248 Derrida 1963–1983
by the faculty of letters and human sciences. Instead, they
question the border and the passage, the oppositional com-
plicity that that has been constituted between these suburbs
[arrondissements] of our culture.^44The general press, whether or not it was kindly disposed, found it
really diffi cult to review these works. So Le Monde simply contented
itself (it was midsummer) with a brief notice that could hardly have
been more laconic: in it, Dissemination was described as a ‘diffi cult
and essential work for those who wish to follow the development
of Derrida’s thought, one of the most important of our day’. And
the following month, the newspaper mentioned among the autumn
publications ‘two works by this renowned philosopher: Margins
of Philosophy, ten unpublished texts that reaffi rm the need, in the
face of ideology, of a rigorous and generative “deconstruction”;
Positions, three interviews on work in progress’. This did not give
much help to potential readers.
However, even Elle was talking about Derrida, albeit in rather
farcical terms. A few months earlier, Jacqueline Demornez had
referred to ‘those unwritten laws which will colour the year ’72’.
Among the passwords, now that The Order of Things is no longer
the height of fashion, one should always – she assured her readers –
drop the name of Derrida and say that ‘his last book, Dissemination,
is the best thing ever written on drugs. If anyone asks you to go into
a little more detail, defend your point of view by quoting the author:
“In any case, a text always remains imperceptible.” ’^45
On 2 December, in Le Journal de Genève, John E. Jackson described
Derrida as ‘a diffi cult author, but the only contemporary philo-
sopher admired by Heidegger’, the one ‘whom he considers, it is
said, as the only contemporary philosopher worthy of the name’.^46
While the formula was rather bold, the curiosity of the author of
Being and Time for that of Writing and Diff erence seemed as intense
as ever. In Strasbourg, Lucien Braun, who knew Heidegger well,
had tried on several occasions to organize a meeting, insisting on
the informal character it would need to have. On 16 May 1973,
Heidegger replied to his request, saying that he was looking forward
to ‘making the acquaintance of Monsieur Derrida, who [had]
already sent [him] several of his works’, but he had taken on too
many engagements for the next few weeks and wanted to postpone
this visit to the autumn.^47
At all events, Heidegger continued to fi nd out about Derrida. At
what was to be his last seminar, in September 1973, he welcomed to
his house the Belgian phenomenologist Jacques Taminiaux. After
three quarters of an hour spent talking about this and that, he
abruptly asked: ‘Monsieur Taminiaux, I’ve been told that Jacques