This is not a title party, nor is it a non-surprising death sentence, but a relatively comprehensive summary of Beauvoir.
Wind flow: Shi Xiangyun in the dream of the Red Chamber said: True celebrities from the wind flow. A lot of people are fake high. I think this word is particularly appropriate for Beauvoir. She is not only a true celebrity, but also a true charm. If the word "merry- wind" is placed in France, it can be replaced by freedom and romance. When Beauvoir wrote the book "The Second Sex", some people commented that Beauvoir was lascivious, female pornographer, etc., so the controversy caused by Beauvoir was far greater than the meaning of the flow. Finally I'll draw a picture of the relationship between Beauvoir and Sartre and their lovers, and you'll think that the so-called chaotic relationship between the stars now is a little witch. The existentialist currents sparked by Beauvoir and Sartre swept across France. Freedom, rebellion, and indulgence have become the labels of a new generation of young people.
F: Not only because Beauvoir was female, but more importantly, Beauvoir was an important theorist and pioneer of the feminist movement in the 1970s, and the founding work of modern feminism, "The Second Sex", is her important work.
Philosopher: Without understanding Beauvoir's philosophical thoughts, you cannot understand the life she chose. De Beauvoir wrote existentialist philosophical ideas throughout her autobiography, novels, and essays, and practiced her own philosophical ideas throughout her life.
We must first understand beauvoir's philosophical ideas and the social contribution of the feminist movement, so that you can feel that beauvoir was a serious person. Otherwise, only her complex and entangled relationship with her lover will leave you feeling that this woman... Well, I don't know how to describe it.
01 Beauvoir's philosophical thought
01-1 people are absolutely free
Beauvoir practiced philosophy as a way of life, rather than constructing a rigorous philosophical system. Speaking of De Beauvoir's philosophical thought, we have to mention existentialism, and today we will not talk about serious philosophical thought, but first say two stories about existentialism.
One day during the Nazi occupation of France in Germany, a former student of Sartre (the representative of existentialism) came to him for advice. In 1940, while France was still resisting the Nazis, the young man's brother was killed in battle. Later, his father defected to the enemy and abandoned his wife. As a result, this young man became his mother's only companion and support. What he really wanted to do, however, was to join the exiled free French army, to rebel against the Nazis, to have the opportunity to avenge his brother, to rebel against his father, and to help liberate his homeland. The problem, however, was that doing so would put his mother in danger of being left alone, and could cause the Germans trouble her. So, should he do what was right for his mother and let her enjoy the obvious benefits alone, or should he risk going into battle and doing what would be good for most people?
Sartre's student, no matter what choices he makes, is uncertain. I am not sure if joining the army will really help anyone, nor am I sure that I left my mother, and my mother was hurt as a result.
The student tried to listen to his inner voice, but the inner voice was also noisy, and there was no way, he had to come to Sartre. If so, what advice can you give to this student?
Philosophers are philosophers, and Sartre said, "You are a free man, so choose—that is, create." ”
Sartre said that no ancient authority can lift the burden of freedom on you. You can carefully weigh moral and practical considerations, but at the end of the day, you have to take a risk and do something, and it's up to you to decide what it is.
This leads to a central view of existentialism: that man is free. But this freedom comes at a cost, and that is that all the choices you make are your own responsibility. But there's also an exciting thing: you can be whoever you want to be.
Since the mid-1940s, "existentialists" have become synonymous with anyone who practices free sex and stays up late dancing with jazz. Young people and rebels see it as a way of life and a fashionable label. Beauvoir, Sartre and their friends, colleagues, artists, writers, students and lovers talked in the café, each smoking a cigarette or a pipe and spitting out a mist.
They rebel against tradition, rebel against authority, and even their clothing is unusual. They also pioneered an existential hairstyle—a long, straight hairstyle that looked like a drowning. He also wore a thick sweater and a men's jacket with rolled-up sleeves. Existentialists wore discarded shirts and raincoats, and some wore them in the primitive punk style. In the end, they chose the most iconic existential costume: the black wool turtleneck pullover. (Isn't this The Jobs one?)
