REVISITING CAMUS AND SARTRE
During my two visits to Paris , I came to know about many ideological contrasts and similarities between two literary giants of the 20th century : Albert Camus and Jean Paul Sartre
JEAN PAUL SARTRE
Jean Paul Sartre was plagued by a self-conscious ugliness and a squint. He practised poor personal hygiene. He didn't brush his teeth and accordingly , he had a set of blackened teeth and acute halitosis. I was also told that Sartre was patently jealous of Albert Camus who could attract women even without the exploitation of his intellect and reputation.His relationship with Simone de Beauvoir (author of 'The Second Sex') was notorious for its allegedly mutually-agreed 'unfaithfulness'. Sartre had also earned a bad reputation for being a womaniser, an activity to which Simon de Beauvoir didn't object.
The best description of Sartre the man comes in Ronald Hayman's biography: "Sartre felt most at home in cafes and restaurants where he could annex space by dominating the conversation and exhaling smoke . To reassure his mind that it had nothing to fear from sibling rivalry with his maltreated body he constantly ignored all messages (that his body) sent out . He resented the time he had to spend on washing, shaving, cleaning his teeth, taking a bath, excreting and he would economise by carrying on conversations through the bathroom door" (Sartre: a Biography, Carroll and Graf).
Inspite of all this, Sartre rose to mythical status as one of France's most influential intellectual revolutionaries of the 1940-60s. As an intellectual superstar and monstre sacré , Sartre has no equal in the English-speaking world. Even in France you would have to go back to Voltaire to find a figure of comparable stature. He was a philosopher who spent his life testing the limits of traditional thinking.
Sartre could afford to reject Nobel prize ; financially and morally , and he did it citing reason that an author should not transform himself into an institution by accepting official awards . He also had political reservations, viewing the Nobel as a Western Award and believing that cultural exchanges should happen without institutional intervention. Explaining his belief that “a writer who adopts political, social, or literary positions must act only with the means that are his own – that is, the written word”, and that “all the honours he may receive expose his readers to a pressure I do not consider desirable”.
But Sartre also said that he had been “tortured” by the amount of money with which the prize comes – at that time it was 250,000Kr. “Either one accepts the prize and with the prize money can support organisations or movements one considers important – my own thoughts went to the Apartheid committee in London,” he said. “Or else one declines the prize on generous principles, and thereby deprives such a movement of badly needed support.
After World War II, Sartre became deeply interested in Marxism and was considered one of France's best-known communists, even though he never joined the French Communist Party. He often spoke in support of the USSR and its policies, a position that many saw as contradictory given his philosophical emphasis on individual freedom. Sartre supported the Algerian Liberation Front and Castro's Cuba, as well as other radical movements like the Maoist movements in France.Contrary to popular opinion Sartre was never a Stalinist and never a Maoist. Nor, contrary to the wishful thinking of some, was he ever a consistent revolutionary socialist. Sartre’s work is a long dialogue with the revolutionary left; a dialogue full of hesitations and misunderstandings. From the failures of this dialogue we can learn something of the weakness of the left in our age.
Despite the criticism, there is a consensus that Sartre is irreplaceable. And Annie Cohen-Solal , noted French historian and writer says , “Intellectual debate doesn’t exist without Jean Paul Sartre.”
On April 19, 1980, Jean-Paul Sartre’s chaotic funeral procession was joined by more than 50,000 mourners as it moved towards the Montparnasse cemetery where his ashes were buried after cremation. Many leading names from films, fashion, theatre, art, drama and music joined this procession. Singer Juliette Greco, actors François Périer, Delphine Seyrig, Yves Montand, Simone Signoret, Mouloudji, Léo Ferré, authors Claude Mauriac, Michel Foucault, André Glucksman, Françoise Sagan Joined the procession to the cemetery.
Sartre lies buried in the heart of Paris city inside the Montparnasse cemetery . It is quite convenient for his admirers to visit the place and pay their tributes. The tomb has a marble plaque and one can see flowers brought by visitors almost everyday .
