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"Du fond d'un naufrage": Notes on Michel Serres and Mallarm's "Un Coup de ds"Author(s): Bonnie J. IsaacSource: MLN, Vol. 96, No. 4, French Issue (May, 1981), pp. 824-838Published by: The Johns Hopkins University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2905839.
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"Du fond
d'un
naufrage":
otes
on
Michel
erres
nd Mallarme's
"Un
Coup
de
des"
Bonnie
J.
Isaac
Vainement
ma raison
voulait
prendre
la
barre;
La
tempete
en
jouant
deroutait
ses
efforts,
Et mon ame
dansait,
dansait
vieille
gabarre
Sans
mats,
sur
une mer monstreuse
et sans
bords
Baudelaire,
"Les
Sept
Vieillards"'
Shipwreck
is
always
the risk
of
navigation.
In Mallarme's
"Brise
marine,"
the narrator asks:
Et
peut-etre,
es
mats,
nvitant
es
orages
Sont-ils
de ceux
qu'un
vent
penche
sur les
naufrages
Perdus,
sans
mats,
sans
mats,
ni fertiles
ilots
. .
2
Vasco da Gama, passing the cape "Sans que la barre ne varie," is
nevertheless
threatened
by
"Nuit,
desespoir.
. ."
(OC, 72);
the
ship
of
poets
in "Salut" risks
"Solitude,
recif
.
.
."
(OC, 27).
And
yet
the
words
elided from
the above
two
verses,
"pierrerie"
and
"etoile,"
announce
the
hope
of
the
shipwreck
of
"Un
Coup
de des"
(OC,
457-77).
The Master
of
the
vessel
attempts
to
pit
"sa
petite
raison
virile"
against
the
elements;
"Un
coup
de des
...
quand
bien
meme
lance dans des
circonstances
eternelles
du fond
d'un
naufrage"
1
Charles
Baudelaire,
"Les
Sept
Vieillards,"
Oeuvres
ompletes,
exte
etabli
t annote
par
Y.-G.
Le Dantec. Edition revisee
par
Claude
Pichois
(Paris:
Gallimard,
1961),
p.
84.
2
Stephane
Mallarme,
"Brise
marine,"
Oeuvres
ompletes,
exte
etabli
et
annote
par
Henri
Mondor et
G.
Jean-Aubry
Paris:
Gallimard,
1945),
p.
38.
All
subsequent
references
o Mallarme
will
be
made
in
the
text,
with he abbreviationOC
and
page
number.
MLN Vol. 96
Pp.
824-838
0026-7910/81/0964-0824$01.00 ? 1981 byThe JohnsHopkinsUniversityress
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M
L
N
825
would,
in
"cette
conjonction
supreme
avec la
probabilite," ttempt
to
transform chance into
necessity:
the
dice-throw,
"l'unique
Nombre
qui
ne
peut pas
etre
un
autre" would be
transfigured
nto
theConstellation,
glimmering
bove the
tempest,
un destin et les
vents."
"Un
Coup
de des"
has
mostoftenbeen
read
in
terms f
relatively
straightforward
ppositions
chance
and
necessity,
he
real and the
ideal,
the
success or failure of Mallarme's
enterprise):
interpretations
hichtend toward a
synthesis,
hose
goal,
like that
of
the
dice-throw,
might
e
to
"en
reployer
a division
t
passe
fier."
Robert
Greer
Cohn,
in
his
seminal
"exegesis"
of
"Un
Coup
de
des,"
maintains that the traditional interpretation, embodied by
Thibaudet,
emphasizes
Mallarme's failure to attain the Grand
Oeuvre,
the
absolute;
the
Master would renounce his lifetime
illusion,
whichfactwould at
least
explain
the
title:
Un
coup
de
des
jamais
n'abolira le
hasard."3 Thibaudet's
analysis
s
however more
nuanced:
the
attempts
o attain
necessity, ure
logic,
re doomed to
failure,
ut
the workwould
figure
ess a
shipwreck,
n unsuccessful
battle
gainst
the
sea,
than a battle
gainstenigma,
n
the domain of
the
spirit:4
he
fact hat
n
"Un
Coup
de des" there s
no
first-person
narrator,
as
in
Baudelaire's "Les
Sept
Vieillards,"
might
tend
to
support
this view.
On
the level of an abstract
combat,
Deleuze's
assessment,
rom Nietzschean
perspective,
s
much ess
optimistic.
If,
for
Nietzsche,
he
dice-throw emands
a
strict
nterdependence
of chance and
necessity-chance
being
the
dice before the
throw,
sea and
waves;
necessity
the dice after
the
throw,
the
constellation-Mallarme
is
ultimately
unable to
maintain
this
disjunctive
imultaneity.
is failure would result from
supposed
necessity to exclude chance, contingency being necessarily
subservient o
the
pure
idea.5
The
movements of "Un
Coup
de
des"-both textual and
metaphorical-would
tend to undercut
such
polarities.
The
writings
f Michel
Serres on
thermodynamics,
nformation nd
game theory,
he
mathematics f
large populations
and
atomism
exploit
a certain kind
of
multiplicity
which,
though
to
my
knowledge,
erres has
never
explicitly nalyzed
Mallarme,
resonate
3
Robert Greer
Cohn,
Mallarme's
Un
Coup
de des": An
Exegesis
New
Haven:
Yale
French Studies
Publication,
1949),
p.
4.
4
Albert
Thibaudet,
La Poesiede
Stephane
Mallarme
Paris:
Gallimard,
1926),
pp.
