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\centerline{\bg Final Chapter.  Fields Medal to Rupture}
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\centerline{\bg 1966-1970}
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\noindent {\bf Pourquoi, toi, tu as abandonn\'e l'\oe uvre en question?}
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The causes of Grothendieck's sudden and definitive departure from the
IHES in 1970 have often been discussed and analyzed.  And this is natural
enough from the point of view of professional mathematicians, for
most of whom such an act, abandoning a job whose working conditions were
more than ideal, first for the uncertainty of a temporary position, 
then for the mediocrity and the teaching 
duties of a provincial university, would be unthinkable.  

For a long time, it would appear that Grothendieck himself viewed his own
act as something sudden and completely unpredictable, which would have
amazed him as much as anyone else just a few months earlier.  He repeatedly
qualifies the sudden rupture and departure from the IHES as ``le grand
tournant'' of his life, a metaphorical image of a path, hitherto 
straightforward and without surprises, swinging abruptly around a blind
corner to reveal an utterly new vista.  From this point of view, he
attributed the cause of his departure to the discovery that the IHES was
accepting a small amount of funding from a military source:
``j'ai quitt\'e ``le grand monde'' math\'ematique en
1970, \`a la suite d'une histoire de fonds militaires dans mon institution
d'attache...'' (RS 74)

In various writings, however, Grothendieck does confront the question of 
whether the straight road leading up to the rupture was really as 
uncomplicated and as ideal as he remembered viewing it at the time:
twenty years devoted to the steady and brilliant progress of his mathematical 
program, taking place in comfortable surroundings within a group of 
colleagues with whom he had affectionate and productive professional 
relationships.  Via some efforts of memory and of consultation of articles 
and letters, he eventually came to the conclusion that although he noticed 
nothing consciously at the time, there were already some indications that all 
was not quite as simple as he had thought.  For one thing, he notes, his 
relationships with his students were not as wholly free from conflict
as they had appeared to him:
``Ce n'est pas le grand tournant de 1970 qui a cr\'ee des antagonismes entre
certains ex-\'el\`eves et moi, sur l'arri\`ere-fond d'un pass\'e idyllique et 
sans nuages.  Il a seulement rendu visible des antagonismes qui pouvaient
difficilement s'exprimer dans le cadre plus conventionnel d'une relation
patron-\'el\`eve typique,'' (RS 178) he writes, and even more tellingly:
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{\it Derri\`ere la fa\c cade aimable des relations de bonne compagnie au
sein d'une m\^eme institution feutr\'ee, mon d\'epart finalement
arrangeait tout le monde, pour des raisons que je crois discerner avec
le recul, et qui n'\'etaient pas les m\^emes chez tous...Si je ne comprenais
pas alors le sens de ce qui se passait, c'est que d\'ecid\'ement je ne voulais
pas comprendre des choses pourtant bien assez claires et m\^eme
\'eloquentes!� Comme si souvent au cours de ma vie, il y avait alors en moi
une angoisse (jamais appel\'ee de ce nom!) qui me signalait un ``d\'ecollage''
entre une r\'ealit\'e dont je ne voulais pas me s\'eparer: l'image de ce
qu'avait \'et\'e mon r\^ole dans l'institution que je quittais, et plus
encore, peut-\^etre, l'image de ce qu'avait \'et\'e la relation \`a mon ami
[Pierre Deligne].}
(RS orig 235)
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Although these unrecognized tensions with respect to his colleagues 
undoubtedly existed, and certainly
contributed to the unconscious but gradually increasing rejection of
the life he had chosen and imposed on himself, they do not tell the 
whole story.  There were other causes, some of which were felt by the people 
around him long before he noticed them himself.  Jean-Pierre Serre, for 
instance, bluntly observed that Grothendieck was quite simply tired of 
endlessly working on his gigantic task, and that the progress of the task
was not so smooth and perfect as might have been believed:
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{\it J'ai l'impression que, malgr\'e ton \'energie bien connue, tu \'etais
tout simplement fatigu\'e de l'\'enorme travail que tu avais entrepris.
D'autant plus qu'il y avait aussi les SGA qui prenaient du retard, ann\'ee
apr\`es ann\'ee.  Je me souviens de l'\'etat plut\^ot d\'esastreux de SGA5
o\`u les r\'edacteurs se perdaient dans des masses de diagrammes dont ils
\'etaient r\'eduits \`a affirmer sans preuve la commutativit\'e (au signe
pr\`es, en \'etant optimiste...); et ces commutativit\'es \'etaient
essentielles pour la suite.  C'est \`a cet \'etat d\'esastreux (et non pas
idyllique comme on le croirait \`a lire R\'ecoltes et Semailles) que se
r\'ef\`ere ma phrase du s\'eminaire Bourbaki: ``...la version d\'efinitive
de SGA 5, qui devrait \^etre plus convaincante que les expos\'es polycopi\'es
existants.''} ([CGS], Feb. 8, 1986)
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In the same letter, written to Grothendieck as a reaction to 
R\'ecoltes et Semailles, Serre suggests the possibility that Grothendieck 
was not only tired, but also frustrated or discouraged by an awareness that 
his methods, while brilliantly successful in certain domains, would not have 
much of an effect on the specific problems and situations of number theory.
\vskip .3cm
{\it On peut se demander s'il n'y pas une explication plus profonde
que la simple fatigue d'avoir \`a porter \`a bout de bras tant de milliers
de pages.  Tu d\'ecris quelque part ton approche des maths, o\`u l'on
n'attaque pas un probl\`eme de front, mais o\`u on l'enveloppe et le dissout
dans une mar\'ee montante de th\'eories g\'en\'erales.  Tr\`es bien: c'est
l\`a ta fa\c con de travailler, et ce que tu as fait montre que cela marche
effectivement.  Du moins pour les EVT et la g\'eom\'etrie alg\'ebrique...C'est
beaucoup moins clair pour la th\'eorie des nombres (o\`u les structures
en jeu sont loin d'\^etre \'evidentes -- ou plut\^ot, o\`u toutes les
structures possibles sont en jeu); m\^eme r\'eserve pour la th\'eorie des
formes modulaires, visiblement plus riche que son simple aspect ``groupes
de Lie'' et son simple aspect ``g\'eom\'etrie alg\'ebrique -- sch\'emas
de modules''.  D'o\`u la question: ne serais-tu pas arriv\'e, vers 1968-1970,
\`a te rendre compte que la m\'ethode ``mar\'ee montante'' \'etait
impuissante contre ce genre de probl\`emes, et qu'il fallait changer de
style -- ce qui te d\'eplaisait?} 
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Given that Grothendieck was never much of an arithmetician, and was not 
especially attracted by the type of number theoretical question that 
fascinated Serre (and also the fact that he undoubtedly had enough of his
own type of mathematics up his sleeve to last several lifetimes without
being compelled to change style), this particular motivation seems less likely
to have affected Grothendieck's attitude than the weariness mentioned above,
which is echoed and confirmed by the passages from Grothendieck's text 
(given in chapter 1) in which he speaks of his tasks as a burden, and himself
as their prisoner.  Serre obviously perceived this fatigue in Grothendieck 
as early as 1968 if not even before, and he was not alone in this sentiment,
although Grothendieck himself evokes it only with hindsight, as having been
unaware of projecting such an impression at the time.  

