310 Derrida 1963–1983
Derrida said that he, too, had enjoyed this experience: ‘It was very
strange, rich and ultimately very mysterious.’^5 But Pierre stayed
for only part of the tour, before returning to Ris-Orangis to start
his terminale. From 24 September, Derrida gave a three-week
seminar in Yale on ‘The Concept of Comparative Literature and
the Theoretical Problems of Translation’. Then he went to Montreal
for a conference on ‘Nietzsche’s Otobiography’ and two days of free
discussion with some of those most enthusiastic about his work,
such as Claude Lévesque, Christie V. McDoland, Eugenio Donato,
and Rodolphe Gasché.^6
Jacques and Marguerite Derrida were generous hosts. Many col-
leagues, translators, and even students were invited to their home
in Ris-Orangis. During the 1979 Christmas holidays, Avital Ronell
was a guest on several occasions. Pierre, still not seventeen, was a
brilliant young man, passionate about music and literature. He and
Avital were soon involved in a love aff air. Jacques was surprised and
uneasy. However liberal he was, he was worried about the age dif-
ference: Avital was eleven years older than Pierre. Perhaps Derrida
also felt that she was too closely tied to his own world. As for Pierre,
he hankered after independence. ‘My father and I had never been
very close,’ he remembers.
As I grew up, I tried to establish a real relationship with him,
but we always kept a certain distance from one another, even
physically. From a very young age, I felt the need to protect
myself, keeping secret almost everything that was important
for me. My aff air with Avital played a revelatory role. The fact
that I wanted to leave home just after the baccalaureate was
something he couldn’t understand. When I hesitated to embark
on hypokhâgne, envisaging a sort of sabbatical year, he was
even more dismayed. He asked friends we had in common – for
a long time, I’d mainly hung out with people older than myself- to try to get me to change my mind. As far as my studies were
concerned, in fact, they succeeded.^7
Avital confi rms that things were not always easy, at least not
initially. ‘Jacques worried about my relationship with Pierre, just
as he worried about everything that concerned his children. His
worries certainly did make life complicated for us. At the same time,
my relation with Pierre was a way of becoming part of the family.
And Marguerite was as kind to me as one could possibly be.’ In
June 1980, just after the bac – which he passed with fl ying colours
- Pierre moved into Tzvetan Todorov’s old apartment with Avital.
‘For me, those years in Paris correspond to a really lovely dream,’
remembers the woman whom Derrideans would long continue to
call ‘Metaphysics’.