZWWTI).
Reading this made me shift “Nausea”, “The Mandarins” and “The Second Sex” a little closer to the top of my pile, and appreciate the Beauvoir and Camus books I’ve gobbled up over the past few years even more. If you have ever felt hazy about what existentialism is about, or if you are simply interested in the lives of Beauvoir, Sartre and their colleagues, I can’t recommend this book enough.
“At the Existentialist Café” is one of those fantastic non-fiction book that is so well-written that it proves hard to put down, that explains complicated events and ways of thinking in simple terms yet does not talk down to the reader who may not be a phenomenology expert, and where the obvious love the author has for her subject does not make her forget it's darker facets.
Most people know the names of Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Maurice Merleau-Pointy and Martin Heiddeger, but not much about their lives, their ideas and their impact on culture. Sarah Bakewell discovered Sartre’s fiction as a teenager, and has clearly never fallen out of love with existentialism. With wit and compassion, she puts the philosophers in their social and historical context to illustrate how they came to develop their philosophy and how the course of history, especially World War II, influenced their thinking and their work. The biographies are not deep dives, but go a long way to make the work easier to relate to and make sense of.
Bakewell is also quite honest about her subjects’ ambiguities, contradictions and struggles to apply their philosophic principles to their lives as honestly as possible – which obviously opened the doors to may conflicts, fights and serious falling outs between them. But as she points out herself, people are often more interesting than idea, and these people were exceptionally interesting, partially because of their flaws.
As mentioned previously, I think that Bakewell is right to argue that the existentialists’ emphasis of authenticity and freedom are issues that concern us now more than ever, in the hyper-connected yet bizarrely shallow world we live in. But I also understand how mis-understandings and clichés have been factors that put the entire movement out of fashion in the 1990s and early 2000s. I feel like those years were less cynical, less morally confusing and less dangerous than the point we are at now, and that it must have felt like a bummer to think about being in bad faith and being responsible for one’s existence at a point where we were just excited about the new millennium.
To me, this is a fascinating subject, and I find significant overlaps between existentialism and many aspects of Zen Buddhism (both of which can be described as philosophies of action), and also with the ideas behind what one might call "punk philosophy" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0w4OeZWWTI).
Reading this made me shift “Nausea”, “The Mandarins” and “The Second Sex” a little closer to the top of my pile, and appreciate the Beauvoir and Camus books I’ve gobbled up over the past few years even more. If you have ever felt hazy about what existentialism is about, or if you are simply interested in the lives of Beauvoir, Sartre and their colleagues, I can’t recommend this book enough.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Çok beğendim. Okuması müthiş zevkli bir kitap ; espritüel, objelerle, fikirlerle mesafesini çok iyi ayarlayan bir yazar. En beğeniyle okuduğum felsefe kitaplarından biri. Kimi kısımları copy/paste olmuş ve hızlı geçilmiş, özellikle Anglo-Sakson tarafları, yine de totalde çok başarılı yazılmış bir kitap.
loved this so, so much. and now I have so much de Beauvior and other awesome stuff to add to my to-read list.