For Sure (19 page)

A tireless worker, Freud recorded his thoughts and theories right up until the end. A year before his death, he began to write
An
Outline of Psycho-Analysis
, a kind of scientific testament in which he did not hesitate once again to put into question fundamental concepts, in particular that of the ego. In this text, he also suggested the possibility that in the future, chemical substances capable of altering the brain's balance would render psychoanalytic treatment obsolete.

The next day, Étienne's behaviour on the movie set changed.

“What's that kid doing? He's always showing up in the background!”

Étienne's new activity consisted in cutting across the camera's field of vision disguised sometimes as Zorro, sometimes as a Ninja Turtle, and sometimes as Astérix the Gaul. It took the film crew a while before they realized that Étienne had come up with his own script and that his walk-ons were telling a parallel story.

“OK, never mind. Just let him do whatever he wants.”

At the moment the human infant discovers his or her “being” in the mirror, he or she also discovers, as in a negative, the Other. But how to tell from a likeness what is real, imaginary or symbolic? Any number of variables multiply the possibilities for error, as much in regard to one's self as to the other. Which demonstrates to what extent misunderstanding, not to say misreading, is woven into the fabric of our lives. Lacan, a freewheeling interpretation.

When Élizabeth came by to pick up the books she'd ordered, and to return
La Bibliothèque idéale
to Didot Books, she asked Terry to whom she could talk about renting — maybe buying? — a loft.

“I don't tink der's anyting fer sale right now, but yer best to talk to Zed. He's de fellow wot manages de building. I'll give you his number.”

Terry wrote Zed's name and number on the back of the bookstore's business bookmark.

“Nobody's sold since we opened up, must be near four years now? Has happened doh dat somebody was wantin' to sublet. Every once in a while, folks wants to get away fer a bit.”

Terry turned back to the books Élizabeth had ordered:

“I read dis one here de udder day. Liked it fine. Ordered a few extra copies an' sold two already. It's a whole lot easier to sell a book you've read dan one you 'aven't. Although der's books I've read I can't go recommendin'. Dose times I just keeps me trap shut. I'm not obliged to say I didn't care fer it, eh?

Élizabeth had not expected her opinion to be solicited.

“No, I don't see why you would.”

“Dat's what I tot meself.”

Terry placed the books and the receipt in a bag, and handed it to the customer:

“Tanks, Élizabeth. You have a nice day, now.”

Terry always remembered the names of customers who ordered books, probably because he had to write them down. But Élizabeth was surprised to hear her name, pleasantly surprised.

“Thank you.”

Looking more closely at the titles listed in
La Bibliothèque idéale
that begin with the letter
c
, we discover that the most often used words are those that refer to literary genres of one sort or another. For example, approximately 20 titles begin respectively with the word
conte
(tale) or
correspondence.
Six to nine each begin with
confessions
,
chant
(song),
cahier
(notebook) and
chronique
(chronicle). Hence, the role of
c
as an agent of transmission of the French language cannot be ignored, particularly as regards the written language.

“Makin' it up? An' why pray tell would she be makin' it up? De Rolling Stones did give der concert on de same hill dat de pope held mass, now didn't dey? Mick Jagger an' de pope, fer chris' sake! Who'd make up a ting like dat? OK, Salmon Rushdie, maybe. But dat's about it.”

. . .

. . .

“Is dat yer own personal sympathy fer de devil moment, den?

Lacan boldy created equations, formulas, graphs, along with topological and mathematical models to explain psychoanalytical research and knowledge. His celebrated Borromean Knot — a term he borrowed from the Italian Borromeo family, whose crest consists of three intertwined rings — refers to the Real, the Symbolic and the Imaginary, intertwined such that if any one of the rings is cut, the other two are freed. Another Lacanian figure, the symptom — he adopts the ancient spelling of the word,
sinthome
, which implies “
saint homme
” or ‘saintly man' — is represented by a fourth ring, which links the other three.

When Carmen picked up the kids that day, the film director broke off her conversation with the cameraman to come over and greet Carmen personally.

“Your boy
muy
intelligence
.”

Carmen understood the Spanish word and accepted the compliment on behalf of her son and herself.

“The petite also very cute.”

Carmen accepted the compliment for her daughter, and for herself, and for Terry as well after all, but she was wondering exactly from what camera angle the director had been eyeing Étienne and Marianne that day.

“
So we'll see you all tomorrow then?
” the director said in English.

Carmen couldn't think why — though she tried not to be annoyed by it — the director would address them in English.

Numerals, it should be noted in passing, are characters that represent numbers. There are therefore very few numerals, but numbers are varied and infinite.

The mood was upbeat on the drive home.

“An' were you dressed up like that all day long, Étienne?”

Carmen eyed her little Zorro in the rear-view mirror.

“Not de whole day.”

When Carmen tried to adjust the mirror to admire Marianne's curls, which the assistant on the set had embellished with tiny coloured pearls, the metal joint squealed and the rear-view mirror came crashing down onto the dash, which the children greeted with gales of laughter.

Freud could not imagine carrying out his psychoanalytical work without smoking a cigar. Also, during the last 15 years of his life, he suffered from cancer of the jaw. When it became clear that the pain would not end, he succumbed to an overdose of morphine administered at his request by a friend, according to an agreement they had struck years earlier. The week before, feeble and confined to his bed, Freud read a last book, Balzac's
The Magic Skin
. Sigmund Freud died on September 23, 1939, in London where, at his friends and relatives insistence, he had taken refuge from Hitler's regime. He had been born of Jewish parents in Freiberg on May 6, 1856.

