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ET PRESCRIT POUR L’ENSEIGNEMENT

  DE L’HISTOIRE MODERNE DANS LES COLLÈGES

  ET DANS TOUS LES ÉTABLISSEMENTS

  D’INSTRUCTION PUBLIQUE.

  HUITIÈME ÉDITION.

  ~~~

  P A R I S

  LIBRAIRIE CLASSIQUE ET ÉLÉMENTAIRE

  DE L . HACHETTE,

  LIBRAIRIE DE L’UNIVERSITÉ DE FRANCE,

  Rue Pierre-Sarrazin, 12.

  ~~~

  1850

  152.84.7

  History

  Regarding Petites difficultés d’existence, the second edition of the French version of the novel is preferable to the first, because the latter contains minor errors. Luckily, these errors do not actually affect the narrative itself, but they could confuse those who take pleasure in closer readings. Mention of the second printing is included in the publications page at the end of the book. If there is no mention of a second printing, you are in possession of the version containing errors. Those in possession of the English translation, entitled Life’s Little Difficulties, will be relieved to learn it does not contain the errors in the first edition of the French version.

  153.105.10

  Reserves/Reservations

  Elementary operation adding the numerals in the number 666, a number considered by some as satanic. Identical result when working from right to left, as in Arabic writing:

  6 + 6 + 6 =

  6 + 6 + 6 =

  (6 + 6) + 6 =

  6 + (6 + 6) =

  (12) + 6 =

  6 + (12) =

  (1 + 2) + 6 =

  6 + (1 + 2) =

  (3) + 6 = 9

  6 + (3) = 9

  154.97.1

  Numerals and Numbers

  Any attempt to elaborate a correct definition of desire will demonstrate to what extent people like Freud and Lacan were possessed of a kind of genius. Because there is no simple definition of desire. Similarly, the art and science of psychoanalysis is based on dense and intricate concepts, which are not easily rendered accessible to the layman. For the moment, let us limit ourselves to saying that desire is to psychoanalysis what strawberries are to strawberry pie.

  155.128.12

  Fervours

  The addition of the numerals making up the number 1,728, the multiple of 12 supposedly representing plenitude, yields a similar result to that obtained from the presumed satanic number 666:

  1 + 7 + 2 + 8 =

  1 + 7 + 2 + 8 =

  (1 + 7) + 2 + 8 =

  1+ 7 + (2 + 8) =

  [(8) + 2] + 8 =

  1 + 7 + (10) =

  10 + 8 =

  1 + 7 + (1 + 0) =

  (1 + 0) + 8 =

  1 + [7+ (1)] =

  1 + 8 = 9

  1 + 8 = 9

  156.97.2

  Numerals and Numbers

  By the beginning of the ’60s, the enormous success of the softcover cheaper format led French economists to add the paperback to their list of consumer products included in the calculation of the price index. At the same time a typically French polemic erupted around the paperback as “democratic and egalitarian illusion.” None other than Jean-Paul Sartre himself signed a text in Temps modernes responding to the article in Mercure de France that had sparked the debate. Notwithstanding these arguments, nothing seemed to slow the promised rise of the paperback, not to mention the benefits to reading, authors, and texts.

  157.19.4

  Interesting Details

  “You, yer a writer! Are you seein’ colours, den?”

  This had been going on for a while now. It turned out that all the residents of the lofts who were in the Babar at that moment saw the a as yellow and the i as red. All, that is, 9 of the 27 residents. At 4:30 p.m. in the afternoon, on a Thursday.

  158.6.6

  The Babar

  A scattered novel, then. Serenity being, after all, something that must be earned.

  159.12.3

  Structure

  Élizabeth is strolling in the streets of Moncton: Highfield, Winter, Portledge, North, not necessarily in that order, because all this happened some time ago. The trees along those streets are more damaged than they were back then, but they still manage to form an impressive canopy. Élizabeth is on her way to or from the hospital. She lives at the end of one of these streets. Still lives there today. Just a little bit in retreat. Élizabeth is always in retreat. Her life, her work, her thoughts. In retreat, and yet, not.

  160.54.4

  Forgotten/Recalled

  Additional results of the small impromptu survey on the perception of colours in vowels: all but 6 of the participants used loose leaf three-holed paper; 63 of these sheets were lined and bore the Hilroy insignia in the lower right-hand corner; three respondents tore loose leaf sheets from their three-ringed binders, thus tearing the holes. As for the others, 3 tore a sheet from spiral notebooks, and 1 participant used a sheet of paper that was not white, pink as a matter of fact. Also, 50 respondents used blue ink ballpoint or felt pens; 31 used pencils; 10 used black ink ballpoint or felt pens; 4 combined blue ink and grey pencil; 3 used purple ink; 2 used red ink; 1 used green, and the last made his or her mark by combining red and black ink.

  161.3.8

  Statistics

  Terry and Zed had made an appointment with a Halifax architectural firm to discuss their project and to explore the possibilities. On their way they dropped a few coins in a beggar’s cap. In return the man smiled his thanks, revealing no less than a half dozen golden fillings.