422-23,
429.
5
Gilles
Deleuze,
Nietzschet a
philosophie
Paris:
Presses
Universitaires
e
France,
1973),
pp.
29,
37-38.
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826
BONNIE
J.
SAAC
with
a
strange
persistence
with
many
Mallarmean
metaphors,
particularly
hose of "Un
Coup
de
des." I
by
no
means wish to
suggest
the
imposition
f a "scientific"model on a
"literary"
work,
particularly
iven
Serres'
frequently
eiterated autions
against
the
passage
from the
"local"
to
the
"global";
I
wish to
explore
a
fluid,
mobile
relationship,
ts movement
nd
flow.The
local
connections
suggested by
shared
concepts
and
metaphors, by
similar
configurations
nd
dynamics,
would
not
point
to
any
generalizable
conclusions,
uch
as
"theories
of
science
n
Mallarme."
would
wish
rather
to
approach
a
confluence,
a
convergence
of rivers
which
flow, wirl,formeddies, whirlpools nd turbulences, n uncertain
times and
uncertain
places,
suggesting
that
combination
of
indeterminateness nd
rigor
which
Mallarme,
in
his
formulations
of the
nature
of
le
vers,
might
wish
to
attain.
For
Serres,
the
basis of
any
system-linguistic,
theoreticalor
scientific-is a
stock,
reservoir,
haos,
chora: the
"lieu"
perhaps
of
"Rien n'aura
eu
lieu
que
le
lieu"
of
"Un
Coup
de
des."
It
is,
as
in
Plato's
Timaeus,
receptacle,
womb: thatwhich
changes
names
but
has no name,thatwhichundoes or separatesthrough ondensation
or
compression,
clouds,
fog
or
running
water,
displacement
or
liquidation.
It
is
anteriorto
all
movement,
difference,
omination,
form:
topological
pace
where
"tous es
chemins,
ous es
sens
sont
frayables,
ossibles";
t
s the
space
before
meaning,
direction
sens),
circulation.6
t is
the
space
where atoms flow
n
a
"chaos-verseau"
or
fluctuate
n
a
"chaos-nuage,"
displaced,
at
uncertain
imes nd
at
uncertain
places,
by
the
clinamen,
"ecart
a
l'equilibre,"
the
"diffirentielle,
a
fluxion,
la
foudre
qui
traverse
la chute de
la
pluie," a stochastic, leatory"turbulence" n an
"orderly"
haos,7
spiralling
motion
which
creates the
possibility
of
order,
of
relationships
NP, 34).
It
is
perhaps
no
accident
that for
Mallarme,
the
way
one
would
read
differently,
erceiving
words
"independently
of
ordinary
succession,"
s "on
a
bias,
contingently."
he
"meteorology"
f
the
"crise
de
vers" s
a
storm,
he
reflection
nd refraction f
raindrops
6Michel Serres,HermesV: La DistributionParis: Minuit,1977), pp. 60, 242. All
subsequent
references o
thiswork will
be
made
in
the
text
with
he
abbreviation
.
The
reader
should note
the
equal importance
of
the
chora
n
the
work of
Julia
Kristeva,
particularly
n
her
interpretation
f
Mallarme,
n
La
Revolution
u
langage
poetique
Paris:
Seuil,
1974).
7
Michel
Serres,
La
Naissance de la
physique
ans le
texte e
Lucrece:
fleuves
et
turbulences
Paris:
Minuit,
1977),
pp.
11-12.
Subsequent
references o
this
workwill
be made in
the
text,
with
the
abbreviation
NP.
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M L
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827
and
lightning.
Analogously,
the
relationship
between music and
letters s also
"meteorological":
alternationsof
light
and
shadows
characterize le moderne des meteiores,a symphonie" OC, 365),
provoking
"intemperies"
of
"divers ciels"
(OC, 646),
perhaps
the
same
"circonstances" f "Un
Coup
de des."
Language,
at
great
risk,
would
extract
direction
sens)
from
"la
chute des
sons nus"
(OC,
385):
for
Serres as
well,
"meteorology"
ndicates
risk-unpredict-
ability,
torm,
shipwreck
and
tempest,
"nuages,
trombes,
chutes
de
grele
ou
giboulees,
direction et force du
vent.
Accident,
cir-
constances.
Voisinage
hasardeux,
environnement venementielde
l'essentiel,
e
la stance"
(NP,
85).
Ifatoms are letters, hen thetext, nformation,an be bornfrom
the
same kind of
turbulence,
s Mallarme
also
suggests:
Le
livre,
xpansion
otale e la
lettre,
oit
d'elle
tirer,
irectement,
ne
mobilite t
spacieux,
ar
correspondances,
nstituern
eu,
on ne
sait,
qui
confirme
a fiction.
ien
de
fortuit,a,
ou semble
n
hasard
apter
1'idee....
(OC,
380)
For
Serres,
atom-letters s'associent
en
phrases,
se rassemblent
n
volumes" (NP, 32); their
aggregate
is words, and meaning is
formed
by
the
oblique
flash of
the clinamen
cross
background
noise.
The
poem
is
"coupe
d'eclairs ... Hachures
inclinees
qui
dictent,
emps par
temps,
une nouvelle
pente
...
ses tourbillons
e
mots
conjoints,
ur
un
talweg
coupe
de
catastrophes"
NP, 46).
