120 Jackie 1930–1962
Over the following two weeks, Derrida and Ricoeur would
grow closer, having lunch or dinner together several times, with or
without their wives. But Derrida was still very shy and socially ill
at ease. As for Ricoeur, snowed under as he was by his own obli-
gations, he seems not to have read the Introduction to The Origin
of Geometry closely before it was published. So, in order to get a
more frank and direct opinion of his manuscript, which he was still
doubtful about, Derrida turned to Althusser.
After an attentive reading, his old caïman assured him, on 9
January 1962, that he had never read a text ‘so scrupulous and so
profoundly intelligent on Husserl. Intelligent in depth, going beyond
the usual picking out of contradictions, seeking out the most hidden
intention to account for and explain the enigmas of expression.’ He
was convinced that Derrida had gone much further than other inter-
preters, who ‘throw in the towel when things get too tough’: ‘You
carry on to the bitter end, and even if one can decide not to be a
Husserlian (which is very diffi cult when reading you.. .), it is easy to
see how one could be such, and what being one actually means.’ He
said how happy he was to recognize in this introduction the point of
departure for Derrida’s current thinking: writing, ‘transcendental’
pathology, language. ‘You must go on: the pages you have already
produced on writing are full of meaning and big with promise.’ In
Althusser’s view, the whole text was fi rst-rate. ‘I started reading it
on returning from holiday (rain, snow, fog): it brought me light and
much joy.’^15 He took this opportunity to invite Derrida to call by
and visit him in his lair at Normale Sup: he would especially like to
discuss in more detail Husserl’s relations with Hegel and Heidegger.
This invitation did not go unheeded. In the short term, it helped
Derrida gain a little confi dence. He dreamed only of ‘being able to
replace this artifi cial, inhuman and industrial stress of producing
“courses” and “publications” with a living, shared work carried out
in the freedom of dialogue’. The Sorbonne exhausted him: his lec-
tures seemed to meet with approval, but he complained at having to
spend most of his time marking student work that was often boring.
‘There are days when, overcome by tiredness, all I can get from the
whole business is a sense of being worn out, worn down, sacrifi cing
myself for an abstraction.’^16
At that moment, the Algerian question forced itself on Derrida’s
attention more brutally than ever. Since the beginning of 1962,
the OAS had extended its action to metropolitan France. There
were several bomb attacks in Paris, including one on Sartre’s
apartment; another attack, aimed at André Malraux, disfi gured a
four-year-old girl. The forces of the Left fi nally came together and
launched a ‘National Committee of Action against the OAS and for
a Negotiated Peace’. On 8 February, a demonstration was banned