ALBERT CAMUS
Camus belonged to a family of French settlers in Algeria . His great- grandfather had moved to Algeria during the French colonial rule in search of green pastures. His father , a sepoy in army, died in the first world war . His mother, an illiterate and deaf lady , brought up her children working as domestic help . She lived in a joint family headed by Camus's maternal grandmother.Having been brought up in extreme poverty by his mother ; this upbringing infused a deep sense of value of money in his life. Camus played football in his school and university . He took up journalism as his career and moved to Paris for his settlement.
(Antoine Theatre, Paris )
( Camus directing a play)
In Paris, Camus got deeply involved with Theatre. He would usually perform at Antoine Theatre . He directed many plays and among these , Dostoevsky's " The Possessed " was watched by crowds for full month at the Antonie Theatre in Paris . Theatre remained his passion till his tragic death . He wanted to create a repertory theatre in Paris, the "Nouveau Theatre" . The negotiations were close to success when, on January 4, 1960, Michel Gallimard's car that was taking him back to Paris crashed against a tree kiling him on spot .
Before settling down as a full time writer , Camus worked for a newspaper( Editorial Secretary ,Paris Soir ) and Gallimard Publishing House where he earned about 4000 French Francs per month , a salary that was luxurious those days. . He lived in hotels initially and later bought a small flat in Paris from his savings . This property remains with the family to this day .
Jean Grenier was a significant mentor and friend to Albert Camus, particularly in his early years as a writer and philosopher. Grenier, a philosophy teacher, guided Camus's reading, encouraged his literary and philosophical pursuits, and helped him find his voice. Camus dedicated his first book to Grenier and considered him a crucial influence on his intellectual development. It was Grenier who introduced Camus to Upanishads, Bhagwad Gita, and Rama Krishna. He also introduced him to Buddhist thought. A letter written by Camus in 1948 to Grenier ends like this ;
"Sometimes it seems I no longer have anything to say to anyone except to you (and to my mother, with whom I never speak of course). And in everything I intend to do, I would be at quite a loss if I could not turn to you. Write to me in spite of my silence. To you and yours, very affectionately....(Albert Camus)"
Camus would always use branded shirts , cotton socks , polished shoes, cuff links, handkerchiefs, wrist watch, fountain pens, and pocket size note pads . On a more human level, Camus wore loud Algerian-style suits often topped with a trench coat looking like a young Humphrey Bogart complete with dangling cigarette. He drove about Paris very slowly in an old black Citroen. Friends would shout “Ho! Albert!” He would not shout back but merely wave his hand. To one observer, he appeared to be playing his own part in an unfinished movie.
I was told that meeting him in shabby dress or with poor personal hygiene was impossible as he detested intellectuals who didn't take care of this aspect . Camus also battled with his tuberculosis and remained a chain smoker till his end.
In spite of some steamy affairs ( French actres Maria Casares and Camus exchanged about 900 love letters ) , Camus never neglected his family and children. Never ever was there a complaint against him about any improper conduct. He respected women from any field and any set up. People were attracted to his magnetic personality, communication style and mannerisms. In Paris, I came to know that French actress Catherine Sellers was madly in love with Albert Camus . They were seen together and Camus had directed her in many stage plays .She was a very important actress of French theatre .
Francine , Camus's second wife (a mathematician and musician ) suffered from serious depression and psychiatric problems for many years and in 1953 she had to remain in hospital for a long period for her ailments . Some biographers of Camus have attributed her illness to Camus's extramarital affairs .Shortly after being awarded the Nobel Prize, Camus mentioned in a letter to his cousin Nicole Chaperon how he was moved by the generosity of Francine, "whom I have never stopped loving in my bad way." She and Camus are buried together in Lourmarin.Camus's first wife turned out to be a morphine addict . The marriage ended in divorce.
Camus could ill afford to turn down a Nobel Prize financially or morally. With Nobel money , he bought a house in Lourmarin village , South France and also set aside some amount for the financial security of his widowed mother. Lourmarin looked like his native Algeria both climatically and the surrounding landscape wise . It was too far from Paris, the hub of intellectual activity .The family retains this property to this day. In fact , Catherine Camus, his daughter lives in this Lourmarin house. She takes care of her father's intellectual heritage , books and royalties and also runs the Camus Centre. In his lifetime, Camus remained trapped by fame, misunderstood even by his own admirers, and suffering the sting of his adversaries coolly mocking him in the press and in private.
