"L'ici est le moi de l'espace": Self, Genesis, and the Space of Writing in Valéry's "Cahiers"

Author(s): Paul Ryan

Source: The Modern Language Review, Vol. 97, No. 3 (Jul., 2002), pp. 553-565
Published by: Modern Humanities Research Association
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3737491
Accessed: 12-03-2016 22:37 UTC

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/
info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content
in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.
For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Modern Humanities Research Association is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Modern
Language Review.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 130.237.29.138 on Sat, 12 Mar 2016 22:37:03 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 'L'ICI EST LE MOI DE L'ESPACE': SELF, GENESIS, AND

THE SPACE OF WRITING IN VALERY'S CAHIERS

One of the early texts in the Poemes et Petits PoemesAbstraits' exposes the extraordinary

yet highly complex relationship between self and space which regularly interact in

Valery's Cahiers,2 in the course of the solitary act of waiting and writing: 'je m'assoirai

ici ... quels espaces et combien d'heures gonflees je sens et j'attends - l - dans

cet empire de mots et de meditation, le mien' (Cahiers (integral edition), IV, 305).3

This encounter between consciousness, language and space is not uniquely limited

to Valery's abstract poetry, such as the dawn prose texts that consciously reflect on

the process of thought and the mechanics of spatial perception and the ways in

which both inform the act of creation, but extends into the far broader context of

the observations on self and existence. By virtue of the very nature and mode of

writing in the twenty-eight thousand pages or so of the Cahiers, kept every morning

for over fifty years, it is hardly surprising that some self-observation as well as

reflection on the writing act itself should become manifest. In fact, space and

consciousness frequently intersect under various themes at the writer's table, or

more generally within what one could term the space of writing. What this denotes

is the immediate context of the room, the forms and objects that populate the sphere

of vision of the writing-self, to which consciousness has become so accustomed (and

none more so than in Valery's case) that it is integrated into the creative process and

informs both thought and writing.

This dialectical relationship between language, the mind and immediate space,

within the context of perception and the genesis of writing has remained a largely

unexplored dimension of the Cahiers. Robert Pickering, who has written very

extensively on genetic criticism pertaining particularly to the relationship between

writing and the page in Valery's work, observed in his article, 'Writing and the page:

Rimbaud, Mallarme, Valery' the absence of a study 'depicting the immediate

context perceived' (MLR, 87 ( 992), 56-7 I, (p. 69)). This article attempts, therefore,

to respond to this absence in Valery criticism by shedding light on the intimate

connections between the conscious self and the perception of the immediate physical

realm, with specific reference to the texts on the writing-self in the Cahiers. In so

doing, it also examines some of the more abstract and functional aspects that this

relationship embraces, the most obvious of these being the arrangement and

disposition of the room, the interaction between contiguous space and its constituent

elements, notably the table, the window and other 'accessories', as Valery calls

them. Moreover, the particular acuity of self-consciousness in its intimate relation-

ship with the genesis and generation of thought and its subsequent transformation

into written material on the page, commonly referred to here as spatial matter, will

1 The Poemes et Petits Poemes Abstraits are one of the thirty-one thematic rubrics established by Valery's own

classification after 1921, published in Vol. II of Paul Valey Cahiers, 2 vols, ed. byJudith Robinson, (Bibliotheque

de la Pleiade) (Paris: Gallimard, I974). This collection has recently been translated into English: 'Poems and

Short Abstract Poems' in Paul Valery Cahiers / Notebooks, 2 vols, ed. by Brian Stimpson, assoc. eds, Paul Gifford

and Robert Pickering (Frankfurt a. M.: Lang, 2000), II, 343-404.

2 Cahiers, twenty-nine volumes, in facsimile, (Paris: Centre National de Recherche Scientifique (CNRS),

1957-6 i). (Hereafter, C followed by volume and page number. All emphasis is Valery's.)

3 Paul Valery Cahiers, 8 vols (Paris: Gallimard, 1987-2001). (Hereafter, C, int., followed by volume and page

number of this integral edition.)

This content downloaded from 130.237.29.138 on Sat, 12 Mar 2016 22:37:03 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 554 Self Genesis, and the Space of Writing in Valey's 'Cahiers'

be progressively shown to be the principal dynamic in initiating the feeling of

strangeness of self.

The extensive treatment given to these areas in the Cahiers undoubtedly

underscores their importance within the overall attempt both to understand and to

define self. Valery is, from this perspective, very much in keeping with the European

tradition of introspection that the Symbolist writers typified, none more so than his

immediate predecessors Baudelaire and Mallarme. The latter, whom Valery first

met in 1891 and whose writing had a profound influence on him, strongly reflects

the physical dimension of the writing experience, often integrating the room and its

familiar objects into the poems, as Bertrand Marchal explains in the Notice to Poesies:

Mallarmi est d'abord un poete de chambre ou de salon; l'espace poetique privilegi6 est

domestique, espace familier [...] r6duit a quelques 6elments, credence ou console, lit,

tentures, lampe, fenetre ou miroir [...] ce decor symbolique est la chambre noire de

l'ecriture ou de la creation, chambre ouverte par la fenetre sur un ciel cr6pusculaire.4

While this definition of the space of writing could quite easily apply to Valery who

regularly detailed self's relation to the chamber of self-contemplation in the Cahiers,

he is in other respects unique, as we shall see, in relation to this tradition. Valery's

originality here lies as much in the considerable attention given to the space around

the writer, which he represented both in language and in drawings or watercolours,

as in the self-conscious and auto-referential nature of this analysis, embodied in the

words of Teste: 'Je suis etant, et me voyant; me voyant me voir. ((Euvres completes, II,

25).5

The crucial notion of 'I', the thinking and self-observing self, on which Valery

wrote very extensively, is the common connection between the physical body, the

mind and the world. It has long been recognized that Valery is always dialectical in

that outer space reflected inwards is largely the formula for his analytical writings in

the Cahiers, whereas inner space projected outwards is the formula that informs his

poetry, notably that of Charmes. Yet, this dialectical paradigm is to some extent

present here, since the connection between self and space is, by its very nature,

based on reciprocal relations.

