Theory and History of Literature

Edited by Wlad Godzich and Joehen Schulte.Sasse Reading with

Volume
Volume
Volume
Volume
73.
72.
71.
70.
H61•ne Cixous Reading with Clarice Lispector
N.S. Trubetzkoy Writings on Literature
Neil Larsen Modernism and Hegemony
Paul Zumthor Oral Poetry: An Introduction
Clarice Lispector
Volume 69, Giorgio Agamben Stanzas: Speech and Phantasm in Western
Culture
Volume 68, Hans Robert Jauss Question and Answer: Forms of Dialogic
Understanding
Volume
Volume
67,
66.
Umberto Eco On the Concept of the Sign
Paul de Man Critical Writings, 1953-1978 H616ne Cixous
Volume 65, Paul de Man Aesthetic Ideology
Volume 64. Didier Cosl• Narrative as Communication Edited, translated, and introduced
Volume
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63.
62.
Renato Bar•lli Rhetoric
Daniel Cottom Text and Culture
by Verena Andermatt Conley
Volume 61, Theodor W. Adomo Kierkegaard: Construction of the Aesthetic
Volurt• 60. Kristin Ross The Emergence of Social Space: Rimbaud and the
Paris Commune
Volume 59. Lindsay Waters and Wind Godzieh Reading De Man Reading
Volume 58. EW.J. $chelling The Philosophy of Art
Volume 57. Louis Mm'in Portrait of the Kin 8
Volume
Volume
56.
55.
Peter Sloterdijk Thinker on Stage: Nietzsche's Materialism
Paul Smith Discerning the Subject
Theory and History of Literature, Volume 73
Volume 54. l•da Bensma•a The Barthes Effect
Voltmm 53. Edmond Cros Theory and Practice of Soctocriticism
Volum# 52. Philippe Lejetme On Autobiography
Vohrme 51. Thierry de Duve Pictorial Nominalism: Marcel Duchamp,
Painting and Modernity
Volume 50. Luiz Costa Lima Control of the Imaginary
Volume 49. Fredric Jameson The Ideologies of Theory: Essays 1971-1986,
Volume 2
Volume 48. Fredric Jameson .The Ideologies of Theory: Essays 1971-1986,
Volume 1
Volume 47, Eugene Vance From Topic to Tale: Logic and Narrativity in the
Middle Ages
Volume 46. Jean-Franfois LyotardThe Differend
Volume 45. Manfred Frank What Is Neostructuralisra?
Volume 44. Daniel Cottom Social Figures: George Eliot, Social History,
and Literary Representation
For other booka in the series, see p. 170.
University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis
Chapter 6,
The Hour of the Star:
How Do s
One Desire Wealth
or P ?

Clarice Lispector's last text, 1'he Hour of the Star, is similar to, yet very different
from, her other texts. In its density, it is the opposite of The Apple in the Dark.
It is also a book on love. But whereas The Apple in the Dark is a rich, ah-nost
abst•'use book (though it may he about stripping away and beginning again) that
exatnines the slightest movements of passion, The Hour of the Star is its oppo-
site, Once mor,, we can take up the Kl¢istian metaphor and say that it is a pas-
sage through zero, to the infinite, a passage to the stars. The Hour of the Star is
not the most nourishing text; it is a text of poverty, and, as such, it is absolutely
grandiose. It is a text on poverty that is not poor. Not by chance, it approaches.a
little prmagonist caLled Macabea. She is a 1tale working girl, tubercular, illiter-
ate. She is absolutely miserable; socially, culturally, bm not at the.level of the
heart. It is a text of great pity. One should •eally have paid for :he right to write
such a text; to speak from such riches on the topic of such thinness, or such mod-
esty, one should really have paid. The text raises the general question of how to
narrate. How can one know, how can one t¢11 the infinitely •'mail? It does not
mean either that in something small, there cannot be something big..
Clarice's lesson is to t¢11 us to go and find the interplay of 1fie and death in the
quotidian, the insignificant, the ordinary, in wha• she calls "the nerve" in Agua
viva, the tiniest detail--a street corner, a grocery store. In a certain way, The
Hour of the Star is an epic, but at the same time it is a beggar's story. It is abso-
lutely faithful to the infinite riches of Macabea. Our problem, when we want to
write, speak, evoke the other, is how not to do it from ourselves. Imagine that I
want to evoke an African tribe. IfI do it from what am, I will see in difference,

143
 144 [] THE HOUR OF THE A'TAR T-tIE HOUR OF THE STAR
nevertheless, that which is not. Because, inevitably,
I would be, if I did not pay the white man. Genet's comments are infinitely rich, almost sacred. This is a
strict attention, in a register of hck, of subtractions or absences. •{n relationship
a detail But it also works as an ensemble. The Arab is almost blind. Genet works
to the other, there is everything that is not of the same, of the
same that is not, on the side of insufficient sight, on the white eyes without a look. Giacometti,
and of the other that he or she is. Generally, one notices all the
same that he or who is supposed to have especially good eyesight, is marked by broken glasses.
she is not. It is much easier. It is harder to see the other he or she is. That is where
the real work begins. In The Hour of the Star, Clarice gathers Throughout the text, Genet puts on and takes off Giocometti's very carefully bro-
up what Macabea ken glasses. I am going to read the two texts, Genet's and Lispector's, side by
is, which is not much. She is just a little bundle, but for Macabea that is every-
thing. Clarice describes it. She unpacks the bundle while giving this person, sim- side. It will allow me to work on something that could be called the technique of
ply through minute attention, without any kind of faking, an absolutely poetic the novel.
dimension. The Hour of the Star is absolutely unequaled in terms of signification, audac-
One could work on all the modes of narration in a classical ity, and invention. She who appears as the main protagonist is a woman who is so
manner, l't could be little, so miserable, so tl• that she would not be useful for anything if she had
of interest to tak• The Hour of the Star as the North Star the modes of
coition of what magical qualities there might be in every onlivlng thing. Tha• is not been picked up by the look of the author of The Hour •th•e.•tar• But this is
what Clarice constantly does in Agu• •,im. But want to talm anotber direction. wrong because she was not subinted. Maybe it was shefla•o
invented fhe•au-thor.
want to work on the color gray, on dust and on mud, on matter that What carries me off, into my reading, is precisely tb•,
question of the author.