Apart from this fatigue, there is another source of pressure which may well
have led up to the 1970 rupture that he and most people perceive as 
a breaking point.  This point is lost on most mathematicians not acquainted
with Grothendieck, because mathematics professors the world over tend to
emerge from the highly educated, wealthy and comfortable upper bourgeoisie.  
All of Grothendieck's colleagues must have shared similar experiences of 
childhood and youth -- culture, vacations, loving and caring parents, the 
Ecole Normale -- that were like nothing that Grothendieck himself had ever 
known.  The fact is that, whereas his colleagues (and most mathematicians) are 
very comfortable in their milieu, peopled as it is with others of similar 
backgrounds, it must have felt very foreign to Grothendieck.  This was 
probably clearer to him as a young man in Nancy, when his friends, such
as Paulo Ribenboim or Terry Mirkil, were like himself penniless foreigners 
subsisting on slim stipends, but later he must have developed a 
well-functioning carapace to protect himself from the continual culture
shock produced by the difference between his own living style (which continued
to be that in which he had grown up) and that of his colleagues, and the
effect that their surprised regard must have unconsciously produced on him,
even without a word being pronounced.  Cartier's reaction: ``Je n'arrive
pas \`a comprendre pourquoi il a toujours v\'ecu dans des logements
horribles; il travaille la nuit, en g\'en\'eral dans une pi\`ece
immonde, avec le cr\'epi qui tombe, et en tournant le dos \`a la
fen\^etre (\`a la recherche de quelle humiliation?)'' certainly describes
the impressions of everyone who visited his home, and the description
resembles passages from the autobiographical writings of Grothendieck's
mother too much to be ignored:
 