Firstly, consciousness itself, it should be noted, is essentially considered by Valery

as a perceiving space, as this remark from the Cahiers at the end of I925 highlights:

'la conscience imaginee [. . .] comme un espace' (C, XI, 797). This is hardly surprising

though in the context of perception in the Cahiers, given the abundant examination

of the area in psychological and phenomenological terms. What is remarkable,

however, is the opposition between the awareness and perception of space on the

one hand, and the presence of self on the other, which the act of writing and

representation problematize.6 From this perspective, consciousness and space as

interconnected phenomena are defined according to sensibility: 'la conscience est

liee au sentiment spatial, oriente, equilibre de telle maniere qu'elle soit independante

du lieu' (C, xII, 249).

4 Mallarm6, (Euvres completes, ed. by Bertrand Marchal (Bibliotheque de la P16iade) (Paris: Gallimard, 1998-),

I, 1138.

5 Paul Valery, (Euvres completes, 2 vols, ed. by Jean Hytier, (Bibliotheque de la Pleiade) (Paris: Gallimard,

1957-60). Hereafter, OC.

6 For further investigation of the regimes of thought and writing in the Cahiers, see in particular Ned Bastet

'Towards a Biography of the Mind', pp. 17-35, and Paul Gifford 'Thinking-Writing Games of the Cahiers',

pp. 36-52 (and other essays under the section 'Self-Science'), in Reading Paul Valey - Universe in Mind, ed. by

Paul Gifford and Brian Stimpson (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998).

This content downloaded from 130.237.29.138 on Sat, 12 Mar 2016 22:37:03 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 PAUL RYAN

555

The distinction between the immediacy of consciousness of self on the one hand,

and the world and the virtuality of the mind on the other, is clearly evinced in this

note which, situating perception and consciousness within Valery's central concept

in the Cahiers of the three correlatives 'C-E-M' (Corps Esprit Monde), circumscribes

the relationship between self and the world: 'l'implexe de l'esprit est comparable a

un espace - plus ou moins distinct de l'univers instantane de la conscience

complete -qui est a trois dimensions, mon-Corps, mon-Monde, mon-Esprit' (C,

xxv, 408). The visible world forms part of the instantaneity of sensory perception,

an immediate realm simultaneously comprising spaces and objects. From this

perspective, Valery's analysis of the relationship between perception and sensation

of both space and distance and the definition or expression of these phenomena in

language correlates to the thinking of Merleau-Ponty in Phenomenologie de la

Perception.7 A vast amount of analysis in the Cahiers is given over to the reciprocity

between space and vision. Thus, the role of the latter is to create a domain of

movement and objects called space by means of the eye's optical, dynamic and

geometrical properties. This multiple entity, determined by the immediate encoun-

ter with the receptive eye-mind, is characteristically subject to spatialization by

Valery, a phenomenon that this remarkable entry in the late Cahiers exemplifies:

'Ouvre tes volets. Et presente au jour ton esprit aux yeux encore tendus ... Et

regarde le visible, le ciel, les toits comme on regarde un objet entre autres et non

comme le seul objet, le tout de l'instant' (C, xxvII, I96). As these texts clearly

illustrate, the opposition between the conscious self and the world at any give

moment in space and time determines the immediate realm. Valery examines in

considerable depth the phenomena of instantaneity and simultaneity of perception

that combine to constitute the continuous system of space: 'Que de choses entassees

dans le moment du moi! [.. .] Le fragment visuel, mosaique - avec distance, lignes

de delimitations, aller et retour etc. figures et discontinuites' (C, XXIII, 316).8

The field of consciousness, a closed multi-dimensional realm, a notion often

referred to as the 'egosphere' by Valery, dates back to the writing of the early essay

Introduction a la Methode de Leonard de Vinci (OC, I, I I53-99). This concept invariably

involves spatial perception which exists as an immanent condition of consciousness,

an indivisibility which Valery postulates systematically as the fundamental principle

in his definition of space: 'L'observateur est pris dans une sphere qui ne se brise

jamais [. . .] l'observateur n'est d'abord que la condition de cet espace fini: a chaque

instant il est cet espace fini' (OC, I, i i67).9 The image of the sphere also serves as a

figure in the Cahiers to designate the field of vision, usually perceived as a closed

7 Merleau-Ponty's theory of space, which approximates to Valery's fundamental thesis of the same subject, is

defined not as a place where objects are disposed, but as an active medium in which connections and

relationships become possible: 'nous devons le penser comme la puissance universelle de leurs connexions',

Phenomenologie de la perception, Chapter 'L'espace', (Paris: Gallimard, 1945) p. 28I. In fact, this text shares a

strong mutual preoccupation with some of the main phenomenological and philosophical themes of the Cahiers

such as attention, sensation, space, time, dimensions, perspective, the space and experience of the body, the

role of language and thought in perception.

8 Valery often refers to the mosaic in his definition of the heterogeneous field of vision: 'une mosaique

color&e' (C, x, 614).

