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Jean-Paul Sartre

Sartre on Cuba Paperback – January 1, 1961

by Jean-Paul Sartre (Author)

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A first-hand account of the revolution in Cuba and the young men who are leaving it who they are and where they are going. This book is a description of Cuba today, of the origins of the revolution, and of the young revolutionary leaders. John Paul said tree has lived through the most disturbing. In European history, and his philosophical and dramatic works perfect the tension, the aimlessness of a decaying culture. Though he had envisioned a humanism which united thinking and doing, he himself was beginning to doubt whether this was possible in our world. Then he was invited to Cuba. He had not been there before and he was not expecting much. He was wrong.

Language

English
Publisher

Ballantine Books
Publication date

January 1, 1961
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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B000O3RVQ4
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Ballantine Books; 1st edition (January 1, 1961)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 3.2 ounces

Best Sellers Rank: #1,154,532 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,575 in General Elections & Political Process

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Jean-Paul Sartre

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Novelist, playwright, and biographer Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-80) is widely considered one of the greatest philosophers of the twentieth century. His major works include "No Exit," "Nausea," "The Wall," "The Age of Reason," "Critique of Dialectical Reason," "Being and Nothingness," and "Roads to Freedom," an allegory of man's search for commitment, and not, as the man at the off-licence says, an everyday story of French country folk.

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SARTRE'S (VERY "PRO"-CASTRO) ACCOUNT OF HIS 1961 (2ND) VISIT TO CUBA

Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2015

Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, and political activist, who wrote many other books such as Being and Nothingness , Existentialism....& Human Emotions , The Transcendence of the Ego , Search for a Method , Critique of Dialectical Reason , The Emotions: Outline Of A Theory , The Psychology of Imagination , Between Existentialism and Marxism , etc.

Sartre first visited Cuba in 1949---BEFORE the revolution which put Fidel Castro into power. He and Simone de Beauvoir were invited to return after the Cuban revolution, and they met Castro as well as Che Guevara. This brief book is his account (very uncritical, it must be admitted; but by the same token, the Cuban Revolution was still relatively "new: when they visited) of what they saw, and his opinions about it.

He notes, "My millionaire hotel room would hold my Paris apartment. What can one say about it?" (Pg. 7) He adds, "At the Tropicana, the largest dance hall in the world, there was a crowd around the green cloths. They gamble then, in Cuba? They still gamble? One of our companions replies briefly, `We gamble.' The slot machines were suppressed. But the national Lottery continues. There are casinos and, in all the large hotels, gambling rooms. As for prostitution, several houses were closed in the beginning, but afterward they were no longer bothered. Recalling this rather negative balance sheet I said to myself more than once during the first days, in their beginnings all, or nearly all, revolutions have one common characteristic: austerity. Where is the Cuban austerity?" (Pg. 10)

He points out, "The Monroe Doctrine changed its meaning. Originally it was the declaration of a policy. On December 2, 1823, the President of the United States published a message claiming `America for Ameicans.' The United States, said he, would not interfere with the affairs of Europe, but Europe must no longer consider America as a land of defensive and peaceful colonization. America belongs to Americans, nothing more, nothing less. Toward 1900, a gang of businessmen and politicians translated this principle into a new language. It now read, `South America belongs to North America.'" (Pg. 23)

He notes, "By consent or by force, India belonged to the English as long as the troops of Her Majesty remained there. Cuba never `belonged' to the U.S.A. The proof was that this national army, provided for by the fundamental laws of Cuban democracy, guaranteed order and the independence of the country." (Pg. 38)

He recounts, "Castro told me the other day that he was a professional revolutionary, and when I asked him what he meant by that he said, `It means I can't stand injustice.' He gave me some examples that he drew from his childhood and his adolescence... What pleased me in this answer was that this man---who fought, who is still fighting, for a whole people and who has no other interest than theirs---first recalled for me his personal passions, his private life." (Pg. 44) He adds, "Castro's violence is not madness. This is shown by his resolute decisions in moments of calm. He wouldn't let things be. He had to overthrow the caste that would have emasculated him." (Pg. 45)

He comments on the situation in 1959, "The Cuban revolution was still embarrassed in its contradictions. It was afraid, I imagine, to throw itself into the unknown, to become unraveled in things and to give itself its own law, when the people of Havana already were no longer doubtful. The workers and the housewives invaded the skyscraper section, besieged the Hilton, and exposed their demands to Castro. The latter understood that it was time to assume power. The ministers and Urrutia named him head of the government. The Liberation was finally going to be transformed into a revolution." (Pg. 69)

He observed, "No old people in power! In fact, I didn't see a single one among the leaders. Touring the island, I met my sons, if I dare say so, in all the positions of authority from one end of the scale to the other. Or in any case, the sons of my contemporaries. The fathers don't make themselves noticed. This island has the most discreet 50-year olds." (Pg. 88)

He asserts, "But all evidences of fatigue and fear such as Guatemala have a quite different effect on the revolutionaries. They return to rebellion. If the United States didn't exist, the Cuban revolution would perhaps invent it. It is the United States which preserves Cuba's freshness and originality. For the Cubans today find themselves facing the United States in the situation that the rebels in the Sierra Maestra found themselves in 1958 against the 50,000 men of Batista." (Pg. 113)

He gushes, "Castro, for me, was the man of everything, able to view the whole. It was enough for me to see him on the empty beach, rummaging passionately around in a refrigerator that was out of order, to understand that he was also the man of the smallest detail. Or rather, that in each circumstance he joined the detail and the whole inseparably." (Pg. 123) Later, he adds, "It's not that he possesses Cuba, like the big landowners or Batista. No, he IS the entire island because he doesn't deign to take it nor to reserve a strip of the land for himself." (Pg. 140)

Sartre's refusal to look critically at Castro in this book may make one shake one's head, in retrospect. (Note that Sartre was an enthusiastic defender of Soviet Union until VERY late in his life.) But that aside, this is certainly an interesting book "for its times," and may interest some modern readers (even if gthey vociferously disagree with Sartre's conclusions).