LOTTE KELLER QUOTE

Apart from the building pressure on Grothendieck, 
he and many of his close friends and colleagues have also
considered the role of certain events which may have acted as catalysts,
either for the 1970 rupture or for a certain change or bifurcation in
his attitude which was dimly felt, as mentioned above, already as early as
1966 or 1968.  Pierre Cartier suggests that Grothendieck's attitude to his 
own work changed already starting in 1966, the year in which he won the 
Fields Medal.  He mentions the ``Nobel syndrome'', in which the intense 
visibility and importance acquired by someone who wins a 
major prize exerts excessive pressure: ``je d\'esigne par ce nom un type
de d\'epression qui a saisi certains des r\'ecipiendaires du prix Nobel.
Incapables de confronter leur personne et ce qui leur reste a vivre --
surtout si la distinction est venue assez t\^ot -- \`a ce personnage
statufi\'e par la reconnaissance mondiale, ils craignent d'avoir
donn\'e le meilleur d'eux-m\^emes et de ne plus pouvoir se hisser \`a
ces hauteurs'' [C].  

Another catalyst, evoked for example by Valentin Poenaru as well as by Cartier,
was provided by the events of May 1968, during which Grothendieck's natural
tendency to anarchist political views found itself echoed in the outside 
world, only for him to discover that as an important university professor,
he was considered external and even inimical to the movement. (A COMPLETER)
Finally, the effect of Deligne's presence at the IHES was perceived as having
an important effect on Grothendieck.  Cartier synthesizes all the above 
perceptions, both of long-term pressure and of catalysts for change,
in the succinct commentary: ``Les raisons de cet abandon en 
rase campagne?  Cr\^ument dit, il est rattrap\'e par sa psychose, mais dans 
le contingent: d\'esespoir d'\^etre d\'epass\'e par son disciple pr\'ef\'er\'e 
Deligne, ``syndrome Nobel'', mise \`a jour par la ``r\'evolution 
soixante-huitarde'' de la contradiction entre le libertaire qu'il croit \^etre 
et le mandarin universitaire qu'il est aux yeux des autres, sentiment d'\'echec
devant certaines de ses tentatives math\'ematiques avort\'ees (conjecture
de Hodge, conjectures dites standard), \'epuisement et lassitude apr\`es
20 ann\'ees d'engagement total, jour et nuit, au service de sa muse
math\'ematique?  Un m\'elange de tout cela.'' [C]

All of the issues explained above have been discussed at length, both
by Grothendieck and by others, as possible or partial causes for 
his abrupt, unexpected and astonishing decision to leave the IHES in 1970, 
and all of them have their value.  However, the picture they paint, including
Grothendieck's own description, invariably present the situation as one 
where some outer cause (be it the Fields Medal, the events of May 1968 or 
the discovery of military funding) causes the final bursting of the lid of 
a pressure cooker of building tension, caused over the years by unrecognized 
conflicts and a sense of fatigue.  In this chapter, I propose a different 
psychological view of Grothendieck's development through the years leading 
up to 1970, essentially expressed by two important ideas.  

Firstly, I suggest that {\it Grothendieck's twenty year stretch of 
singleminded devotion to mathematics was not so much a choice} -- devotion 
to one all-important activity (``un engagement total au service de la muse'')
to the exclusion and consequent stagnation of all else 
-- {\it but a necessary consequence of the powerful {\bf repression} of 
other drives, emotions and interests.  This repression} -- manifested by many
of Grothendieck's characteristic traits during this period observed by
others and later by himself (``monomaniac'' (Demazure), ``driven by duty'' 
(Serre); Grothendieck himself mentions ``des forces profondes de mon 
\^etre, pli\'ees et viss\'ees dans un \'etat de d\'es\'equilibre intense, 
fig\'e'' -- an accurate portrait of repression if ever there was one) --
{\it appears to me to be intimately linked to Grothendieck's relationships with 
both his parents.}  On the one hand, the unnamed fear of meeting a horrible 
and tragic destiny such as theirs must have been a powerful psychological
deterrent to Grothendieck's natural tendency and profound desire to follow 
in their footsteps in the direction of unfettered political, emotional and
sexual engagement, pursued with a view to ushering in a new and superior 
epoch of human development.  
On the other, he was able to employ his mathematical genius (for the existence 
of which no explanation, psychological or otherwise, need be furnished) 
to compensate for this sometime betrayal, by transforming it into a form 
of public service and devoting himself to that service with an intensity 
equal to his father's, while at the same time reaching the level of effort and
genius which had inspired his mother in his father, and alone could be 
worthy of her.  His work, as attested by many, was always done in solitude, 
at his desk faced with the oil portrait of his father and the death-mask 
of his mother, the latter covered with a respectful cloth which he removed
when he seated himself to work. As investigation of the unknown, his 
mathematical research may have been the happy work of an exploring child, 
as he often describes it, but above and beyond this aspect which stemmed from 
his natural genius, in its aspects of monomaniacal investment and public 
service,  his work was a votive service to the dead.