9 The Cahiers regularly corroborate this thesis, as in this entry from early 1941 that postulates the importance

of this virtual sphere and places the significance of it in the context of spatial perception: 'Le lieu instantan6 du

regard, surface fermee et contenant tous les eloignements avec leurs degr6s d'accessibilite, repr6sentes par des

actes imaginaires [. . .] L'espace vif et 6gocentrique virtuel [.. .] L'homme [.. .] est environni de ses mouvements

possibles, et dans ce filet virtuel, il prend les choses visuelles' (C, xxiv, 65).

This content downloaded from 130.237.29.138 on Sat, 12 Mar 2016 22:37:03 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 556 Self, Genesis, and the Space of Writing in Valery's 'Cahiers'

space by Valery, within which the gaze operates like a vector radiating from a centre

point called 'l'un visuel': 'La vue est sph6roide [. . .] Cette forme fermee se fait de

proche en proche par juxtaposition de projections coniques [ . .] L'un est ce qui est

au centre. Univers est une notation visuelle' (C, xxI, 680). In real terms, the outside

world, an arrangement of juxtaposed elements that makes up the heterogeneity of

space, is essentially perceived as a visual immediacy with which the self interacts.

Even though this entity remains in theory independent from self, it determines all

possible acts and movements within this space, analogous therefore to the notion of

the room, as this text explains:

Ces choses visibles, juxtaposition de nuances, de ciel, de papiers [...] cette image qui

m'entoure de sa sphere voyante, est une piece, une condition instantan6e [...] Mes

mouvements sont en principe indep6ndants de cette donn6e lumineuse color6e et ils en sont

immateriellement guid6s. (C, vI, 782)

A significant amount of reflection in Valery's writings centres on the relationship

between thought, perception and immediate space around the writer, some of the

first instances of which can again be found in the 1894 essay Introduction a la Methode

de Leonard de Vinci. This spatial consciousness is particularly manifest in the numerous

observations of the room in the Cahiers, defined by Valery as a personal familiar

universe which is principally determined by habit and movement: 'J'appelle

volontiers Univers, l'ensemble des choses que je percois au moyen d'une fixation de

ma sensibilite [. . .] Ma chambre est un univers d'habitude de mes yeux et de mes

mouvements' (C, xxvI, 204).10 The space of the room is not only apposite for

observing the intimate relationship between the realm of consciousness, writing and

space but, by dint of the physical parameters which the room imposes, these

limitations take on added significance for Valery making it in many respects a

microcosm of the mind." Notwithstanding the detailed examinations of the room

in the Cahiers, in addition to the familiarity one would expect from the daily

experience of this space, it is somewhat surprising to occasionally come across

reflections expressing amazement at the limitations of consciousness in which

elements still go unperceived and unexplored by the eye in this confined area. As

Valery succinctly puts it: 'que de choses tu n'as pas meme vues [...] dans ta

chambre ou tu vis tant d'heures par jour!' (C, XXIII, 480).

The presence of the table in texts whose perspective focuses on the writing self is

a constant reference underlying its significance as a central space in the writing

act.12 As the focal point upon which the two abstract entities of thought and

perception are brought together and where the creative process is effectively

concentrated, it accommodates the multi-dimensional nature of composition for

10 This late note from the Cahiers is reminiscent of several similar observations in Introduction a la Methode de

Leonard de Vinci, where Valery uses the room, the 'chambre informe', as a metaphor for the operation of the

mind which is seen as being indistinguishable from the phenomenon of the space that it encloses: 'Le travail de

sa pensee [Leonard] appartient, par tout ceci, a cette lente transformation de la notion de l'espace - qui d'une

chambre vide, d'un volume isotrope, est devenu peu a peu un systeme inseparable de la matiere qu'il contient et

du temps' (OC, I, I 177).

11 The theme of closed space, which has long been documented as a salient feature of Valery's consciousness,

is also most certainly perceived by him in a far less favourable light than the more propitious perspective on

space in its relation to writing being adopted by the present article. See the theme of closure in Valery, with

particular reference to the theatre, in the excellent article by Ned Bastet, 'Valery et la cloture tragique',

Australian Journal of French Studies, 8 (197 1), 103- 17.

12 One remark from 1939 emphatically underlines the habitual presence of the table referring to it as 'cette

table qui se r6epte a mes yeux depuis 39 ans!' (C, xxII, 589-90).

This content downloaded from 130.237.29.138 on Sat, 12 Mar 2016 22:37:03 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 PAUL RYAN

557

Valery. The writing act comprises the various ancillary acts and gestures of the hand

and pen, the regular inclusion of the cigarette as part of the genesis of creation, as

well as immediate general perception of the surroundings, thus transforming this

space into a 'petit theatre d'evenements':

Je pose ma plume sur le bord de la table. Je roule une cigarette. La plume deborde de la

table. Les doigts de l'homme distrait font leur travail machinal, heurtent la plume qui saute

et tombe... Cet incident trs petit coupe le temps du monologue cerebral. (C, xv, 853)

This intermittent punctuation of the creative process and the overlapping of both

fragmentary thought and immediate perception form an integral part of the

evolutionary process. The series of disparate and isolated episodes ultimately leads

to the confrontation between the virtuality of the hand, representation and reality:

Le Je [...] reunit les morceaux heterogenes de l'instant [...] mecanique externe et

automatisme des mains- interference du systeme des actes que leur automatisme a detach6

des choses voisines. L'acte est devenu independant de la perception g6enrale du monde eloigne

que la vue et la connexion du visible et dufaisable composent. (C, xv, 853)

One striking aspect of all of this is the acute level of consciousness that arises from

Valery's experience of the physical act of writing and the accessories that it

necessarily comprises. Firstly, it seems that the obvious significance of the table lies

in the feeling of the centrality of self, and, by extension, the relative analysis that this

point of reference affords the writer from which the world can be appraised. The

immediate radius of the room is drawn to the writing space of the table through

thought and vision and consequently becomes concentrated in this optimal focal

point. Furthermore, the table serves as an obvious and primary choice for

contemplation by the passive gaze that marvels at the relationship a singular detail

of an object forms with another, or indeed with the hand, within the spatial realm.

