Derrida: A Biography

318 Derrida 1963–1983

pair quickly left Cerisy. Five years later, in French Philosophy of the
Sixties, they would attack Derrida directly.
Jean-François Lyotard’s paper, ‘Discussions, or phrasing “after
Auschwitz” ’, was another high point, albeit much more pacifi c.
Eight years after the tensions of the Nietzsche conference, Derrida
was very touched by the ‘generous gesture’ Lyotard was making by
attending this décade on his work. In his turn, he would speak at the
conference ‘The Faculty of Judging’, on Lyotard, in the summer of

1982. The two men continued to draw closer and to exchange views.
      The many participants at ‘The Ends of Man’ were extremely
      diverse, both in nationality and intellectual tendency, and the con-
      ference was the forum for some real dialogues, even discussions on
      fundamental questions and sometimes probing investigations. Like
      Philippe Lacoue-Labarthe, Jean-Luc Nancy would remember this
      décade vividly:

For us, it was an exciting – intoxicating? – responsibility, having

to run a décade at Cerisy. But it was an encounter of excep-

tional richness and intensity, defi nitely because, at that precise

moment, Derrida, on the one hand, and the theme, on the other,

represented what I would call a ‘big gun’ in everybody’s inter-

ests, expectations, and questionings. It seemed to us that we

could grasp the form or the forms of a possible mode of thought

for a world coming into being, beyond ’68, but still confi dent in

its momentum and impelled by the spur of political necessity.^31

The enthusiastic atmosphere lasted until the last day, 2 August.
When the time to sum up and bid farewell arrived, one of the
Japanese participants, Yasuo Kobayashi, stood up and made a
statement that everyone would remember:

Since people have mentioned feelings, let me express here my

own personal feelings. [.. .] I came here – but not without

anxiety, not without fear. And then [.. .], I have come to

the point where I can tell you, without knowing to whom I

am speaking: I love you. In my feelings, this is friendship in

Blanchot’s sense. For this reason, I thank you – and yet again,

let me tell you: I love you.

One of the indirect consequences of the conference was the
renewal of relations with the publishing house Galilée, which had
worsened fi ve years earlier shortly after the publication of Glas.
The initial intention had been to bring out The Ends of Man in the
‘Champs’ series, but Flammarion refused to allow more than one
volume for the proceedings, which would have meant only a tiny
number of the papers could be published, and none of the debates.