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----- Original Message ----- From: "Barry Alpert" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Wednesday, April 08, 2009 6:26 PM Subject: Re: Dead ends From the economic perspective of the international rare book market, the collectible first editions of Jacques Derrida have steadily risen in price over the years. Even though I have monitored these prices for quite a long time, I was startled today to note a copy of the true first of Derrida's "La Carte postale: de Socrate á Freud et au-delá" with an autographed inscription to Paul de Man being offered at $12500.00 by a leading dealer who has remained in business for more than 20 years. The lowest price for any signed Derrida is $300. I'm certainly glad I invested the money to buy 5 first French editions from the library of post-Cunningham/Cage choreographer/dancer Robert Dunn and to drive over to Johns Hopkins University to hear Jacques Derrida lecture. Nor am I complaining economically about my comparable activity with Tzvetan Todorov. I'd recommend investing in the true first editions of all the "post-structuralists". Have you evaluated the "economic popularity" of your two books recently? Barry Alpert I hope you mean this as a joke; otherwise, it's very silly. What I meant - and I didn't think anyone could misunderstand it - is that a nominalistic, relativistic philosophy will lose its appeal to intellectuals (younger intellectuals, or any whose careers have not committed them to it) who are actually *suffering. Reality, said Freud, is what you bump your head against. Reality (and to some degree content) is *hors-texte. Meanwhile, may your first-edition poststructuralists . provide you a financial hedge comparable to Krugerrands. A first-edition Houston Stewart Chamberlain might fetch even more.