These frequent observations in the Cahiers occasion a remarkable reversal of spatial

perception whereby the surrounding realm, which is normally seen to enclose self,

is in turn reduced to a single fragment and the entire external system is brought to

converge on it. This also goes some way towards accounting for Valery's particular

propensity for noting a singular detail in the room, such as the corner of a table to

which the eye can attach itself, with the effect of anchoring and stabilizing the

preoccupied mind in local space. Hence, a fragment of the table or the visible space

of the room invokes and equally constitutes the greater whole of space: 'Ce que tu

vois la, cette chambre ou ce coin de table, represente aussi tout ce qui peut etre vu,

le tout du visible, et agitant sa main [.. .] le sage interpelle ce lieu [.. .] en tant que

fragment du Tout' (C, XXI, 912).13 This conception of space is not an isolated one,

as Valery regularly takes up this abstract notion in the Cahiers. In one late text

entitled 'Le Tout en tant que partie' (C, xxvIII, 597), he postulates that since only a

part of a given composition or arrangement is ever instantly perceived, it follows

then that this element can be logically taken as the whole entity. With the capacity

to substitute states or 'presences', the mind interfaces between conceptions of space

by transferring between integrals or fragments and their totality, such as 'penser

"cette chambre" ou penser "univers"'. In this manner, any singular detail forms a

part of the whole and becomes a sort of interchangeable metonymy of perception,

13 Accompanying this text is one of the many ink drawings of the hand in the Cahiers, highly significant for

Valery in terms of its multiple possibilities of movement and creation.

This content downloaded from 130.237.29.138 on Sat, 12 Mar 2016 22:37:03 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 558 Self, Genesis, and the Space of Writing in Valery's 'Cahiers'

as Valery argues on the following page of this text: 'Tantot tout ce qui m'entoure me

contient [. . .] tantotje le reduis a un objet contenu dans un systeme' (C, xxvIII, 598).

If the experience of the room is first and foremost perceived by Valery as a visual

immediacy, or in other words as an instant arrangement of space, a fact extensively

borne out by the multiple watercolours and sketches in the Cahiers, this visual

primacy is ultimately superseded by other imperative considerations.'4 Upon closer

inspection, it becomes apparent that the interest in the disposition of objects, for

example, is far from being fortuitous and, as such, their inclusion cannot be

underestimated. Firstly, several texts reveal Valery's particular propensity for the

personalization of his objects and writing instruments included under the general

heading of'mes objets familiers' (C, xvII, 9).15 It is evident, therefore, that references

to the composition of the room and its constituents are, by dint of the regularity

with which the Cahiers were kept, and also of their very nature and mode in writing

terms, not only to be expected but unavoidably prominent. Numerous texts

highlight the systematic spatialization of internal elements that fall within the

immediate perceptive realm of the 'ego scriptor','6 or writing self, whose lucid gaze

consciously considers the disposition of these juxtaposed objects in their individual

relationship with self. Indicative of this spatial consciousness of the surrounding

room is the following exemplary line from the early Cahiers: 'Je suis dans une

chambre. Je suis entoure de choses et en tout point autour de moi est quelque chose'

(C, VI, 280). What further underpins this preoccupation not only with the immediate

realm, but also with external distant space, is the constant reference to that which

surrounds and encloses self, designated by the often-repeated phrases 'autour de

moi' or 'ce qui m'entoure'. What sometimes emerges, however, is a reversal of

normal spatial perception, generally determined by consciousness, which gives way

to self being perceived as an immanent condition of the physicality of space. This

inherence, as we shall see, extends accordingly to the physical and spatial dimensions

of the act of writing that sets about defining the very system that includes it.

While very much an integral part of the attempt by Valery to understand and

define the composition of space in the writings on attention and perception, the

chosen formula, 'ce qui m'entoure', also features very prominently in the texts

focusing on the duality of writing and space. The reason for this can possibly be

explained by the close reciprocity that Valery recognized between them, since

writing as a material, physical act that engages hand and eye, necessarily draws in

and embodies space in its different modalities. It is worth noting in this context that,

on top of the multitude of sketches of the hand holding a pen or cigarette, which

14 The Cahiers offer many beautiful watercolours of room interiors dating from the late 1920S to the late I930s;

see for example C, xI, 783, 803. However, what is striking is the attention given to their furnishings: see C, xv,

556, 663 and C, xvI, 399, or the drawing of a figure sitting in a chair: C, xIII, 404. Of particular interest is the

highly detailed ink drawing in C, vII, 629 of the contents of the room with the inscription 'fauteuil de Leconte

de Lisle' written under the armchair.

15 This curiosity is equally extended to incorporate a greater range of objects that populate the spatial realm,

some of which figure more frequently in consciousness. In this manner, a hierarchy of importance, analogous

to that of thought, is established, as this text illustrates: 'Accessoires. Le lit, - la chaise, la table. Les ecuelles,

brocs, assiettes - vases, -Les etoffes. Les murs, la lampe. Telle est la nature. J'ai des idees pour m'y

coucher - pour m'oublier. J'en ai d'utiles - des pensees auxquelles je ne pense pas. Les plus precieuses, les

plus etudiees - sont les plus inutiles' (C, int., vi, 94).

16 This term used here to refer to the writing-self is one of Valery's thirty-one classifications of the Cahiers

which defines self's relationship with writing while charting his own journey as a writer and exploring the

notion of pure Self.