Secondly, I believe that {\it the 1970 rupture was not, as it is usually
portrayed, a sudden breaking down of long upheld but eroding resistance to 
inner pressures}  -- resistance already weakened in some accounts by certain 
catalysts such as the Fields Medal syndrome or the events of May 1968 --
{\it implying the sudden and drastic abandonment of his gigantic mathematical 
program, but the natural continuation of an unconscious process begun in 1965, 
of transferring total responsibility for the accomplishment
of his self-imposed mathematical task (duty, burden) to the shoulders of 
Deligne, elected alter ego, so as to recover his freedom without consciously
violating his sense of duty or sacrificing his mathematical program.}

To my mind, the only true and convincing answer to Serre's
pointed question: ``Pourquoi, toi, tu as abandonn\'e l\oe uvre en question?'' 
is this: that he did not, or at least, he did not intend to.  And the failure
of his unconsciously elaborated plan, implying as it does a failure of
duty, appears to me to lie at the root of the resentment expressed over 
hundreds of pages in R\'ecoltes et Semailles, a resentment which under an
incredibly coherent appearance (bringing forth many justified accusations of
certain acts lying at the limits of intellectual honesty) nevertheless
strikes readers as inexplicable and even pathological in its grand lines, 
since Grothendieck seems to be accusing other mathematicians (Deligne
above all) of {\it having done mathematics in their own way rather than in 
his}, something which should patently provoke admiration rather than anger.
If Grothendieck was able to turn his attention so entirely to other matters
during the 1970's, that he was not even aware of whether his mathematical 
program was being carried on exactly as he thought it should be or not, it
is not because he had become entirely uninterested in it; R\'ecoltes et
Semailles makes that clear enough.  It is because he believed beyond the
shadow of a doubt that represented by Deligne (surrounded in principle by a 
helpful host of collaborators) {\it he himself}, or as good as, was in fact
still continuing the work.   If massacre and burial occurred, it was 
this other Grothendieck who died and was buried, in the mind of one who was
for twelve years convinced of his existence, only to learn suddenly and 
painfully that it was all a giant illusion.


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\noindent {\bf Le beurre et l'argent du beurre}
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He did not select Deligne as his
student, or as his ``heir'', or his ``disciple'', although he (hesitantly
and doubtfully -- one feels he knows they are the wrong words, as are
the ``mon ami'' that he finally elects) does sometimes use these words.  But in truth, he elected Deligne to {\it be himself}, charging him by transference with the full extent
of his own duties as he defined them to himself.  In this light, the
peculiar attitude towards Deligne evinced again and again in R\'ecoltes et 
Semailles and witnessed by all sorts of incomprehensible features, some so 
absurd that even Grothendieck himself returns to question them later, 
make much better sense.

Consider, for example, Grothendieck's rather self-conscious minimisation of
the amount of mathematics that he communicated to Deligne over the three or
four years during which they worked closely together: sentences such as
``je lui ai enseign\'e le peu que je savais en g\'eom\'etrie alg\'ebrique'', 
or ``je ne lui ai jamais par\'e sans apprendre quelque chose''.
Grothendieck later actually berates himself for
such obvious absurdities and goes so far as to ask himself in
all sincerity why he wrote them, concluding that it was from a desire to
appear modest and minimise his own influence -- a desire which is entirely
absent from every other part of his writings!  My opinion is that he
minimises the importance of what he brought to Deligne {\it because in doing
so, he also minimises his awareness of the tremendous weight of the burden
he was transferring simultaneously}.  He {\it cannot} admit to having
transferred something enormous -- because to admit it would be to see 
immediately and clearly how wrong, and how impossible, it was.

