Derrida: A Biography

350 Derrida 1963–1983

approached, he insisted that his old friend ‘Coco’ support him as
actively as possible:

I’m sorry to bother you again with this problem. I wouldn’t

dare do so if it wasn’t such a serious matter for me and the

time left to me in these accursed institutions. [Jacques] Revel

himself, [the historian] – I’ve seen him – seemed (not to

dramatize things) worried enough to want you to be there on

9 December. When he told me as much, I realized that a few

votes might swing it either way. I feel very awkward and very

guilty about asking you, even if you’re the only person I can

talk to right now (what a world!). If you could come and try to

convince your friends, I’d be somewhat reassured.^21

On the evening of the vote, Derrida was in Venice for a confer-
ence. But he asked Bianco to call Marguerite straightaway, whatever
the result: ‘All this makes me really sad, for countless reasons, but
what can one do?’ The author of Origins of the Chinese Revolution
was well aware of the temperament of his former cothurne and his
solidarity was unstinting:

I’ll be there. [.. .] I’d already decided to phone Marguerite, I

didn’t want to leave anyone else with the task of telling you the

result, which cannot fail to be good. Don’t worry: I know that

you will worry, all the same, but you have no reason to do so.

In two weeks, it’s goodbye to the ENS! After, you’ll have every

opportunity to moan about that other ‘accursed institution’,

the EHESS, but at least it’s a cushy number.^22

None of this completely reassured Derrida. A few days later he
also pleaded his own case to Gérard Genette, even though he had
not seen the latter much for several years. The wound from Nanterre
still stung, and Derrida wished at all costs to avoid a new failure:

You probably know that I’m a candidate for a post at the

EHESS, and the vote takes place on 9 December. If you have

no objection to this candidacy (now my only chance of not

spending the rest of my professional life as a maître assistant

in this École, which has become ‘unbearable’ to me), can I ask

you to attend the session? I wouldn’t have dared to ask you

for your support if things were not very serious for me and if

alarming rumours had not reached me: I do not know where

they come from and I am not sure how serious they are. And I

can’t properly talk about them – and even then only hesitantly

• except to two or three friends... Forgive me for this gesture.
  Aff ectionately.^23