Hell is other people removing your cigarette (Sartre photo airbrushed to comply with French law)

The Telegraph (U.K.) ^ | March 10, 2005 | Henry Samuel

[Stoat]

Hell is other people removing your cigarette
By Henry Samuel in Paris
(Filed: 10/03/2005)

France's National Library has airbrushed Jean-Paul Sartre's trademark cigarette out of a poster of the chain-smoking philosopher to avoid prosecution under an anti-tobacco law.

"Smoking," the Left-wing existentialist wrote, is "the symbolic equivalent of destructively appropriating the entire world."

And yet in its poster for an exhibition to mark the hundredth anniversary of Sartre's birth the Bibliothèque Nationale de France decided, destructively or not, to edit out the philosopher's Gauloise.

The library's president, Jean-Noël Jeanneney, confirmed that the cigarette had been discreetly smudged to comply with the 1991 loi Evin - a law banning tobacco advertising - but also so as not to frighten away potential sponsors from the exhibition, which opened yesterday.

Sartre's love of tobacco is well documented: he reportedly smoked his way through two packets and several pipes a day.

Indeed, all the best-known photographs of the author of La Nausée, such as his portrait by Henri Cartier-Bresson on the Pont des Arts in Paris, depict him with a cigarette or pipe in hand.

So organisers homed in on a photo taken by the artist Lipnitzki in 1946 during a rehearsal of Sartre's play La Putain Respectueuse, (The Respectful Prostitute), from which Sartre's cigarette could easily be removed.

The doctoring of the photo was first spotted by Libération, fittingly enough the Left-wing newspaper founded by Sartre.

The exhibition, which runs until Aug 21, shows previously unseen letters and manuscripts by the prolific writer and author of the immortal line: "Hell is other people."

[Mind-numbed Robot]

I'd say that a conservative political philosophy is crucial to the survival of freedom.

Through logical extension of the leftist effort, we will soon have Separation of Philosophy and State.

[numberonepal]

That was Physics, once known as Natural Philosophy

All philosophy is natural. Everything, including the minds of men, are interconnected. Philosophy is how we take a priori knowledge and use it in our everyday lives. Take "rights" for instance. We didn't invent rights. They exist whether they are recognized or not. Philosophy helps us understand what to recognize and what to do with that knowledge. Another little branch of philosophy, ethics, shows us how to act within those rights.

Now, I'm not saying all philosophical discussion is productive, but the exercise thereof is undeniably necessary. Newton mused on many things other than natural phenomena that were intrumental to his understanding of the physical aspects of the universe. Even da Vinci was known to pontificate once in a while. "What if" got us where we are today.

Pick up Philosophy - who needs it? by Rand. She explains it much better than I. It's a short collection of essays that illustrates the value of philosophy. I'll bet that you'll agree (being of a conservative mindset) with most of what she writes.

[ellery]

Without philosopers such as John Locke, and earlier philosophers such as Plato, our Constitutional Republic would probably not exist.

[numberonepal]

Through logical extension of the leftist effort, we will soon have Separation of Philosophy and State.

Mentioning "logic" and "leftist" in the same sentence without a negative qualifier will not be tolerated!

[Pagey]

attempted to revise or "forget" reality by airbrushing historical photographs, thereby "erasing" actual history for political purposes?

I was told by a film fanatic friend, that in Steven Spielberg's DVD re-release of "E.T.", the guns on the policemens hips were digitally removed. It's his movie and he can do what he wants, but I think it is totally ridiculous. "Doing it for the Chillllldren" of course.LOL

[Huck]

I don't see politics as a branch of philosophy. I see politics as 33% social services, 33% show business, 33% larceny.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

Mentioning "logic" and "leftist" in the same sentence without a negative qualifier will not be tolerated!

Dang!! And I was trying to be so s mart.

[Squawk 8888]

Unfortunately that's how politicians see it too.

[numberonepal]

I see politics as 33% social services, 33% show business, 33% larceny.

Being here and discussing it is a good step in the direction of bringing it back to its true meaning - the study of the principles guiding a proper social system.

[numberonepal]

Dang!! And I was trying to be so smart.

That was a pretty good effort for a mind-numbed robot. Don't beat yourself up, for even a mind-numbed robot is smarter than a leftist.

[metesky]

There was an FR thread about it when it happened. Must be in the archives someplace.

[Huck]

the study of the principles guiding a proper social system.

To me it's almost separate subject altogether. How about an analogy?

Politics is to the study of the principles guiding a proper social system as driving is to automechanics. Get it? Related but separate. That's just how I see it. Lots of people can drive without knowing how the cars many parts interelate.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

...even a mind-numbed robot is smarter than a leftist.

Well, perhaps at least more consistent.

[expatpat]

You're very pedantic today -- and still wrong. Einstein and Bohr were talking PHYSICS. If you want to refer to Physics as Philosophy, go ahead, but the difference is significant.

[zook]

I ouble checked to see if this was from Scrappleface. These people cannot even comprehend how much like Nazis they are.

[CaptRon]

Those who airbrush history are doomed to repeat it.

[Reactionary]

"Endless droning on without ever reaching any palpable conclusions, all the while simply getting into mind games with other "philosophers."

Not all philosophers are interested in theory or abstractions. Edmund Burke, for instance, had a very dim view of Enlightenment philosophy precisely because it relied on abstract notions such as "rights" that were divorced from tradition, from history.

[Publius6961]

I'd like a source for that. Not that I disbelieve you, but it never came up in AP History

Ummm. Which part, exactly?