Similarly, consider Grothendieck's seeming resentment at the fact that 
Deligne proved the Weil conjectures in an unexpected way, without proving the 
standard conjectures.  The entire world lauds Deligne's proof as brilliant; 
Grothendieck stands alone in opposition and disappointment.  This only
makes sense if one accepts that what was disappointing was not that
Deligne had done poor mathematics, but that he had done {\it other}
mathematics -- not Grothendieck's mathematics.

In view of this discussion, my feeling is that the bifurcation occurred
in 1965-1966, and took the form of an unconsciously perceived liberation:
Grothendieck authorized himself little by little to turn away from his task, 
in the profound conviction that it was going to be carried forward by
his docile other self.  From this point of view, everything he chose to
do after 1966 -- his interest in biology, his insistence on Deligne's being 
hired at the IHES, his open conflicts with his colleagues and director
there on this and on other issues, his involvement in the events of
May 1968 -- all form a picture of a man who has succeeded in
finding the way to satisfy his repressed urges without sacrificing his
self-image, and lead so naturally to his departure from the IHES that
rather than a rupture, it appears like a homecoming.


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\noindent {\bf 1965-1966}
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As the slowly emerging repressed interests began to take increasing power
in his life, I feel that the extreme difficulty of living in a society
that had nothing to do with the one in which he had grown up, and the
strong temptation to return to the style of living and of social relationships
he had known in his youth, exerted an inner pressure on him to leave the
IHES altogether.  And close examination of the archives shows that in fact,
from 1966 or 1967 onwards -- from the time, in fact, in which he felt
confident enough that he was not abandoning his program to actually abandon
it, he began to prepare for his own departure in the most logical manner:
by initiating and then exacerbating conflict with the director and each of
the other members of the IHES.  This idea probably came to him with the
first such conflict, which occurred when he fought against the opposition
of Thom to have Deligne named a permanent member of the IHES (for obvious
reasons).  From thence, the conflicts were regular and increasing to the
point at which one wonders how it was possible for him to avoid the
conscious awareness of his own desire to break away.  His will-power was
so strong and the habit of repression so inveterate that he managed to
prepare his own departure while telling himself that he was going to succeed
in modifying the IHES according to his wishes, and convincing the others;
he never once felt the conscious intention to break away.  Yet the
conflicts that he initiated speak loudly for themselves.  Following them
in detail lead one to the conviction that the sudden rupture was neither
sudden nor a rupture, but the natural and ripe conclusion to a carefully 
prepared recovery of freedom and shaking off of pressures grown intolerable.

In the remainder of this chapter, I will analyse my own analysis in
more detail, making extensive use of the archives of the IHES,
and reinterpreting well-known passages of Grothendieck's writings.
\vskip .5cm
\noindent {\bf Why repression?}
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The question of {\it why} he chose to privilege only mathematical 
activity, covering over everything else with a blanket of surface
approval, is answered at some length in the passages concerning the
yin aspects of his character, and his mother's insistance on yang
values only.  But this would perhaps not be 
But it seems to me that excessive fatigue, while undoubtedly  

\vskip .3cm
This chapter, covering Grothendieck's activities from 1966 to 1970, will provide a lot
of evidence to show that as Cartier says, the psychological change in Grothendieck
which ended in the final 1970 rupture with the IHES did unconsciously begin at least as 
early as 1966.
\vskip .3cm
{\it A vrai dire, faute d'avoir jamais encore consacr\'e un r\'eflexion \'ecrite
\`a cette relation, je ne m'\'etais pas rendu compte auparavant que les premiers
signes (discrets certes, mais qui ne peuvent tromper) de l'ambivalence dans
la relation de mon ami \`a moi, remontent pour le moins \`a 1968, deux
ann\'ees donc avant ``Le grand tournant''.  C'\'etait un moment ou la relation 
apparaissait comme parfaite, une communion sans nuage au niveau math\'ematique,
dans le contexte d'une amiti\'e simple et affectueuse.  
\vskip 1.5cm
{\it c'est le sentiment de disposer d'un tel interlocuteur-relais qui
donnait \`a mes p\'eriodes sporadiques d'activit\'e math\'ematique un sens
plus profond que celui de l'assouvissement d'une fringale, en les reliant
\`a une aventure collective d\'epassant ma propre personne.  C'est ce
sentiment, sans doute, qui faisait que pendant si longtemps, je n'aie
pas senti l'ombre d'un d\'esir de publier ce que je trouvais, et encore moins
l'ombre d'un regret de m'\^etre retir\'e de la sc\`ene math\'ematique}
(RS orig 265)