This content downloaded from 130.237.29.138 on Sat, 12 Mar 2016 22:37:03 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 PAUL RYAN

559

Valery occasionally refers to as contributing to the writing process, (as in the

example of the drawing and the accompanying text 'Voici ma main qui parle par

fumee', C, xxI, 383), one occasionally comes across very interesting drawings in the

Cahiers of a seated figure in the act of writing, whose presence certainly highlights

Valery's interest in the visual representation of the immediate space of writing.17

Moreover, the Cahiers regularly define the page in spatial terms, seeing it as a

recipient for the multiple possibilities of inscription. One of the most important of

these is the manner in which the constructs of thought can be spatially and

dynamically organized in order to reflect the mental process of their evolution and

elaboration. Writing as a material construct is in direct opposition, therefore, to

mental phenomena, such as memory, which have no direct physical reference. One

significant entry in the Cahiers illustrates how writing agglutinates the immaterial

and abstract nature of thought by combining it with the gestures and movements of

the hand, and formally enshrines them in the spatial matter of the page:18

L'ecriture - c-a-d l'espace et la matiere spatiale [. .] l'espace-matiere utilis6 par l'6criture a

faire voir les traces, les accumulations, a les conserver, a les juxtaposer ... comme

mat6riellement de la pensee, a permis des developpements symetriques, des enchainements

alternes, des reprises que la seule m6moire en tant qu'acte sans matiere eft ignoris. (C, ix, 72 1)

It is clear from the Cahiers that the spatialization of perception has a direct impact

on the relationship between thought and language and therefore informs the act of

writing as well as its distribution and disposition on the page. In one of the last

notebooks dating from late I944, a highly significant entry retrospectively attests

the importance Valery attached to immediate spatial analysis within the overall

domain of the phenomenology of perception: 'J'ai fait il y a des siecles des

"experiences" diverses de vision- comme de bien voir les intervalles entre objets.

Visuellement l'intervalle entre 2 meubles vaut un objet' (C, xxix, I65). In effect, the

experiments Valery is alluding to here are contemporaneous again with the essay

Introduction a la Methode de Leonard de Vinci, at the beginning of which he addresses the

relationship between spatialization and thought. The mind is in this sense analogous

to external space in the way in which vast stretches of the mind remain largely

unexplored apart from the limited number of facts that language evokes: 'La

continuit6 de cet ensemble manque a notre connaissance, comme s'y derobent ces

informes haillons d'espace qui s6parent des objets connus' (OC, I, I 154). Further on,

this essay broaches the active perception of these contiguous elements that both

populate and animate the space of the room, structured according to an hierarchical

order of size, and perceived according to an early abstract notion that Valery calls

'une chronolyse de l'espace' (p. I 169). Where thought actively dwells and concen-

trates on the perceived stasis of objects, the composition of the room is effectively

transformed, a process by which elements, hitherto immobile, become virtually

interactive and independently dynamic:

17 Two of the most striking drawings of the writer in the Cahiers, C, XIV, 43 and xvii, Io9, are in fact self-

portraits, showing Valery seated at a table and holding a pen. The latter sketch, dated March 1934, includes

the Negresco hotel in Nice, to which Valery often refers, as the place of origin of the drawing.

18 'Le papier of l'on 6crit est espace' (C, x, 498): this remark exemplifies Valery's perspective on the page. For

further reading on this subject, see Robert Pickering, 'Writing and the Page: Rimbaud, Mallarme, Valery',

pp. 63-7 I. See also the exhaustive study of the relationship between space and the page in the text by the same

author, Paul Valiey, lapage, Iecriture, (Association des Publications de la Faculte des Lettres et Sciences Humaines

de Clermont-Ferrand, Collection 'Litteratures', 1996), pp. 189-225 and 433-58.

This content downloaded from 130.237.29.138 on Sat, 12 Mar 2016 22:37:03 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 560 Self, Genesis, and the Space of Writing in Valery's 'Cahiers'

Dans cette chambre et parce que je laisse cette pensee durer seule, les objets agissent comme

la flamme de la lampe: le fauteuil se consume sur place, la table se d6crit si vite qu'elle en est

immobile, les rideaux coulent sans fin, continfment. (p. I 170).

This highly complex relationship between the mind and the world within the

realm of consciousness constitutes a central pillar in Valery's 'system' of thinking

and is the subject of considerable attention in the Cahiers. However, the more

abstract interaction between space and thought, which occurs early in the series,

remains a relatively unexplored dimension in Valery's extensive examination of

perception. The particular difficulty encountered defining this phenomenon is

borne out in this early text: 'Je sens que ma pensee est liee a une localite, mais c'est

une grossiere intuition. II faudrait penetrer cette sensation. Peut-etre qu'onfinit par

oter sa pensee de ses caracteres spatiaux ou sensibles' (C, iv, 898).19 This signifies, in

effect, that thought may be determined in the context of a dual relationship with self

and the mental realm from whence it originates. This double postulate essentially

presents self as, on the one hand, being an intrinsic part of the thinking process, as

opposed to self being defined in terms of its dynamic relationship with perception:

II doit d'ailleurs y avoir une frontiere. Dans l'etat AI je suis relation spatiale, visuelle ou

sonore ... tactile et statique etc. Suppos6 que dans l'etat A2 je sois pensee et pens6e non

spatiale, non localis6e -je dois avoir traverse quelque chose. On dirait que ma tete d'of je

sens que vient ma pensee est le lien of cette pensee quitte l'espace -cesse d'etre locale.