For
Mallarme,
the flow
of words
("charroi,"
"courant"
[OC,
1576])
necessitates
ome kind
of
textual
spacing.
For
Serres,
nformations
characterized
by
ts
rarity
n
the face of
theconstantflowofatoms,of theconstantmovementofthecloud
he
names
"distribution."
Le
message
y
est
chaotique,
un
nuage
de
lettres.
Mieux,
d'elements
quelconques, peut-etre pas
encore
de
lettres
.. le
bruit
qui
tourbillonne
.. au
profit
de
la turbulence"
(D,
14).
Information
ttempts
o
emerge
as
archipelagoes
n
a
sea
of
noise,
a
riskynavigation
which
engages
a
potential
mitter-receiver
in
a violent world.
Mallarme,
in "Le
Mystere
dans les
lettres,"
recognizes
the
impossibility
f
a
"neutral"
discourse,
the
necessity
of"diving"
nto
a text
OC, 385).
For Serres as
well,
Nous
baignons
dans des entrelacs
de
canaux
...
plonge[s]
dans les
fleuves
objectifs.
Recepteur,
en
son
lieu,
emetteur ous tous
angles.
Battu,
frappe,
blesse
... douloureux ..."
(NP,
63).
The
text is one
circulation
mong
others,
Naufrage,
nclinaison
e
texte,
hute des
atomes et
cataracte
des
lettres"
NP,
88).
In
any
such
atmosphere,
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828
BONNIE
J.
SAAC
any
information, communication,
would
appear
miraculous.
Discourse is a
clinamen,
mong
the
cataractof
atom-letters,
reatinga turbulence
through
whichone must
carefully
navigate:
on
ne
gouverne amais
un
vaisseau
que par
l'angle
d'inclinaison
donne
au
gouvernail,
utour de
quoi
les filets
'eau laissent
eurs
turbulences:
alors
l'iclair
cligne
et
claque
comme
un
clinamen
erceptible,
utourde
quoi
les vents et les
nuages
forment
eurs tourbillons.
(NP,
99,
102)
Between
turbulences
and
whirlwinds,
it
is the
relationships
between words which make language possible: "en-deca de la
relation,
l
n'y
a
que nuages
dans
le
vide,
lettres
u
atomes"
(NP,
152-53).
It
is that
relationship
which
attempts
o
halt
or
reversethe
other
consequence
of the
clinamen: irreversible
time,
entropy.
The
clinamen
may
describe the
smallest
possible
angle
of
deviation,
but t
also forms he
greatest
ossible angle
of
descent,
declining
oward
new
equilibrium;
necessary
movement
o that nvariancedoes not
mean
repose,
constancy
stasis:
stability
itself can
approach
movement.Language and writing ttempt o resistthe currentof
the river f
entropy,
esist
nclination,
ecline,
the
usury
of
time,
by
the
assembly
of
atom-letters
nto
the
conjunction
nd interstices
f
their
combinations,
signals
emerging
from
noise.
Their
relationships
re for
Serres,
s for
Mallarme,
embodied
in
a kind of
music:
"Comment la
chute
deviee
introduit-elle du
reversible
dans
l'irreversible? 'ou vient
ette
musique,
par
rapport
au chaos-bruit
de
fond,
d'oi vient
le
rythme par
rapport
a l'ecoulement
sans
retour du verseau?" (NP, 168). The inclination of the clinamen
produces
direction, vector,
le
vers.
In
the
interstices
of
that move-
ment,
local
effects, turbulences,
permit
reversibility.
There are
two
kinds
of
music:
that of the
river;
that
of
the
sea:
La
musique
va. Elle
commence,
elle
s'acheve. Ou
plut6t
une
musique
va.
Elle va
du
silence au
silence,
elle
a comme une
source et
un
point
de
terminaison.Une
autre,
nterminable,
'arrete
t ne
s'arrete
pas,
comme
a
un
bord mal
difini,
et
commence aussi
peu,
elle nous
ennoie,
elle nous
submerge.
Une
musique
coule
comme
un fleuve, 'autreest la mer. La
musique
et le
temps.
(NP, 180-87)
One
can discern
in
Mallarme hints
of
the two
kinds
of music
Serres
suggests.
There is that
which,
like the
ocean,
can drown
one
in
a
sea of
emotivity,
"La mer dont mieux
vaudrait se
taire
que
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M L N
829
l'inscrire ans
une
parenthese
si, avec,
n'y
entre
e firmament"
OC,
403).
For the
"crise de
vers,"
"orage
lustrale"
whose
"bouleverse-
ments"
ttempt
o
liberate"la
musicalite
de
tout,"
the sea
exercizes
a "vertuautrement
ttrayante,"
"plenitude"
which is
impossible
to describe
other than
by
allusion,
suggestion
OC,
366).
Mallarme
would
appear
to
prefer
to
the music-sea the
music-river,
hat
which
has
a source
and
a
terminus,
but which nevertheless an
impart
movement,
fluidity,
o le
vers.
And
yet,
ike
navigation
n
"Un
Coup
de
des,"
river
navigation
can have its
dangers,
as the
"maraudeur
aquatique"
of
"Le
Nenuphar
blanc"
(OC,
285)
discovers. As Serres
points
out:
Tous les
mariniersavent ien .
qu'ils
ne
descendent
as
toujours
n
fleuve
ans
efforts.
es
contre-courantses
mmobilisent
arfois,
arfois
les
chassent n
amont.Le
fleuven'est
pas
toujours
ne
route
qui
les
mene
ou
ils veulent
ller.