One person found this helpful

Helpful

SARTRE’S (VERY “PRO”-CASTRO) ACCOUNT OF HIS 1961 (2ND) VISIT TO CUBA

Reviewed in the United States on February 21, 2015

Jean-Paul Sartre (1905-1980) was a French existentialist philosopher, playwright, novelist, and political activist, who wrote many other books such as Being and Nothingness , Existentialism....& Human Emotions , The Transcendence of the Ego , Search for a Method , Critique of Dialectical Reason , The Emotions: Outline Of A Theory , The Psychology of Imagination , Between Existentialism and Marxism , etc.

Sartre first visited Cuba in 1949---BEFORE the revolution which put Fidel Castro into power. He and Simone de Beauvoir were invited to return after the Cuban revolution, and they met Castro as well as Che Guevara. This brief book is his account (very uncritical, it must be admitted; but by the same token, the Cuban Revolution was still relatively “new: when they visited) of what they saw, and his opinions about it.

He notes, “My millionaire hotel room would hold my Paris apartment. What can one say about it?” (Pg. 7) He adds, “At the Tropicana, the largest dance hall in the world, there was a crowd around the green cloths. They gamble then, in Cuba? They still gamble? One of our companions replies briefly, ‘We gamble.’ The slot machines were suppressed. But the national Lottery continues. There are casinos and, in all the large hotels, gambling rooms. As for prostitution, several houses were closed in the beginning, but afterward they were no longer bothered. Recalling this rather negative balance sheet I said to myself more than once during the first days, in their beginnings all, or nearly all, revolutions have one common characteristic: austerity. Where is the Cuban austerity?” (Pg. 10)

He points out, “The Monroe Doctrine changed its meaning. Originally it was the declaration of a policy. On December 2, 1823, the President of the United States published a message claiming ‘America for Ameicans.’ The United States, said he, would not interfere with the affairs of Europe, but Europe must no longer consider America as a land of defensive and peaceful colonization. America belongs to Americans, nothing more, nothing less. Toward 1900, a gang of businessmen and politicians translated this principle into a new language. It now read, ‘South America belongs to North America.’” (Pg. 23)

He notes, “By consent or by force, India belonged to the English as long as the troops of Her Majesty remained there. Cuba never ‘belonged’ to the U.S.A. The proof was that this national army, provided for by the fundamental laws of Cuban democracy, guaranteed order and the independence of the country.” (Pg. 38)

He recounts, “Castro told me the other day that he was a professional revolutionary, and when I asked him what he meant by that he said, ‘It means I can’t stand injustice.’ He gave me some examples that he drew from his childhood and his adolescence… What pleased me in this answer was that this man---who fought, who is still fighting, for a whole people and who has no other interest than theirs---first recalled for me his personal passions, his private life.” (Pg. 44) He adds, “Castro’s violence is not madness. This is shown by his resolute decisions in moments of calm. He wouldn’t let things be. He had to overthrow the caste that would have emasculated him.” (Pg. 45)

He comments on the situation in 1959, “The Cuban revolution was still embarrassed in its contradictions. It was afraid, I imagine, to throw itself into the unknown, to become unraveled in things and to give itself its own law, when the people of Havana already were no longer doubtful. The workers and the housewives invaded the skyscraper section, besieged the Hilton, and exposed their demands to Castro. The latter understood that it was time to assume power. The ministers and Urrutia named him head of the government. The Liberation was finally going to be transformed into a revolution.” (Pg. 69)

He observed, “No old people in power! In fact, I didn’t see a single one among the leaders. Touring the island, I met my sons, if I dare say so, in all the positions of authority from one end of the scale to the other. Or in any case, the sons of my contemporaries. The fathers don’t make themselves noticed. This island has the most discreet 50-year olds.” (Pg. 88)

He asserts, “But all evidences of fatigue and fear such as Guatemala have a quite different effect on the revolutionaries. They return to rebellion. If the United States didn’t exist, the Cuban revolution would perhaps invent it. It is the United States which preserves Cuba’s freshness and originality. For the Cubans today find themselves facing the United States in the situation that the rebels in the Sierra Maestra found themselves in 1958 against the 50,000 men of Batista.” (Pg. 113)

He gushes, “Castro, for me, was the man of everything, able to view the whole. It was enough for me to see him on the empty beach, rummaging passionately around in a refrigerator that was out of order, to understand that he was also the man of the smallest detail. Or rather, that in each circumstance he joined the detail and the whole inseparably.” (Pg. 123) Later, he adds, “It’s not that he possesses Cuba, like the big landowners or Batista. No, he IS the entire island because he doesn’t deign to take it nor to reserve a strip of the land for himself.” (Pg. 140)

Sartre’s refusal to look critically at Castro in this book may make one shake one’s head, in retrospect. (Note that Sartre was an enthusiastic defender of Soviet Union until VERY late in his life.) But that aside, this is certainly an interesting book “for its times,” and may interest some modern readers (even if gthey vociferously disagree with Sartre’s conclusions).

Helpful