ANNIE COHEN-SOLAL
217
violent, most scandalous ever. Sartre was very likely involved in it.
Rifts had appeared in the close-knit Normalien milieu , first of all on
the issue of religion - between the "talas," and their non-Catholic
and atheist counterparts , the "patalas" - and then politics . Socialists,
communists , valoisians , there were enough groups to suit any taste .
Sartre joined the patalas and the pacifists , a minority group essen–
tially consisting of Alain's former students, all quite fervent when the
subject turned to the army and World War
I.
Their vehemence
reached extreme proportions in 1927 when they revolted against the
Paul Boncour law , which proposed to "reorient the nation's intellec–
tual resources toward the national defense ." They drew up a petition
for which they managed to collect fifty-four signatures representing
nearly all the classes and disciplines of the school. Finally, they
focused the entire Revue of 1927 on the Ecole's resistance to
"militarization." That year, the main actors were Sartre, of course,
and a few other known Alainiens : Canguilhem, Peron , Lebail ,
Lucot , and Broussaudier.
To the tune of
La Marseillaise-
scandal! - a student disguised as
an army captain expresses his pride in a very particular form of
bellicose cynicism: 'je suis entre dans la carriere/Quand Ie metier
avait du
bon/On
pouvait esperer la guerre/Et gagner pas mal de
galons ..." [I joined the army . It offered several perks . You could
always hope for war while earning a couple of stripes]. The point is
driven home even harder to the tune of
Le Temps des cerises:
"Mais
quand reviendra la guerre benie/Lieut'nants, colonels, deputes,
senateurs/Seront Tous en fe-e-te."g[But when we get back our lovely
war, then , lieutenants , colonels, deputies, and senators will all be
justly jubilant.] The first rehearsal is greeted by a few hisses, but the
first public performance causes a real uproar: the hall is filled with
violent protest against this band of "tyrannical blackguards who en–
joy harassing people under the pretext of pacifism ." Some students
boo , others get up and leave. A real scandal. A few days later, the
press gets hold of the matter and Gustave Herve, a journalist of
La
Victo ire
,
pulls no punches in attacking these arrogant members of the
French intellectual elite who besmirch the French flag and vilify the
French army with impunity . Gustave Lanson lost his only son in
World War I and has since lapsed into a depression that, it is
rumored, has caused him to lose all interest in mundane matters .
9. J ean Bruhat,
1I n'est j amais trop tard
(Paris: Albin Michel , 1982); and interviews
with J ean Bruhat, O ctober 9, 1978 and April 14, 1980.
