The Age of Reason (Penguin Modern Classics)

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Daniel, after having sex with a rent boy, is so disgusted he contemplates suicide and, holding the razor in his hand, becomes almost completely empty of thought and feeling, just a pinprick of consciousness, an arm, a slice of sharpened metal. A long filament hung from her lips, she had to cough it away… She watched the dabs of mucus sliding slowly towards the drainpipe leaving glossy, viscous tracks behind them, like snails. Only half a dozen characters are seen, representing very little of society, though a good range of neuroticism. Jacques goes on to provide Delarue with a familiar ultimatum—marry Marcelle to clear up the situation. Mathieu tries to make the situation better, but then, finally, admits – he doesn’t love her any more.

However, the beauty here is you don’t have to be interested in any of that lot to enjoy the book, which plays out with serious verve and imagination thanks largely to the exceptional group of characters Sartre depicts. This does have a potential to backfire though because the idea of defining oneself can apply only to that which can be perceived, and there are times when we try to create a perception that does not work. Once they start dancing, Boris is shocked to see a young man dancing impressively who turns out to be at least in his 40s. A philosophical, meandering novel, it includes some inspired ideas and episodes, but is rather middling fiction. There, he reveals Marcelle and he have been engaging in a long-term friendship – Daniel even shows him a letter she had written him, surprising Mathieu with the lively prose and use of “archangel”.Economic slavery is a term that probably does not relate to this, but it is defining our freedom based upon the amount of money that we have. Boris had promptly understood: the individual’s duty is to do what he wants to do, to think whatever he likes, to be accountable to no one but himself, to challenege every idea and every person.

The half-drunk man suggests they head off to wax lyrical in a Parisian café over drinks, but Delarue turns him down (to his immediate regret). Last year he had been quite unperturbed, he had never thought about that sort of thing: and now—it was rather ominous that he should so constantly feel that his youth was slipping between his fingers. It’s essentially his epiphany—the realisation he’s getting older and needs to move on with his life. It was not only to defy Ivich that he had stuck the knife into his hand, it was as a challenge to Jacques, and Brunet, and Daniel, and to his whole life. He and Marcelle have been together for some seven years, but it's an odd, hidden arrangement of convenience: he sneaks into her house -- careful not to wake her mother -- a few times a week and otherwise is on his merry way.I am planning on rereading existentialism is humanism and wanted to find out about some of the themes in Satre’s novels.

Here he acts as a sort of mediator—an adult the young ones turn to for help as he’s mature, intelligent, and reliable. Existentialists may deny that such scenes are introduced for sensationalism's sake, but they have not explained why it is necessary to expound their doctrine solely from a worm's eye view of life. This seemed to her just funny, and she thought: ‘I don’t give a curse for coelenterata,’ and the chap couldn’t get another word out of her. The Spanish Civil War is still being fought, but it's an isolated conflict; the threat of war in the rest of Europe looms larger now after the Austrian Anschluß, but does not feel immediate yet.

He has a huge amount of admiration for Mathieu, but still doesn’t fancy achieving any grand age of any sort. Individual tragedies and happiness are etched against the Paris summer of 1938, with its nightclubs, galleries, students, and café society. However, the review goes on to remark how Sartre seems to be preoccupied with describing the physical act of vomiting. Despite “tumult” and “public opinion” arriving due to the gruesome situation, the pair is led off by a kindly cloakroom lady who disinfects their wounds and applies bandages.

I may not agree with all that Sartre says but I still find synchronization with his efforts at deciphering the question of ‘being human’.The vivacity and vividness with which Sartre paints each one of his characters amidst their existential exigencies leaves behind their ever-lasting impressions on the fertile mental space. This minor incident is important as Delarue is soon to be in considerable financial bother, but his tendency to throw his money away remains a consistent, rather inexplicable habit in the novel. All he need do is take 4,000 and he will have the fee for the high class abortion and ensure Marcelle’s well-being. Those who have solemnly decided to become fathers, and feel progenitively inclined when they look at their wives’ bodies – do they understand any more than I do? Iron in the Soul is somewhat similar to Age of Reason and well worth a read, but doesn’t have the same lighter tone.