The Book

So, at first Lorenzaccio by Alfred de Musset (1834), an armchair drama piece in 5 acts, first thought unproduceable until it was reduced to three acts and starred Sarah Bernhardt, this monster of the turn of the 20th century. Also a first hybrid text maybe due to his rather novelistic structure and diction and because it was not really meant to be produced by read on the page (hence the term  'théâtre de fauteuil' or 'armchair drama').

Then there is Mallarmé. Not the Mallarmé of Un coup de dé, but still the one interested in the scoring of silence and in the theatricality of the page and of the word. Thinking of his Notes en vue du 'Livre', a posthumous work and how radical and promising it seems today. Even more radical in terms of topography than many experimental poets writing today. Carol Mirakove in her book Mediated comes probably close. Claude Royet-Journoud and Anne-Marie Albiach, the two poets whose heritage is most closely linked to Mallarmé seem quaint in comparison to those notes.
Mallarmé probably saw the Sarah Bernhardt production of Lorenzaccio, although he has written about it (in Divagations). But we can wonder if he thought about the book failing once it was 'mis en scène'.

Also, recently, a construction by Arakawa + Gins had been criticized for its unpracticality. Said the critic: “Theoretical follies, one of the plagues of contemporary architecture, have their place, and it’s on paper.” Here too there is something quite fascinating. A structure that can only exist on the page. Sure, Arakawa + Gins as well as Bernard Tschumi probably have thousands of projects that have never been built. Or rather than have yet to be built. Can we write of a structure that can never be built? And even so, by putting it into paper, are we building it? Fixating it?