•ransformcd into gold, and on the unusable, Thcvc I think of Jean C•ne•'s can
bc
texts,
The title explodes with titles. It is starred. The •t•e
is composed of fifteen"
which have the same qualities as Clarice Lispector's. In a certain titles and none.of these rifles is the title.
sense, he is as
unreadable or invisible by means of being subtle. His texts, for example, "L'ate-
TI-IE HOUR
lier d'Alberto Oiacometti," can be read both ways. The textual surface gives
OF TFIE STAR
ver.y little to see, although it is very rich. It has an enormous philosophical con-
tent but as usual, it slips into texmarplay. Reading distractedly, The Blame is Mine
one can hear al-
most nothing. Genet writes with the s•ame I•tne•s of• Clarice. His light-
aess is also that of a true heaviness, of•-•uld be called a •-•i•v• .ty. I often
use Kafka or Kierkeganrd to read Clarice. But I can also take other texts, like The Hour of the Stax
Genet's. I am, of course, not going to work on male homosexuality of which
Oenet gives a sublimating interpretation. There is a kind of .L/n•ginary
phantasm
everything Genet writes. For him, everything that existg• a•living way, o•enin
or

onto tmd, hy what be cal Let Her Fend for Herself

rathe• •f what would • the_ ain douteur Or
R is completely, imaginary. From there, he constructs monuments--and that
makes him different from Clarlce Lispector, who does not
raove from the wound,
The Right to Scream
But little by little, this difference is erased, If one takes distance,
a one begins to
see the world emerge in an analogous fashion. Genet
or Lispector cherishesa
world that for us, for them, is tenderly and violently other. In A Bela .As for the Futttre.
(Beauty and the Beast), for example, them was the sudden apparition of ethea Fern
legged beggar. In Clarice, the chain of the other, the violently other, containsone-a or
terrifying beggar as well as a brigand, and the psychotic child as well as the cock-
roach, It is a universe quite removed from the human sphere. This ga'oblematic Singing the Blues
world can also be found in Genet with differences, for example, in the choice of
or
those who represent otherness. In Genet the others are often the Arabs. • allude
to the blind ,•rab who has his white .cane to protect himself from the violence She Doesn't Know How to Scream
of
 146 [• TIlE HOUR OF THE STAR
THE HOUR OF THE STAR [3 147

or Change (/am taking

up Genet's words) between equivalents. It is this or, both as
A Sense of Loss gold and conjunction
in French, that makes a person identical to all that is "more
precious than the rest of the world."
or Oenet continues to say that the identical is precious. The same experience re-
Whistling in the Dark Wind
cursin his texts. In the text On GiacometlJ, Oenet writes about having a painful
revelation while encountering a nasty, ugly old man. in the train:
or Any "worlW' exactly--please excuse me, but it is on
I Can Do Nothing "exactly"
man was
that I want to insist--any other. "Anyone," •f,
"can be loved beyond his ugliness, his stupidity, his meanness."
or It was a glance, insistent or quiek, that had crossed mine and that
made me become aware of it. And the fact that a man could be loved
A Record of Preceding Events beyond his ugliness or his meanness precisely allowed the latter to be
likeable. Let us not be mistaken: it was not a question of a generosity
or coming from me, but a recognition. Giaconmtti's look had seen this for
A Tearful Tale of Cordel a long lime, and he restitutes it to us. I say what I feel: the proximity
expressed in his figures seems to me to be his precious point where the
or
human being would be brought back to what is most irreducible in him:
his solitude exactly equivalent to any other. •
A Discreet Exit by the Back Door
This experience in Oenet is a kind of recurring, primal scene. Different ver-
[translation modified] sions invite comparison;In "What Remained of a Rembrandt Torn into Small,
Typographically, one sees a very striking, slightly pyramidal form. There is Very Regular LiUle Squares and Rammed Down the Shithole," we read:
something that could be read like the inscription
on a monument. The series of When, day,
train oompartment, looking at the traveller opposite
in
titles would mime a chain. Each title could function one a
as a key to the text. At the rat, I had the revelation that any man is worth any other, I was not
same time the.re is a sm'ies of very striking effects. The suspecting--or rather yes, I felt it obscurely, for suddenly a blanket of
Lispector's signature, which can be mad like the undoingmostof noticeable
hierarchy.
is Clarice
sadness came over me, and more or less bearable, but noticeable, it no
a One •itle
is like another, in a critique of value. I
want to work on what is not useful, that is, longer left me--that this knowledge would bring about such a
on the valorization of nothing, cm devalorization, C-iacometti methodical disintegration. Behind what was visible of this man, or
told Genct to val- further-further and at the same time miraculously and desolately
orize whatever has no value.
I want to remark some.thing else close--in this man--body and face without grace, ugly, according to
on this page: Clarice Lispoctor's signature
comes right after "The Right to Scream." The right some even ignoble details through the look that crossed mine, I
to scream, and.., it is discovartxl, receiving it like a shock, a kind of universal identity to all
Claricc's signature. In a certain way, Clarice is the
scream of the text. In the
pography of this astonishing page, in place of "or," we have Claricc's signature.
ty• i.fl•n •

Under the signature, the printed signs continue. It

is like a piece written in the The of universal identity of all people has to be taken as far as pos-
question
tradition of Cordel, a kind of oral limrature, with sible, in Genet well as in Clarice. Here we can distinguish between categories
a special rhythm, that we find
as
throughout the text consisting of a system of inversions and almost kind of communication and people capable of communicating. People like Clarice or
rice. It reminds us of ancient ballads, of the origins a of met. Oe, net are people who exposed themselves to the other. They let themselves be
of theater as well as of nurs-
ery rhymes. Clarice recreates a genre, a kind of literary impregnated, penetrated, invaded by the other, Genot in an almost exemplary
long ago. space that disappeared fashion, by the repugnant other. They accept the most painful, the most denar-
In the system of equivalences established by
Gcnct, "or" would be Clarice's cissizing, alteration. Next to this, we can see something.entirely different in the
common name. "Or" is going to bc tlm way someone like Rilke, for example, chose his partners of alteration. In contrast
name, the mark of a possibility of ex-
to Clarice and Genet, he kept to himself. When he let himself be penetrated, it
 148 [] THE HOUR OF THE STAR THE HOUR OF THE STAR • 149

was by trees, by works of art, by flowers, angels, He is very selective., However, gathering affcctive sentences, ami at the same time, she is, of course, hypersen-
would like to borrow a little sentence from his Testament. In this •ext, Rilke sitive. Perhap• the author is below sexual difference in order to make the sketch
gathered the leaves of a kind of journal, defensively, furiously, against the threats of this "hardly-a-woman." This is a hypothesis. There are many others.
•f love. One does not know whose testmncnt it is. Son, body is
threatened by
:leath, The poet is threatened by man, by love. Since he does Giacomerd," admirable
not want to die, he return to "The Eatelier d'Alberto where read an sen-
:hooses to kill love. Rilke's thematics are cruel, absolutely. And Rilke
knows that tenee by Genet:
:here is someone in him whom he kills, that there
are two, and that one has to die
•/ho is always the same. It is terrifying and beautiful. Rilke After leaving the atelier, when I in 5he-s•, no•hing
that surrounds
says of Rimbaud Rat
am
te wanted to shake up language with all the stremgth of his heart me is true. Can I say it7 In this atelier, a man is slowly dying, he
so that it would
xmome, if only for an instant, di{dnely
unusable--and then leave without look' consumes himself and is being metamorphosed under our very eyes into
goddesses, 4
ng back, and become a mcrehant.