At the supper table, Étienne hazarded a question:

“Dad, 'r we poor?”

Terry felt suddenly flushed. Was the boy's question somehow related to their conversation the day before about his participation in the movie and the money it would earn them?

“Naw, wot makes you tink dat?”

With his fingers, Étienne placed a slice of carrot on the bed of mashed potatoes he had created on his fork.

“On account of our car's so old.”

Phew! Terry's cheerful mood returned.

“Lots o' folks have got an old car, doesn't necessarily mean dey's poor. You've only got to tink of Uncle Alcide.”

Seeing that Étienne wasn't convinced, he added:

“Dat's just normal: we buys a car, we runs it 'till it's old, and den we buys a new one.”

Étienne rejoiced at the thought that one day they'd get a brand new car, but Terry wasn't done yet.

“Well now, don't go tinkin' we's about to buy a brand-new one. We could just as well go an' buy a car wot's only half new.”

This clarification did not dampen Étienne's enthusiasm; he proceded to decorate another forkful of mashed potatoes, this time with five peas arranged in a quincunx. As he savoured this mouthful, Étienne's spirit drifted in a new direction.

“Could we go to de
circus
some time,
Dad
?”

Terry and Carmen glanced at each other. Étienne had used the English words
circus
and
Dad
!

“Where dey gots dem
bumper cars
dat crash all together an'
swings
dat turn super fast?”

Terry barely recognized his son in this travesty of language and bravado, but he restrained himself, and played the innocent:

“An' how is it yer callin' me
Dad
in English all of a sudden?”

Étienne shrugged:

“Lots of folks says dat . . .”

According to Lacan, the idea of the father is a metaphor in the crucible of which incubates the desire of the mother. His “Name-of-the-Father” has become one of the fundamental concepts of psychoanalysis. In a late seminar, he stated, “
les Non-dupes errent”
by which he meant that, because we are all erring subjects of language, one must (strive to) to become the dupe of a discourse in order to avoid psychosis.

Without realizing it, Étienne had blown on the smoldering embers.

“When comes to the point that Étienne can see the difference . . .”

. . .

“Anyway, far as I'm concerned, it's decided. No use in waiting ‘til she falls to pieces.”

Carmen wasn't wrong. Terry could see the day when they would have to buy a new car, but he'd hoped they could wait a year or two.

“I tinks we might find a pretty good used one. Eh? No need fer it to be spankin' brand new?”

“Only you never know what yer in fer with a used one, do you. We could land up with a shocking heap of misery.”

Terry had expected Carmen to feel that way. He gathered up all the patience and tenderness of which he was capable:

“I'm tinkin' we can find a good used one. Der's folks dat knows cars, dey can tell how hard or not a car's been run.”

Carmen did not want to be stubborn. The week had begun smoothly and she wanted things to keep on that way. Better to choose one's battles. On the other hand, Terry was far from certain he could absolutely prove his claim.

“Anyway, let's be tinkin' on it. 'Tain't sometin' we gotta decide tonight, now is it?

“I can think on it, sure, but I'd be mighty surprised if I change me mind . . .”

In her novel
1953: Chronicle of a Birth Foretold
, the Acadian author France Daigle makes no mention of the first printing that year of the French translation of Kafka's
Letter to His Father
. It was published in the April, May, and June issues of the
Nouvelle Revue française
(
NRF
), whose first issue had appeared only several months earlier in January 1953. All indications are that Franz's letter to Hermann Kafka was never delivered to its intended reader.

“Hihihi . . . !”

Marianne was laughing because Terry had just told Étienne he had two left feet.

“You finds dat funny, do you, two left feet?”

Marianne burst into another crescendo of laughter. Étienne, who smiled to see his sister so gleeful, jumped in:

“Two left feet, ten toes of mincemeat, one big head of concrete . . .”

“Hihihi . . . !”

“Alright den, dat's enough. Toto Sombrero's not gonna wait all day fer de likes of tree turtles like us, now is ee.”

“Marianne Turtle, Étienne Turtle, Terry Turtle, Grandad Turtle, Granny Girdle . . .”

“Hihihi . . . !”

There is no apparent link between the numerals 1,728 (12
3
) and 2,401 (49
2
), other than that the former represents the structure of a novel and the second the structure of
La Bibliothèque idéale
.

“Do dese 'ere bottles cost a whole lot of money?”

Terry posed the question while pretending to look for a shirt in the closet, trying for a look of cool detachment. He certainly did not want to look like he was checking on how Carmen spent her money.

“A lot o' money? Ha! More like an arm an' a leg!”

“Is dat more'n payin' troo de nose?”

“More, maybe.”

Carmen's answer reassured Terry, because it opened the door to conciliation rather than confrontation.

“Well den, dat is expensive fer sure. I suppose a body could take it up as a hobby, like . . .”

Carmen found the idea comical, she'd never thought of her facial and skin care as a hobby. Terry explained himself:

“Dat's de way of hobbies, doh, isn't it? Makes you feel good, gives yer brain a bit of a rest, and always ends up costing a whole lot more'n you tot 'twould. Wedder it's golf, electric trains, paintin', bird watchin', even sewin', I figures . . .”

Carmen, for her part, saw it more as a necessity. But she had no intention of making a big deal out of it.

“I suppose you could look at it like that, if it helps to swallow de cost.”