Pierre Menard, Author of the Quixote For Sivina Ocampo The visible aul by this novelist can be easly and brefy enumerated unpardonable, therefore, ae the omissions and additions perpetrated by Mime. Hen Bahar n deceit catalog that a certain newspaper whose Protestant leanings are surely no secre, as been 2 inconsiderate at nic. ‘upon that newspape’s deplorable readers—fow and Calvinist (if not Ma sonic and circumcised) though the be. Menards true fends hve greeted ‘that catalog with alarm, and even wih a degree of sadness. One might note ‘that only yesterday were we gathered before his marmoreal place of est, ‘among the dreary cypress, and already Error i tempting to tarnish his bright Memory... Most decidedly brie ectfication is imperative ‘Lam aware that is easy enough t cll my wn sant authority into ‘uestion. hope, noaethels, that I shall not be prohibited from mention: ling two high testimonials. The barones de Bacourt at whose unforgetable ‘vendvedis had the honor to meet the moured-for pot) has beens kind at to approve the line that follow. Likewie, the countets de Bagnoreio, ‘one ofthe rarest and most cultured spt of the principality of Monaco (now of Pitsburg, Pennsylvania, folowing her recent marrage to the ‘nerational philanthropist Simon Kautsch a man, it grieves me tos, vililed and slandered by the victims of hit disinterested operations), has sacrificed to truth andt deth (ar she heel has phrased it the noble serve thats the mark of he distinction and in an open eter published in the magazine Lux, bestows upon me he blessing, Those commendations sresufcien I should think. have sid thatthe visible product of Mena’ pn is easy enumer sted Having examined his personales with the greatest cre, have etab- lished that his body of work conse ofthe following paces PIERRE MENARD, AUTHOR OF THE QUIxorE ay 4) symbols sonnet tat appeared twice (with variant) in the review ‘a Gongue (nthe numbers for Mach and October, 199}; #4 monograph onthe possibilty of constructing « poetic vocabulary from concepts that are nether synonyms nor perphratc locations for the ‘concepts that inform common speech, but ae athe, ial objects crested ‘by convention essential for the needs of poetry” (Nes, 3) ©) 4 monograph on “certain connections or affinities” between the philosophies of Descartes, Leibniz, and John Wikns (Nimes 903) ‘4)a monograph on Leni’ Characteristic univers (Nimes, 904); technical article on the possibility of enriching the game of chess by liminatig one ofthe rooks pawns (Menard proposes, recommends, de bates and finally rejects this innovation) ‘a monograph on Ramon Lal's Ars magna generals Nimes, 1906) 19/3 translation, with introduction and notes, of Ray Loper de Sepur’s “iro de a invencn liberal y ve dl jugg dl axedre (Pais 907): ‘drafts of a monograph on George Boole’ symbolic lope, #)astudy ofthe essential mevial ues of French prove, ilustated with examples taken from Sunt Simon (Revue des langues omanes, Montpelit, October 1909) 4) reply to Loe Durain who had countered that no such res ex inte), iustrted with examples taken from Luc Durtin (Reve des langues romanes, Montpelier, December 1309) #) a manuscript trandation of QuevedosAguja de navegar clos tle La bousole des precious 1) foreword tothe catalog of an exhibit of lithograph by Caralus Hourcade (Nimes 954 1m) a work ented Les probleme un probleme (Patis9i7), which ds ‘asses in chronological order the solutions to the famous problem of ‘Achiles an the tortase (two editions ofthis work have ofr appeared the second bears an epigraph consisting of Leni’ advice "Ne crigne: point, ‘monsieur, la torte” and brings upto date the chapters devoted to Rose snd Descartes) 1) dogged analysis ofthe “syntactical habits of Tout (N.R-E, March 1g) (Menard, {rec firmed that censure and prate were sentimental operations that bore not the slightest esemblance to exits): 2) & transposition into alexandrines of Paul Valery Cirsette marin (RE, Tamuary 1928); 'p) «diatribe against Paul Valery, in Iaeques Reboul’ Fale pour la supprsion de areal (which diate, I might ada parenhetaly, ates90 JORGE 1018 eonces the xc tvs of Mena pinion of Yas Vy unde than eo me nip warner impecgy 7 eset {Stn of conta de age phan ee phe tht ofa contin Cae omen) poe hed sch yr yt ay cy hci Be as preandte pron othe mod anda of taatepetoee ke aa, sich was exposed (by reasn of er ety sds ag ee toothy mercy fps oN eaten