Derrida Page #3

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- [ Man ] Ask your question.

Don't you think it fulfills an

ideological function speaking to us...

telling us, in a sense, we should

not repent, not ask for forgiveness...

because then we ruin

pure, unconditional forgiveness.

At the same time, you are telling

oppressed people...

they should forgive

without expecting repentance.

[ Derrida ] Uh, first of all,

I take irony seriously.

I take the problem of irony

very seriously.

And we need some irony,

that is something...

which challenges

the commonsensical concepts.

And you can't do this

without some irony.

So there was no doubt

some irony.

Now, of course, in this context...

I understand your concern

and I share your concern.

I want to precisely draw

a very rigorous border...

between the pure concept

of forgiveness...

and the idea

of reconciliation...

and the idea of excuse

and the process which is going on.

I think that as soon as you mix

the concept of forgiveness...

with all the connected concepts which

are at work in this current process--

that is reconciliation,

repentance, so on and so forth--

then first you obscurely

Christianize the process.

You introduce confusion

and obscurity...

in something which has to

be as clear as possible.

[ Derrida In French ]

[ Man ]

Okay. Five seconds to go.

Five, four, three, two, one.

In your own time.

If I give you an example

I've often thought to myself...

that Seinfeld, which is America's

most popular ever sitcom.

Seinfeld. Do you know

of the Seinfeld sitcom in America?

If you think of

a classic American...

Jerry Seinfeld

made this sitcom...

about a group of people

living together.

Everything is about

irony and parody...

and what you do

with your kitchen cupboard...

is imbued with as much

feeling or thought...

as whether someone

believes in God, if you like.

Do you see anything in that?

Deconstruction, the way I understand it,

doesn't produce any sitcom.

And if a sitcom is this

and this...

and the people who watch this

think that deconstruction is this...

the only advice I have

to give them is just read...

stop watching sitcoms and try

and do your homework and read.

[ Chattering ]

[ Woman ]

It's not easy to improvise.

It's the most difficult

thing to do.

Even when one improvises in front

of a camera or a microphone...

one ventriloquizes or leaves

another to speak in one's place...

the schemas and languages

that are already there.

There are already a great number

of prescriptions...

that are prescribed in our memory

and in our culture.

All the names

are already preprogrammed.

It's already the names that inhibit

our ability to ever really improvise.

One can't say

whatever one wants.

One is obliged, more or less, to

reproduce the stereotypical discourse.

And so I believe

in improvisation.

And I fight for improvisation.

But always with the belief

that it's impossible.

And there, where there is

improvisation...

I am not able to see myself.

I am blind to myself...

and it's what I will see--

no, I won't see it--

it's for others to see.

The one who

is improvised here...

no, I won't ever see him.

[ Derrida, In French ]

[ Clattering, Rustling ]

[ Woman, In French ]

[ Derrida ]

[ Woman ]

[ Speaking French ]

Ah. There was a time--

No, I never read this.

[ In English ]

[ In French ]

- You recognize this, eh?

- Yes, I do.

-So, she has slept here, huh?

- That's nice.

[ Man ] If you had a choice,

what philosopher...

would you have liked

to have been your mother?

That's his style?

That's his own style?

- [ Clears Throat ]

- [ Sea Gulls Crying ]

I have no ready answer for this,

let me-- Give me some time.

My mother?

[ Chuckling ]

A good question.

It's a good question.

In fact.

It's an interesting question.

I'll try to tell you why.

It's impossible for me to have

any philosopher as a mother.

That's the problem, hmm?

My mother--

My mother...

couldn'tbe a philosopher.

[ In French ]

[ Woman ]

That philosophy died yesterday...

since Hegel or Marx,

Nietzsche or Heidegger--

and that philosophy should still wander

toward the meaning of its death--

or that it has always lived

knowing itself to be dying,:

that philosophy died one day,

within history...

or that it has always fed

on its own agony...

on the violent way

it opens history...

by opposing itself

to non-philosophy...

which is its past

and its concern...

its death and wellspring,:

and that, beyond the death

or dying nature of philosophy...

perhaps even because of it...

thought still has a future.

Or even as is said today...

is still entirely to come because of

what philosophy has held in store,:

or, more strangely still...

that the future itself

has a future.

All these are

unanswerable questions.

By right ofbirth,

and for one time at least...

these are problems

put to philosophy...

as problems philosophy

cannot resolve.

Long ago, I had dinner...

and his mother,

when she was alive, was there.

And one of the great dictionaries

in France had just come out...

and included, uh--

I don't know if it was

the Petit Robert, or something--

included ''difference'' with an ''A''

and that it happened that day.

And at dinner I said that we should

have a party to celebrate...

the induction of

''difference'' with an ''A''...

into the dictionary.

This was a monumental,

encyclopedic event...

that ought to be marked,

and a proper ceremony--

which I was very willing

to arrange-- should take place.

And Jacques's mother,

who is very ancient but noble...

she said, ''Jackie, did you spell

''difference'' with an ''A''?

And she was mortified.

But it was so sweet.

It was so fabulous, and there was

this moment where I also felt...

I had, um, blabbed...

because, you know...

now what's he supposed to do:

explain to his mother, or--

He doesn't--

He's very modest.

He doesn't talk about himself

to his family--

I mean,

his relative's family.

[ In French ]

[ Interviewer]

[ Camerawoman ]

[ Interviewer]

[ Camerawoman ]

[ Interviewer]

[ Camerawoman ]

[ Applause ]

[ Derrida ] You can imagine

how strange it is...

to have someone gather

your so-called archive...

but to attend the event

of the inauguration of the archive--

I realized the other day,

and this afternoon...

by looking at the archive,

in the library...

with these...

uh, gray--

- black and gray urns, uh...

- [ Laughing ]

accumulated, like,

of course in a graveyard...

and, uh, already mourning--

We are already--

always already mourning.

Well, you know, among

the concerns we have...

about where are

we going to be buried...

- [ Laughing ]

- the question is, ''With whom?''

This is the entire

Derrida archive...

beginning there, and, um...

almost to the end, and

there's about a hundred boxes.

[ Yeghiayan ] But he mentioned that,

you know, that his wife was...

kind of reluctant to see

these materials go.

That he was kind of foretelling

of his imminent death...

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