Not Half No End

For those wanting to discover or rediscover Jacques Derrida still alive and thinking after life, Geoffrey Bennington is the exemplary guide, a scholarly acrobat, at once grave and droll. Let us follow him. Along the way with fear and trembling, he reminds us that reading ekes out its living between possibilities and impossibilities from an opening onto 'no end'. Combining the strength of a rigorous pedagogy with the creative and extravagant powers of the poet-philosopher, Geoffrey Bennington is a bookworm of genius, actively inhabiting the entire Derridian archive. He has read everything, he hears and understands everything. Working from a double experience (his own and Derrida's), he reconstitutes the philosophical hero's adventure, from the age of 22 until his last days. Bennington knows Derrida's script by heart: played by Bennington, Derrida becomes the hero of a deeply moving philosophical epic. This admirable book with melancholy in its title is also the triumph of a never unfaithful freedom. -- Helene Cixous Geoffrey Bennington was Derrida's close friend, and is his distinguished translator, his collaborator (in their Jacques Derrida), and one of Derrida's most profound readers. He has an exemplary knowledge of all Derrida's work. One distinctive value and originality of the essays in this book is the way they show in detail how Derrida's "early work" foreshadows the later books and essays, down to the final seminars. A necessary book for all those interested in Derrida's writing. J. Hillis Miller, UCI Distinguished Research Professor of Comparative Literature and English, The University of California at Irvine -- J. Hillis Miller Bennington (Emory) brings together 15 essays and meditations conceived as works of mourning after Derrida's death in october 2004. The various tones and differing occasions that characterize them display the range of Bennington's skill as theorist and essayist. The effect is powerful and engaging ... Essential. -- N. Lukacher, University of Illinois at Chicago Choice For those wanting to discover or rediscover Jacques Derrida still alive and thinking after life, Geoffrey Bennington is the exemplary guide, a scholarly acrobat, at once grave and droll. Let us follow him. Along the way with fear and trembling, he reminds us that reading ekes out its living between possibilities and impossibilities from an opening onto 'no end'. Combining the strength of a rigorous pedagogy with the creative and extravagant powers of the poet-philosopher, Geoffrey Bennington is a bookworm of genius, actively inhabiting the entire Derridian archive. He has read everything, he hears and understands everything. Working from a double experience (his own and Derrida's), he reconstitutes the philosophical hero's adventure, from the age of 22 until his last days. Bennington knows Derrida's script by heart: played by Bennington, Derrida becomes the hero of a deeply moving philosophical epic. This admirable book with melancholy in its title is also the triumph of a never unfaithful freedom. Geoffrey Bennington was Derrida's close friend, and is his distinguished translator, his collaborator (in their Jacques Derrida), and one of Derrida's most profound readers. He has an exemplary knowledge of all Derrida's work. One distinctive value and originality of the essays in this book is the way they show in detail how Derrida's "early work" foreshadows the later books and essays, down to the final seminars. A necessary book for all those interested in Derrida's writing. J. Hillis Miller, UCI Distinguished Research Professor of Comparative Literature and English, The University of California at Irvine Bennington (Emory) brings together 15 essays and meditations conceived as works of mourning after Derrida's death in october 2004. The various tones and differing occasions that characterize them display the range of Bennington's skill as theorist and essayist. The effect is powerful and engaging ... Essential.