dl oh he de aot vs 914 handiriten list of lines of poetry that owe thee excellence to punctuation! This isthe fall etene (save for a few vague sonnets of occaion destined for Mme. Henri Bachei's hospitable, or gredy, album des souvenirs) of ‘he visible lfework of Petre Menard, in proper chronological onde 1 shall turn now to the othe, the subterranean the interminably here Production—the are nompare the auvre that must remain-for ch ‘cour human limitations'—unfnished. This work, perhaps the mest sig, nifcam writing four time, consis ofthe ninth and thirty-eight chaps ‘of Part of Don Quivoteanda fragment of Chapter XXIL Tk that such ‘clsim ison the fae oft absurd using that "absurdity" salle the pi, mary object ofthis note” Two texts of distinctly unequal vale, ingpred the undertaking. One wx that photogical Gagment by Novais—number 200 inthe Dreaen «dion tobe precise—which outlines the notion of tou! idensiation with ‘given author. The other was one af those parasitic book that st Chriscon 2 boulevard, Hamlet on La Cammabite, o don Quixote on Wall Steet Like Stan of ae Menard abril those pois even, which ‘Menard would say, were good for nothing but cccasioning x pebeln de light i anachronism or (worse yet) captivating us with the elementary "Mane: Hes Bacal ttl asain of Qucveds etn ti oS. Fac de Sales fraducon av doe ln Pee ase ey fem tee tween been eee ean ‘jokes, misheard or misunderstood. “ PIERRE MENARD, AUTHOR OF THE QUIXOTE 91 notin that all imes and places are the same, or are different. It might be ‘more interesting he thought, hough of contradictory and superficial exe- ‘ition, to attempt what Daudet had so famously suggested conjoin in single Bigure (Tartan, say) both the Ingenious Gendeman don Quixote andbis squire “Those who have insinuated that Menard devoted his ife to writing & ‘contemporary Quizotebesmich his lustrous memory. Pere Menard id rot want to compose another Quixote, which surly is easy enough—he wanted to compose the Quant. Nor, surely, need one be obliged to note ‘hathis gol was never a mechanical transcription ofthe origina he had no Intention of copying His admirable ambition was to produce aumber of ages which coincided —word for word and line for line—with those of gua de Cervantes. “My purpose is merely astonishing” he wrote me on September 3, 1934, from Bayonne. “The final tem of a thelogial or metaphysical proof-the world around us, or God, or chan, or universal Forms—is no ‘more ial, no more uncommon, than my revealed novel. The sole dite. ‘ence that philosophers publeh pleasant volumes conaining the interme: late stags of dee work, wh am resolved to suppress thos stages of yy wn” And indeed there isnot a single draft to bear witness to that yeas long labor. Totaly, Menar's method was tobe eelatively simple Learn Spanish, return to Catholicism, ight against the Moor ot Turk, forget the history of Europe from x0 to she Miguel de Cervantes. Pere Menard weighed that course {0 know he pretty thoroughly mastered seventeenth century Castilian) but he discarded it 00s. Too impossible, rather! the reader willy Quite so, but the undertaking was imposible from the outset, and ‘fallte imposible ways of ringing i sbout, this was the least interesting ‘Tobea popular novelist of the seventeenth century in the twentieth seemed to Menard to bea diminution. Being, somehow, Cervantes, and azving thereby atthe Quaote—that looked to Menard les challenging (and there fore less interesting) than continuing to be Pierre Menard and coming to the Quixote through the experiences of Pere Menard (It was that convic- ton, by the way, that obliged hia to leave out the autobiographical fore- word to Fart It of the novel: Including the prologue would bave meant cresting another character—"Cervantes"—and also presenting Quixote through that characters eyes, not Pierre Menard’. Menard of course. ‘spurned that casy solution.) “The ask Ihave undertaken i nt in esence ial Tread at nother lace in that leer. “If could just be immortal‘ould doi shal confess that often imagine that he did complete and that Tread the Quitote—the entire Quiaote—asif Menard had concyved it few nights ago, a6 1 was leafng through Chapter XXVT (never at tempted by Menard) 1 recognized our fiend’ syle, could almost heat his ‘ice in this marvelous phrase: "the nymphs of the rivers, the molt snd sieving Echo.” That wonderful eflectve linking of one adjective