Camus was always sympathetic to Arab cause. He possibly got wrongly identified with Pied Noirs ( black foot ) , a name given to French settlers after Algeria was conquered by France in 19th century .For his Algeria , he always sought a middle path from French Government . He was always supportive of an ideology that ensured peaceful coexistence and sanctity of life .Though he refused to support killings, violence and gun culture of Algerian freedom fighters , he always intervened and saved the lives of many Arabs put in Jail. As an established and influential writer , Camus raised his powerful voice against death penalty . About the violence that killed many people in Algeria , he wrote :-
“ Many of my young Arab brothers are planting bombs in tramways . May be my mother is on that tramway, if you feel that is justice , then I am with my mother.”
I observed a renewed interest in Camus and his books in France. Camus is loved and admired for his beliefs, humility, pragmatism and social behaviour. People talk and appreciate Camus for being a family man, a great friend, a man who saw to it that his mother lived a happy and secure life for which he kept on supporting her financially till his death. His humility is reflected in a letter that he wrote to his school teacher after winning the Nobel Prize. He never failed to express gratitude even for smallest suport that he received from people . He never forgot his teachers, friends, Algeria and his mother .
( The car that killed Camus in 1960 )
Camus died in a tragic accident and was buried by the residents of Lourmarin in the village cemetery with his two or three friends carrying the caset . It was a a simple ceremony . There is no plague or tomb.Some vegetation has cropped upat Camus grave and the only identification mark is a small stone plate displaying his name. Lourmarin is about 700 km from Paris . It is almost a day's journey by connecting trains. Not all Camus admirers can undertake this journey to pay their floral tributes.
( The Simple house of Camus in Lourmarin village )
( Entrance to the house of Albert Camus in Lourmarin village )
We were told that Albert Camus's grave in Lourmarin is intentionally simple and unadorned meant to reflect his humility and philosophical views on life and death. This modest monument is a deliberate rebuke to the arrogance of human endeavours, underscoring the absurdity of existence. Camus's preference for simplicity is also evident in the stark contrast between his grave and those of his contemporaries like Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, who are buried in elegant, expensive lots in Paris's Montparnasse Cemetery.
THE FRIENDSHIP THAT DID NOT LAST LONG
(Jean-Paul Sartre made the Café de Flore restaurant in Paris his "office" during the 1940s, spending his days there writing, debating philosophy, and meeting fellow intellectuals alongside his partner, Simone de Beauvoir.)
(Albert Camus directed a play written by eminent painter Pablo Picasso during the Nazi occupation of Paris .The play starred Simone de Beauvoir, Dora Maar, Jean-Paul Sartre, and Georges Braque and Jacques Lacan . This photo shows Camus, Picasso, Sartre and all actors .Picasso and Camus lived in Montmartre neighbourhood in Paris during the early days of their life.)
Sartre met Albert Camus in Occupied France in 1943—an odd pair: one from the upper reaches of French society; the other, a pied-noir born into poverty in Algeria. The love of ‘freedom’ brought them together quickly as closest of friends, and their fight for justice united them politically. But in 1951 the two writers fell out spectacularly over their literary and political views, their split a media sensation in France.Sartre and Camus fell apart over ideological differences, particularly after Camus's critique of Marxist totalitarianism . Camus believed that Sartre's rigid ideology made him ignore Soviet regime's atrocities. Sartre believed that it was justifiable for a revolution to embrace violence if it had to in order to succeed (specifically, he thought the existence of gulags in the USSR was justified), while Camus was a vehement pacifist. Camus detested violence .
In his famous letter written in 1952 , Sartre wrote , ‘Our friendship was not easy, but I shall miss it." Sartre paid tribute to Camus after his accidental death, calling it the "most absurd event in history" and acknowledging the tragic, ironic absurdity of Camus's death in light of his philosophy of the absurd.Sartre highlighted Camus's "fierce individualism and principle" and his focus on the "victorious attempt of one man to snatch every instant of his existence from his future death".
( Avtar Mota )
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