The reason for my refusal is twofold, wrote Sartre: personal and objective. Sartre claimed he had always rejected official honors. He had refused the Legion of Honor in 1945, though he was sympathetic to the government. Likewise, he had never sought to enter the Collège de France, no matter how often his friends urged him. “A writer who adopts political, social, or literary positions must act only with the means that are his own,” wrote Sartre, “that is, the written word.” A writer, wrote Sarte, must refuse to let himself be transformed into an institution. A writer must remain free. “If I sign myself Jean-Paul Sartre it is not the same thing as if I sign myself Jean-Paul Sartre, Nobel Prizewinner.”
Posted on: Thu, 16 Oct 2014 20:42:44 +0000