(C, iv, 898)

What is particularly noteworthy is not only the occurrence of this phenomenon

in the context of the act of writing whose process is occasionally interrupted and

which in turn becomes the focus of reflection but, furthermore, the sudden

realization of the absence of connection between objects, inchoate ideas and the

sphere of consciousness in the centre of this space: 'Je suis a ma table. Fenetre ici,

cafe par la, soleil ici. La, choses, murs, papiers etc. Mais "au milieu" de tout ceci, et

hors de tout ceci, et autour de tout ceci, idees naissent, passent etc. Aucune relation

entre ces choses' (C, xxvi, 17). The absence of connection between familiar objects

presents itself as a constant preoccupation in Valery's quest to apprehend the

essence of space. Despite what the writer perceives as an objective autonomy,

objects are only interconnected in the mind and within the domain of the

imagination, as this text highlights: 'Ce livre pose sur la table est ind6pendant de cet

arbre, vu par la fenetre. La connaissance les lie. Toutes les relations physiques que

l'on peut imaginer entre eux respectent cette independance, et l'on ne peut trouver

que des relations' (C, vIII, 264). These intermediate spaces between objects, whose

role could be construed a priori as passive, are thus progressively perceived as

dynamic elements that actively constitute the surrounding realm. This feature of

perception is in itself significant in phenomenological terms, but the importance of

space becomes even more imperative in the context of the genesis of writing. Each

pause or break in the writing act consciously or unconsciously incorporates space

whose role and presence can be fully revealed and appreciated only by a genetic

analysis of the Cahiers. Moreover, the pauses or intervals between units of the

19 The phenomenon of localization intervenes occasionally in the commentary on thought and the mind.

Defining the head as 'un implexe formidable, enferme' which has 'le Moi pur' at its centre, Valery expresses

amazement at the absence of philosophical analysis: 'aucun philosophe n'a ose mettre en 6vidence l'evidence

de cette localisation fondamentale. Les sensations c6phaliques, c6phalo-psychiques sont en relation indivisible

avec l'acte psychique, d'une part, avec celles du Mon-Corps, d'autre part ses reactions' (C, xxvmII, 890).

This content downloaded from 130.237.29.138 on Sat, 12 Mar 2016 22:37:03 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 PAUL RYAN
56I

sentence, as well as the use of spaces of the page, play an active role in the overall

effect of the text by rendering the disjunctive nature of perception by concatenated

fragments. These nominalized or paratactic type structures commonly figure in the

prose texts and in the abstract writings of the Cahiers: 'Chambre a l'anglaise - bois,

bow-windows - couleur sombre ... vieux meubles - vieux bois - vieux

sommeils, chambres fermees, flottantes, air epais -je ne sais comment l'exprimer' (C, x,

729).

It is precisely these remarkable texts, in which Valery comments on the act of

writing itself, and particularly those incorporating the spatial dimension, that afford

us a first-hand insight into the problematic attempt to represent perception and

thought in the structures in language. The Cahiers bring about a totally different

evaluation and appreciation of this process, obviously by the systematic interface

between the written text and the accompanying sketch or visual representation, but

primarily by various features characteristic of the act of writing which reflect the

thought process and intermittent fragmentary perception therein, such as the

multiple hesitations and pauses in syntax, and the immobilization of linearity by

regular deletions and additions of words or entire units. Short sentences, the

juxtaposition of substantives regularly broken by punctuation marks, and the

general propensity in these texts toward parataxis, reflect the spatial and mental

intervals in perception and include the phenomenon of intermittence as key part of

writing. In fact, numerous examples highlight the periodic interruptions of space,

or the mosaic of intervals and objects, in the thinking process leading to the written

text. This fine distinction between image and thought, or more precisely between

visual and mental fragments successively interchanging and yielding to each other,

is illustrated well in this early text:

C'est une chambre fermee, tout immobilisee. Quelques quadrupedes de bois sombre debout

et sans tete [.. .] Seuls mouvements ici compris: un pied solitaire et sa jambe sans bruit

oscillent. Une main droite va et vient, attachee a des poils de moustache seche. Par moments,

une grande pensee inachevee se change en cette chambre; le pied s'arrete et les images des

murs croient s'eveiller.

(C, Iv, 726)

Yet, establishing connections between objects is not uniquely a visual preoccupa-

tion but, in effect, has more to do with the active mind searching for associations

and spatial relations. In response to the desire to represent the continuous

connection that consciousness establishes between itself and space, Valery explores

the possibility of a mathematical formula capable of describing the configuration of

space as a topological group: 'il faudrait inventer une "topologie" impossible' (C,

xxvIII, 156). Within this designated space or composition of elements, an associated

group of subsets, also including empty sets, operate in finite intersection, varying in

the degree to which they are perceived at any given moment in time by

consciousness. As Valery occasionally observes, however, individual constituents

can appear to act independently of the whole system and of consciousness, thereby

creating the effect of a perceived absence of interconnection: 'je regarde mes objets

familiers, je me caresse le menton; je feuillette ce cahier. Et tout ceci se passe [.. .]

comme si c'etaient des evenements separes, independants, separes par du vide' (C,

xvII, 9). This condition, existing only as an ostensible manifestation of space, is

largely attributable to a passive consciousness. In Valery's case, this passivity is

capable of suddenly yielding to a gaze more properly characterized by a remarkable

This content downloaded from 130.237.29.138 on Sat, 12 Mar 2016 22:37:03 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 562 Self, Genesis, and the Space of Writing in Valery's 'Cahiers'

alacrity and acuity, that observes a structural coherence and order in the disposition

of elements: 'je puis tout a coup voir tout autrement -et vouloir voir que tout ceci se

tient comme les engrenages d'un mecanisme [...] Les objets ne sont independants

qu'en apparence. Leurs distances [...] sont apparences'. This is, in effect, the

central duality between the active and passive gaze that constitutes the essence of

visual perception in the analysis of attention. These visual experiments, as Valery

calls them, often come under the rubric 'analysis situs', a term borrowed from

geometry and applied to the description of the continuity of space. While dating

back to the early years but re-emerging later in the Cahiers, they essentially explore

the process of perception in its close interaction with space and its constituent

objects and properties and detail the topology of the immediate visual realm.