\vskip 1.5cm
\noindent {\bf The Fields Medal}
\vskip .3cm
Talk a bit about the math he won it for, although it will mostly be in 
a previous chapter, give the reports, also explain and point out that he was
already politically involved at this point, not going to Moscow, even if it 
was in his naive way.  Talk about the Russians who were in prison.
Describe ceremony (if possible).  Recount Serre's
anecdote about one of the four winners being in danger of not getting a prize
because of lack of money, but in the end someone gave money from his pocket.
\vskip 1.5cm
\noindent {\bf Grothendieck at the IHES 1966-1970}
\vskip .3cm
Tell mathematically what he was doing in those years, but show how his interest
really was declining. 
\vskip .3cm
{\it Avec le recul, je me rends compte quil devait d\'ej\`a y avoir en moi un 
besoin de renouvellement, je ne saurais dire depuis quand. Ce n'est surement 
pas une simple co\"\i ncidence si l'ann\'ee qui a pr\'ec\'ed\'e mon d\'epart 
de l'IHES, il y a eu un soudain basculement de mon investissement d'\'energie, 
laissant l\`a les t\^aches qui la veille encore me br\^ulaient dans les mains, 
et les questions qui me fascinaient le plus, pour me lancer (sous l'influence 
d'un ami biologiste, Mircea Dumitrescu) dans la biologie.  Je m'y lan\c cais 
dans les dispositions d'un investissement de longue haleine au sein de l'IHES 
(ce qui \'etait en accord avec la vocation pluridisciplinaire de cette 
institution). Surement ce n'\'etait l\`a qu'un exutoire au besoin d'un 
renouvellement beaucoup plus profond, qui n'aurait pu s'accomplir dans 
l'ambiance d  ``\'etuve scientifique" de l'IHES, et qui s'est fait au cours 
de cette ``cascade de r\'eveils" \`a laquelle j'ai fait d\'ej\`a allusion. 
Il y en a eu sept, dont le dernier a eu lieu en 1982. L'\'episode des ``fonds
militaires" a \'et\'e providentiel en d\'eclenchant le premier de ces 
``r\'eveils". Le minist\`ere des arm\'ees, tout comme mes ex-coll\`egues
de l'IHES, ont finalement eu droit � toute ma reconnaissance !} (RS 216)
\vskip 1.5cm
\noindent {\bf May 1968}
\vskip .3cm
Mention how he was funded in Kansas (or at least, about the Kansas funding) 
Use archives to describe the rupture itself.  Mention the anecdote about
him being ill-received in Orsay in 1968 (where did I read this?  Poenaru?)
\vskip 1.5cm
\noindent {\bf The final rupture}
\vskip .3cm
{\it D\'etail typique, ces fonds militaires, au sujet desquels personne ne 
voulait lever le petit doigt, tant qu'il \'etait question qu'ils seraient 
cause de mon d\'epart, ont \'et\'e supprim\'es l'ann\'ee m\^eme de mon 
d\'epart dans l'indiff\'erence g\'en\'erale! On ne savais jamais, des fois 
que \c ca pourrait indisposer un invit\'e de marque un peu t\^atillon sur 
ce chapitre... Les fonds en question ne repr\'esentaient d ailleurs qu'une
faible partie des ressources de l'IHES (5\%, si mes souvenirs sont corrects). 
Sans avoir eu \`a se concerter, il y a eu entre mes quatre coll�gues \`a 
l'IHES (sans compter le directeur) une belle unanimit\'e, pour saisir une
occasion de se d\'ebarrasser de moi (presque en m\^eme temps, d'ailleurs, 
que du directeur lui-m\^eme). Et moi qui m'\'etait cru indispensable, et 
aim\'e!  

