228 Derrida 1963–1983
of the same name, delighted the audience. At Johns Hopkins, on 6
November, Derrida gave another important paper, ‘Qual Quelle’,
on the occasion of the hundredth anniversary of Valéry’s birth; he
had immersed himself in the latter’s oeuvre for the fi rst time since his
teens, and would often refer to it subsequently.
Throughout his stay in America, Pautrat and Althusser gave
Derrida news from the rue d’Ulm. The new director had arrived:
Jean Bousquet, a former classmate of Pompidou, a ‘handsome old
chap, rather demagogic’, but ‘defi nitely more subtle and polite than
his predecessor’.^58 Derrida was not to worry himself ‘the slightest
little bit for the École and its philosophers’:^59 everything was going
fi ne.
But his two colleagues and friends were especially keen to keep
him informed about the turbulence in Paris: this was no less than
it had been in autumn 1968, during his previous stay in Baltimore.
Sollers had congratulated Bernard Pautrat on his book Versions
of the Sun: Nietzsche’s Figures and System, recently published by
Seuil. But he had in particular told him in detail all about the big
event of the day. It concerned Daily Life in Revolutionary China. In
September 1971, the banning of Macciocchi’s book from the Fête
de L’Humanité* had hastened Sollers’ break with the Communist
Party. So Derrida would need, before his return, to get used to the
new situation, as ‘the adjective “revisionist” is now being handled
with such aplomb – naturally, easily, innocently’.^60 In the headquar-
ters of the Éditions du Seuil, in the rue Jacob, the Tel Quel offi ce was
plastered over with ‘dazibaos’,† many of them the work of Marcelin
Pleynet. The most piquant, perhaps, was this one: ‘Two concep-
tions of the world, two lines, two paths: Aragon or Mao Zedong?
Comrades, you must choose!’^61
Meanwhile, Althusser was involved in a complex set of manoeu-
vres. Even though there was no question of his leaving the Party,
he had recently met Houdebine, who had just devoted an entire
issue of Promesse to him. What he had heard about the forthcom-
ing interview with Derrida had greatly intrigued him: ‘I think that
he’ll forward it to me before publication, if you like. As you know,
I’d like to understand what you write, and not just make do with
a few aperçus and fragments.’ Perhaps this interview would help
him get more of an insight into what his former pupil was think-
ing. ‘The striking thing is that until now, none of the people whom
you annoy has been able to put forward a critique that’s up to the
- This was an annual fair and showcasing of books and pamphlets endorsed by the
Communist Party. – Tr.
† Dàzìbào, literally ‘big character announcement’: a handwritten poster usually for
propaganda.