Sartre and Beauvoir came to see political disagreement as disqualifying friendship

Evidence

Sartre and Beauvoir eventually came to agree with Koestler about one thing: it was not possible to be friends with someone who held opposed political views. ‘When people’s opinions are so different,’ said Sartre, ‘how can they even go to a film together?’ In 1950, Koestler mentioned to Stephen Spender that he’d bumped into Sartre and Beauvoir after a long gap and had suggested they have lunch. They responded with an awkward silence, and then Beauvoir said (according to Spender’s second-hand version), ‘Koestler, you know that we disagree. There no longer seems any point in our meeting.’ She crossed her forearms in a big X, and said, ‘We are croisés comme ça about everything.’ — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 782

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to broader existentialist views on commitment (engagement) making neutrality impossible, and to Camus-Sartre split. — connects to: Total political conviction forced Sartre to sacrifice his closest personal friendships. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 812
• SEED: An essay angle on how people who once wanted intellectual sparring partners later come to demand ideological purity even in their closest circle.