(NP,
188)
Yet
if
one tries to
go beyond
one's
limits,
ne's
boundaries,
the
"borne
a
l'infini"
f "Un
Coup
de
des,"
one
risks hat
passage
from
local
to
global
thatforSerres
eads
to
potential
violence,risk,
eath.
The uncharted river in "Prose
pour
des Esseintes" (OC, 55-57)
presents
n
the
course of its
navigation
what for Serres s
one of the
greatest
threats: "La
croissance,
perdue
comme
menace,
danger
incontrolables"
(NP, 91).
One cannot
always
control one's
navigation;
the turbulence of the
clinamen
an
produce
order,
reversibility
n
irreversibility,
ut
like
all "meteors"
it
occurs
unpredictably:
t
flickers
"clignotant")
n
the blink
of an
eye
("clin
d'oeil"),
causing
the
shipwreck
f the
"yole
a
clins"
NP,
161):
"Le
sens est formepar le bruit et le derivevers e bruit:espace-temps
du
clignotement
t
du declin. Les
signaux
d'univers
font
es
dins
d'oeil
de la
profondeur
du
nuage"
(NP, 170).
In Mallarme's
terms,
"Un
coup
de
des
jamais
n'abolira le
hasard";
"rien
n'aura
eu
lieu
que
le lieu."
Derrida
in
"La Double
Seance" alludes to theclinamen
n the flow
of
rythmos:8
un din
d'hymen.
Une chute
rythmee.
Une
cadence
inclinee"
(DS,
293).
The
hymen,
itself a kind of
angle,
a
joint
8
Jacques
Derrida,
"La Double
Seance,"
La
Dissemination
Paris:
Seuil,
1972),
pp.
199-317.
Subsequent
references
to
this
work
will
be made
in the
text with the
abbreviation
DS.
For
Serres,
rythmos,
rom
rein,
form,
indicates as well flow
(a
commentary
on the
famous
etymology
of
Benveniste):
thus a
"tourbillon,"
reversibility
n
irreversibility
NP,
190).
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8/16
830
BONNIE
J.
SAAC
("clin"),
a
fold,
ndicates
suspense,
an
interval,
Car
la
difference
est
au
moins
l'intervalle
necessaire,
le
suspens
entre deux
echeances, le
'laps'
entredeux
coups,
deux chutes,deux chances"
(DS, 309).
The
play
between
contingency,
necessity
nd
chance
becomes the textual
spacing
of "difference,"
entre-deux,"
"crise
du
rythmos
.
.
rythme,
adence,
declinaison,
decadence,
chute
t
retour"
DS,
312).
The "crisis"
becomes
the risks
of
reversibility
n
irreversibility,
"coup
de des":
Hymen
elon
e
vers,
blanc
encore,
de la
necessite
t
du
hasard
..
Si-elle
6tait,
a
litterature
e tiendrait-elle
ans
e
suspens
u chacune
de ses facesgarde a chance.... La crisede la litt6raturelieuquand
rienn'a lieu
que
le
lieu,
dans 'instance
u
personne
'est a
pour
avoir.
Personne-ne sachant-avant
le
coup-qui
le
dejoue
en
son
echeance-lequel
des six
des-chute.
(DS,
317)
"Un
Coup
de des"
puts
into
motion
the
oppositions
between
chance and
necessity,
rreversibility
nd
reversibility,
he sea
and
the
firmament,
music
and
letters.
It
exploits
metaphors
of
whirlwinds nd turbulences,of navigationand shipwreck, f the
"lieu."
Mauron
maintainsthat
Mallarme's
temporality
ttempts
o
reverse
the
flow of
entropy.9
Jean-Paul
Sartre
sees
Mallarme
as
balancing
"ce
couple
de
contraires
ui
perpetuellement
'engendre
et se
repousse:
le hasard
... la necessite"
n a
heroic stance
against
the
inevitability
f
entropy:
"L'homme
mourant
sur tout le
globe
d'une
desintegration
de
l'atome
ou d'un refroidissement
du
soleil.
.
.
."10
Blanchot transfersthe oppositions to problems of textuality.
Mallarme
would
be
"liberated" from
inear,
temporal
succession,
from
"irreversibility,"
n favor of
ruptures,
discontinuities,
new
kind of
mobility.
Un
Coup
de des" "est
ne d'une
ententenouvelle
de
l'espace
litteraire,
elles
que
puissent s'y
engendrer,
par
des
rapports
nouveaux de
mouvement,
des relations
nouvelles
de
comprehension."Language
is
perceived spatially,
he "lieu"
evoked
by
Serres, "oiu,
avant
d'etre
paroles
determinees
et
exprimees,
e
langage
est
le mouvement
silencieux
de
rapports
...,"
where
"jamais l'instant ne succede a l'instant selon le deroulement
horizontal
d'un
devenir irreversible."11
9
Charles
Mauron,
Des
metaphores
bsedantes
u
mythe
ersonnel
Paris:
Jose
Corti,
1971),
p.
233.
10Jean-Paul
Sartre, "Mallarme,"
Situations
X
(Paris:
Gallimard,
1972),
pp.
191-201;
pp.
198-200.
1
Maurice
Blanchot,
Le
Livre a
venir
Paris:
Gallimard,
1959),
pp.
286,
291.
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831
For
Cohn,
the
movement of
"Un
Coup
de des" is
engendered
more
"epistemologically," by
the
oscillation
of
opposites
in
paradox.