of eine ‘on with another of physical description brought tomy mind ine on Shakespeare, which I ecall we dscussed one afternoon: ‘Wherea malignant and tubes Tak Why the Quiaote? my reader may ask Tha choice, made by a Spanisrd, ‘would nothave been incomprehensible, tt 0 doubt isso when made by «2 Symbolist fom Nimes, «devotee estenaly of Poe_who begat Bande sire, who begat Mallarmé, who begat Valery, who begat M. Edmond Teste ‘The eter mentioned above throws some light on this point, “The Quizote™ explains Menard, ceply interests me, but does not seem to me—comment dre inevitable, cannot imagine the universe without Por’ elaculation “A ‘ea in mind this garden was enchanted” or the Bateau ive o the A dent Mariner but Tknow mys ale to imagine without the Quis (am speaking of couse, of my perona ability, not of the hora ‘esonance of those works) The Quitot ia contingent work the Quote isnot aecestary [ean premeditate commiting itto writing tt were «an write t—vthout flngint tautology Ate age of te oy ti teen ead it pethaps read it cover to cove, annot recall Since hey 1 hve caefily reread certain chapters, those which, a lest for the mo ‘ent, {shall ot attempt. ave also hace at heaters the cone is the Gilaten, the Exemplary Novels, the undoubtedly laborious Travail of Pers and Sigimunda andthe poetic Vout Farha My general recollection ofthe Quiz, simpifed by foretales andi. iterence, might well be the equivalent ofthe vague foreshadowing of = et unwritten book. Given that rage (which no one ean in goo cone ‘ince deny me), my problem without the shadow of doubt much ‘ove dificult than Cervantes: My obliging predecestos di nt spurn the collaboration of chance; his method of composition for the lateral book was abit la dale and was often sept along bythe incre of ‘he language snd the imagination. have assumed the mysterious oie HIERRE MENARD, AUTHOR OF THE QUISUrE 93 onto recontract, word for wot, the novel that for him was spent neous, Ths game of solitaire 1 pay is governed by two polar rales the first allows me to ty eu formal oe payhologcl variants the second forces me wo sacrfce them to the “orginal” text and to come, by i sefaable argument, o those eadcions. In addition to these fest ‘oo artifical constraints there s another, inherent tothe projet. Com posing the Quixote in the early seventeenth century wat rewonable, _ecesry, perhaps even inevitable undertakings in the eri twentieth i is virualy impossible Not for nothing have thre hundred years elaped, freighted withthe mos complex events. Among those evento mention Dbutone the Quiet Inspite of those thre obstacles, Menards fragmentary Quixote more sub than Cervantes Cervantes crudely justapotes the humble provincia realty of is country agrnst the fantasies of the romance, while Menard chooses as histealty” the land of Carmen ding the entry that saw the Bate of Lepanto and the plays of Lope de Vega. What burlesque brah strokes ofloal color that choice would hav inspired ina Maurie Barres or RodaiguesLareta"! Yet Menard, with perfec atualnes aide ther, In his work, there are no gypsy goingron or coagustadors or mystics of Philip is or autos df He ignores, overlocks—oebanisher Leal clot That disdain posits «new meaning for the historia nove” That disdain condemus Salam, with no posit of epped [No les amazement visits ane when the chapters are considered into lation. Asan example Jet us look at Part, Chapter XXXVI, “which teats ofthe curious discoure that Don Quixote made on the sect of arms nd letters? It is 2 matter of common knowledge that in that chapter, don Quixote lke Quevedo inthe analogous andlater pasa in Le hoa de t= os comes dow against eters and in favor of arts. Cervantes was an old soldier from hin, the verdict is understandable. But that Pere Menar’s don Quitate—a contemporary of La tahion dee cle and Bertrand Rassell—should repeat thote cloudy sophistres! Mme. Bacheler sexs in them an mirabe (typical) subordination ofthe author tothe psychology ‘ofthe heros others (lacking al perspicacty) see them asa transcription of ‘he Quitoe the Baroness de Bacout, as influenced by Nietiche To tht third interpretation (which consider irefitable, asm not certain [dato ad fourth, though it agree very well with the almost divine modesty of Pierre Menard is esigned or ionic abit of putting forth ideas that were the exact opposite of those he actually held (We should reall hat ditribe