In the eyes of the rebels, everything about the bourgeoisie is bad, and all shackles and oppression deserve to be broken. De Beauvoir was happy to tell a story about her friend, a scrawled, alcoholic German artist known as Walls, who wandered the area, making a living off handouts and scraps. One day he and Beauvoir were drinking together on the terrace of the bar when a gentleman who looked very wealthy stopped to talk to him. After the gentleman left, Walls turned awkwardly to Beauvoir and said, "I'm sorry, that brother is my brother: a banker!" (I would also like to have a banker friend like this)
This is the spirit of freedom and rebellion shaped by existentialism, which pervades society and produces many strange results.
01-2 exists in essence
Existence precedes essence means that when you find yourself thrown into the world, the formation of your self is a process in which you continue to create your own definition (or nature, or essence) rather than being born with a fixed essence. Simply put, there is your existence first, and your essence is what you are constantly creating, it is a process. (This sentence is crucial to understanding Beauvoir's life choices) The following paragraphs, if you are not interested in philosophy, can be skipped directly, without affecting the understanding of the whole text.
But this is not the case with other objects or life forms. A cup is always a cup, and a person can be a different person. People always like to define a person with some label, but that's wrong because the person will always be a work in progress. Man's constant creation of himself through action is so ingrained in the human condition that, in Sartre's view, it is itself a human condition, that is, the essence of man is the process by which man creates himself.
The three philosophical questions are also often asked by the door security guard: Who are you? Where did it come from? Where are you going? In the existentialist view, man is like this, and only by filling it with something can he acquire his own essence. Why can human existence change? Because man does not have a predetermined essence, man's existence is originally nothingness, and its essence is "to be formed." Man is like an empty shell, waiting to be filled, and what is filled is what it wants, and it is filled with whatever it wants, and it will never be filled. Therefore, it shows that man is free. (Existentialist philosophy begins with "consciousness," which has no content.) It opposes Descartes' "I think, therefore I am", because Descartes, when he says "I think", has presupposed the existence of "I". I have to have "thinking" before I can have it. Existentialist philosophy, like Wang Yangming's psychology, begins with self-consciousness.)
Beauvoir said: Being yourself does not mean being the same self from birth to death, and being yourself means that you are always in the process of "becoming yourself", constantly changing with the other who is also changing.
If the next time the security guard asks you, "Who are you?" ”
You can answer that I'm in the process of becoming myself and see if he can get you in.
Existentialism does not appear out of thin air, it also has a process of development. In the history of Western philosophy, existentialism often begins with Kierkegaard. In his view, man's existence comes first: it is the starting point for everything we do, not the result of a logical deduction. My existence is active: I experience existence, I choose existence, which precedes any exposition of myself that I can do. Moreover, my existence is mine: it is personal. Kierkegaard's "I" is the "me" of an argumentative, painful misfit.
Another forerunner of existentialism was Nietzsche. Nietzsche said that God died, that it was man who killed God, and now we are on our own. The right way to live is not to believe in anything, but to devote ourselves wholeheartedly to our own lives, to grasp every moment, what it is, how we live, not to want anything to be different, and not to hide anger and hatred for others or our own destiny.
Nietzsche and Kierkegaard created a new definition of existence, namely choice, action, and self-affirmation, and studied the pains and difficulties of life. And they also introduced a firm belief that philosophy is not just a profession, but life itself—the life of the individual.
De Beauvoir used individualistic and outrageous views to provide people with numerous reasons to reject tradition and change lives.
01-3 Others are hell
The other person, hell, has two basic meanings: First, because everyone is free, but in the process of getting along with people, there will always be one person who is not free, who will compromise, give in, or even fail, then this person is not free. People fight for this freedom. "Absolute evil" means not acknowledging the freedom of others, characterizing them, and then torturing and killing them. The second is that the moment someone else evaluates you, for example, he evaluates you as a kind of person, then he freezes you there, and you will not have any new changes in him, just like dying. All existentialists reject labels that others put on them. Sartre was awarded the French Legion of Honor for his resistance in 1945, and the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1964, and in 1982, beauvoir rejected the French Legion of Honor for the same reasons.
It must be emphasized that Beauvoir's philosophical ideas and existentialism had different emphases, and even some opposing views. But I think these existential mainstream views better explain De Beauvoir's life choices.
