On July 22, 1929, the famous French philosopher simone of the last century German · Beauvoir poured out her heart to the diary, and she wrote in the diary: I am going to give myself to this man, and I have absolute confidence in him.
This man was Jean-Paul De Beauvoir, who would later become a famous philosopher and a lifelong companion of Beauvoir. Sartre.
A month before this romantic confession, although Sartre had been unrequited for a long time, Beauvoir did not care at that time.
However, since they knew each other, the unassuming Sartre occupied Beauvoir's heart in only 13 days.
It is not an exaggeration to describe Sartre as unassuming, and it is not even an exaggeration to say that he is tolerant, because Sartre's long portrait really cannot be complimented. Look at the description in "The Existential Cafe" and you will understand: Sartre was twenty-seven years old, with his back hunched over, his lips turned down like a grouper, his cheeks sunken, his ears protruding, and his eyes looking in different directions, because his nearly blind right eye was heavily scattered and often wandered outward.
△ Sartre
Although this is a description of Sartre's twenty-seven years old, it was not good to be there when I first met De Beauvoir, because that was only two years ago.
In 1929, when the 21-year-old Beauvoir was studying at the École Normale Supérieure in Paris, she met a male classmate named Mahé, who was fascinated by her charming appearance and decent manners, and she even said that "when she was with Maher, she tasted the sweetness and beauty of being a woman." Beauvoir's lifelong nickname, "Beaver", came from The Mouth of Mae.
June 19-20, two days that were not easy for Beauvoir and Mahé, took the fiercely competitive "National Philosophy Teacher Qualification Examination". After the exam, Mahe and his wife temporarily left Paris. Before leaving, Sartre teased Sartre, who was very eager to see Beauvoir.
Sartre and Maher were in the same study group, and as early as the spring of 1929, Sartre showed a strong interest in Beauvoir, but Beauvoir was always interested in it, except that the person she liked was around, Sartre's appearance was not within the aesthetic category of Beauvoir, so Sartre never got what she wanted.
This time, Sartre once again asked beauvoir, and Beauvoir went, but did not. She did not go, but let her sister Elena go, and as a result, Elena was so disappointed with the legendary chat master Sutter that she went home and spat on him in front of her sister, and Sartre's hopes were shattered again.
Although he did not succeed, Sartre's enthusiasm did not diminish slightly, and he was sure to meet Beauvoir, who was "beautiful, rebellious, brave and beautiful beyond the ordinary" of other people.
△ Beauvoir
Finally, half a month later, the opportunity arose, and De Beauvoir entered Sartre's life completely. At the urging of Sartre and another panelist, Beauvoir joined Mae's three-member study group.
In the beginning, De Beauvoir was talking, Sartre was listening, so the audience didn't attract her attention. A few days later, when they began to talk about Rousseau, Sartre dominated the discussion, and Beauvoir's impression of him was reversed, and she began to admire him. But at this time, the young couple had not yet sparked love.
Beauvoir's whole body and mind still belonged to Mahé, until July 17, when the results of the teacher's qualification certificate were announced, and only Mae alone in the study group of four failed to pass, and Sartre and Beauvoir ranked first and second respectively.
Mae left Paris in disgrace, and Sartre took advantage of the void.
Later, in the Jardin du Luxembourg or in small cafés on the streets, people can often catch beauvoir and Sartre.
After 13 days of knowing Sartre, De Beauvoir wrote the opening sentence in her diary, which was not a girl's passion, and she did give her heart to Sartre until death completely separated them 57 years later.
It's like not like the beginning of a traditional love story, and the follow-up of this love is definitely not traditional.
On October 17, 1929, three months after knowing each other, Sartre and De Beauvoir entered into a love contract that was later talked about and controversial by the outside world—an open sexual relationship, in which the two were "essential love", in addition to which both parties could have other "accidental love" and share it with each other.
Although this free, avant-garde love model does have a tendency to be imitated, the voice of doubt is undoubtedly louder, in addition to the controversy of the outside world and the incomprehension of the two "accidental lovers", Beauvoir herself is also deeply disturbed.
Neither Sartre nor Beauvoir aspired to marriage, or even to the extent of disgust. But the two were not the same, and Sartre was more "free", telling De Beauvoir that we could be separated, that we could meet on the other side of the world, and then separate again, roaming separately. Sartre was also more "apathetic", despising emotions and sexual desires, believing that indulgence leads to laziness, and sexual desire can damage and obscure freedom.
And Beauvoir, at that time, she did not desire to roam alone, but also had expectations for sex. Beauvoir sometimes felt eroded by sorrow, and the distance between her and Sartre grew farther and farther away, because Sartre wanted to create a new ideology to solve human problems, but she did not have such ambitions.
Sartre's "accidental love" sometimes makes De Beauvoir jealous, but I don't think it is appropriate for the outside world to evaluate her that she "as a feminist but has not been able to get rid of the shackles of women's love". Because although not as good as the self-proclaimed playboy Sartre, beauvoir's lover is not in the minority.
△ Claude, Beauvoir's only cohabiting lover Lonzi, Beauvoir, Sartre
In addition, De Beauvoir also rejected Sartre's marriage proposal to defend her ideas.
At that time Sartre and Beauvoir were assigned to different places of teaching, and the separation was very painful for Beauvoir, and Sartre did not want to see this scene, so he proposed to get married, as long as they took a legal form, the two people could be assigned together. But De Beauvoir refused, marriage was not what she wanted, even if it was just a form she could not accept.
In addition to the harmony of thought, in fact, in life and habit, Beauvoir and Sartre are not harmonious. Sartre said: "Our relationship was initially developed intellectually. I think the most fundamental reason why they are partners in their lives is also "intelligence", not love.
Therefore, for the feelings between them, I think that love is far less appropriate than friendship, it is a friendship of mutual achievement, and the so-called contractual love is just a word.
Because the two had never lived together, even on the eve of Sartre's unconsciousness, the two lived upstairs and downstairs. As for the physical love of the two, there is not much, to which Beauvoir once confessed:
Sartre was a warm, lively man everywhere he went, but in bed he wasn't. Even though I had no previous experience, I felt it soon after I got along with him. And gradually, I felt that continuing to be a lover with him was not only useless, but even impolite.
So are they in love?
They are in love. But they love each other's intellect, imagination, creativity, and ideas, not their bodies. This love allowed them to achieve each other, and they eventually became Sartre and De Beauvoir, the famous philosophers of the twentieth century.
It is inconceivable that without Sartre, Beauvoir would have married her cousin long ago, never lifted the pen of writing in wandering and hesitation, and a book of "The Second Sex" that shocked the world would not have had a relationship with her;
If it were not for Beauvoir, would Sartre's work still be available, and would he have had the opportunity to refuse the Nobel Prize? Because Sartre once said: Without the permission of the beaver, I will not allow any of my works to be published, or even to anyone.
So, I think all of this can also be said to be, because of Beauvoir, there is "Nausea", there is "Existence and Nothingness"; because of Sartre, there is "Female Guest", there is "The Second Sex".
They were intellectually incomparable close friends, and together they founded The Modern magazine, which provided a stage for intellectuals to participate in political discussions and a third voice for the French people of the time to hear in addition to Marxism and Christian thought.
They are companions of life, accompanying each other in the last years of the wind and candles. Sartre nearly lost his sight in his later years (his right eye had been lost in childhood), and De Beauvoir became his dependent. Finally Sartre died on April 15, 1980, and De Beauvoir died on April 14, 1986.
Finally, Beauvoir and Sartre were buried together in the Montparnasse Cemetery in Paris. Followers often come with phrases such as "soul mate" and "avant-garde love".
△ Tombs of Sartre and Beauvoir