The paroxysm of Rtmbaud's enterprise is reminiscent of Kleist's For Oenet, the mystery of creation is the transformation into one's creatures.
movement
oward the inf'mite. At the infinite, the image disappears and
comes back, upside With Clarice, there is metamorphosis, although not "under our very eyes."
iowa, as its opposite. That is what Rimband does when he becomes merchant. Clarice is being transformed into a man who is being transformed into "hardly-
a
the choice of vocation is admirable. To be merchant is
a so unpoetic that, per- a-woman."
laps, Rimbaud continues to be poetic. Of importance for us is the theme of wlmt- First, there is the signature that Cladce sfipped into the text. This is, of
:vet is good for nothing.
course, close to Derrida's concern with the signature and the nature of appear-
ance that a signature represents. This goes with another important motif: naming.
take off again from The Hour of the Star and from the signature Names, pronouns, pseudonyms. 'T' explodes into "me," following the theory
that comes in
he place of "or." As if the "or" of general cquivalence• of which Genet speaks and which he practices in hint
were the general equivalence of Clarice
,ispcctor? She is the "or" of her text, of her protagonist. The first texts. I have read few texts that have given me a stomachache: The Hour of the
page reads:
The Author's Dedication Star is one of them. Hunger produceh effects of mutation in the universe, and in
the relation to the other. When one is hungry, one is close to devouring. In most
(in truth Clarice Lispector) texts, there is somebody, a protagonist, who struggles. This is not the case in The
"his is not Hour of the Star, where the "protagonist" is so infinitely small that she is not
an artifi•. The reader cannot not be alarmed by the "in truth." Are
Claxices7 Them is even noticeable.
•ere two a doubling,, a superimposing, The book has to be
zad upside down, over and under.
"I dedicate this narrative to dear old Schummm and his beloved The reader is struck by the strange, nontraditional dedication. There is no pa-
Clara who
ow, alas, nothing but dust and ashes. I dedicate it to the deep o-imson of are tronage. There is only endless skidding. One wonders if there is something of an
lood as someouc in his prime." my exchange. In a certain sense, there is alteration and substitution of "myself" for
A metamorphosis precedes the writin• "this thing." The book is already thing; it is no longer a book.
of the text. CLafice will write as a man. I return to the dedication, a head •severed from the textual body. There is a
,ll women writers have done it, but with her, it is voluntary,
both as a game and
serious business. It is carried to extreme maturity here. The inaugural double dedication, one big and bold, the other between parentheses. I underscore
gchange is drawn in the direction of the masculine. She tells that this "or" of this hesitation, which is like a sexual hesitation, between the suspension of dedr
uly have been written by a man. The man she is does not fallus into the text can ication and the author. We have to remember what kind of clever effects Genct
f virility. Hc is so masculine that hc becomes category draws from the word "suspension." Our textual reminiscence brings us back to
•flncd man of masculine sex. The masculine
very feminine. He is the most Mallatmd's texts, reread by Derrida, to the suspension as lustre, as luster and
appears right away in the.text, at chandelier, where the oscillation happens less from one border to the other, than
•c level of blood. It is an inner masculinity that takes its
source in blood. The as a crossing through space. Such a "thing" can also be a body that anima•l
:xt had to be written by a man in order to approach the
all women, who belongs to the category of the "almost."
most and the least woman by a movement of space--goes through different zones of marking. Truth and
rode of so little matter, that she is hardly
She is so light, Clariee in suspension give the movement to the text. Clarice Lispeotor is sus-
a woman. She is hardly capable of pended because the author is well settled in higher case. Clariee Lispector's name
 150 • THE HOUR OF THE STAR
•'HE HOUR OF THE STAR 0 151
inaugurates the series of proper names that are in the middle of
the text. Usually,
the proper is proper. But here the first one is suspended and•ihe It is A Theusand and One Nights; it is Ali Baba's cave for Macabea. It suffices
name
immediately transformed--I do not want to say transfigured--into bones.othersThoseare that the note, the music-scream, or the word, reach the period and make "I"
who are properly named are subjected to death. The explode into "me." The I is untenable, suspended. It cannot be defined:
ward something else, is indicated right passage through death., to- "To all those prophets of our age who have revealed me to myself and made
away. We are all Schumann and Clara, me explode into: me."
who are now nothing but bones.
In the dedication (7-8), we are At the end, there is a proximity between meditating and living. Writing is out-
on the side of someone who has lost his side. When someone is meditating, there is nothing and nobody:
erty. The movement of the story is going to be the attempt of the author, pov-
Clarion Lispector," to find by way of meditating "in truth "What can one do except meditate in order to plunge into that}ot]al
void which
lost poverty.
on a poor being, a little bit of
can onlybe attained through meditation." •
"I dedicate it to the tempest of Beethoven. To the That is what she calls life, b.rute living. It is without limits, without end:
vibrations of Bach's neutral "Meditation can be an end in itself."
colors.
With "tempest," "vibration," what had been given What troubles her. is writing, i21ariee surges, saying °'I," and that is alrcady
to her through music, is writing. In Agua viva, she wrote a paragraph in which she was trying to e.xplalla
something that shakes her up, that brings about a destructuring of her person, to
the point of softening her bones. She who was writing. Who is writing? How does one tear oneself away from the self
quotes all those who gave her a good death,
including Stravinsky: in order to go out and write? In The Passion accordin 8 to G.H., writing had to
"who terrifies me and who makes cut the flesh of the living into little pieces. Here, we hav• a similar situation, bat
me soar in flames." life is made of a substance of meditation. The text deals with the relationship
And Richard Strauss:
"To Death and Transfiguration, in which Richard between living and writing. The latter nevertheless always interrupts something
Strauss predicts my fate." of the flow of life. Writing is triggered by a kind of vibration, a kind of bodily
That would be a key of the text but especially this:
"Most Of all, I dedicate it to the day's vigil and music., but, even though it traverses the body, it begins in the head. Another,
Cladce gathers everything. She owes something to
day itseif." more violent kind of writing goes further, deeper, as a musical writing, signed,
to a great many people. One bearing a proper name, but detached from the author, in the direction of death.
has to remember the insistence
on the present in Clarice. In Agua viva, there
a passage where music provoked effects of was
metamorphoses, of bursting. come back last sentence of the dedication:
to the
Coming back to question: what is dedicated? By whom? To whom7 begin
the "Amen for all of us."
