Sartre came to doubt whether art alone could justify a life

Evidence

In fact, by the time he was writing Words, Sartre was worrying that something was ideologically wrong with this analysis of freedom and self-determination as modes of being enjoyed most fully by writers. Should one really spend one’s life trying to take control of existence solely through art? Is this not self-indulgent? Perhaps one’s energy should be used another way — such as marching shoulder to shoulder with the proletariat in the service of revolution. — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 698

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to the sartrean commitments theme: the inward turn to literature versus political engagement — echoes of his later ‘committed literature’ stance and parallels with Camus and the Resistance. — connects to: Sartre himself doubted whether art really saves us from life’s chaos — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 339; Sartre equated writing with living itself — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café: Freedom,…, 969; Sartre’s first novelistic hero was a biographer troubled by the rearrangeable past

Broader Connections

• Sartre equated writing with living itself #complicates (0.82) — Sarah Bakewell, At the Existentialist Café, 969