  “Well, ’tis nice to ’ave a bit of sometin’ put away, like dey say.”

  162.63.12

  Terry and Zed

  Boredom conceals anger and anxiety. Superstition is the anticipation of difficulties due to the projection of hostile desires. Happiness does not exist except as the realization of a childhood desire. Religion is the childhood feeling of impotence carried into adulthood and projected into culture. Paranoia is evidence of homosexuality. Groups, crowds, gangs, and families are held together by diffuse libidinal ties; disintegration and panic ensue when the erotic relation is extinguished. All dependencies are a substitute for the primary habit, masturbation. The arts are a cultural narcotic without the disadvantages that other drugs produce over time. Adult scientific curiosity is the extension of the child’s search for the truth about sexual differences and the mysteries of conception and birth. Aesthetic creations, making love, war, laws, and constitutions are all means of mastering the universe, or a way to disguise the inability to master it. Fiction offers the human being a diversity of lives we require to live. Neurosis is an individual religion, religion a universal neurosis. The true founder of civization is the man who thrust an insult at his enemy instead of a sword. Human beings are not meant to be happy, their happiness is not part of creation’s plan.

  163.39.5

  Freud Circuitously

  “Dey went an’ bought all dis stuff, den in de end dey’s worse off dan when dey started. Turned out, de feller dat sold it to ’em was crookeder den a dog’s hind leg, even doh dey’d known him fer a dog’s age, what ’appens a whole lot in dat business, supposedly. A real racket, or dat’s wot dey say.”

  164.15.1

  Unidentified Monologues

  In 1972, the publisher Gallimard created Folio paperbacks. L’Étranger (The Stranger) by Al
bert Camus became Folio’s bestseller with 6 million copies sold. Hachette, meanwhile, can boast sales of 300,000 copies of novels by Mary Higgins Clark and Bernard Werber in paperback.

  165.19.8

  Interesting Details

  “Dad, did you see? Dat man over der trowed ’is coffee cup on de ground.”

  As a matter of fact, Terry could see the Tim Hortons cup rolling in a half circle on the pavement.

  “Should I be goin’ over der, Dad, an’ tell ’im to pick it up?”

  Terry thought his son was brave, though he wasn’t sure this was a healthy quality in this case.

  “Up to you . . .”

  Étienne marched right over.

  “Sir, yer coffee cup fell on de ground.”

  The paunchy worker, looking down at the small boy, made as though he hadn’t understood.

  “Eh? Wot’s dat?”

  “Yer cup fell on de ground back over der.”

  “Well, no matter, she’s empty.”

  “How come den, you didn’t trow her in de trashcan?”

  “In de wot?”

  “De trashcan . . .”

  Étienne had used the proper French word, poubelle. Now he pointed to the trashcan to be sure the man had understood him.

  “Awh! De dung bin.”

  . . .

  “Awright den, b’y. You go on over an’ fetch her, an’ I’ll trow her in dis ’ere bin.”

  “Awright.”

  The worker waited for Étienne to bring him the cup, and then threw it in the trashcan.

  “Der ya go! Are you proud of yerself now?”

  Étienne looked up at the man and nodded. As the kid didn’t seem to want to go.

  “Well, an’ wot’s de problem now?”

  “Nuttin’.”

  “So, is it awright by you, den, if I gets back to work now?

  Étienne nodded.”

  “G’day.”

  “G’day.”

  166.130.3

  Work

  Fourth coincidence: the day of the small impromptu survey on the perceived colour of vowels, there were a total of 102 students in four groups who agreed to participate. There could easily have been more or fewer. Now consider that the 102 is exactly the number of letters in a game of Scrabble, both in the French and English versions. Is it possible to ignore the link between the two blank letters in the game and the two participants who associated no colour with the letter a?

  167.17.4

  Chance

  Carmen’s position on the subject of language is not particularly easy to bear, least of all for her. As much as she would like her children to learn proper French, there are times when she can’t help but smile at some particularly pretty Chiac phrase. But this is not, alas, always the case. More often than not, she feels the Chiac is a kind of laziness, a lack of curiosity, pride, or logic, especially when the proper French term is common knowledge and easy to integrate into everyday speech. In the Babar, for example, she’d like her employees to speak a slightly more elevated French naturally, without abandoning Chiac entirely. She has not yet found a way to raise the issue with them; she worries she might be judged or isolated simply by raising such a sensitive subject.

  168.20.2

  Language

  At the beginning of the fifteenth century, when a thirst for knowledge spawned a demand for written works, an attempt was made to accelerate the production of books by engraving each page in wood and then printing copies. This process was unsatisfactory because of the problems arising from the use of wood.

  169.10.6

  Typography

  At some point, thinking it might be useful, one of the customers in the Babar began tearing out the article about the survey on the colour of vowels.

  “Hey, wot are ye at?”