with the story of equivalences in "Uatelier." There The last sentence is linked to a yes, to acceptance. It is something situated
is where there is a between the gift, the story of dedication, what is given back, and something that
conversation between Mozart and Frederick II. There ais passage
"Frederick II (I think, listening to, I think: The Magic a hesitation in C, enet: is related to a strange prayer ending with these words. It is important to see that
Flute), Mozart:
many notes, so many notes!--Sir, there is not So
to one moves on to a eommnnal "we." Who is "all of us"? It is a human commu-
one too many. ''s nity, of course. But since it is a book we are reading, we are called into the book
For Genet, this is a fable. For Frederick lI,
taining all notes. Maybe we have in the text notestherethatmight be only one note con-
could be equivalent, but at
with much more intensity. We ere blessed, author included. This I that is sus-
the same time, every note is
necessary. Maybe Macabea, the protagonist, is a
pended from time to time is an/that leads, but especially someone who receives
kind. of note that, according to the king, could the impulse to write from the other and who receives the other in the text itself.
be done
time, she is not de trop. From this dedication, music is away with. At the same When we read in the last paragraph of the dedication, "This story unfolds in a
Through death, it is reduced to a note, a scream, going to be transfigured. state of emergency and public calamity," this story also happens to the author.
a protest. But this reduction is No text gets rid of the author as much as this one. Genet is similar, but he theo-
not of the order of restriction. A single
note can go up in an inverse dlreetion
from poverty. With some notes, it is technicolor--the rizes... What be theorizes is the furtive movement of the author, his hiding, his
"'Sunday, before falling asleep": way we had Ovomalt/ne in disguise into something else. In Clariee, there is a much greater abandonment in
"It is a story in technicolor to add touch of an effort to let herself suffer what she describes when she says:
that too."
a luxury, for heaven knows, I need "I explode into: me."
And:
 t52 r• rile HOUR OF THE STAR THE HOUR OF THE 8TAR [] 153

"It is an unfinished book because it offers "I want to preserve my humility. And I want that for being humble, I do not
no aaswer. An answer I hope some-
one somewhere in the world may be able to provide, You perhaps?': have the vanity of being humble."
This book cannot be ended without the intervention of the What she says is cruel and true. Those who have can never have nothing. True
other. Perhaps it is
we? peace can be obtained from having nothing. By means of having, one can strip
The text itself begins with a yes: away, but there always remains something. Those who have Jhad, always will
"Everythingin the world began with a yes." have left that memory and a trace of narcissism, be it ever so slight, of the effort
One can put it side by side with the opening of Genet's
text: made to impoverish themselv_,e_s.There are always remains of:l•ving, even if one
Every man will have perhaps felt this kind of sorrow, if not the no longer has. That is Clarice s dilemma in The Hour of the •tar."Clariceis going
see how the world and its history seem taken in
an ineluctable
terror, to towork:,as she says, on a girl who has never had anything/./She has this "having
movement, which is amplifying more and more, and which nothing that the author, tkrough the added maneuver/•lrsexual difference, will
have to modify, for ever comerends, only the visible seems to never have. Clarice states in the first pages of the text that one can never purify
the world. This visible world is what it is, and manifestations of oneself from one's social origins. Although the author tries to approach the girl
our action on it will not who has never had any0fing, she is someone who belongs to the world of social
be able to make it absolutely different. 6
classes, to the bourgoisie, even if she says th• she does not belong to any class.
Genet is close to Clarice, but the differences between the Outside of any social class, the girl cannot be classified.
noticeable. Genet never writes a sentence without disguising two
styles are also
himself. In Genet, One of my points of departure was to work on poverty from the point of view
every sentence iaterminably puts on its own costume. Wh• Clarice of poverty or of wealth. Our point Of view is that of wealth, with a few excep-
ward nakedness. The point of departure is the goes tions. The most ambitious project can be to work on what, to most readers will be
same: everything. We tend to take
ourselves for the whole universe, which is silly and narcissistic. forever inaccessible: real, primitive poverty.
But here, the
address and the place are not l. It is: "Amen for all of us," To work on someone who possesses "nonhaving" to such a point, Clarice
which links with the
problematic of the equivalence of the whole world. tries to dispossess herself from everything, sexual signs included. The author is
going to use a certain number of techniques, gestures, artful procedures. She is
What does it mean when one desires wealth
or poverty? What does one desire7
going to invent an art th• will allow the author to make the portrait of someone
What wealth7 What poverty? They are interchangeable, be who never had the slightest rapport with the world of art.
itual. It is the same, since we translate affectively, the
they materiel or spir-
material into something
spiritual, end vice versa. Genet writes that absolute paradise for him Let us come back to the question of form, of style and technique. The Hour of the
dren's home. There he encountered absolute happiness because was the chil- Star is the opposite of the classical novel in which an author shows and makes
:andy was paradise. It is well known that a rich child needs even a piece of believe that he is not on stage. When we read The Hour of the Star, the music and
more and more and the narrative have already started, at the same time that the story itself has not yet
:an no longer be saved. The question is not that of
.xchanged. The question is, can one take a vow poverty and wealth that can be
of poverty? In the little frag-
quite begun, However, the musicians, the drummers, are already fully engaged in
3aunts of Clarlce collected by Olga Borelli, published in Sketch activity. The arrival of the main character on stage is a bit deferred. The protag-
Portrait of Clarice Ldspector, we read:
for a Possible onist is both absent and present. This expectation is part of the spectacle. From
"Sensuality is to have a lot of money." the beginning, there is a narrator as in more traditional narrative forms. The ef-
"I like humble people. Many prefer humble life." fect is to undo the old distinction between inside and outside. It is not just a sim-
"Humility comes easi!y to those who a have everything. ple artistic device. It is for Clarice the only way to be as close as possible to
meself poor in the soul when one has nothing. When
It is hard to maintain Macabea. Genet constantly speaks of going down into the street. One could say
one has nothing and one by analogy that CLarice goes down into the text, little by little. The process en-
)btains peace, humility is a substantive. In the wealth of
fife, humility is a bril- genders something very complex, which is the birth of the author. The author is
iant and beautiful adjective."
in the text as well as in his own protagonists.
"Blessed be those who abandon everything in favor of
at least a facsimile of In "Lc secret de Rembrandt,'" Gcnct gives us the name of the secret in the
•eace. The humility of those who have everything is
to abandon everything. It is first words of the text, "A strong kindness. ''7 The association is rather strange.
