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THE MAN OF COLOR AND THE WHITE WOMAN 57

Jean Veneuse does not, however, lead a life devoid of
compensations. He fl irts with art. His reading list is impressive,
his essay on Suarès is quite perceptive. That too is analyzed by
Germaine Guex: “Imprisoned in himself, locked into his artifi cial
reserve, the negative-aggressive feeds his feeling of irreparable loss
with everything that he continues to lose or that his passivity makes
him lack. . . . Therefore, with the exception of such privileged
sectors as his intellectual life or his profession, he cherishes a
28
deep-seated feeling of worthlessness.” 29
Where does this analysis lead us? To nothing short of proving
to Jean Veneuse that in fact he is not like the rest. Making people
ashamed of their existence, Jean-Paul Sartre said. Yes: teaching
them to become aware of the potentials they have forbidden
themselves, of the passivity they have paraded in just those
situations in which what is needed is to hold oneself, like a sliver,
to the heart of the world, to interrupt if necessary the rhythm of
the world, to upset, if necessary, the chain of command, but in
any case, and most assuredly, to stand up to the world.
Jean Veneuse is the crusader of the inner life. When he sees
Andrée again, when he is face to face with this woman whom he
has wanted for months and months, he takes refuge in silence,
the eloquent silence of those who “know the artifi ciality of words
and acts.”
Jean Veneuse is a neurotic, and his color is only an attempt to
explain his psychic structure. If this objective difference had not
existed, he would have manufactured it out of nothing.
Jean Veneuse is one of those intellectuals who try to take a
position solely on the level of ideas. Incapable of realizing any
concrete contact with his fellow man. Is he treated decently, kindly,
humanly? Only because he has stumbled on some servant secrets.
He “knows those people,” and he is on guard against them. “My
vigilance, if one can call it that, is a safety-catch. Politely and
artlessly I welcome the advances that are made to me. I accept
and repay the drinks that are bought for me, I take part in the
little social games that are played on deck, but I do not allow
28. My italics—F.F.
29. Guex, op. cit., p. 44.

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