
Sartre on the Nobel Prize (1964) - samclemens
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/1964/dec/17/sartre-on-the-nobel-prize/
======
_delirium
This essay has had quite a few lives: in Sweden, in France, in the USA; during
the Cold War, after it; now oddly enough, I meet it on HN. It's so well
written, in fact, that a more playful Swedish Academy might have awarded the
prize to Sartre in a subsequent year, citing this essay itself...

~~~
consumer
I was just looking for a citation to Clay Shirky's thought about
organizations' first priority being the survival of the organization, and on
the "Here Comes Everybody" wiki page, some... guy was referenced as "Nobel-
prize winning whatever whatsisname": would his ideas about groups have been
cited if he hadn't won that prize? And would I've been looking up something
Shirky said if he we're'nt Professor of New York at New Media University?

Joy is in being, not having; where one was over some honor flung: to've been
at Woodstock in sixty-nine, Manhattan in oh-one, the net/web in $year, off the
reef at Barbados, the shoulder of Orion... Awards and titles seem the recluse
of rats. Those who got instead of go'd.

------
PythonicAlpha
Groucho Marx said:

    
    
       I don't want to belong to any club that will accept people like me as a member
    

Sartre sharply found out, that to be an independent thinker "about" society,
he must not be entangled to much "into" society.

~~~
blinkingled
Sartre also said : Hell is other people.

~~~
danieldk
Which is probably one of the most misunderstood citations in philosophy. It's
the presence of other people that makes one acutely aware of oneself (since
you are an object in the conscience of others).

From L'Être et le Néant:

 _But the Other is the indispensable mediator between myself and me. I am
ashamed of myself as I appear to the Other._

~~~
chenelson
In this dance is you-Daniel, me-Che, and Other, of which I will never know.

------
spectrum
Richard Feynman on the Nobel prize when the interviewer asks him if his
research was worth the Nobel prize that he won:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZF4vBreqmE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZF4vBreqmE)

~~~
mironathetin
Feynman is splendid, like always. For my understanding, his reasoning is much
clearer and less artificially complex than Sartres.

Thanks for posting this.

~~~
stephancoral
Sarte's reasoning is pretty simple: he doesn't want to become a component of
an institution. He wants to be able to write as Jean-Paul Sartre, not Jean-
Paul Sartre the Nobel Prize winner.

~~~
hueving
That thinking is flawed though. A prize doesn't define you by accepting it.
When I am given a birthday cake, I don't then become "heuving, the receiver of
birthday cakes".

The only reason that really makes sense to decline a prize is if you are
heavily opposed to what the institution represents. However, he didn't strike
me as anti-intellectual.

------
knodi123
I loved this quote:

"This permits me to collaborate with all those who seek to bring the two
cultures closer together. I nonetheless hope, of course, that “the best man
wins.” That is, socialism."

------
swartkrans
I wonder how he felt about his fame, you can't shake that off. Maybe I
misunderstand his argument, but it seems like he could have used that argument
to just always write anonymously.

~~~
patothon
Sartre only represents himself. Not any institution like the Nobel. That's his
argument. So writing in his name is ok.

------
d--b
what the article doesn't say though, being written by Sartre, is that Sartre
was pretty pissed off that Camus did get the prize before he did.

------
ghshephard
There is a saying, "Everyone has a price" \- Notch's was $2 Billion. I wonder
what Sartre's was. Clearly more than 250,000 crowns.

~~~
robomc
There's really no analogy there at all.

~~~
WilliamRay
They are both renouncing something in a spectacular way to maintain a personal
ideal.

~~~
ekianjo
Notch did not say "no" to the Money at all. He said "I don't want the
responsibilities, but I'll take the money, thank you". Which is well in his
right, don't make me say what I did not.

------
kghose
Pompous.

~~~
chevas
Precisely. Just accept the damn honor. I am not impressed. True humility does
not rob others the joy of giving, but accepts the gift being offered.

~~~
mercurial
Why should he have done that? He explains in details his reasons, and for
somebody in his position. They sound perfectly valid, and he goes out of his
way to say that his refusal is in no way a indictment of the Nobel committee.
Other people have refused prestigious awards in the past, without being taxed
of arrogance.

