Remy de Gourmont, “Nietzsche and Love” (1904/13)

Draft translation. “Nietzsche et l’amour,” Promenades littéraires, second ed. (Paris: Mercure de France, 1922) pp. 89–95, dated 1904. Gourmont critiques the shallowness and meanness of Nietzsche’s view of women; though his own perspective could by no means be called feminist. Rather, the text expresses a certain psycho-sexual attitude I like to think of as “Gourmontism” (by analogy with Sadism, Masochism, Retifism, etc.): that is, sexual attraction to intelligent women.

PDF of this translation at academia.edu.

 

Nietzsche had little experience of love. One might even say that he never had more than friendly relations with a woman. He wrote on love and on woman nonetheless, like every good philosopher. One day, at Sorrento, he confided Malwida von Meysenbug with a handwritten notebook containing the aphorisms on woman later published in the first part of Human, All-too-human. Malwida took the notebook, read it, and returned it to Nietzsche, smiling. He demanded an explanation for the smile. “Do not publish this,” said Mrs. von Meysenbug. Nietzsche seemed ruffled. He added the notebook to the rest of the manuscript and sent the lot to his publisher.

Remy de Gourmont, “Nietzsche on the Mountain” (1902/13)

Draft translation. “Nietzsche sur le montagne,” Promenades philosophiques, tenth ed. (Paris: Mercure de France, 1913), pp. 176–7, dated 1902. Gourmont was far- and deep-sighted to have seen, already in 1902, the extent to which Nietzsche would determine the twentieth century.

PDF at academia.edu.

 

The last century, if one admit this slice of time, began with the literary Catholicism of Chateaubriand; it ends with the mystic Protestantism of Tolstoy. This was a placidly religious century; wise like a wise child, it never slipped its hand from the hand of its grandmother, Religion. This dame, truth be told, old, tired, but always the coquette, very often changed her costume and jewellery. She was Romantic, philosophical, humanitarian, socialist, nationalist, bellicose or pacific, ironical or lachrymose, moralistic, mystic or sensual, and even literary, and even scientific—and even arty: under all her hats and all her wigs, her eyeshadow and her blusher, she remained the same; and her grip did not ease for a second from the bruised wrist of the little child, even grown into a sad old man.

“Tribune des Militaires” from Active Servicemen

Much of the significance of the initial “generals’ letter” or “tribune des militaires” depended on the relation, or lack of it, of retired officers’ sentiments to active servicemen’s intentions. But Valeurs actuelles have just this evening (9 May 2021) published a text that the editors describe, in their prefatory note, as coming from active servicemen. An English translation follows.

For some days a rumour has been circulating that a new tribune des militaires would be unveiled. Coming from active servicemen, it offered support to that previously published on the site of Valeurs actuelles. [English translation here.] This evening we have decided to publish this text, which has already circulated a good deal, and which was echoed in the media. And also to open it, below the article, to the signatures of French citizens who judge it to be up to the challenges that face us. All the while continuing, with a rigorous methodology, to put ourselves at the disposal of the professionals of the armed forces who desire to take part. Like its predecessor, the purpose of this article is not to damage our institutions, but to warn of the gravity of the situation.

The Response to Le Pen's Response

The following is a response, written I would guess by Jean-Pierre Fabre-Bernadac, to Marine Le Pen’s response (in English here) to the “Generals’ letter” (in English here). As blatant as Le Pen’s electoral preoccupation was in her letter, this response may seem harsh. But the redactors and signatories of the initial letter are clearly eager that their project not become too closely associated in the public mind with any particular political force.

We were surprised to read Marine Le Pen’s open letter in Valeurs actuelles, a letter written following the article “‘Pour un retour de l’honneur de nos gouvernants’: 20 généraux appellent Macron à défendre le patriotisme.” It seemed important to us to make a clarification and two remarks in reference to the words of the President of the Rassemblement National.

Marine Le Pen's Response to the "Generals' Letter"

Marine Le Pen’s response to “the Generals’ letter,” Valeurs actuelles (23 April). English translation of the initial letter available here. The republication of the letter in V.A. on 21 April seems to have been largely responsible for the scandal: it had been up on Place d’armes for a week by then, but to less effect. “The Generals” were to respond to Le Pen on 24 April.

Representatives of every army and every specialism, you have signed an open letter, “For a Return to Honour for Our Leaders.”

Your initiative, rare in the military machine, testifies to the degree of disquiet that you feel faced with the worrying deterioration of our country’s situation. The observations that you present, uncompromising but fair, and the strength of the terms you use amount to a public intervention that, given your status as signatories, nobody can ignore.

The "Generals' Letter"

The “Tribune des Militaires” has got a little attention in the English-language press. The papers began to cover it a little on Monday and Tuesday; but Philippe-Emmanuel Gobry did as much as anyone else to get the word out. The following open letter was drafted by Captain Jean-Pierre Fabre-Bernadac, officer (retired) of both the Territorial Army and the Gendarmerie, and has been signed by over twenty generals and over a thousand soldiers of every rank. It was first published on a site called Place d’armes (14 April), and seemed to receive relatively little attention. Then Valeurs actuelles republished it (21 April); Marine Le Pen responded to it (23 April; I will translate and post her response presently); and then people, including the Minister for the Armed Forces, took note.

Durrell, Geopolitics, Idealizing the Beloved

1. A paragraph on Durrell from Robert Steuckers, “Pour donner des fondements philosophiques à la ‘N.D.,’” c.5, Vouloir, 146–8 (Autumn 1999), translated by me:

Lawrence Durrell, born in India, living in the eastern basin of the Mediterranean, his great homeland of choice, sings the Greek and Cypriot landscapes, sketches ironical and comical rustics who are true men of flesh and blood, develops an almost Joycean vision of the real formed of superimposed strata communicating vaguely amongst one another and implying the extreme relativity of all facts of the matter: for there is simultaneously imbrication and juxtaposition, general mixture and hermetic contingency, so that each phenomenon is unique in itself, the product of a fusion or of an unparalleled originality; no schematic thought can succeed in grasping the essence of all these phenomena; no dry and prescriptive morality can succeed in taming them, submitting them, choking their influence. They escape the classifications of the schematisers. Ultimately, for Durrell, as for [D. H.] Lawrence and his friend [Henry] Miller, sexual experiences are veritable initiations into earthly pleasures.