02 Beauvoir and the Feminist Movement
No one lives on a few philosophical ideas, everyone has their own life course, and Beauvoir is no exception, and the reason why she accepts existentialism must be related to her growing life.
Beauvoir was born in 1908, when France was also a very traditional society, and it is possible to briefly sum up Beauvoir's childhood in two sentences, which is "you can't do something inappropriate" and "you can't read books that don't suit you." Beauvoir's mother grew up in an environment of extremely strict discipline, the moral education of the convent made her rather rigid. Therefore, the severity of the discipline of Beauvoir can also be imagined.
Because of the family's fall, Beauvoir's father became a gambling person, drunk all day, and lost his soul. And her mother had to be meticulous, tight-laced, and had to swallow her anger and try to play the role of a good wife and mother.
Because of the moral education of the convent, Beauvoir's mother continued to give and sacrifice, on the other hand, to fight against the pain of being deprived of her freedom. How can one resolve these conflicts and contradictions? Should I live my life of self-sacrifice or just for myself? These questions have been haunting Beauvoir's mind.
Another thing also deeply influenced Beauvoir's thinking. At the age of 9, Beauvoir and her classmate Zaza became good friends, zaza was strange and lively. Later, Zaza's interest in learning grew stronger, and Zaza did not want the huge dowry of 250,000 francs that her parents had prepared for her, but wanted to study at the Sorbonne University, and her parents were puzzled by this. After beauvoir's introduction, Zaza and Meloponte became in love, (Meloponti later became a great philosopher), but Zaza's family objected.
On the one hand, Zaza knew that she was deeply in love with Merlo-Ponty, but on the other hand, she did not want to disobey her mother. Poor Zaza grew emaciated and soon fell ill. Zaza stayed in the clinic for 4 days, and the high fever still did not go away. By the time Beauvoir arrived, Zaza had died. This incident hit Beauvoir hard.
De Beauvoir said: Zaza and Melo-Ponty both sanctified their suffering, trying to sharpen themselves through suffering, rather than looking for the real initiator: the damn number.
Beauvoir had witnessed a completely unequal relationship between her parents. The father spent the day drinking, and the mother swallowed her anger. As a girl, she was opposed to being treated as a "girl". Beauvoir later lost his friend Zaza, who died of parental opposition, etiquette, and secular prejudice. Beauvoir has also witnessed a friend of his own hospitalized after an illegal abortion.
All of this made Beauvoir feel that men defined women as "others" and put them in another class: secondary sex. So when De Beauvoir was 41 years old, she wrote the second sex, which is called the "feminist bible." The Second Sex redefines the relationship between men and women. This book can be ranked as one of the greatest cultural classics of our time, on a par with the works of Charles Darwin (who reoriented the relationship between humans and other animals), Karl Marx (who repositioned the relationship between higher culture and economics), and Sigmund Freud (who repositioned the relationship between the conscious and the subconscious).
There is a famous saying in "The Second Sex": "Women are not born, but acquired." Beauvoir believed that every woman's experience was a process of becoming, not a book that clung to. So Beauvoir wanted to show in the book how women describe their life experiences, showing how they were "other" throughout their lives.
Many women were inspired by Beauvoir's writings, and in 1989 the documentary The Daughters of the Beauvoir family collected stories about how their lives changed after reading beauvoir's writings in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. One example, Angie Pegger, a housewife living in Essex, picked up "Second Sex" in a bookstore one day and read it until 4 a.m. She first read a chapter on how housework isolates a woman from the world, and then goes back to read the rest. It's the story of a life that was changed because of the discovery of a book. By the next morning, Peg had decided the direction of life: she dropped her mop and duster and went to college to study philosophy.
In those decades, De Beauvoir led women to make a very dramatic difference in their lives. Simone de Beauvoir's life is a symbol of the success of generations of women who are no longer satisfied with "realizing their dreams through men's dreams". Beauvoir was the representative voice of feminism in the 20th century, and her ideas clearly changed the legislative process and the lives of many people.