Les deux physiciens de l'IHES, Michel et Ruelle, \'etaient m\'econtents que 
la section ``Physique" \`a l'IHES fasse un peu figure de parente pauvre, 
\`a c\^ot\'e de la section math\'ematique, repr\'esent\'ee par Thom, 
Deligne et moi (dont deux ``m\'edailles Fields"!). Ce d\'es\'equilibre venait 
de s'accro\^\i tre par la cooptation de Deligne (laquelle s'\'etait 
d'ailleurs faite avec l'accord sans r\'eserve de Michel et Ruelle, \`a 
l'unanimit\'e en fait du Conseil Scientifique de l'IHES, \`a l'exception de 
Thom). Il y avait eu concertation entre physiciens et math\'ematiciens de 
l'IHES, pour faire pression sur le directeur, L\'eon Motchane, afin de 
r\'etablir un juste \'equilibre entre les deux sections, dans la mesure du 
possible. Je pr\'esume que n\'eanmoins mes coll\`egues physiciens
ne devaient pas \^etre m\'econtents de voir ce d\'es\'equilibre compens\'e 
efficacement, et bien plus t\^ot qu'ils ne l'auraient esp\'er\'e, avec la 
soudaine perspective de mon d\'epart.  Quant \`a Thom, il \'etait ulc\'er\'e 
que la cooptation de Deligne se soit faite \`a l'encontre de son opposition
formelle. Il avait qualifi\'e les contributions de Deligne, toutes non 
publi\'ees, dont je faisais \'etat dans mon \'etincelant rapport 
d'``investiture", et qui visiblement lui passaient par dessus la t\^ete, 
de simples ``exercices"!  Ce qui le choquait dans l'accession de Deligne au 
statut de ``permanent" \`a l'IHES, sur un pied d'\'egalit\'e avec
lui-m\^eme, c'\'etait que le jeune Deligne -- il avait alors 25 ans -- 
n'\'etait pas d\'ej\`a couvert d'honneurs. Selon Thom, l'accession \`a un
tel poste devrait venir seulement comme ``le couronnement d'une carri\`ere". 
On \'etait loin, moins de dix ans plus tard seulement, des ann\'ees 
h\'ero\^\i ques o\`u j'accueillais un Hironaka encore inconnu dans des 
locaux de fortune... Toujours est-il que l'amertume de Thom \'etait telle, 
qu'il songeait alors (selon ce qu'il m'en a dit lui-m\^eme) \`a quitter 
l'IHES, pour r\'eint\'egrer son poste de professeur \`a Strasbourg qu'il avait
pris soin (plus prudent que moi nagu\`ere, en quittant le CNRS pour l'IHES) 
de conserver. Par mon parrainage chaleureux de Deligne j avais \'et\'e 
la cause premi\`ere et principale de sa frustration, et je pr\'esume que Thom
devait trouver, en son for int\'erieur, que je n'avais que ce que j'avais 
m\'erit\'e par mon impertinence, en me voyant contraint de quitter l'IHES 
quelques mois \`a peine apr\`es y avoir introduit mon brillant ``prot\'eg\'e"!
Quant au directeur, \`a un moment o\`u il se voyait accul'e par le d\'esir 
unanime des permanents, le pressant de partir, il a alors (selon une tactique 
\'eprouv\'ee qu'il maniait \`a la perfection) jou\'e le jeu du ``diviser pour
r\'egner", en utilisant la question des fonds militaires comme un moyen 
commode pour faire diversion, et de se d\'ebarrasser en m\^eme temps du 
plus g\^enant de ses permanents. (Renversement de situation magistral,
alors que le secret qu'il avait maintenu autour de la pr\'esence de ces fonds 
m'apparaissait comme une raison suppl\'ementaire et imp\'erieuse pour 
l'obliger \`a partir!) Cela n'a pas emp\^ech\'e qu'apr\`es mon d\'epart, 
\c ca n'a quand-m\^eme plus tra\^\i n\'e longtemps, et son d\'epart de 
l'IHES a suivi de pr\`es le mien -- de celui donc qui, comme lui, avait 
fait partie de l'IHES d\`es ses premi\`eres ann\'ees pr\'ecaires et 
h\'ero\^\i ques, et qui, avec lui et selon ses propres moyens, en avait 
assur\'e la cr\'edibilit\'e et la p\'erennit\'e.} (RS 540)
\vfill\eject
\noindent {\bf References}
\vskip .3cm
[C] P. Cartier: Grothendieck et les motifs, online.

[CGS] Correspondance Grothendieck-Serre.



He insisted that
the director, L\'eon Motchane, reject this money, failed to persuade either
him or the other members of the IHES, chose to break away definitively
in protest, and recalls the event in the briefest and most laconic terms:
\vskip .3cm
\vskip .3cm
{\it Mon d\'epart sans retour du milieu scientifique en 1970 en r\'eaction
contre certains sympt\^omes de mauvais aloi; il s'agit de la collusion
g\'en\'eralis\'ee des milieux scientifiques avec les appareils militaires.
J'ai quitt\'e mon institution d'attache en 1970, quand j'ai eu connaissance
qu'il recevait des subventions du minist\`ere des arm'ees.} (Clef 163)