•ecessary to have everything in order to abandon everything." Gcnct is going to talk about Rembrandt's trajectory from pompous display to de-
 THE HOUR OF THE STAR [2 155
c•epitude. It bfin• the • in •
of ug•ess • joi•
•ce's. G•et's u•ess is slimily •ffe•nt •ma v•ue
•n•
Do you sec Clarice's world through this? First stage: he knows. Second stage:
sublima•. In •net unbe•able ugfiness
•ce's, which he will longer know. This is everything we can also read in Clarice, the whole
no
g•s f•. He no•s how in •gs
•fo• 1642, •mbrandt • sumptuous biblic•
•ts wi• rich •. His
question of not understanding, from which the question of incomprehension can
paintings • of convenfiom] w•, but •e sensu• of clo•ng, of fa•c is tak• off. From the moment he no longer knows how to paint,-Rembrandt can
never •nt in his f•es, which •ys look old. Geaet le•trn how to paint. When he knows how to paint, he makes paintings in good,
Remb•ndt •s ao•s a •nsfo•fion. theatrical likeness. Then, he becomes hesitant. Gonet tells us that we have to
off •e riches and goes towed d•epim•:
burn knowledge, theatricality, sumptuosity, in order to learn howto know noth-
•ey •e the two por• of Mrs. •p (N•on•
h•ds of an old woman, w•ch d•ompose, w•ch Gallery), •e two ing, Here we begin to work on decrepitude. In Ague viva, Clafice says:
w•ch a• painted wi• t• •a•t love.8 mt un•r o• eyes, "I like the ugliness of a love from equal to equal."
medieval
In Genet's territory, laid, ugly, slips into values of lair (milk),•lais (a
In •e F•nch p•sage, one t•s offf•m •e
m•c•ine; •en t• genders lay). In Clarice, we can work on values from equal tv equal. She is saying that we
bled and d•ompos¢ •ough a gestu• of l•fing all are also ugly. It is this value of equality in ugliness that I want to study in The
"P•nmd," • G•et's senmnce, •e• m •Is, butbe•nd su•tuous wealth.
f• us it s• to refer Hour of the Star. This equal to equal is not one of confusion. There is differ¢nce,
• e h•ds. Says •net: a difference that does not differ, not that of the wound, but one with a possibility
•r on'I •11 have m expire why I of risk, of danger. We a• going to I•gin with confusion. take the word etymo-
use • word when •e p•nmr's logically. can take it as a possible fusion, fromfondre, to fuse, to melt. It is the
me• •o•s so c•1. He•, •pitude • n0 1ong• •si•md
•d msfitu•d like someth•g picturesque, bm like terrifying experience that Genot lived in "Ce qui eat rest¢ d'un Rembrandt" and
• •y•ing. 9 som•g • •e•le which was similar to the one retold in "I2atelier." After having described the
filth in the third-class train compartment and the ugliness of the other man, he
•net's sp•e is t• s•e as Lis•tor's. Th• is •v•ence. M• writes:
in d•omposifionis • imp•nt as S•Ea, the •en• •p
merely si•es •e •i• of •o• who seem to • de•v• of queen. Genot's aes•fic I flowed from my body and through my eyes, into that of the traveller,
is •aufi•l. Genet's defi•fi• of •au• •com• it. Decm•m• at the same .time that the waveiler flowed into mine. 12
•th•ut visible:•eaati•l
simulacra, wi•out veR. •t is p•y •fi•. Oenet •nfinues: is w•tever is
This is really what one calls a confusion: to flow (s'•couler), to me|t (fondre)
• h• •n wfiRen: •mb•dt, in •n•ast with the whole semantic field of the word, the way onc says a bird of prey swoops
• Hals, for ex•ple, •d
not •ow well how to •m •e msmbla•e down (fond sur voua),to be suddenly the other and nevertheless oneself. Confu-
o•er.wor•, to see •e • be• his •ls; in
be•n •e • •d ano•. If he sion is one of my themes, the other being commiseration. I borrowed the latter
did not s• it, •y• it •d not e•? Or is it from Clarice:
a trom•.l'•il? His
•tr•m, in hct, r•eiy
give us a •onaliW eait of the m•l: • m• "It is the minimum can do with my life: to accept with commiseration the
who is •ere, a priori, n•
•
•er go• nor b•: he is cap•le, • n• cow•d, heifer t• nor sacrifice of night."
• • never app• a c• every •s•t, to • all Sat. But Commiseration means "to he miserable with." One does not say: compov-
•t breast •out by pmjud•ent.
erty, comwealth. Let us remember Cladcc's landscape from Ague viva:
Hen•, •mbmndt does not sere, in a s•ng, ju•c• sense, the •mbl•ce "I like burnt and dry landscapes with twisted trees and mountains made of
•ong his models. He do• not•ow how m • the diff•ence •tw• rock with a pale and suspended light. That is whcre I find secret beauty. I know
•d •e o•. T•s see• p•dox•al, sin• what he is going to pmduee is the that you do not like art either. I was born hard, heroic and solitary."
co--on of m•ind, not mme•ing
ouuide uni•a• •mbl•ce. This kind of countryside is everywhere in The Hour of the Star. It can be read
As for p•nfing, •s •ller's metaphorically, allegorically. In Genet, in "L'atclicr d'Albcrto Giacometti," we
who at twen•-t• •ew how m had landscapes of streets and ateliers that meant much more than a simple frame.
p•, •d a•irably at •at, son at •y-seven w• no l•g• •ow how
•t i• now •t he is going to le• eve•n•
s•tat•on, wi•out ever d•g into •osi•. ff wi• • •ost g•che When I speak of poverty, I am also speaking of questions of libidinal economies
in an absolutely glaring way. It is even more visible and more obviously readable
 t•o • •E HO•R OF THE •
THE HOUR OF THE STAR [] 157
than when speak of love, which also takes up a •ques6on of econo an work the level of themes but also at that of style, is going to stay very far from what
on Genet's theme of equivalence:
every man is worth another'.man. ("Tout could be its narrative convention, in order to be integrated in a kind of proof, of
homme cn rant un antre.") In Genet, vaut, to be worth,
also stands for •eau, legitimate identity. As soon as one opens the book, one is suspended, beginning
calf, an idiot. In terms of economy, to say 'tout
(v.eau)jtsav•rth veau en vaut un autre,' every calf
(vau 0 another, makes it no longer marketable, That is what it with the dedication and the multiplicity of rifles. The title, which usually fixes the
aoout(,.•o.nmarketability, the_.' of the use value
is identity, naming a proper name, can barely hold on to a text where it is precisely
is opera•:t through a look that produces equivalences.