  The guilty party knew he’d been caught red handed:

  “Well . . . I was tinkin’ I might keep jus’ de article . . .”

  170.6.7

  The Babar

  “Are you one of dose bright chuckleheads wot tears out de pages of magazines in de dentist’s waitin’ room? Oh me son!”

  It was Demiéville who introduced Lacan to the letter toward the end of the ’40s.

  171.35.9

  The Detail within the Detail

  “How’s it dey go on parkin’ der? Don’t dey see der blockin’ everyone behind?”

  Terry looked out the window, even though he already knew what he would see.

  “As doh der wasn’t all dat room right beside . . .”

  Zed shook his head. Terry went to fetch another crate of books.

  “I bin tinkin’ on wot you said de udder day. More I tink on it, more it makes good sense.”

  But when he turned around, Zed realized that Terry was no longer there; he’d spoken to the wind.

  172.103.8

  Disappearances

  If there is a difficulty, perhaps it lies in the absence of guidelines, thus requiring each reader to figure out his or her own method to access the creative work, which simply proves that this really is a creative act rather than a tried and tested method. Does it make itself understood?

  173.12.4

  Structure

  Later that day, Terry thought he’d look up what status La Bibliothèque idéale accorded Freud. The august personality was of course included, and not just for one but for three books, which Terry found both reassuring and exciting. Birth of Psychoanalysis: Letters to Wilheim Fliess — most probably interesting, but Terry didn’t feel in the mood to tackle an epistolary work; The Future of an Illusion — Terry wasn’t, for the moment, particularly interested in tackling the world of religion, although he hesitated because of the notion of God as father; The Interpretation of Dreams4 therefore seemed the best choice, especially since the entry also referred to The Psychopathology of Everyday Life, one of the titles Ludmilla had mentioned. Terry added The Interpretation of Dreams to his order sheet, in three copies because, once he’d read a book, he generally found a few people to sell it to.

  174.8.10

  Didot Books

  Find out who Demiéville was and to what letter he initiated Lacan.

  175.68.5

  Projects

  Woke up with a start in the middle of the night, obsessed with the number of fragments. Got up, found a pencil and paper, drew the big cube in three dimensions, divided the surfaces into 12 by 12, counted the little cubes one by one. The problem arises with the edges of the big cube. Bizarre. Start again.

  177.104.5

  Worries

  “Well that’s normal. With age, the gums recede, and that exposes de roots.”

  Ludmilla winced.

  “This ’ere’s the worst of ’em, far as I can tell.”

  The dentist continued to explore the crowns of Ludmilla’s teeth with his hooked probe, pausing on another tooth that seemed to cause her some pain, and examining it from all angles.

  “This one ’ere, I might cover the base with this new product came in jus’ now. Wouldn’t cost you anyting, ’cause I never tried it yet, and don’t know for sure if it’ll do the job. S’posed to work, mind you, only sometimes what works for one body doesn’t work for another. You take laser, for example. One feller told me it changed his life, but then, for others, it’s like haulin’ water.”

  The dentist returned to the tooth with the most recession.

  “This one ’ere, I’ll ’ave to make a real filling, as though it was a cavity. That’s all a fellow can do when de root’s overexposed, on account of the gum’s receeded. But I won’t be goin’ down betwixt yer teeth. If the gum’s gone down ’tween this tooth and the two either side of it, most likely it will keep right on hurtin’.”

  Once the examination was over, Lud
milla could finally speak again.

  “Couldn’t you try laser on both teeth?”

  The dentist seemed reluctant. Ludmilla wanted him to say yes:

  “Allez, du courage!”

  The dentist smiled. Really, these French people . . .

  178.87.1

  The Body

  Twelve cubed then, 1,728 fragments, in groups of 12 first, then in sections of 144. But can one write a novel with so many numerals?

  179.12.5

  Structure

  While he was at it, Terry also searched to find out who Raymond Queneau was, and discovered that he too appeared three times in La Bibliothèque idéale. Odile, a novel about love; Exercises de style, a book of distortions and Zazie dans le métro, a novel intended to be comic but maybe not his funniest work, according to the description. Terry turned to his order sheet, pencilled in a three over the one in the quantities column beside Exercises de style.

  180.8.11

  Didot Books

  Lacan, Jacques-Marie — Paris, 1901–1981. Psychiatrist and psychoanalyst, son of Alfred, a mustard merchant descended from a line of vinegar producers in Orléans. Career as a researcher, i.e., solitary, in spite of the fellowship of other major psychoanalysts. Reader-interpreter of Freud. His influence was such that many psychoanalysts declared themselves Lacanians rather than Freudians. In response, Lacan declared himself Freudian. Flirted with symbolism, penetrated the mystery of language and desire, and the roots of being in speech.

  181.34.1

  Lacan

  The pronunciation of quante instead of quand for the French word for when is generalized in the Acadian language. Standard French only allows for such a pronunciation when quand is followed by a word beginning with a vowel or a silent h. As a matter of fact, there are many variations in terms relating to time in Acadian: