H. C. for Life, That Is to Say...

Derrida's approach to life was not at all pessimistic, he thought. Quite simply, it ended in death and that was all there was to it. He was just being realistic and logical. To his lifelong friend Helene Cixous, however, life was life, and she was for it. The debate continued for decades, largely because Derrida could not seem to let it go, and he relished the opportunity to "take sides," and support hers as an exercise in multiple, perhaps unrelated or conflicting, They sought what death had to say about life, and what death had in store for life. This edition includes the correspondence and marginal notes, and translator's notes, including a fascinating passage about Derrida's taking on various types of foresight. Taking sides was not an artifice or an act of revenge to Derrida; it was a part of his logic and economy, even when debating one of the people he most respected in life. Annotation c2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)