Montherlant replaced genuine engagement with the world by narcissistic self-worship

Evidence

“Like the donkey at an Arab waterwheel, I turn, I turn, blind and endlessly retracing my steps. But I don’t bring up freshwater.” There is not much to add to this avowal that Montherlant signed in 1927. Freshwater never sprang forth. Maybe Montherlant should have lit Peregrinus’s pyre: that would have been the most logical solution. He preferred to take refuge in his own cult. Instead of giving himself to this world, which he did not know how to nourish, he settled for seeing himself in it; and he organized his life in the interest of this mirage visible to his eyes alone. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 496

Categorization

• DEFINE: Illustrates Beauvoir’s existentialist distinction between giving oneself to the world versus narcissistic self-cultivation, a core category in her analysis.
• XREF: connects to: Montherlant’s misogyny stems from refusing risk among peers — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 485; Self-contemplation replaces genuine relationship and blinds the narcissist to how others see her. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1830; Female artists’ narcissism blocks genuine engagement with the world. — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1944

Broader Connections

• Self-contemplation replaces genuine relationship and blinds the narcissist to how others see her. #expands (0.80) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1830
• Female artists’ narcissism blocks genuine engagement with the world. #corroborates (0.78) — Simone de Beauvoir, The Second Sex, 1944