In 1979, just after having written skeptically on the question of whether a journal was worth keeping "with a view to publication," Roland Barthes began to keep an intimate journal called "Soirees de Paris" in which he gave direct notation to his gay desire in its various states of excitation, panic, and despair. Together with three other uncollected texts by Barthes, including an earlier journal he kept in Morocco, this remarkable document was published in France after its author's death under the title of Incidents. Richard Howard's translation now makes the volume available to readers of English.
"I gave him some money, he promised to be at the rendezvous an hour later, and of course never showed up. I asked myself if I was really so mistaken (the received wisdom about giving money to a hustler in advance!) and concluded that since I really didn't want him all that much (nor even to make love), the result was the same: sex or no sex, at eight o'clock I would find myself back at the same point in my life." from Incidents
- ISBN10 0520071042
- ISBN13 9780520071049
- Publish Date 4 September 1992
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 21 October 2002
- Publish Country US
- Imprint University of California Press
- Format Paperback (US Trade)
- Pages 80
- Language English