The Number and the Siren

A philosophical interrogation of the concepts of chance, contingency, and eternity through a concentrated study of Mallarme's poem "Un Coup de Des." A meticulous literary study, a detective story a la Edgar Allan Poe, a treasure-hunt worthy of an adventure novel--such is the register in which can be deciphered the hidden secrets of a poem like no other. Quentin Meillassoux, author of After Finitude , continues his philosophical interrogation of the concepts of chance, contingency, infinity, and eternity through a concentrated study of Mallarme's poem "Un Coup de Des," patiently deciphering its enigmatic meaning on the basis of a dazzlingly simple and lucid insight with regard to Mallarme's "unique Number." The decisive point of the investigation proposed by Meillassoux comes with a discovery, unsettling and yet as simple as a child's game. The Number that "can be no other" can only be revealed to us via a secret code, hidden in the "Coup de des" like a key that finally unlocks every one of its poetic devices. Thus is also unveiled the meaning of that siren, emerging for a lightning-flash amongst the debris of the shipwreck: as the living heart of a drama that is still unfolding. With this bold new interpretation of Mallarme's work, Meillassoux offers brilliant insights into modernity, poetics, secularism, and religion, and opens a new chapter in his philosophy of radical contingency. The volume contains the entire text of the "Coup de des" and three other poems, with new English translations.

Product details

• Authors: Robin Mackay, Quentin Meillassoux, Quentin (Universite Paris 1 Pantheon-Sorbonne) Meillassoux
• Assisted by: Robin Mackay (Translation), Robin (Urbanomic Media Ltd) Mackay (Translation)
• Publisher: Random House USA
• Languages: English
• Product format: Paperback / Softback
• Released: 06.04.2012
• EAN: 9780983216926
• ISBN: 978-0-9832169-2-6
• No. of pages: 312
• Dimensions: 116 mm x 176 mm x 17 mm
• Series: Urbanomic/Sequence Press; Urbanomic/Sequence Press
• Subjects: Fiction > Poetry, drama > Poetry; Humanities, art, music > Linguistics and literary studies > General and comparative literary studies; Non-fiction book > Philosophy, religion > Philosophy: general, reference works; Einzelne Dichter, Englisch / Lehrbuch, Lehrgang, VHS