Whether it be in the 'chambre eclairee' (C, xiv, 685) or even more interestingly in

darkness, perception of the spatial realm is determined according to the movements

of the attentive gaze allowed to move between 'les meubles et objets' and thereby

construct or reconstitute the world via the imagination: 'Ce regard net et bref

construit une figure spatio-visuelle, une correspondance, une prevision, [...] la

correspondance visuelle-motrice est [. . .] l'institution du "monde"'.

From this perspective, it would be virtually impossible to avoid reference to the

outside given the multitude of texts dealing with external space in the Cahiers.

Obviously, the sphere of consciousness observed in such close quarters does not

uniquely limit itself to the hermetical room but, through the presence of the window,

allows for connection with the greater visual sphere that the room comes to typify.

Whether it be the room or the greater macrocosm of outside space, both are

ultimately defined by Valery in a late note in terms of relative closure: 'Nous sommes

dans une sphere visuelle dont le rayon peut varier - tant6t les murs de notre

chambre, tantot l'horizon le plus eloigne. Mais c'est toujours une surface fermee,

qui nous enferme, se deplace avec nous' (C, xxvIII, 420). This quest by the eye for

open space is a particularly significant phenomenon that frequently intervenes in

the context of writing and reflection. In fact, the Cahiers offer many instances of the

active mind releasing itself in space in order to both explore and experience its

virtual dynamic possibilities from the perspective of the writer's table. As with many

examples, the perceptual experience coincides with Valery's interest in theoretical

thermodynamics: 'je considere de tous mesyeux cette vue si etendue [.. .] je bois,

caresse, possede et je traverse cet espace, et enfin je le retrouve [...] dans deux

pages de d'Alembert sur la force' (C, vI, 34I).20

Moreover, one salient feature of the analysis of writing-self or 'ego scriptor' and

of the physical spatial conditions pertaining to writing is the regular detailing of the

act of raising the head from the page. Undoubtedly, the frequent notation of this

gesture in the Cahiers emphatically underscores the significance for Valery of the

relationship between the thinking process and the perception of immediate space in

the genesis of writing. One late entry in particular conveys the phenomenon of the

return to full consciousness and physical presence from the depths of thought with

the metaphor of the diver rising to the water's surface: 'Ma tete se releve

brusquement d'elle-meme et sort de tout ce que je viens de penser, comme sortant

20 There is an occasional reference in the Cahiers to the eighteenth-century philosopher and physicist Jean Le

Rond d'Alembert who collaborated with Diderot on the Encyclopidie and wrote the Traite de dynamique in 1743,

to which Valery is most likely referring here.

This content downloaded from 130.237.29.138 on Sat, 12 Mar 2016 22:37:03 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 PAUL RYAN

563

de l'eau pleine ou le nageur avait plonge vers le fond. Mouvement remarquable! et

suivi d'un regard sur mes environs, qui y retrouve l'heure du present' (C, xxvII,

719). Disengaging the mind from the page forms an inherent part, not only of the

reflection process, but also of the act of composition in which the embryo of an idea

is genetically elaborated through the progressive physical movements of the eye and

the hand within the sphere of the immediate space. Many texts take account of these

pauses in the genetic process of composition in which the intermittent reflex

movements of the eye dart spontaneously, and often unconsciously, between

different focal points of the room, thus integrally incorporating objects and actions

into the dynamism of the act of writing. One interesting fragment from the late

Cahiers highlights the consciousness of the interrelatedness of writing and objects,

and significantly the table which, here again, proves to be the most available and

obvious example for scrutiny: 'je vois cette table ou je m'installe chaque jour. Tout a

coupje la decouvre, et tout mon d6sordre personnel sur cette assise de ma constance

ou s'appuyent tant de moi-memes [...] I1 y 40 ans qu'elle porte mes mains, ces

eternels cahiers' (C, xxII, 886).

What is remarkable here is Valery's sense of surprise that never fails to bring

about a fresh and renewed vision of the existence of both self and the world.

Intermediary objects situated in the immediate spatial realm in effect catalyse and

energize the relationship between the overall determination of self and the continual

self-definition in the notebooks. This constitutes the essence of the genesis of the

writing act in the Cahiers, a focal point where perception and consciousness converge

with the mechanical scriptural act of writing in the system of space. Writing however

is not only a synergy between the perceptual process and the scriptural one but,

significantly, involves a temporal dimension that manifests itself as simultaneity of

the eye and the line. One text in the Cahiers, offering valuable insight into this

reciprocity, hinges on the genetic moment of writing contemporaneous with

immediate visual and auditory perception. In response to this, Valery proposes the

geometrical figure of the polygon whose intersecting vertices both circumscribe the

writing space ('un polygone ferme entre la vue, l'ouie, la main, le "temps"' C, xxv,

879) and determine its heterogeneous nature. This striking example of textual

genetics focuses on the fine balance between self-consciousness, in particular the

awareness and presence of self in the act of writing, and the simultaneous perception

of external phenomena: 'l'ceil va de la pointe de ma plume a un coin de table, et a la

vitre et aux arbres [.. .] revient, se reprend a ce qui se trace ici tandis queje me parle

ce que je m'ecris a mesure'.

