the Number and 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.