Le soupir des sycomores. Du silence des bêtes au silence des textes
The Sigh of the Sycamores. From the Silence of Animals to the Silence of Texts

Summary/Abstract: The paper offers a tribute to Jean de Palacio through a reflection on tracking as a metaphor for reading and critical inquiry. Drawing on Jean de Palacio’s “animalist” sensibility and the moral influence of William Godwin, the author presents a scholar whose practice of criticism is guided by empathy, care, and respect for the living. Engaging with authors such as Morizot, Jünger, and Rosny aîné, he likens the critic to a tracker who, like Naoh pursuing Gaw in Quest for Fire, reads traces rather than trophies – deciphering texts with both rigor and intuition. Palacio’s method, at once ethical and deductive, privileges attentiveness over predation, cultivating a sustained suspension of judgment as a form of intellectual humility. In this light, criticism becomes not an act of possession, but an art of listening, a patient pursuit of meaning within the living texture of language.

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