The Pursuit of Wisdom

Pascal was indignant. In his 16 years as a waiter at the Cafe de Flore, in Paris' bohemian Latin Quarter, Pascal had heard more crackpot talk about art, letters and life than a hundred ordinary men hear in a lifetime. For Pascal, most of it went in one ear and out the other. But he remembered that last year there was a haze of glory around the Cafe de Flore, when Existentialism was in its first febrile flower. Jean-Paul Sartre, the wall-eyed little founder of Existentialism, and his disciples jabbered nightly at the Flore. Admiring sightseers came to watch them, and bought drinks as they watched.

And now the glory was tarnished. Critics were calling the Existentialists "the Excrementalists." From bourgeois critics, that could be shrugged off; it hurt worse to hear it said, by true-blue bohemians, that the Existentialists themselves were going bourgeois. Sartre was an international figure; he was making money; he was planning to open a play in New York ; his fame had even reached (but not touched) the impervious intellectuals of Britain's Oxford.*

In some way which Pascal could not quite fathom, the bohemian tradition was being betrayed. It was a tradition epitomized, in the Left Bank's 19th Century heyday, by Author Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly, who used to lead a live lobster around on a leash. "He does not bark," Barbey solemnly explained, "and he has the wisdom of the sea."

Sartre and his followers were not seen so often now at the Flore. Disappointed admirers had stopped hanging around, and the place was full of nobodies. That saddened Pascal; and he was alarmed to see Existentialism menaced by two upstart cults: Lettrism and Sensorialism.

Lettrism, founded by Isidore Isou, an eccentric Rumanian, is a theory of poetry as "rhythmic architecture." The rapidly growing hordes of Lettrists scorn practically all non-Lettrist poets, and prefer meaningless combinations of letters to dictionary words. Founder Isou was planning last week to hire the Salle Wagram, one of Paris' biggest auditoriums, to denounce his opponents publicly. A typical Lettrist poem looks like a passage from Finnegans Wake translated into Esperanto:

Malana ova kalem

Mostri nale toutf toutf

Sidi nale nale nale

Ah! oh! hi! Pan, pan!

Sensorialism was founded by 35-year-old Jean LeGrand, a dark-eyed, pale, intense man from the south of France. His theory: nothing is valid except sense experience, in which sex experience, being the most intense, is the most valid. Even the Sensorialists, however, claim that sex should have emotional justification, and therefore they preach "multiple love" instead of "free love." They claim that jealousy and possessiveness are sins; that marriage is enslavement; that fidelity is a mistake but constancy a good thing. The great idol of the Sensorialists is that 18th Century pervert and jailbird, the Marquis de Sade. Leader LeGrand is writing five autobiographical novels, called Journal de Jacques, one of which has been published, and is readying a Sensorialist play for production next month.

Does Matter Exist? LeGrand flouts Positivism, Hegelianism and Existentialism, but admires George Berkeley, Bishop of Cloyne (1685-1753), who also hailed the importance of sense experience, Berkeley's slant, however, was rather different from LeGrand's. The bishop claimed that matter has no existence except by being perceived; that a tree, say, would cease to exist when nobody is around to see it, except for the fact that it is always visible to God.* Berkeley's metaphysics made crusty old Dr. Sam Johnson so angry that he kicked a stone, saying: "Thus I refute Berkeley!" This, of course, was no valid refutation; if it were, a Sensorialist could refute the bishop even more poignantly, if less painfully, by going to bed with his girl.

In spite of his eminent philosophical name, these considerations meant nothing to Pascal, the waiter at the Cafe de Flore, who was much more interested in tips. Both the Lettrists and the Sensorialists disdained the Flore. The Lettrists patronized more congenial spots on the Right Bank, of all places; the Sensorialists, for reasons connected with their erotic ethic, avoided all saloons. "France has had enough cafe literature," Sensorialist LeGrand had said. "Cafes are fine for anyone who merely wants adventures."

Pascal curled his lip. "Lettrism," he sneered. "Sensorialism. These are what menace us today. We must combat them if we wish things to remain as they were in the good old days."

* At an Oxford lecture, delivered by a French Existentialist named Jean Bacon, a young woman became confused about problems of "being and nothingness" and asked the lecturer where babies came from. Said M. Bacon with Gallic urbanity: "De ses parents, evidemment!" (From their parents, naturally). Oxford's weekly Isis discussed the lecture under the coy title "Sartre Resartus."

* As a versifier explained it:

There was a young man who said, "God

Must think it exceedingly odd

If He finds that this tree

Continues to be

When there's no one about in the Quad."

Reply:

Dear Sir:

Your astonishment's odd:

I am always about in the Quad.

And that's why the tree

Will continue to be,

Since observed by

Yours faithfully,

God.

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