Sartre’s farewell to literature meant abandoning revision, not writing

Evidence

But Sartre’s was never going to be the kind of farewell to literature that meant stopping writing, as the poet Rimbaud had done. It turned out to mean writing more and more, in an ever greater mania, while abandoning the attempt to revise and give careful shape to his thoughts. Words was, rather, Sartre’s farewell to careful crafting and polishing — a process that may have been becoming more difficult for him, as his vision worsened. He managed to make it sound like a virtuous renunciation, but from the point of view of his readers it feels more like a declaration of war. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 699

Categorization

• SHARE: A satisfying irony worth sending to someone who writes: the philosopher of freedom renounces literary polish rather than writing itself.
• XREF: connects to: Sartre rationalized abandoning revision as politically virtuous — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 844; Sartre repeatedly failed to finish grand philosophical conclusions — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 528

Broader Connections

• Sartre rationalized abandoning revision as politically virtuous #expands (0.92) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 844
• Sartre repeatedly failed to finish grand philosophical conclusions #complicates (0.75) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 528