03 Beauvoir and Sartre
The legend of Beauvoir and Sartre is known to many people. At that time, Sartre was a star-like figure in Paris, France, on the one hand, because of his good philosophical skills, and on the other hand, he always liked to make all kinds of unorganized jokes. Sartre wanted to ask About Beauvoir, but Beauvoir wanted to tease Sartre, so she asked her sister to go to the appointment. Later, Beauvoir met with Sartre, and all day Beauvoir talked about Leibniz's treatise on metaphysics. Maybe it doesn't sound like the beginning of a love story, but in the weeks since, there was a spark between Beauvoir and Sartre.
At that time, someone praised Beauvoir as "she has a remarkable heart!" She's authentic, brave, rebellious, beautiful and has her own style, and I've never seen a woman like her. ”。“ In her youth, Beauvoir had a pair of soul-sucking eyes, she was very beautiful, her voice was a little hoarse, but it made her more charming, and she had an unconscious beauty."
At that time, Sartre was only one meter and five-five meters tall, hunched over, his lips turned down like a grouper, his cheeks sunken, his ears protruding, and his eyes looked in different directions, because his almost blind right eye was severely astigmatized and often swam outward.
Can you imagine such an image, but Sartre's talent cannot be concealed, and in the National Philosophy Teachers' Examination, Sartre won the first place and Beauvoir won the second place. 13 days after beauvoir knew Sartre, Beauvoir wrote in his diary: "He understood me, he could see through me, I was fascinated by him".
Beauvoir and Sartre found that they had many similarities with each other, and in addition to their love of philosophy, they shared the same interest in literature and both wanted to achieve something in literature. The two of them were at their disposal of philosophical ideas and literary allusions, and they were in perfect agreement, never needing to explain any concepts or tell the storyline to each other. Both Beauvoir and Sartre dreamed of becoming writers when they grew up.
In addition to studying together, Beauvoir and Sartre gradually began to go for a walk together at the newspaper stand by the river, sometimes to the cinema to watch a movie, or to the bar with a cocktail and jazz.
One day, Sartre and Beauvoir were walking together in the Jardin du Luxembourg. Their conversation that afternoon inspired countless future generations to try to emulate it. Beauvoir and Sartre discussed that afternoon that neither of them wanted to be kidnapped by the traditional marital relationship, because they thought that man was constantly evolving, and it was a process of continuous completion, and how could it be prescribed by fixed relationships, so they made a contract. As partners to each other, never get married. They can have other lovers besides each other, and they promise to tell each other everything. They think that if the external constraint of marriage is removed, then if they are still willing to be together, it must be a real feeling, and whatever this feeling is, it must be real. Beauvoir and Sartre started with a two-year contract and confirmed every two years whether the partnership would continue.
In fact, they were together for 51 years, from the time Sartre was 24 years old to his death at the age of 75, the two of them were really together for a lifetime. Because they are not only lovers, but also spiritual friends and career partners. Such an unfettered open relationship, based on "freedom," is also a true expression of Sartre and De Beauvoir's philosophy of life. That is, people are free and you can be the person you want to be. Nor do they make essential provisions for this relationship, they do not bind to it, they do not allow it to hinder the development of the individual, they are independent of each other. In fact, in this open relationship, both have experienced the pain of suspicion and jealousy, and Sartre has had many lovers and once almost married someone else. Beauvoir also had several lovers and once wrote a novel dedicated to one of them. Let's take a look at how chaotic their relationship is and see what a real affair is.
04 Beauvoir and her extended family
Beauvoir called her lovers members of the extended family. The members of this extended family continue to expand, and the relationships are becoming more and more complex, which is dazzling to watch. I tried to make a Beauvoir-lover relationship diagram.
Jacques: Jacques was Beauvoir's cousin, and although Jacques was only 6 months older than Beauvoir, he received a very good education that only boys could receive at the time. Beauvoir was captivated by Jacques's confidence. One day Jacques gave Beauvoir a piece of stained glass with her name engraved on it. The two children decided to marry in the witness of God, and Beauvoir even called Jacques her fiancé. After all, for the next ten years, Beauvoir felt that he would actually marry Jacques in the future. When Beauvoir was 21 years old, Beauvoir was still in Jacques
Sutter hesitated. Beauvoir writes: "It is not fun at all to love two men at the same time.". But Beauvoir and Jacques did not have the same interests, and in the end Jacques married someone else.
