Incipit

Whether a Saint or convict I don’t care. I am the human being of ancient times and that of tomorrow. I did mischief, giving not joy, but rather offering hope instead. Hope, that mortal poison for humans, that infamous game that hunts down the unarmed hunters we are. I belong to the human species. This is where I come from, just like you my brethren. A season of fatality will not have got the better of my destiny. That of being a conscious man amongst other men. I don’t regret anything. Nothing at all. Neither the convict that I was, nor the holy Saint. Now do I enjoy idiocy, the terrible paradise!

And I must tell you who I am. I am the present substance. The Flesh and the Word melted into one. I am the man vanquished while serving mystery, both the madman and the beast, the woman, the stutterer and the stranger. I am the child and the wild animal, the stag and the doe, the doe that dances because it is no longer ashamed and the deer that dances because it is no longer proud. I am the glade and the forest. I am water, I am fire. And the earth to come. I am what we are. And the Other is what we are.

Back cover

Lorette Nobécourt assesses the humanity that has distanced itself from what is human: the murderous crowds, barbarism, the perverted innocence, the slaughtered beasts and rotten nature. All of this must be taken care of and transfigured. Language is substance. And this is where this breathtaking book takes off, which, with a single gesture of writing, acknowledges who we are only to take us to where the shattering fusion of Body and Word takes place.