What if we're ugly and we don't want to see it? — David Mo

There's an old saying about beauty and seeing it.

Well, he's French, so there's that.

Echoing others, but Sartre's still a cultural signifier of sorts. You'll find references to 'hell is other people' etc in 'smart' cartoons or podcasts. He'll come up in pop philosophy (2016) and pop history books a lot. He's seeped into the culture, just like Freud did, as others have noted. His own work was too insular and autodidactic (I don't know exactly what I mean by that, only it feels autodidactic, which I think he himself would have partially acknowledged, since The Autodidact is a figure in Nausea (I'm told.) But it's hard to build a school around something so insular like that. Were there academic Sartreans ever? (not rhetorical, I sincerely don't know.)

But it's hard to build a school around something so insular like that. Were there academic Sartreans ever? — csalisbury

Yes. There's even an academic journal devoted to him: : Sartre International Studies.

Nausea is really good. I'd take it over most philosophy.

But I'm still not going to read Being and Nothingness. Eh.

I did read Transcendence of the Ego. I remember it was OK, but left no real impression on me, and I can't recall its specific contents well.

Being and Nothingness is indeed quite a tome, but even if you don't want to commit to reading the whole thing, taking a chapter by chapter approach works out fine considering each chapter is devoted to a particular topic and can be profitably read on its own. Publishers often even make separate books out of just cherrypicking certain chapters; e.g., the book Existential Psychoanalysis basically only consists of Sartre's B&N chapter on bad faith and the chapter of his (excellent) critique and reinvisioning of Freudian psychoanalysis.

If you want to avoid Being and Nothingness entirely, I'd still recommend everyone reading The Imaginary.

Nausea is really good. I'd take it over most philosophy. — Snakes Alive

You can get pills for that.

I have a copy of Being and Nothingness somewhere. I bought it many long years ago, and am reasonably certain I never read more than a few pages of it. I'm certain I will never read it, being that there is nothing less interesting to me than "Being" and/or "Nothingness." Hee hee.

I can think of at least one philosopher I wish never to be heard of again. Big John Dewey was lost for a time, but seems to be more and more found lately. G.E. Moore, perhaps? Comte?

Does anyone else find his absence from the forums a bit odd? His star status was once far greater than any other philosopher, with the possible exception of Russell. Yet he never gets a mention now. — Banno

Absent from the forums, yes, but still read by young people in crisis. When I was in high school, I had a friend who was obsessed with Sartre. So he still plays that role.

Sartre's still around, it seems.

https://existentialcomics.com/comic/333

When I were lad... (spoken in best Yorkshire brogue)

We all had a copy of Being and Nothingness on our shelf, and went to see No Exit every second month. — Banno

I saw Nausea, and the book is on my short(ish)list. I doubt I'll ever read any of his philosophical writings though, his is not the sort of philosophy that captures my interest.

Yeah, apparently during his lifetime he was far more influential than Einstein, then he quickly went out of favor and nowadays is mostly remembered by academics who make a career of him, and a few cult followers.