In my general reflection a question of "barely" a person.
on economy, can situate myself at the paradoxical limits, overturning
turned (renversantes et renvemdes), of all markets, of all and over- The tearful moments of the text have to be noted:
economy. We are situated, that is of the order of
as Derrida said, in "To weep and believe."
or beyond the market (par.
dessus le marchd), hence on the inside of this excess,meditation on "nothing, on ug- To cry and to shed tears are not the same thing. There are differences, as be-
Iiness, on the milk-fed calf (veau de &tit). We deal with twe•n poverty and misery. "To weep one's .heart out" is derogatory, whereas, in
human--to take back the Freudian economic model--with economies said to be
libidinal economies, "to weep and believe," to "believe" ftmetions as limit. It is an absolute believ-
our own personal eeonomio• of affeetive and psychic
investment, our wayslof ing. But believing bursts into crying. It is suspended; it functions as an opening.
winning and losing, of possessing, of stripping away, of desiring, which all.have To believe while crying has to do with mourning, lamenting. To believe and to
more or less specific traits. Wtmn.I speak of libidinal
economy, I speak of the weep are almost synonymous. Weeping is a revealing moment in the reading of
way in which we manage our own existence, accept misery• I speak of the text. It turns around the difference between a scream and tears.
the way in which we transform into poverty,
poverty, misery, or wealth, tim way in which "For one has a right to scream."
v¢o acquire goods. I speak of all the We deal with legitimation.
movements of our diffe•.nt ways of having
or of acquiring. When I qualify this libidinal "So I am screaming."
do it with ten thousand precautions, because •eonomy by masculine or feminine,
They are easy to use; they are facile, currant words.the Wewords I use are deceptive. But to scream is not to cry.
should do without them, "A simple scream that begs no charity."
but we still use them. A feminine economy does
not refer to women, but perhaps W, have already seen in Clarice an attitude that is without pity. For a moment,
to a trait that comes back to women
more often, that of the possibility of aeoept- the specter of the alms intervenes, with the possibility of asking and the possi-
ing what is socially intolerable, for example, general equivalence. bility of the beggar; A whole dilemma of an economy is opened where the posi-
cept it; nobody accepts it, in fact. One has to do extraordinary We do not tion of the author is: I scream without asking. While in the passage of the dedi-
except in a case of congenital sanctity--to toleratean love of uglinesskindfromof labor,-
equal. W¢ are quite s•lective, through high low. But the equal to cation one waits for someone in the worm to provide an answer, here one does
here deal with a capacity not to have. It is or texts I have chosen not. What comes next?
most difficult and hard to tolerate. "I know that there are girls who sell their bodies, their only real possession,
"One in exchange for a good dinner rather than the usual mortadella sandwich."
cannot prove the existen• of what is the
most real, but the essential thing Thos• gifts do not just scream, they ask for alms. We enter into an economy of
is to believe."
This s•ntence in the "Author's Dedication" vindication, All this is situated in Norgaeastern Brazil, where misery is such that
It could gather the totality can be detached from its
of Abraham's story in Kierkegaard's volume. context.
It refers
it is hard for us to imagine. If we said earlier, a calf is worth another calf, we
to sonmthing that know, intuit, exl•rience. must say here: a girl is worth, equals, a mortadella sandwich. But Macabea is
we can At the same tim•, it is an in- less than a person. So she is less than a sandwich7 We wonder who is writing.
dex of what is happening in the text: absence of proof. There is a long reflec-
an
tion on not giving proof. The Here it is "another":
worst, the best, is that the text'itself cannot
give proof of Macabea's existence. orThe text is part about "almost," to speak in
"It strilms me that I don't ne.•l her either and that what am writing could be
Clarice's terminology. Macabea is the nonexistent" writmn by another. '.Another writer, of course, but it would have to be a man for
the {east existing girl in BraziI. That is what
almost. She exists l•s than
a woman would weep her heart out."
Clariee ke,ps telling us. The "au-
thor" has to transform himself incessantly, The tears are not absolute. A naive reading would fall back into stereotypes.
to turn around his protagonist, in
der to slip into this kind of mobility of or- But we should not forget that it is a woman writing about a woman. "A woman
true existence. The whole text, not only at
writer is going to weep" is not true, since she herself does not do it; she only
 tzo • HOUR OF THE STAR
THE HOUR OF THE STAR
writes it. Clarice
It is
stratagem, not
uses a constantly,,
like Genet0 but just for surprising
necessary ploy that is not directed toward disguise.
a once. in Clarice but that function as such, with the help of some extraordi-
nary procedures: ruffle of drums, thunderclaps, toothaches, an event and--off
"And--and not to forget that if the atom's we leap into another world. But to leap into another world is also to question
real. structure is invisible, it is nonetheless
genes. We constantly go from one genre to the other.
The "not to forget" is troubling. The physical volume of this tiny text, The Hour of the Star, is exactly like
Unless the paragraph really
remark on trouble from the next remark. separates the Clarice's beard. It either produces an illusion, an illusion that does not deceive,
ing. It cuts something that is not usually TheThedivision of the "and" is fascinat- or, very quickly, through the illusion, like the image in the mirror, one notices
discourse, one can possibly hesitate, butcut. in cut is extremely violent. In oral
reader what remains for us from the book, that is to say, something gigantic. The tour de
text made of leaps and bounds. All links
not writing. It alerts the to
in the paragraphs ate interrupted. Thea force of the book is that it is small. One could have said that to bring alive some-
linkage of genres is also interrupted, capricious, and proceeds by leaps and one like Marabou, who is but a grain of dust, an atom, so much work is needed
that one could e×pe• an enormous book. Instead, not only d•d Clarice succeed in
bringing something tiny into life at the price of a colossal amount of work, but
//•e •u u• m me preceding paragraph
she •so succeeded in giving it the fo•m of something small.
had the illusion of Even il
arrest, the thread of reflection was not absolutely
an One is constantly •hrown into a paradox. The pain of that paradox consists in
Agua viva can only be read in one trait. To read it cut.
