Simone de Beauvoir's Social Media
Shmoop eavesdrops on your favorite critic's online convos.
Just wanted to put out there that I think it was really bogus that you were fired for sleeping with your female student. Just sayin'.
I know I have some self-interest in this situation, but I always have Simone's back.
I, for one, signed that petition against the age of consent laws. We should be focusing on the means of production not some silly age differences. Please don't marginalize me just because I strangled my wife.
Just finished rereading The Mandarins. I think I nailed it.
Sorry to do this in a public forum, SB, but really? I would rather you hadn't aired all of our laundry, as it were.
Look, Nelson, I was happy to step aside when SB said she wanted to pursue you, but everything is material—not in a Marxist way, but, like, as fodder for writers.
We've had our differences, fo-sho, SB, but I respect you as a writer. It's not too late to jump on the psychoanalysis bandwagon, though.
Listen, Luce. I don't take kindly to your use of psychoanalysis to explain everything. I mean, where's the female sexuality?
Like I said, it's in The Mandarins—thanks to me and my reputation.
Wow. Don't hold back!
Went to my ninth baby shower the other day. Am so over it!
You know what I mean. So, Jules, I'm glad to see you are finally getting wise to the whole baby thing.
Knew you'd ride me on that.
Well, I wouldn't go that far, but I do regret saying that being pregnant is lyrical. Plus I am sick of playing Baby Shower Bingo. It's just the worst.
Pumped about tonight's Marxist meeting. See you there!
Support the cause!
Work will set you free!
Reign it in, Marx. That saying is in very poor taste. Besides, economic change IS NOT ENOUGH.
Long time reader, first time poster, but I can't hold it in. When will you realize that communism and fascism are one and the same? Like Susan Sontag said, "Communism is fascism with a friendly face."
Couldn't have put it better myself, Di.
Learned how to rebuild my hard drive, today. Always thought I was too much of an intellectual to do that kind of hands-on thing, but turns out I'm a natural.
So happy to hear that, but I have to call you out on this whole "natural" bit. Everything is a human construction.
Second that. The nature-culture binary just thrusts women over into the nature side of things, making all manner of associations between and untamed sexuality and the body. Be fair and recognize that these terms just don't work.
J/K. Just wanted to see if you were paying attention!
Just picked up new edition of The Second Sex. Much needed changes to 1953 edition, but sorry to say it still basically stinks.
Where do I begin? The style, the philosophical premises, the syntactic quality… But it's all in the translation, Simone, so don't sweat it.
I, too, thought some of the language was confusing. I for one, am not thrilled by the new edition.
Well, I stick with what I said—translation or not. Kierkegaard had it right when he said, "What a curse to be a woman!"
Big fan, Simone. Big "Like" for your idea about gender and sex. You really clarified those ideas for me.
Yeah, no disrespect, Luce, but I'm with Judith on this one.
Second that.
Count me in!
Some critic, who shall remain unnamed, but who happens to be a female English poet with the initials SS, accused me of being "guilty of unconscious misogyny." That's pretty snarky!
Look, you can't please all of your critics. Just don't forget about the sisters when you write.
Nothing, just saying don't forget who you are.
Look, I'll out myself. No hard feelings but I did want to chime in that you tend to write from a very limited perspective, being a middle-class white female and all. So the book ends up being about you as a woman and not the more universal experience of woman.
I'm with Michel on this one. Young students aren't really my thing (I'm a family man), but I think that all of these oppressive rules cast the student as Other. Why shouldn't they get some loving, too?