AUTHOR MAGGIE RAINEY-SMITH FINDS AN INTERESTING BOOK AT THE LIBRARY

Here in Wellington, we’re waiting for summer. And so, as the wind blows outside from a raging nor-wester then turns to the south and back again, I’ve been reading. It isn’t a book that I had heard of, or sought out, but one of those delicious finds in the library, sitting there with its cover, beckoning to me as I chatted to a local, (quietly of course, this is the library), and my hand strayed toward the cover and I flipped the pages and half-listened to myself and this other woman. The book in my hand was ‘Talking with Sartre’ by John Gerassi – a plain white cover with a Picasso-like image of a smoking Sartre. I assumed that this book was an old book and not a new publication, but I’ve always been intrigued by Simone de Beauvoir and while flipping at random the pages of this book and talking to the local woman at the library (girls can multi-task) – this caught my eye ...”I have never cried for a woman in my life.” (Sartre) and this from the author, Gerassi... “Beauvoir was crushed”.
But, I knew, didn’t we all, that they didn’t believe in jealousy or any of those bourgeoisie emotions – and here it was, in black and white, a witness to her hurt in the name of John Gerassi, son of Sartre’s dear friend the Spanish painter, Fernando Gerassi. I was galvanised, the way some women are when flicking through the pages of a tabloid that tells us Angelina Jolie does not believe in fidelity – except, this was Simone de Beauvoir, author of The Second Sex which I had read in translation (well, not word for word); but I am a child of the fifties and sixties, and this was a defining moment for me when I read her book in the early seventies, the period in which these conversations between Gerassi and Sartre were recorded. And, further on, as I read, I find that Sartre and Simone, the great lovers of last century, stopped having sex back in 1947... shocking, even to liberal-minded-emancipated moi. Really, truly, how extraordinary and of course, I’m titillating now, because to try to summarise the more intriguing political and ideological conversations between Gerassi and Sartre, would be to reveal my own lack of knowledge of political history. Nevertheless, this book has me spellbound, and is both educational, inspirational and yes, some of that fascinating gossipy stuff too.
Now, I will admit, I’d never heard of either John Gerassi who is Professor of Political Science at Queens College, City University of New York, or his father Fernando, but now that I’ve read this book, I feel I know a little about both of them. But even more interesting, is the compelling intellectual discourse between Gerassi Junior and Sartre, around, art, freedom, the individual, war in general, the Spanish Civil war in particular because John Gerassi’s father, Fernando to the consternation of Sartre abandoned his art to fight in the Spanish Civil War... other topics include Sartre’s opinion of French society before the war, and his contempt for it, but the fact that the Nazi’s were even more hateful... all the big topics and my own scant knowledge of the political ideologies that underpin any of Sartre’s writings, has been upgraded somewhat, I feel better informed, intellectually challenged, and artistically stimulated. Maybe I’ll even read Sartre.
Gerassi recorded these interviews back in the early seventies and it is only now (actually late 2009) that they have been published and the beauty of these interviews lies in the relationship between these two men. Sartre, such a formidable intellect, greatly respected his friend Fernando’s son, not because he was Fernando’s son, but because many years earlier, when John was just a lad of 23, he had tackled Sartre “I behaved like a wise-ass punk. I arrogantly told Sartre that he would never be able to combine his philosophy, Existentialism, with Marxism, which he was vehemently trying to do, unless he gave up his notion of ‘man’s project’...and won Sartre’s admiration who did eventually abandon Marxism. Their unique relationship allows Gerassi to provoke and to challenge Sartre (no mean feat) and through the “conversational” style of the interviews, perhaps Sartre reveals more than he might have intended. Fascinating, is the story of Sartre’s crabs or lobsters as he tells Gerassi they really were. Possibly drug induced hallucinations, but diagnosed as part of his depression, it seems that when the crabs or lobsters finally disappeared, Sartre missed them.
To quote from the publisher’s blurb “These conversations add an intimate dimension to Sartre’s more abstract ideas. With remarkable rigor and intensity, they also provide a clear lens through which to view the major conflagrations of the past century.” From the Spanish Civil War, to the International War Crimes Tribunal, 1966, Cuba, China and Russia, Fascism, American Imperialism, Revolution, Mao, the French Communist Party both the personal and the political are explored.
In conversation with Gerassi about the role of hatred and love in a revolution, Gerassi tells of a shocking experience he had as a young fifteen year old with a church group to build an interracial camp for needy children and where he witnessed the lynching of a black youth about his own age. “The cops did nothing until the boy was dead. Then one fired his pistol in the air and shouted, ‘Lynching is illegal!’” To which, Sartre replies “Hatred and love. A revolutionary is made by hating injustice and loving his fellow sufferers, like Che said, like Nizan. I agree. One revolts out of hatred, one becomes a revolutionary out of reason. Both simultaneously.” Further on, Sartre says this about Fidel Castro... “You know, when I asked Fidel why he gave up his good life to make the revolution, he answered, ‘Because, I’m a romantic’ A romantic! I exclaimed. ‘Of course, I believe in justice. But there is no justice in the world. So I’m a romantic.’”
So, if like me, you know of Sartre, but have not really read his works, then this would have to be a particularly enjoyable way in which to begin to engage with his ideas and the man himself (and I might add, with John Gerassi). And as the publisher writes so eloquently in the blurb... “In particular, we see the philosopher wrestling with the apparent contradiction between his views on freedom and the influence of social conditions on our choices and actions.”
Recently I had the chance to meet up with a visiting Korean poet on a literary exchange here in Wellington. She walked with me around the bays I live in and was surprised to see that my small community had such a large public library. I take it for granted, and it was here on a casual holiday morning, with no particular purpose or agenda, that I stumbled on “Conversations with Sartre” – up on the new books display – no charge – free for me to uplift and take home.
I started this by critiquing the Wellington weather, so feel I should round off with something positive – in spite of the wind, Wellington is currently radiant with red-flowering Pohutukawa – and maybe they are late-flowering, and we’re usually too busy working too notice them – but I don’t believe I’ve ever seen the hillsides so richly and radiantly red all at once. If the sun comes out, we will be dazzled.

Maggie Rainey-Smith is a Wellington novelist/poet/bookseller and occasional guest blogger on Beattie's Book Blog.