making the portrai• of the invisible, in rendering visible what has never been
lance. We had to operate the cuts by paragraphs is to do it vie-"
ourselves. But in The Hour of the Star, that is" seen, to render it visible indirectly. We have a vision that Clarice is in the habit of
not so at all. There are constant
another. The scene in which the text is beinggender cuts another; one scene cuts
cuts. One calling oblique. We can see obliquely whatever is not seen. Says the author •hat
forms a kind of pseudopresent, from time written and where the author when he sees the northeastern girl looking at herself in mirror, if he looks
per- straight into the mirror, he sees his tired and beard• face. ina order to reveal what
cabea came in and left again. There is to time stops abruptly, cut, as if Ma-
really a doubling (and much more) of two is not seen, Claric¢ has recourse to all kinds of ploys, of techniques, of sidcmtcp-
oald say--at times fuse. The points
of fusion of +:as C•.,net ping. She lets herself b• seen. She has to make space for someone as tiny as the
northeastern gift. Clarica has to efface herself. But total effacement would
"V•d Maeabea have to be followed closely. •'•lu"•n ee•ween me aumor
bring about that of the northeastern girl as well. Defyinga conventions of literary
]'he first description, Clarice is drawing attention to the very locus of disappearance. And
:e×t: °vers thattimeshe Macabea herself is
sees
has mustache. The passage is
a
she looks into the mirror
when
exemplary the technique
of
and dis-
of the
our attention is drawn to the locus of disappearance by signs that one could find
amusing, striking: mustaches, a beard, a whole paraphernalia of masculinity that
"I see the girl from the North-east looking goes beyond ordina•'y masculinity. It is a way of drawing attention to the locus of
Irum--in the mirror there appears in the mirror and--the ruffle of Clarice's disappearance, which is at the same time her locus of manifestation. We
a
my
There is a double scene. The I of the own face, weary and unshaven0,(22), will not forget. Clarice produces something we cannot forget. It is the disguise
•ositioned at the outer limit of text sees her seeing herself. The I is into the masculine that calls a•ention to what is being disguised: One
an inside. The technique is close sees only
"•y•ses, an episode in a hallucinating chapter to loyce's. In the disguise. Obliquely, one remembers the parenthesis:
•'hen the main protagonists, Bloom on Circe has Joyce stage a "(In truth Cl•arice Lispector)"
and Stephen, walk around in Dublin moment
o the brothel. The brothel is by definition and The text is full of parentheses. Those are the places in the text where Clarice
the locus of exchange, of annulment goof
lifferences. In this brothel, the furthest. One can only make signs of what Clarice Lispector is, because goes they
everyone plays at being
aoments, Bloom looks at himseff in the mirror everyone else. A• a certai• are so obviously false that they give off signs on the side of truth. The
more it is
4her. Stephen, sometimes, is Sto0m, and sometimes himself feigned, the coarser it is. It tells us: Watch out[ This is where the invisible
•loom. Or he sees himself
because there is a mixture of sees Stephen truth
and lies. We feel the truth at work all the time. In a way, through the number of often
as Shakespeare, who sticks
imself as other. This is similar out his tongue, He sees comical choices this text inflicts on us, it reminds us constantly of the invisible
tothe very brief moment where the author
ears in Lispcctor's text. truth of Clarice, which is to be a woman. say this; she does not. Truth
want to work on this scene of interruption can be
•e other. The cut is rendered typographically of one by made palpable, obliquely discernible, by people with special training. It
and produces interruptions that may also
axe completely disappear. A great many people can be deceived.
 t60 I• TH• HOUR OF THI• STAR
HOUR OF THE STAR [] 161
It is not •¢ s•c p•b]• in G•¢'s "L'a•l•
•a•i's •t is • • of •du•on, of •ffa•nt,d'•b¢•o..••.,,As m•niat•':o• past two and a .half years, I have slowly started discovering the whys and the
of • to wherefores."
m• oncsslf sm•le•, •ore m]nm¢ than • minute
in o• to c•at• cliff, nee. Present, past and future merge in this text inscribed in the present. leap ahead
• is what •nct does. •ut it is the Itv•l
• of • p•dng, not of •¢ cre•or. and back in order to recall one of t•o tides:
Becau• •e creato• is he•, h• does
not run •¢ •sk of ".As for the Future."
The •xt of The Ho• o:the S•r does It comes immediately after Oat-ice Lispcctor's signature and rna• the whole
not •gln. • •ong, •c•, while •most question of tides explo&, since it is situated in the list of titles as a title that it is
• •z•ngit, sp• of non•ginnlng. She
•m • fi•t p•, •ughout not, or else, it is the title. And below, is there an order or not? Seemingly, there
inc•sant u•oldings. The •ica•on p•cssays •¢so
an •s•mble of fol• •
•tl•s. •¢ titl• .is an order, so that below the name there is the title between two periods. A little
do away with t• dtI¢ sinc• •¢• further on, in the text, she picks up this title:
fi•t •ge of •e story •lls us •me•ing that
"E•hing in •e world beg• with a yes."•uld •ssu• "A story that is patently open and explicit yet holds certain secrets--starting
with one of the books' titles, preceded and followed by a period, '.As For The
In the following •ntence:
Future' "(13).
"One molecule s•d yes m anot•r mollie
and life was •m." To begin with a period implies that theae is neither beginning nor end.
•e is •dy in •e indefinite, in non•g•niag.
who have not yet underst•d in the follo•
•is is d•eloped for •e tween two final periods, one has perhaps a calling and a future that would be the
•n•n•: "result era gradual vision." The curtain is not situated in its habitual place, The
"But •f• prehis•ry, Sere was •e •e•st•y curtain is going to go up, or it is going to be brought into the book at a certain
• e never •d the• w• •e yes."
• p•story and $• w•
moment. And then it appe•'s or disappears in a mode other than what we have in
•e first •nten• is a ploy. •e •ok e•s
• But, in our thea)•r. It is future, present; it was here, it will be here.Clarice says:
sen•nce. A y• that would •y • •nd of y•. "Just as I am writing at the same time as I am being read."
•o says: a •swer •d. an a•afion. She
These moments, these white spaces, have to be indicated. The Hour of the
"•e• was •e hover," Star is not one of Ciarice's traditional texts. AII her more] motifs, her whole eth-
And •ght •W•, • is: ics, her philosophy can be found in it, but not the form. The book has an abso-
"It was ever so." lutely new form. It is almost too easy to read but, as usual, it is full of ploys.
If one •gins wi• need, wh¢• is •e These ploys also indicate where the truth lies.
p• of •ways? •at is why
"•t no one • mis•cn. I only achieve simpli•
with •o•ous "It is the vision of the immanence of."
•e fi•t P•aph •d the whole
•xl are infinitely •mpHc•. • do we
The sentences •r• suspended. In Genet, we had:
•ve at •mp/ici•? AI the o•er end, wi• "... rich of."
•he• a• •s of • somcwh•.
"yes." Eve•on• is mi•n, but
This is the best expression of wealth since it is no longer defined. In Clarica
•l•ce puts • beginning i• •e
past. • bering wou• •c•e eye- finds the theme of immanence, or of emergence. Here it is the epitome of one
ing. But •at is •nable. • first p•a•ph prov-
is unte•ble. All ocation because with "immanence of," something is going to happen; it is going
"t• u•v•e ncv• •g•.,, • the to be an apocalypse, the end of somebody. Of what, of whom7 W'dl
same fi•, Cl•cc tells us •m • •gin- we ever
fin of t• •h that it h• beg•n. • certain know? Is it a vision of something? No, it simply is the vision of the invisible,
de•, •e exchange •een "hang begun" a way, she •lls us • •v- which may be an idea, or the secret of life. It is not worth filling with content,
and not "having •gu•." It •lls a
•s th• we •e •ntv•ng into
a world of s•at•. The
since what is tmportam is the final period.
n w•ing us whi• saying:
supreme •c• ten,sis
"Let no one he mis•n." The Madness of the Day by Mauric¢ Blanchot does not cease to inscribe what is
•is le• • m be •st•cn
more th• once. Of court, she •so
being enunciated at the end of the text:
•t do not d•iw. But s• develops •ys things "A story? No. No stories, never again. ''•
a critique of •e illusion of •u•. •¢• is
•n• •at su• it •1 up for me. •c kind of The text inscribes something of the impossible story, the
serious pl• is announ•d •: very story in question.
