ABSTRACT
The reader suspects as much already from the story’s title, “Monsieur Teste.” 1 This man, who is all head, knows of himself: “La bêtise n’est pas mon fort.” Whoever knows Valéry, sees immediately that the talk here is of Teste’s inventor. Indeed, stupidity is not his strong point—more precisely, listening to the usage of bêtise: folly; as Littré notes in his Dictionnaire, namely, La Fontaine was in his many simple-minded assertions a fool but never a block-head; for such a one is incapable of being on guard against his ideas. Thus even in the midst of all godless experience we can understand why: “Even the gods fight against stupidity, in vain.” Though, of course, the Greek gods did not care to fight against folly because it provided them with the drama of how, of all people, men of excellence bring about their own ruin.