But
the
resonances of
some of
his
readings
echo
with
those of Serres: "In a
clustering
f words,as in atoms or
planets,
lies
the
law."
The
organizational
capacities
of
atoms,
compared
to
the
eternal
"revolution" of
the
firmament,
mphasize
however
form
over
movement.
His
reading
of"circonstances"
s
antithetical
for this
reason
to
that of
Serres:
if
"circonstances"
re that
which
"stand
around,"
"circonstances
ternelles"
would not
be
perpetual
motion,
but
the
freezing
of
time for one
event.12
Mallarme
evokes in
his
Preface to
"Un
Coup
de
des"
(OC,
455-56) musicas a resourcewhichtextualspacing and movement
should
exploit.
He
cautions
one
in
seeing
in
this
work
ittle
more
than
a
"spacing
of
reading":
what
s
engendered
by
the
dispersion
of
traditional
prosody by
blank
space
and
typography
s not
space,
but
movement.
t
accelerates the
pace
of
reading;
space
does not
exist in
itself,
but
is
"scanned,"
"intimated" n
a
"simultaneous
vision of
the
Page"
which
is
not
however
static: "La
fiction
effleurera t se
dissipera,
vite,
d'apres
la
mobilitede
l'ecrit."
The
successiveness f narrative, s well as that of time,by"raccourci,"
"hypothese,"
multiple
meanings.
Thought
moves
through
retraits,
prolongements,
uites";
the effect
of the
text s
that
of
a
musical
score,
a
"partition"
which
could
be an
accompaniment
for
many
of
the
motifs
ound
in
Michel
Serres.
Cohn
suggests
in
passing
that the
project
of the
Master,
his
"anciens
calculs,"
could evoke "the
mathematical
nd
physical
aws
which
ead to
man's
emergence."13
As
in
Serres,
the
circumstances
which
urround the dice
thrown from he
depths
of a
shipwreck,"
however "eternal,"are
unpredictable,
and
ultimately
menacing.
The
"Abyss"
contains both
potential,
oscillating,
virtual
movement-the
chora-and the
possibility
f a
clinamen-order out
of
turbulence:
"Soit
que
l'Abime ...
etale
.
.
.
sous
une
inclinaison
plane
desesperement."
The
movement of the
Abyss
suggests
a
downward
flight,
nd its
"wing"
could
point
to an effort o
reverse
the
flow of
entropy:
"par avance
retombee
d'un
mal
a
dresser
le
vol."
The
rocking
of the
boat
reinforces bortive
movement:
voile
alternative,"penche de 'un ou l'autrebord"; open and closed also
alternate:
"tres
a
l'interieur
resume
l'ombre
enfuie
dans
la
profondeur,"
couvrant
esjaillissements
oupant
au ras
les bonds."
2
Cohn,
pp.
10, 14,
39,
64,
66,
78,
93.
13
Cohn,
p.
50.
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832
BONNIE
J.
SAAC
"L'envergure"
alternates
with
"beante
profondeur"
to
suggest
that which
is
buried,
potential,
but which
could
emerge,"chaos-verseau"or
"chaos-nuage."
The Master
navigates
by
means of the
oblique
"barre";
he "se
prepare s'agite
et
mele comme
on
menace
au
poing
qui
l'etreindrait
un destin
et
les
vents."
At
odds
with the
elements,
his conflict
s
indeed between
them and
destiny.
His dilemma:
should he
throw
"l'unique
Nombre
qui
ne
peut pas
etre un
autre,"
the ultimate
dice-throw,
dans la
tempete
en
reployer
a
division et
passe
fier,"
or
"jouer
.
la
partie
au nom des flots"?
hould he
attempt,
with
the ultimateNumber, to master nature, to rejoin divisions,or
should he
play
the
game
in the
name
of the
waves,
n
the
hope
that
the waves
themselves,
hrough
their
movement and
turbulence,
can
somehow
produce
order? His
ancestors-"l'aieul"-have
had a
perpetual
intercourse
withthe sea:
"ne
d'un
ebat
la
mer
par
l'aieul
ou l'aieul
par
la mer
une
chance
oiseuse
Fian:ailles
dont le voile
d'illusion
chancellera s'affalera
folie."
Such an uncertain
union
wavers, falters,
slides down
to
madness,
a
kind of
entropy
engendered by decline, emplifiedby the large-typeN'ABOLIRA
immediately
following.
The root
of "chancellera"
is
cadencia,
suggesting
for
Cohn
the
fall of
the dice.14
But
it
could
also
indicate
the "cadence
rythmee"
of
Derrida,
the "chute"
of
rythmos,
he
spacing
movement
of
the
chora,
he
equilibrium
to which all
must
return,
but also
the
ordering
of chaos
through
movement
from
which all
codes,
languages,
texts,
merge.
The
next set of
double
pages
confirms
his
ntuition,
eginning
not
only
a
section
n
italics,
ut
forming
lmost
the
literal
enter
of
the
poem:
"Une insinuation impleau silenceenroulee avec ironie
ou le
mystere
precipite
hurle dans
quelque
proche
tourbillon
d'hilarite
t d'horreur
voltige
utour
du
gouffre
ans
lejoncher
ni
fuir et
en berce
le
vierge
indice." Cohn
sees the
"tourbillon"
s
a
spiral
surrounded
by
the
words "comme
si,"
indicating
n
eddy,
a
momentary
tasis,
n
expansion
which
figures
ircles
which
almost,
yet
not
quite,
turn
back
on themselves. uch
a
figure
esonates
with
the
very
word "si": both
"if"
and
"yes,"
"s" is
the
analytical,
dissolving,disseminating etter;"i" is the letterwhich"resumes."
