Books

It was my friend Serge Molla who asked me to write this book. Georges Haldas had just passed away on October 24, 2010. At Christmas, I finalized the structure of the book: titles, subtitles, content of the sections, reference works, etc. I began writing it in January 2011 and finished it in September 2013. I wrote it only once, directly on the computer, which I never usually do. As for the last chapter, however, I wrote most of it in a large notebook; and I retired to the mountains to transcribe it and to put all the text in order. Back in Zurich, I wrote the last pages and final corrections. It is in this last chapter that I take leave of Georges Haldas.

Often, when I was writing at the computer in the evening, I felt Georges Haldas's presence behind me. He was reading over my shoulder, curious and kind. This encouraged me to continue my task. Some afternoons, taking a break to think about how I wanted to continue with this text, I would go and smoke a cigarette on my balcony (today, I don't smoke anymore). And then I would begin a series of questions and answers with Georges Haldas, asking him, for example, if I could write this or that without betraying him. Soon the answer, internal, would be heard: "Go ahead, Tschabold." And I would go back inside to get back to work.

To demonstrate the universality of Georges Haldas, I have tried to connect his work to other literary, philosophical or religious movements. Thus, Baudelaire figures prominently; Plotinus is in the spotlight; the Gospel – essential in Haldas – opens up perspectives for us; psychoanalysis also reveals many secrets to us thanks to Clarissa Pinkola Estés. But there are many other references…

One fact, extraordinary in my eyes, deserves to be mentioned: whenever I needed to find a quotation, whether in the works of Haldas, Plato or Plotinus, Baudelaire, Thomas de Quincey, Adorno, in the Bible or its commentators, or in others, I found them without difficulty. Everything happened very quickly. It sometimes seemed to me that the books themselves left the library shelves, fell into my hands and opened at the right page...