rhetoric by Francis Ponge


"I assume we are

talking about saving

a few young men

from suicide. I

have in mind those

who commit suicide

out of disgust,

because they find

that others own too

large a share of

them.    To them

one should say: at

least let the

minority within you

have the right to

speak. Be poets.

They will answer:

but it is especially

there, it is always

there that I feel

others within me;

when I try to

express myself, I am

unable to do so.

Words are

readymade and express

themselves: they do

not express me.   Once

again I find myself

suffocating. At that

moment, teaching

the art of resisting

words becomes useful,

the art of saying only

what one wants to

say, the art of doing

them violence, of

forcing them to

submit. In short...

Found a rhetoric, or

rather, teach

everyone the art of

founding his own

rhetoric. This saves

those few, those

rare individuals who

must be saved: those

who are aware, and

who are troubled and

disgusted by the others

within them. Those

individuals who make

the mind progress,

and who are, strictly

speaking, capable

of changing the

reality of things."

glooooooooooom

looooooooooooom

blooooooooooom