The essence
of the
whirlpool
s to
suck
in
its
surroundings
nd
yet
to
fling
out
a circle of
itself. But Cohn insists
on the
circular,
enclosed
nature
of
the
spiral throughout
his
interpretation,
ven
though
the
pattern
f words clustered round
the
whirlpool-center
14
Cohn,
p.
63.
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M
L
N
833
can
move out of
itself,
making
a
spiral
whose
outer
contour
is
roughly
elliptical.15
For
Serres,
the
spiral-whirlpool-turbulence
s
equally crucial,
indicating
the inclinationof the clinamen
nd
the flow
of
atoms,
order from
chaos and the flow
toward
entropy,
configuration
that
would
preclude
the circular.
Such a
configuration
also
indicates
conflict,
menace,
danger,
even
physical
distress,
s the
perceiving ubject
s buffeted
by
competing signals,
a distressone
can also find in
Mallarm6.
Cohn does indeed sense the same
combination.
Insinuation"
could indicate the
tortuous
writhing
f
the
Chimera which n
Mallarme's
"La
Musique
et les lettres"
OC,
648) creates anguage itself, ut Cohn emphasizesthenegative ide
of
"art" rather
than a
productive
movement.
"Joncher"
ndicates
for
Cohn that
neither the
"insinuation" nor the
"tourbillon"
succeed in
penetrating
the
"silence-mystere"
from which
they
arose,
nor do
they
ucceed
in
fleeing
t.
Cohn would
thus
undercut
the
possibilities
f
disseminationof
the "tourbillon."
En
berce
le
vierge
indice"
would
be the first "letter"
emerging
from
turbulence,
s
Serres
might
lso
suggest: the
"horror" of
disorder,
the "hilarity"of creation. But the spiral for Cohn ultimately
indicates an eternal
return,
hough continuing
to
indicate
that
no
circle turns
back
on
itself.He
explains
however thatthis
s because
no
concept
can
exist without its
opposite;16
we have seen that
straightforward
olarities
re
displaced by
the
very
movement hat
engenders
them. Serres
points
out that an
inclination
plus
a circle
equals
a
spiral:
"La
turbulence de la
nature,
un
poeme
ecrit
en
tourbillon
qui
se boucle sans se boucler"
(NP, 169).
The
spiral
would
thus call
into
question
movements
of
synthesis
of
oppositions;
eternal return would be
always superseded by
entropy.
The "comme
si" also
governs
the
following
ection of "Un
Coup
de d6s." "Comme"
is
the
establishment of a
relation;
"si" an
affirmation after
negation:
this section
appropriately enough
evokes
Hamlet,
"prince
amer
de
l'ecueil"
(recall
the
"recif"
of
"Salut")
whose feathered
cap
is
ludicrously
rect
n
the
face
of
"la
foudre":
"plume
solitaire
6perdue
...
cette blancheur
rigide
derisoireen opposition au ciel trop ... sa petiteraison virile en
foudre." But
we recall withSerres that la foudre" s
in
a sense
the
condition
of
possibility
f
reason,
a
rarity
which
falls
with the
15
Cohn,
pp.
31,
65-67.
16
Cohn,
pp.
68, 70,
93.
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834
BONNIE
J.
SAAC
cadence of
rythmos
nd the
clinamen. Derrida
remarks that
"l'Tlevation
e la
plume
est
toujours
'imminence u
l'Fv&enement
e
sa
chute,"
and cites the "effets de
glotte"
of Mallarme's Le
Livre-"plusje
plu
me
plume
et
chute
choc"
(DS,
305-307)-which,
oddly
enough,
resonate with
many
metaphorical
connections
found
in
Serres.
Hamlet's
crisis,
figuring
that of the
Master,
is
echoed
in
the "crise
de
vers,"
which,
we
recall,
is
meteorological.
Derrida recalls that
the
original
title
of "Crise
de vers"
was
"Averses,"
suggesting
an
"orage
historique
...
pluie
...
Faits
d'hiver"
(DS,
314-15).
We recall as well that the
navigation
of
"Salut" was governed by a poetic avant-garde, l'avant fastueux"
which
"cuts"-always
obliquely-"le
flot de
foudres et
d'hivers."
The
"hilarity
nd horror" of
the whirlwind
s echoed
by
the
"rire
que
SI"
of
Hamlet who
"scintille
e
vertige,"
nd
by
the
contorsions
of
drowning
irens,
recalling
he
"insinuation" f the
Chimera,
and
also
the
"Telle loin
se noie une
troupe
/
De
sirenes
.
.
."
of "Salut."
The
"torsion
de sirene
.
. .
par
d'impatientes squames
ultimes
bifurquees"
of"Un
Coup
de d6s"
remind
one,
with
Serres,
that,
n
the unlimited topology of the chora, it is the bifurcation that
produces
"catastrophes"
n
the
fall of
"chreodes"
(D,
244-45).
But
bifurcation
lso creates
meaning,
direction;
n
"Un
Coup
de
des,"
the
"ecueil"
of
Hamlet
becomes
a
"roc
faux
manoir
tout de
suite
evapore
en
brumes
qui imposa
une
borne
a l'infini":
limit,
sort
of
order,
out of
the
"chaos-nuage."
