Sartre's second century

138 Chapter Nine
uses the concept of situated freedom as the direct basis for the to-and-fro
of existence that both he and Hugo confront: "And so we begin to catch a
glimpse of the paradox of freedom: there is freedom only in a situation,
and there is a situation only through freedom." 56 Therein also lies an
opportunity to take up Ronald Santoni's exciting suggestion that there is a
difference between living in bad faith and acting in it:
[B]oth Sartre and Sartrean scholarship would read and fare better if a
distinction were drawn more sharply between the original bad faith of the
human being's original pre-reflective project or "natural attitude" of
attaining self-coincidence or in-itself-for-itself [...], and the bad faith of
more specific "acts", "choices", "behaviours" and "ways of living". 57
Whilst the former could be construed as a total loss of (or indeed total
immersion in) consciousness, the latter is a more reflective gesture: a kind
of "knowing" bad faith that does not eliminate the possibility of a return of
self-awareness, and would be aptly suited to propel Sartre and Hugo on
their existential see-saw. Sartre hints at such a conception when comparing
bad faith to a dreamlike state: "You put yourself in bad faith as you would
lull yourself to sleep, and you are in bad faith as you would be asleep in a
dream." 58 Sticking with this analogy of sleep, it is possible to split that
dreamlike state. If we take pre-reflective bad faith to be akin to a dream,
then reflective bad faith could be seen as a daydream. The latter occurs at
specific intervals, puncturing our conscious state as opposed to suspending
it. As such, consciousness is compromised but not overwhelmed by this
deception, in the same way as a daydream subdues our self-awareness
without sending us into deep sleep. Such a metaphor in fact corresponds
exactly to how Hugo figures the problematic of living an existence that
absurdly tries to stabilise our turbulent condition, of believing in an
essence to our lives that we know is, according to reason, ridiculous:
"Each morning, everyone picks up their bundle of daydreams and leaves
for a faraway California. [...] All of us follow a path." 59
The dialogue that I have set up here amplifies critical discourses on the
identity of the French "engaged writer" as a necessarily oppositional one
"Ainsi commengons-nous a entrevoir le paradoxe de la libertd: il n'y a de liberty
qu'en situation et il n'y a de situation que par la liberte"' (L'&tre et le neant, 569-
70).
57 Santoni, Bad Faith, 183.
58 "On se met de mauvaise foi comme on s'endort et on est de mauvaise foi comme
on reve" (L'fitre et le neant, 109).
59 "Tous les matins chacun fait son paquet de reveries et part pour la Californie des
songes. [...] Tous suivent une piste" (Proses philosophiques, 663).