Night in Prague 1981–1982 339
machination aimed primarily at intimidating and discouraging
all those who, whether intellectuals or not, intend to travel to
Czechoslovakia, in particular to demonstrate their solidarity
with those there, Chartists or not Chartists, who are struggling
for human rights to be respected. Yes, they are the ones I would
like to salute, since they are struggling in really heroic – in other
words obscure and anonymous – conditions.^12Another extract from the interview was broadcast on the 8
o’clock news that evening. Although he was still under an offi cial
charge, and wanted the investigation to be brought to a proper con-
clusion, Derrida forcefully demonstrated his desire that the mission
of the Jan Hus Foundation should continue, so as to show solidarity
with Czech dissidents. He himself stated that he was prepared to go
back there.
That same day, Jean Genet came to spend the evening in Ris-
Orangis with Paule Thévenin. He pressed Derrida with questions, as
if this arrest had made the two men even closer: ‘So, prison, did you
discover how it smells?... And did you suspect it was your friends
who had put you in this situation?’ On this last point, Genet had
guessed correctly: Derrida had been consumed by near paranoid
feelings during his imprisonment. And even though he tried to put a
brave face on events now that he was back, for example by relating
his story in an almost humorous way to the audience at his seminar,
the whole business had come as a terrible shock. According to
several of his friends, images of Prague would come back to him for
months: he would regularly have the feeling that people were follow-
ing him, eavesdropping, or hunting him down.^13
On 8 January, Derrida wrote to President Gustáv Husák to
demand that he be given an offi cial apology and cleared of any
accusation. Transmitted by the diplomatic services, this letter would
lead, eighteen months later, to nothing more than a vague attesta-
tion from the Czech Foreign Ministry certifying that ‘no criminal
proceedings had been set in motion’ against him. Derrida eventually
got back his personal belongings, but, despite several requests, his
tampered-with bag was never returned.^14
In spite of the various demonstrations of sympathy that fl owed in as
a result of his arrest, one had particular importance: the letter that
Philippe Sollers sent him, ten years almost to the day since they had
broken off relations:
My dear Jacques
Ouf!
It’s at times of high intensity such as these that you realize
who you love. The radio, at dawn.