The
Number would be the
ultimate
rder, "issu
stellaire,"
rare,
agonized
result of
buffeting
movementwhich
nevertheless,
n
the
uncertainty
f its
apparition,
does not abolish
chance:
EXISTAT-IL
autrement
qu'hallucination
eparse
d'agonie
COMMENCAT-IL
ET
CESSAT-IL
sourdant
ue
nie
et clos
quand
apparu
enfin
par
quelque
profusion
repandue
en
rarete SE
CHIFFRAT-IL
evidence
de la somme
pour peu
qu'une
ILLUMINAT-IL
CE SERAIT
pire
non
davantage
i moins
ndifferent
mais utant E
HASARD
The
Number bubbles
up
when
denied,
profuse
and
rare,
participating
n
infinity"chiffrat")
but
also
in
order
("existat,"
"commencat," cessat,"
"illuminat"):
the musicof the sea and that
of
the
river,
with
beginning
nd an
end. But it
participates
o
less
in
the
rhythmical
adence which
tends,
despite
archipelagoes
of
negentropy
on
the sea of
background
noise,
toward
equilibrium,
neutrality,
ntropy:
Choit la
plume
rythmique uspens
du
sinistre
s'ensevelir
aux
ecumes
originelles
nagueres
d'ou sursauta son
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M L N 835
delire
jusqu'a
une cime
fletrie
par
la
neutralite
identique
au
gouffre."
That which
subsists is not
therefore the
Number,
but the
place,
the
"lieu,"
the
chora:
RIEN
de la memorable
crise ou se
fut
'evenement
accompli
en
vue de
tout
resultat nul humain N'AURA
EU LIEU une
elevation ordinaire
verse
l'absence
QUE
LE
LIEU
inferieur
clapotis quelconque
pour
disperser
lacte
vide
abruptement que
sinon
par
son
mensonge
eit
fonde la
perdition
dans ces
parages
du
vague
en
quoi
toute realite se
dissout
We find the
flow of the
"chaos-verseau"
("verse"),
the
descent
of
the "point extremal" of the "crise" toward the "inferior"; the
dispersal,
dissemination,
dissolution,
distribution of
the
"chaos-nuage":
the
vagueness
into which all
reality
is
ultimately
dissolved.
But the final
pages
indicate the far-off
hope:
the constellation
which is not however a static
transcendence,
but which
participates
in
the same movement
of
shocks
and
declines
which
engenders
it:
EXCEPTE
a
l'altitude
PEUT-ETRE
aussi loin
qu'un
endroit
fusionne
avec au-dela hors d'interetquant a lui
signale
en
general
selon telle
obliquite
par
telle
declivitede
feux vers
ce doit etre e
Septentrion
ussi
Nord UNE
CONSTELLATION froide
'oubli et de desuetude
pas
tant
qu'elle
n'enumere
sur
quelque
surface vacante et
superieure
le
heurt
successif
ideralementd'un
compte
total en formation eillant
doutant
roulant brillant t
meditantavant de
s'arreter
quelque
point
dernier
qui
le
sacre
We encounter
again
that elevation
("altitude"),
that
"point
extremal" of crisis. In "La Musique et les lettres" however Mallarm6
indicates that
pyrotechnical
fusion
at
great
height
is not a
transcendence,
but another
kind of
ephemeral pattern
(OC,
647).
The
constellation
belongs
perhaps
less to the
firmament
of eternal
revolution
than to the
reflection and
refraction on
a bias
of words
on
a
page,
which,
in
"L'Action
restreinte,"
mirror the
stars black
on
white,
white
on
black:
"Tu
remarqueras,
on n'ecrit
pas,
lumineusement,
sur
champ
obscur,
l'alphabet
des
astres,
seul,
ainsi
s'indique,
6bauche
ou
interrompu;
l'homme
poursuit
noir sur
blanc"
(OC,
370).
In "Un
Coup
de
des,"
the
"total number" is
in
formation
only,
observed
only
at
the
moment
before
ts
supposed
consecration,
the
halting
of
its movement. The
time
of "Un
Coup
de des" is
thefutur
anterieur,
f
incomplete,
deferred
action. The Mime
of
"Mimique,"
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BONNIE
J.
SAAC
"ici
devanjant,
la
rem6morant,
au
futur,
au
passe,
sous
une
apparencefausse
e
present
..
installe,
insi,
un
milieu,
pur,
de
fiction"
(OC,
310):
"rien n'aura eu lieu
que
le
lieu,
excepte peut-etre
une
constellation."
But
the constellation
oes
not "take
place"
any
more
than
does
the
"place":
never
formed,
always
in
motion,
it
participates
n
entropy
while
restraining
ts
movement,
ike
music,
like
language,
like the
movement
of
atoms,
"turbulences,"
"tourbillons,"
n Michel Serres.
Jean Hyppolite
inks Un
Coup
de d6s"
with nformation
heory,
entropy,
and
Maxwell's
Demon.17
For
Hyppolite,
"Un
Coup
de
des," by replacingchance withnecessity, onfirms, y questioning
the conditions
of
possibility
f the
message
itself,
hat he
"content"
of
the
message
is
its "form."
Information
s characterized
by
an
almost
mpossible
miracle,
which
emerges
only
to almost
nevitably
disappear.
Yet it is
opposed
to
entropy:
the
general
system
may
tend
toward
equilibrium,
but
local
singularities
what
Serres
calls
turbulences)
produce
order
out
of
disorder.