"I should explain •at this sto• will We constantly work on texts that subvert the notion of story. A story is
c•ge •m a • a very
vision--f• the precise and frightening mode of enclosure of the living thing in a verbal form, in
 THE HOUR OF THE STAR [2 163

a m•b•e, w•ch gives •¢ subject of enuncia•ons•i• p•¢. • one tells capable of thought and something else, It produces a vib•__•n. If one has
• • s•ory of something, one is no longer •. It i• of a
receptive, that is where one can be•
space
• • of •apr•s co•, been point of impact.
the •ereffect. •e c• • •ld; one
c• •t off one's han• one is • •e s• of And it opens up an inexhaustible font, an interminable labyrinth. If we want to
fi•ion without •ing i•lic• at th• level of t•
body. it is •¢ coney of w•t understand why something has touched us, it will take us to the end of the world,
Cl•ce does, • is to say, to •te th•
now. S•
•complishes a fo• of and there we cannot go faster than real thought. Afterward, there arc certain
• at does not •11, that d•s not co• ba•
pr•UCeS to••. • • con•y, sh• practices of thought, like writing. To write, one sits down. One is in a position of
a •nd 0feyent •t :s b*ing •g•siv¢ly ••d. •is is very general slowing down of activity. One reads faster than one writes. We have to
One h• to • c•eful wi• the qu•fion of listen • the lesson of the poets. will never be a poet, I am too impatient. I will
pletely displaY. We • 1• wi• • nov•l,sto•.the In•eat our times, it • •en •m-
n•afiv• •at is •m-
never write what Ritke has written and which presupposes an extreme slowing
ple•ly cedilla, •d • story with a question m• •t ¢•ts down. If one asked Blancher how long it took him to write his little text, he
• find in Bircher • w•ll as in Cl•c•. In Circe
no•ys and that would probably say a whole lifetime. It is a difficult text, written at •he point of
•e• is a grit vafi¢• of reversal of contradiction; and, of course, language only wants to say one thing at
•aib• stores. In The Foreign •gion, she te•s mcmofi• •at have
and • large,n. •¢m is • ox•e•iy subtle p•y •en pl•e once. Language wan•s to go straight. To force it to produce ambiguous state-
of •m•i•. •s ki• of ments requires extraordinary strength and labor. It is precise, minute work that
a "sto• qu•fion •k" •up•ts the textual •ding Sat
events •at cannot b, told. •at is w•t hap•na in BI•chot.sz•s •
bring back requires a lot of time.
• c m•t imprint c•not • told--f• exile, • Cl•c•'s s•ry,
w•t •rtains to bird. I do not 1983--84
refer to C• as an cx•ple of
thing o( t• order of demons•fionnon•o•, ¢x•pt for • vim. Tho• is
in C1•c¢, but thee • •sibilifio• of Notes
sto• in h• writing, •¢m •¢ n•oda• that without m•ing, • pro•
non-
lem is that •0• is a lexical ff•ifion of [i•m not 1. ClariCe Lispector, A hora da eatrela (•o de Janeim: IAvraria Jo• Olimpio BdIto•, |977).
•alysia •at m•es it so that t• Translated by Giovanni Pontte•o as The Hour of the Star (New York: Carcanet Pre•s, 1986). All q•zo-
story c• be told. And thou • is • "stay •fion m•,"
lu•ly non•ble. The •cit •lls a sto•. But Blanch• •d which is abso- t•lom axe from this tzanslatioa. Modifications have been indlca•L
in such a way that •ings m •pp•ning everythi• to writ" 2, Jean Genet, "L'ate]iar d'Alberto Giacometti," in Oeuvrea completes, vol. 5 (Paris: Ge.]li-
•at at no point can • •ld. •¢ parsers mmxt, t979), 51. Tnmeiations mine.
of n•ation in •e M•ss oft• Day 3. Jean Ge•et, "Ca qui esl rest• d'un Rembrandt d6chir• en pettts cerr• rdgulicrs et foum aux
• •0 •li• and decors, or the
who say: So, •¢ you going to •11 chiottet," in Oeuvres cor•l•tts, vo]. 4 (Paris: Oal[•merd, 1968), 2t-22. •ansleXions mine.
u• wMt h•pen•, yes or no? •e
I already •id iL but no•dy h¢• it b•us• it i• •y 4. Jean Oenet, "L'am[ier d'Alberto Giacometti," 72.
•d • s•h a way • to m•in 5. Ibid., 53.
pm•. Ins•d of the •, he m•es the • of n•ta•le 6. Ibid., 41.
Next to this, the• is the •t • CI• Lispector. a story.
She tells so•ing 7, Jean Oenet, "De secret de Rembrandl,'" in O•uvres compl•te•, vol. 5, 3[.
•y c• •not • c•d in •e • of s•ry •d Sat is •. Ibid., 32.
T• Foreign •gion, s• •lls what •pens a• Of•lia's •i•. •en, in 9. Ibid., 32.
finds in B•. Circe •lls what is •ppening eyes, it is not w•t o• 10. Ibid., 33,
now. •e
•ady •envnd. CI•c¢ •tes about what is h•po•g in slow•ns what h• s• ll. lbld., 35.
motion. [2. Jean Oenet, "Ca qtti est rased d'un Rembrandt," 22-23,
=lassical story is accelerate, gives Maurk•e •[anchot, L• fotle dujo•r (Paris: Fats Morgana, 1973). 'lYantiated by Lydia Davis
a surv•, comes back • even•. No•d• in L3.
$¢ word can •te and [ivv • •e Mad•uess ofd• Day (Barrytown: Station Hi[] Preu, 1981), 18.
same time; •e• is •ways a di•p•. But as TAe
•ne c• write as closely as po•iblo to •e Hying. One
•ofion, • let things •pen. it •res a psychologic•h• to l•n • live in
•d e•c• position
.s • hard to adopt •d which is • of
md
supreme patience. The rJcit
• should
never
One h• • rer•d • PasMon
•r•ling, in which a single thought•cordin 8 • G.H., or •er•g•d's Fear •d
is being rowland in. •e hun•d pages.
•at • h•n, by chance, is •e
moment of e•o•r beaten oneself,
a.