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."