The
increase
of
entropy
is
for an
instant
avoided;
the
unpredictable
(Serres'
"meteorological") replaces the monotony of irreversibility.
Maxwell's
Demon
is
the
personification
f
attempts
o retard
that
flow:
his
calculations,
like those
of
Mallarme's
"aieul,"
would
extract
maximum
information
from
the
probable,
pure
chance,
disorder
and
repetition.
Typography
would also
for
Hyppolite
confirm
those
calculations,
"modelling"
information,
ffording
form
in
regularity,
originality
within
the
unpredictable,
distinguishable
from
background
noise,
chance,
the
dissipation
of
any message.
The
message
would
thus for
Hyppolite
abolish
chance,
becoming
a sort of
necessity.
The constellationwould
exhibit
his
tendency
oward
the
static,
he constitution
f
meaning
through
the
risk of
tracing
a
message
which is a
message
only.
Neither
triumphant
logos
nor extreme
finality,
the
message
revolves
ike
the
stars,
revolu
aussit6t
uejet6."18
While
Hyppolite
senses
the
movement
to which
I
have
pointed
at
the end
of
"Un
Coup
de
des,"
like
Deleuze,
like
Cohn,
he maintains
polarities-
chance and
necessity,
nformation
nd
entropy.
The
Master,
ike
Maxwell's Demon, sortsdisorder to obtain the greatestpossible
amount
of
information,
producing,
through
Number,
the con-
17
ean
Hyppolite,
"Le
Coup
de
des
de
Stephane
Mallarme
et
le
message,"
Etudes
philosophiques,
(1958),
463-68.
18
Hyppolite, p.
468.
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837
stellation:
"Toute
pens6e
emet
un
coup
de
d6s,"
but
stability
s
emphasized
over
movement,
an
interpretation
we have
seen
opposed byfigures s diverse as Blanchot,Derrida and Serres.
Serres sees
the
attempt
o
gain greater
and
greater
quantities
of
information,
o make more and more
exact
measurements,
s
an
indication
of
potential
transcendence n a scientific
iscourse: the
universe
that
can
be measured can be
mastered
NP,
173)
through
Number,
a constellation.
But,
as Serres
points
out,
exactitude
is
paid
for-"anciens
calculs"-in
an
infinite
quantity
of
negen-
tropy;
the
"money"
of
knowledge
is obtained
only
at the
expense
of an
infinite mount
of
futuretime
n
which
to
acquit
one's debt.
Thus masterycan
produce
bankruptcy
D, 33-36), and we are
"hurled,
precipitated"
to that future anterior
where
nothing
is
accomplished,
all is
deferred,
where
entropy
s halted
but
where
movement s incessant:
the
time-space
f the
"lieu,"
of the
Number,
of
the
"tourbillon,"
f the
Constellation.
Maxwell's
Demon
is
the
fiction
y
which
the Second
Principle
f
thermodynamics
ails;
he
is
the sorter
producing
the
spatial
deviation
that
is the condition
of
possibility
f
order, differentiation,
nformation
D, 48,
55):
that
whichdifferssdeferred, ntroducing eversibilitynirreversibility.
His order is not
static
necessity,
but
participates
n
the
kind of
movement that characterizes
chance
itself.
As
negentropy
increases,
one
discovers that
rich,
exceptional
situation
that was
capable
of
producing
a constellation:
celle ou se trouve
e
D6mon
de Maxwell a
la
fin
de
son oeuvre
de
selection
et de tri"
D,
56).
But Maxwell's
Demon
implies
a
desire
fororder:
the
tendency
n
science is
to
master,
measure
laws
of nature.
But,
Serres
suggests,
science
should view the
acquiring
of information
s a
game
rather
than
as a combat.
t is a
game
with
dversaries,
rules,
ordered
play;
the
player
must
make a choice
or decision
from
a
multiplicity
f
possibilities.
But
if
science
were less
concerned
with
absolute
mastery,
t
would
have
open
to it the movement
of the
aleatory,
f
risk,
but
of
possible
gain.
Serres
suggests
a
new
displacement
of
science,
which also
implies
a redefinition
of
communication,
whereby
one
can nevertheless
sort,
read,
know,
form
relations
(D,
223).
Mallarme, in "Un Coup de d6s," may well have, rather than
failed,
simply
renounced the
kind of
mastery
that
necessity,
appropriation,
measurement
implies.
But
renunciation
or
displacement
of
mastery
does
not
imply
the renunciation
of the
forming
of
relationships,
of
information,
f communication.
n
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BONNIE
J.
SAAC
"La
Musique
et
les
lettres,"
nd
elsewhere,
Mallarme
introduces
the categories of "game" or "fiction"to displace any potential
moment
of
final
unity,
of
transcendent
synthesis.
He
points
to
the
"supercherie"
of an "attirance
uperieure
comme
d'un
vide,"
of
"quelque
6elvation
d6fendue et
de foudre
le
conscient
manque
chez nous
de ce
qui
la-haut
6clate"
(OC,
647).
One
can
play
the
game
with all
seriousness,
but the "final
move" never
takes
place,
or
rather is
displaced by
"un tour
de
trop,"
or
"de
trope,"
by
a
constant
movement f
textuality
tself.
A
quoi
sert
ela?",
Mallarm6
asks
in
the same above-cited
passage:
of what
use is the
potential
for transcendence?"A un
jeu,"
he answers: the dice-throw hat
thought
emits,
du
fond
d'un
naufrage."
University
f California,
erkeley