Is that an autograph?

July 18, 2013 5:39 PM

Is this Jean-François Lyotard's autograph? And can anyone decipher this scrawl?
posted by cropshy to Writing & Language (9 answers total)

Best guess on the writing is loru saral kofuman lacibiquament le miniuement alfelueri jc vamal

I dont speak enough french to get any translation out of that
posted by Jacen at 5:44 PM on July 18, 2013

Best answer: I see:

pour Sarah Kofman,
le mur du pacifique,
pacifiquement,
fémininement,
affectueusement

for which Google Translate suggests:

for Sarah Kofman
the wall of the peaceful/Pacific,
peacefully,
femininely,
fondly
posted by danceswithlight at 5:55 PM on July 18, 2013 [3 favorites]

Response by poster: There's a Wikipedia page for Sarah Kofman. Apparently she was, like Lyotard, a French philosopher. Interesting and interestinger.
posted by cropshy at 6:03 PM on July 18, 2013

I had danceswithlight's reading before seeing that response. So that's two independent sets of eyes that read it that way.
posted by yoink at 6:09 PM on July 18, 2013

Best answer: I think the last line is "août 82", though the 2 is conjecture.
posted by stebulus at 6:09 PM on July 18, 2013

Best answer: For comparison, here's a sample of Lyotard's handwriting, from his posthumous The Confession of Augustine.
posted by stebulus at 6:35 PM on July 18, 2013

"août 8e" - August 8th
posted by faethverity at 8:07 PM on July 18, 2013 [1 favorite]

And "le mur du pacifique" is Pacific Wall, the name of a book by Lyotard.
posted by danceswithlight at 10:38 PM on July 18, 2013

Response by poster: And "le mur du pacifique" is Pacific Wall, the name of a book by Lyotard.

I probably should have mentioned it in the original question, but the possible autograph is in my copy of Le mur du pacifique.
posted by cropshy at 3:12 AM on July 19, 2013