Tag Archives: France

Acting the Part

Posted on July 2, 2019 by Abigail

Acting the Part When I was newly arrived in Paris as a young Fulbright Scholar, I was invited to have lunch at the home of the Israeli ambassador to France. He was my mother’s first cousin. Hence the invitation. We … Continue reading →

Posted in Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, Art of Living, Autonomy, beauty, books, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Freedom, Gender Balance, glitterati, hegemony, hierarchy, history of ideas, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Institutional Power, Jews, Judaism, Literature, Love, Male Power, Martyrdom, Memoir, memory, Modernism, Moral psychology, novels, Ontology, Past and Future, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Reading, Reductionism, relationships, Religion, Roles, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, spiritual journey, spiritual not religious, status, status of women, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Time, twentieth century, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged ambassadorial residence, annals of contempt, bad faith, beaux quartiers, cheap meals, comme il faut, cousins, exchange of courtesies, feeling flustered, France, French waiter, Fulbright Scholar, Israeli ambassador, Jean-Paul Sartre's Being and Nothingness, kiss on both cheeks, Latin Quarter, Les Deux Magots, long red carpet, luncheon guest, mauvaise foi, Mme. Ambassador, Paris, philosophers’ cafe, pitiless gaze, role playing, Saint Germain des Pres, servants’ esteem, servants’ gaze, social zero, Stendahl’s The Red and The Black, student restaurant card, student restaurants, the gaze | 2 Comments

Men on the Timeline

Posted on February 12, 2019 by Abigail

Men on the Timeline The other night I was at the Franco-Tunisian café where I go to get some of my writing done. A sizeable group had taken one side of the section where I found a round table. They … Continue reading →

Posted in "Absolute Freedom and Terror", Absurdism, Academe, Action, Alienation, American Politics, Anthropology, Art, Art of Living, Atheism, Autonomy, bigotry, Chivalry, Cities, Class, conformism, Contemplation, Contradictions, Cool, Courage, Cultural Politics, Culture, Desire, dialectic, Erotic Life, Eternity, Ethics, Evil, Existentialism, exploitation, Faith, Fashion, Femininity, Feminism, Films, Freedom, Friendship, Gender Balance, glitterati, Gnosticism, Guilt and Innocence, hegemony, Heroes, hidden God, hierarchy, history of ideas, ID, Idealism, Ideality, Identity, Ideology, Idolatry, Immorality, Institutional Power, Legal Responsibility, life and death struggle, Love, Male Power, Masculinity, master/slave relation, Memoir, memory, Mind Control, Modernism, Moral action, Moral evaluation, Moral psychology, morality, Oppression, Past and Future, Phenomenology of Mind, Philosophy, politics, politics of ideas, post modernism, Power, presence, promissory notes, Propaganda, Psychology, public facade, Public Intellectual, Race, Reductionism, relationships, Roles, Romance, Romantic Love, secular, Seduction, self-deception, Sex Appeal, Sexuality, social climbing, social construction, Social Conventions, social ranking, Sociobiology, spiritual journey, status, status of women, Suffering, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Men, The Problematic of Woman, the profane, the sacred, Theism, Theology, Time, twentieth century, twenty-first century, victimhood, victims, Violence, Work, Writing, Zeitgeist | Tagged #metoo, a false life, artists under communism, award-winning films, believing in nothing, believing propaganda, black and white film, breaking faith, cafe eavesdropping, chivalry, classy cafe, communism v capitalism, communist-ruled Poland, condescension, deflecting advances, enabling sexism, escape to Paris, feminist preoccupations, foreign films, France, Franco-Tunisian cafe, grotesque sexism, heaven protect the working girl, high-end customers, human interconnectedness, ideality in men, ideology, inauthenticity, Iron Curtain, le coup de foudre, local diner, loss of faith, loss of trust, love without history, male protectiveness, male pushback, male revenge, manipulativeness, men who can cry, men’s new roles, night on the town, nihilism, out of line remarks, outmoded sexism, Paris, Parisian memories, Pawel Pawlikowski’s Cold War, permission to protest, Poland, Polish films, positive male role models, power advantage, pre-feminist days, pretended feminists, psychic interconnectedness, put downs, realistic men, redefining women, redefining women’s lives, reliable men, restaurant eavesdropping, romantic films, sensitivity training, sexist backlash, shared world, the French erotic model, the law of the brute, the party line, Tristan and Isolde, tunnel vision, uncalled for remarks, Upper Bohemia, what women want, women sharing a secret, women’s assertiveness, women’s self-definition, writers at cafes | Leave a comment

“Femininity”

Posted on December 26, 2013 by Abigail

“Femininity” Botticelli’s Birth of Venus, the painting above, takes an uncommon view, since the self-display is rather complete. Usually, in photos from all over the world, every clime and hue, the feminine look has slightly lowered eyelids, a face turned sidewise, … Continue reading →

Posted in Academe, Art, Culture, Femininity, Feminism, Literature, Philosophy, Political, Psychology, relationships, Sexuality, Social Conventions, The Examined Life, The Problematic of Woman | Tagged Afghanistan, An American Bride in Kabul, Birth of Venus, Botticelli, Ernest Hemingway, Femininity, France, German, Hadley, Hadley Richardson, hermetic tradition, Kabul, male authority, nazis, Phyllis Chesler, United States, westernized, World War II | Leave a comment

“All About My Mother”

Posted on December 19, 2013 by Abigail

“All About My Mother” Unlike me, my mother would give advice, solicited and unsolicited. For example: “Never tell other people your sexual history or how much money you have. That’s Life Capital.” In the little town in Maine where my … Continue reading →

Posted in Academe, Culture, Femininity, Philosophy, Political, relationships, The Examined Life | Tagged Abigail L. Rosenthal, Abigail Martin, academic politics, France, Holocaust, hospice, Jewish, Jewish history, Kafka, Lausanne, Maine, Maternal insult, Mother, Mother Teresa, mother-daughter relationships, sexual history, state department, World War II | 4 Comments

Tag Archives: France

“All About My Mother”

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