Sartre, Beauvoir, and Miles Davis talking presentations
I just returned from a wonderful holiday in France and hope to pick up my posting habits soon. While in France, I read this interesting book: Parisians: An Adventure History of Paris by Graham Robb (affiliate link). Robb uses a variety of styles and settings to describe famous characters living in Paris through the centuries. One chapter is a film-type script set in Cafe de Flore in Paris around 1948, a small fragment:
Beauvoir: He [Sartre] was invited to give a conference at the UNESCO. It was the first meeting of UNESCO, two or three years ago, in 1946. At the Sorbonne. The evening before, we went to the Scheherazade, with Koestler and Camus. And Sartre - you remember? - danced with Mme Camus, which was like watching a man lugging a sack of coal. He was very drunk, and he had to give his talk in the morning, but he had not written a line. Miles Davis, pointing at Sartre: The teacher hadn’t done his homework! Beauvoir: Yes, and Camus, who was also drunk said, said, “You will have to do it without my help,” and Sartre said, “I wish I could do it without my help.” Sartre, stubby fingers spread on the the table giggles. Beauvoir: An then - he does not remember this - we had breakfast Chez Victor at Les Halles, soupe a l’oignon, huitres, vin blanc - and then it was dawn, and we stood on a bridge over the Seine, Sartre and me, and we were so sad about la tragedie de la conditione humaine - eh oui! - that we should throw ourselves into the river. But instead of that, I went home to my bed, and Sartre, he went to the Sorbonne to talk about la responsibilite de l’ecrivain… Miles Davis: That’s cool Jean-Paul. They knew you were talking straight because you hadn’t prepared… Beauvoir, shaking her head: No Sartre, he had everything already in his head.