Les incertitudes du langage, entretiens avec Robert Mallet
Jean PaulhanJean Paulhan believed that if he could one day fully grasp language, everything else would follow. "I believe," he said, "that language contains the key to all the problems that concern us." This trust in language, seen both as image and as key to mystery, guided the whole life Paulhan devoted to literature: serving those who served it, while pursuing his own research to the very end. He explains this here in a remarkably free conversation, moving through linguistics, philosophy, literature, painting, and politics, with passion and joy, and with a seriousness that leaves room for both wit and humor.
Excerpt:
Excerpt from “Radio Interviews with Robert Mallet”.
Complete works, IV, Claude Tchou, p.491-2.
J. P. – In 1918, I was reading a book one day at Delesalle. Delesalle had
was one of the first anarchists, and Fénéon strongly suspected him
for having thrown the bomb which blew up the Foyot restaurant. It was a man
infinitely honest and upright: all in one piece, terrible. It had never varied.
So that day he took me by the hand and led me into his back room: “I have a book about the war. It’s something.” He handed me
my little diligent Warrior. I have never been so proud.
A. Mr. – What did he mean?
J. P. – It was very clear: that nothing more terrible had been written against
war.
A. Mr. – But where did the misunderstanding come from?
J. P. – In any case it was quite common. I hardly found anything to love
a little my little Warrior, at the time when it appeared, that anarchists and
antipatriots. I received my most beautiful letter – I mean the most
laudatory – of Édouard Dujardin, whose Germanophile sentiments
were well known. He even invited me to his house in Fontainebleau.
It was a very beautiful house, where the main verses of Dujardin (who was
poet) were found engraved in stone (or in plaster, I don't know
more).
A. Mr. – What was the reason for the misunderstanding?
J. P. – To this, I suppose: is that common opinion – well, opinion
official – then wanted the war to be something pleasant and
all natural to which it seemed almost impious to apply.
Moreover, this is an opinion that quickly changed. My little book had a
second edition around 1930. This time, it was only approved by
the all-out patriots and the reactionaries. An anarchist newspaper made me
remarking that it was foul to apply oneself to war.
Entretien avec Robert Mallet, 8 vidéos de 20 mn
Editeur : Gallimard