Certainly what Ponge has to say remains quite consistent, and his collected works juxtapose texts from 1921 to 1967 without any contradiction whatsoever. He still goes to the "mute world" of things for his peculiar dialectic, and he still celebrates the creative power of speech. What is new is the sense of mission involved and the way in which Ponge has openly let his works be widely published in order to further his particular vision and give the example of systematically individual perception and expression in a world threatened by group morality and intellectual totalitarianism.

Several pages in Pour un Malherbe (1965) are quite clear about his intention…. Ponge understands the point of view of the Lettrists, and of Aragon and his followers, but he does not want to see their common "spiritual revolution" triumph in a dogmatic, totalitarian form. He feels personally responsible to halt this trend, and displays a...