This one's for you, Stay at home Dad.
"It's nice to be asked to communicate with a wider public that can really appreciate literature," says Ra, aka Cultured Mum, when I ask her whether she's got any book recommendations I can plagiarise.
Conscious of a dearth of decent blog material of my own, I nobly suppress the urge to smack her in the kisser and instead plead for her to email me her notes, which follow. They are only slightly edited by me as Cultured Mum is totally lacking in humour - rather like Simone de Beauvoir herself, I gather:
'Memoirs of a Dutiful Daughter, by Simone de Beauvoir
'Simone de Beauvoir's 'Memoirs' was generally felt to have been a 3-glass-of-wine read - much tougher than anticipated.
'Her densely packed account of her childhood was considered big on detail - sometimes excessively so - but annoyingly short of information and analysis when it really counted. The death of the erstwhile best friend, Zaza, dismissed in a few brief lines, was a case in point.
'However, as the discussion progressed, levels of irritation dropped slightly and a little more empathy crept in.
'Her often ambivalent relationship with her parents, passionate espousal, then total rejection, of religion and search for a man worthy of her devotion, set against a backdrop of crumbling family finances and stifling expectations for women didn't make her armour-plated intellectual arrogance any more appealing - but, if nothing else, it helped explain why she acquired it.
'The discussion then broadened to compare French versus English approaches to the intellectual life, including the much-avowed desire of Jean Paul Satre - and others -to embrace the proletariat in general and fishermen in particular, platonically speaking.
'Widespread sympathy for fishermen was expressed.'
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6 comments:
Read it. Not sure I understand but I've had a long day at the shops.
Crystal xx
I have no idea what happened, I had got it into my head that you were taking a break from blogging. However I can see from the many posts I missed that you haven't done anything of the sort!
I never considered the sense of humour thing. I was going to say that would be unacceptable nowadays but look at the 'misery' trend.
Anyway, I recommend monthly blogs if you are lacking material. Thanks for the post!
CJ: Sorry. Overreaching myself again. Have a bun and a cuppa.
DJ: I was. I am. But I'm terrified that if I stop, I'll be unable to start again. Though don't really have the time.
SAHD: You're right, I know you're right, but see above.
Know what you mean about struggling to crank out postings - you used to spur me on, Omega Mum, please don't stop. If you stop, I won't be able to carry on, not at the same rate, anyway.
How did I miss the role of fishermen in my reading of the book? You see, your blog is always illuminating. We need your wit and wisdom. You've cast SB in a whole new light for us.
Now, as for JP Sartre - I know he was terribly intellectual (big attraction) but he was horrible! And unfaithful. And creepy. No wonder she took to wearing dodgy turbans and being so nasty to everyone, shacked up with him. That's what bitterness can do to a woman. Turn her to turban-wearing. Mind you, the French can get away with these things and still look chic. No British woman of my acquaintance looks good in a turban.
M@L: I do love your turban comments. Surely an article in that? As for the fishermen - Cultured Mum says that they weren't mentioned specifically by Simone d B but that they started talking about Sartre's yearning to distance himself from the false values of the bourgeoisie and go where the truth was...Or something like that, anyway.
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