In fact, interruptions by external space during the course of writing are quite

frequent in the Cahiers, as numerous texts situate themselves in this perspective of

spatial relativity moving from the contemplation of local to external space via the

window and back again. This movement which projects self onto the outside world

is quite significant in terms of the genesis, elaboration and eventual formulation of

an idea, since the respite from the intense concentration on the page allows the

mind to integrate the expanse of space and to play a role in the gestation of a

particular problem or reflection. In this case, the dynamic mind is placed in

opposition to the outside world in an effort to both measure and counterbalance self

against the force of space:

J'ai assez de ce que je faisais depuis 4h. J'ouvre et je respire. Je regarde le rideau des collines

elevees [.. .] Je reviens brusquement de ce pays a moi. Je me mets en balance avec ce que je

This content downloaded from 130.237.29.138 on Sat, 12 Mar 2016 22:37:03 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 564 Self, Genesis, and the Space of Writing in Valery's 'Cahiers'

vois. Je me pese. Je m'oppose. Toute cette vue n'est qu'un de mes possibles de ma vue. Mais,

moi,je ne suis qu'une impression. (C, xxvI, 479)

In addition to this fundamental opposition between the outside world and self is

the particular genetic situation whereby the physicality of writing finds itself directly

involved in the interaction with space. There are many instances in the Cahiers

where the hand actively plays a role in the quest not only to apprehend the

immediate visible composition, but also the network of spatial relationships formed

between objects and consciousness which the eye encompasses in a sweeping

movement starting with the hand and extending to an external focal point. In the

following example, the mind, momentarily leaving the present problem passes from

internal to external objects within the visible sphere and back again to the moment

of writing: 'I1 regarde ses mains, ses jambes, la terre, l'horizon et revient par la

montagne et l'arbre a son papier, a son probleme, a son point cache d'universalite

qui travaille' (C, vIII, 705).

This lucid gaze, cast over the circumferential space interposed between the writer

in the centre, his 'accessoires de l'etre' (C, vII, 132) and the surrounding elements,

frequently gives rise to one of the major underlying sentiments of Valery's

consciousness, notably that of the disconnection of being, most acutely experienced

in the solitary hours of dawn. This strangeness derives in part from the very

experience of the writing act and, above all, from the immediate experience of space

and the objects contained therein that act as the exponential function by both

refracting and intensifying the feeling of opposition. Not surprisingly with Valery,

language is invariably at the heart of this fundamental divorce between self and

space. In fact, both these phenomena become particularly fraught with difficulty

when reduced to signs and, as a result, the problematic relationship of signifiers and

the collective whole of objects catalyses and actively precipitates a revision of

language itself.

In conclusion, the writing space can by its very nature be defined as the space of

consciousness and being. In phenomenological terms, restricted space and solitude

are naturally complementary, since the retreat into self necessarily entails a negation

of outside space through the silence of thought. As one of the principal critics of

phenomenology, Gaston Bachelard, aptly puts it in La Poetique de l'espace: 'tout coin

[. . .] tout espace reduit ou l'on aime a se blottir, a se ramasser sur soi-meme, est

pour l'imagination une solitude.'21 As this article has shown, for Valery the writing

space becomes a metaphor for the very mind itself, operating within the restricted

confines and parameters of its own sphere. The favoured image of the geometrical

point in the Cahiers serves to render this withdrawal and contraction of consciousness

in relation to the network of spatial connections that link it to the world: 'Ce petit

coin de ma chambre [. . .] ou il me semble que ma vue se peletonne, et que quelque

extremite se noue et se renoue et fasse beaucoup de chemins dans un point' (C, Iv,

21 G. Bachelard, La Poetique de l'Espace, (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, I957), p. I30. Valery's

relationship to Bachelard is interesting in several respects. While occasionally referring to Valery, Bachelard's

essays on the imagination of movement and force, such as L'air et les Songes (Paris: Jose Corti, 1943), and his

analysis of space, dream and intimacy are major preoccupations that the Cahiers share and which also show

quite considerable overlap with Valery's perception and understanding of the same phenomena. In particular,

the perception of space is viewed by Valery less as an abstract philosophical abstraction than as a phenomenon

of consciousness that self apprehended through sensorial experience.

This content downloaded from 130.237.29.138 on Sat, 12 Mar 2016 22:37:03 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 PAUL RYAN 565

332).22 Far beyond the influence that this asceticism and restricted space around the

writer bring to bear on consciousness, the opposition between self and space gives

rise to a much greater sense of disillusionment and disconnection for Valery. Just as

the perception of self fundamentally comes down to a series of impressions expressed

through the reasoning of language, the opposing entities of self and space are

similarly related and determined through the artifice of language, as this dawn text

from the Cahiers evinces:

Je m'assieds devant mes papiers et mon d6sordre. Roi imaginaire du silence, du possible de

pens6es. Illusion d'etre plus g6enral que toute connaissance ou fabrication determin6e [.. .]

Illusion qui oppose au moyen de mots [. .] un Moi a un Tout- corr6latifs. Ce sont deux Mots.

(C, xxI, 225-26)

WATERFORD INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY PAUL RYAN

22 A similar text from a little further on in the same 'cahier' expresses regret at the absence of personal solitary

space: 'Je n'ai pas un coin pour etre seul, pas une chambre personnelle [.. .] j'envie le prisonnier d'une cellule

qui le pr6serve et qui dans elle est proprietaire du temps, de la solitude et de la continuite' (C, IV, 367).

This content downloaded from 130.237.29.138 on Sat, 12 Mar 2016 22:37:03 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions