Farewell ceremony

Jean-Paul Sartre: Août - Septembre 1974

A Farewell Portrait of Sartre, the "New Intellectual" Beauvoir's Ultimate Dialogue with Sartre: Companion Life = Intellectual Dialogue "This is my first—perhaps the only—book that you will not read before it goes to press. The whole book is written for you, but it has nothing to do with you."
"A Ceremony of a Farewell" is a record of the last ten years of Jean-Paul Sartre's life by French thinker Simone de Beauvoir. It uses a plain style to closely depict the daily life of Sartre, one of the most important philosophers of the 20th century, in his later years, the career he fought for until the last moment, and his attitude towards illness and death.
In 1970, Sartre turned 65. Though the May 1966 protests of two years earlier had ended, their aftermath lingered. Deeply influenced by the events, Sartre reconsidered the role of intellectuals and coined the term "new intellectual." Simultaneously, he edited several newspapers, participated in rallies, held press conferences in support of persecuted individuals, and prepared television documentaries. While engaging in these diverse activities, he also persevered in his literary pursuits.
But what cannot be ignored are the various illnesses that continue to torment him: high blood pressure, decreased eyesight, brain damage, uremia...
"My health capital is exhausted. I won't live past seventy."
"In fact, I am not dead. I can eat and drink. However, the work is already completed. In this sense, I am dead..."
Sartre was tormented by a growing anxiety. He thought about his body, his age, and his death. How could a philosopher face his own pain, illness, and death? How could a lifelong existentialist thinker complete the final journey of his life?
As the woman closest to Sartre and the most important to him, Beauvoir recorded in detail the last ten years of Sartre's life based on the diary she had always kept and various materials collected from friends' notes and oral accounts. The countless meticulous details and conversations as if they were there in person rarely show an ordinary yet extraordinary Sartre.
Beauvoir's records are followed by a long conversation between her and Sartre, in which Sartre took the opportunity to review his family, childhood and schooling, and sorted out his thoughts on many topics such as literature, philosophy, reading, writing, music, painting, equality, money, time, freedom, and life.
"His death tore us apart. If I die, we can't be together. That's just the way it is. We lived together harmoniously for a long time, and that was beautiful."

2019-09-01

上海译文出版社

544

9787532778492