René Mahe: In 1929, Beauvoir met a male student of the ParisIan School of Excellence who had fallen in love with her, named René Mahe. In his diary, Beauvoir gave him a loving nickname: Rama. Maher became Beauvoir's first lover. At that time, Beauvoir was convinced that she was in love with Sartre, but she was also in love with Rama, and she probably loved Jacques, and she loved them in a different way.
SARTRE: This is a man we said earlier.
Ogar: It's a girl and I had to add gender because the relationship would be more chaotic later on. In 1934, Beauvoir met a student named Olga Kosakivić, a girl who later caused controversy and suspicion between her and Sartre. Beauvoir chronicled Olga in her autobiography The Golden Year, and she and Sartre wrote Olga into their own fiction: Xavier in Beauvoir's "Female Guest" and Ivic in Sartre's Freedom Trail are characters based on Olga. Beauvoir genuinely liked Ogal, who was beautiful, blonde and fair-skinned. However, at this time, Sartre was also madly infatuated with Ogar. This makes the relationship between the three people very awkward.
They also set a schedule for who could meet whom at what time, because they wanted both two and three of them together, so they arranged a meeting called "all in attendance." (Really creative)
Olga's affection for Beauvoir "grew fiercer", but Ogal was reluctant to sleep with Sartre. Olga's physical relationship with Beauvoir also frustrated Sartre.
Wanda: (Ogar's sister) Sartre unsuccessfully pursues Ogar and instead seduces Ogar's sister Wanda in order to save his dignity, and later succeeds.
Bost: One of Sartre's proud protégés. Bost is six months younger than Olga. Born into a Puritan family, Bost was tall, with rich lips and jet-black hair lined with green eyes. Beauvoir and Bost had a passionate love affair that lasted for a decade.
When Beauvoir and Sartre were together, Beauvoir wrote to Bost before going to bed: "I especially long to see you, my love, my love, how I wish I could be with you.
While with Beauvoir, Bost was pursuing Olga and eventually married Olga.
One year, Beauvoir, Sartre and Bost traveled to Greece together. They slept on the roofs, hiked together, and were sunburned. Sometimes Beauvoir and Bost go out alone to swim together, while Sartre would work in a café or write letters to Wanda.
Bianca (female): Beauvoir's students were impressed by Beauvoir. Beauvoir always dressed up when she went to class wearing a silk shirt and makeup. Beauvoir was well in control of his classroom, often giving lectures without reading his notes. Thus attracted her student Bianca. At the end of a semester, Beauvoir and Bianca are no longer teacher-student relationships. Together, the two of them went to the Movin Mountains of France for a long hike. After a day's walk, Beauvoir and Bianca found a cheap little hotel and huddled in a bed. On this trip, Bianca wrote that she and Beauvoir finally had a physical relationship.
Not only that, but Beauvoir, Bianca and Bost went hiking together in Theo Savoie.
Beauvoir introduces Bianca to Sartre, who later pursues Bianca and they become lovers.
Natalie (female): Natalie was a student of Beauvoir, who later pursued Beauvoir and later became Beauvoir's lover.
Longsman: Lord Lantzman was a friend of Sartre's secretary and was witty. Longsman was 27 years old at the time, humorous and funny, and his blue eyes were particularly charming. At this time, Beauvoir was 43 years old, and Longziman began to pursue Beauvoir and eventually became a lover. Lonziman had no money, and Beauvoir asked him to move in with her, the first time in her life that Beauvoir had lived with her lover. They lived together for seven years, and he was also the only lover in Beauvoir to address in the intimate second person "tu."
Algren: In 1997, a letter from Beauvoir to her American lover, Nelson Algren, was published. The publication of these letters gave the public a beauvoir they had expected: a gentle and sensitive Simone, who wrote love letters to her lover Algren with passion, and these love letters were a hundred times more enthusiastic than those previously written to Sartre.
If I don't envy Beauvoir, I don't believe it myself.
05 Summary
Beauvoir's whole life has been practicing her philosophical ideas, a person is always in a state of transformation, always on the road to what to become, not bound by relationships, not shackled by worldly prejudices. Brave, true, and free, but also paid a great price for it, and was insulted and insulted a lot, which is also the existentialist proposition that when enjoying freedom, you must bear the responsibility that comes with it.