236 Derrida 1963–1983
that is kept silent, and fascinating: his solitude comes from
what he is going to say.^15Derrida was particularly touched by this text. A few days later, he
thanked his ‘dear friend’ for his ‘sovereign and generous opening’
and took the opportunity to tell Barthes, as he had never before
done, how greatly his work had counted for him.
Even before I started writing, [your work] was always there,
helping me like an irreplaceable critical resource, but also like
one of those glances of solidarity, whose rigour never limits
one, but instead lets one, makes one write. And this bond,
which also proceeds from the solitude, yes, of which you speak,
is for me, in my work, so familiar, secret, discreet that it never
becomes the object of a discourse.^16Maurice Blanchot, he added, was the only other person with whom
he could have a similar relationship ‘of closeness, of gratitude, and
complicity’, and to whom he could express this ‘in such a naked,
trusting way’. Coming from Derrida, this was quite a compliment.
On both sides, in spite of the break with Tel Quel, esteem and friend-
ship continued to prevail, even though the two men rarely met. And
Derrida would write a superb text, ‘The deaths of Roland Barthes’,
shortly after the tragic death of the author of Camera Lucida.^17
In the view of Sollers and the telqueliens, any move towards Ristat,
in other words towards Aragon too, appeared as an act of war.
On 30 April was published the second issue of the Bulletin du
mouve ment de juin 1971, a little ‘home-made’ publication edited by
Marcelin Pleynet. In this booklet, which began and ended with a
poem by Mao Zedong, Derrida was attacked twice over. The title
of the fi rst text was to remain celebrated: ‘Ô mage à Derrida’ (‘Oh
Derrida’s magus’ – but also, ironically, ‘Hommage à Derrida’). The
article itself, in all its clumsy phrasing, is an anthology piece:
A special issue of Les Lettres françaises against the leftists and
the ‘rogue’ Overney? No, a special issue for the philosopher
Jacques Derrida. So could Aragon’s rag be a political sponge?
Philosophy, as any fool knows, has nothing to do with politics,
unless, of course, esotericism is now part of the ideological
arsenal of the pcfr [sic*]. And how can one have any doubts,- The lower case letters indicate all the esteem felt by the author of the article for
the PCF (French Communist Party). As for the letter ‘r’ at the end, it is the initial
of ‘revisionist’, one of the great insults of the day. In the following sentence, ‘change
course’ is of course an allusion to Change, the review run by Faye and scorned by