Somehow, Grothendieck managed to raise
a family in the style of his origins: even today, members of the extended
Grothendieck family tend to live in small villages and work in nature,
in the marketplaces or at jobs oriented around helping others.  Few of them
bother to pass the European school leaving exam; certainly Mireille never did,
and neither did his children.  The daily contrast between his perversely 
``miserabilist'' habits that he pursued even though there was no
lack of money -- living and working in depressing rooms with the paint peeling 
off the walls, bringing his family up in what seemed like unnecessary, 
exaggerated circumstances of poverty and ignorance, almost positively 
discouraging them from dressing properly and attending school -- and the
social habits of his colleagues, the feeling of their uncomprehending
regard (whether or not they expressed their sentiments, and some, such as
Schwartz, did not hesitate to do so), must have exerted pressure on
Grothendieck and prevented him from really convincing himself that he felt
right at home.  When he did leave the IHES, after some years of wandering
around in search of the ``right place'', sampling life in an agricultural
commune and so forth, he eventually chose to live in a tiny house in 
a remote village, and acquired the reputation in Paris circles of having 
``abandoned everything to raise sheep''.  It is important to realize that 
this step away from the comfortable circles of university towns to the 
countryside would be a step into strange lands for most mathematicians, but 
represented a natural homecoming to Grothendieck.

``vingt ans
de cr\'eativit\'e math\'ematique intense et d'investissement math\'ematique
d\'emesur\'e -- et, en m\^eme temps aussi, vingt longues ann\'ees de
stagnation spirituelle, en ``vase clos''...Sans m'en rendre compte, 
j'\'etouffais -- c'est de l'air du large que j'avais besoin!  Mon ``d\'epart''
providentiel a marqu\'e la fin soudaine d'une longue stagnation, et
un premier pas vers une \'equilibration des forces profondes en mon \^etre,
pli\'ees et viss\'ees dans un \'etat de d\'es\'equilibre intense, fig\'e...''
(RS 76)  And further, ``Et l'histoire de ces deux d\'ecennies pass\'ees dans
la qui\'etude du  monde ``sans conflit'' (?) de ma ch\`ere ``communaut\'e
math\'ematique'', est aussi l'histoire d'une longue stagnation int\'erieure
en moi, yeux et oreilles bouch\'ees, sans rien apprendre sauf des maths ou
peu s'en faut -- alors que dans ma vie priv\'ee (d'abord dans les relations
entre ma m\`ere et moi, puis dans la famille que j'ai fond\'ee sit\^ot
apr\`es sa mort) s\'evissait une destruction silencieuse qu'en aucun moment
pendant ces ann\'ees je n'ai os\'e regarder...'' (RS 158)

While these and many similar passages in Grothendieck's writings lead to 
a somewhat more nuanced view of what was actually happening around him in the
years leading up to the 1970 rupture, they shed no light at all on his own
role and purpose during that time. One sees portrayed a human being,
blind and deaf to all but mathematics, persuaded (by a spiritual indifference
to asking questions rather than by any real intimate conviction) that
all his relationships were smooth and stainless, and plunged into a
profound, driven and obsessional program of work with no realization whatsoever
that it was becoming too difficult to uphold.  In this view, the discovery
and conflict over the question of military funding becomes a catalyst for the
sudden and blinding realization of many hitherto stubbornly ignored realities --
human tensions and mathematical exhaustion -- which appear as largely
sufficient cause to break away from everything.

Yet this description, although entirely coherent, also seems somehow 
incomplete.  It seems to me impossible, both psychologically and because of
numerous indications, that Grothendieck truly spent twenty years in a 
state of such deadened stagnation that he sensed nothing at all of the 
many tensions and difficulties threading through an apparently seamless 
and harmonious personal and professional life.  

This simple outlook is
borne out by numerous passages of R\'ecoltes et Semailles, if they are
simply read from a slightly different angle; not purely for their content,
but with a mind to asking questions.  Like everyone else, Grothendieck is 
not above the unconscious drive to represent himself to advantage in a 
given situation, and his exceptional intelligence and sincere desire
to comprehend led him to do so in ways that are at the same time convincing
and coherent enough to carry the force of conviction.  Yet it is not
enough; the very sentences he writes, their form and their choice of
language, reveal more than the strict content.

My analysis of the process which led Grothendieck to the 1970 rupture
is as follows.  For twenty years, he did not stagnate (not in the sense
of deadened awareness), but repressed the strong currents of interest
and emotion that he naturally felt on the score of love, of his children, 
of social relationships, on friendship, and of larger and broader issues
such as ecology and politics.  This repression led to his conscious
conviction that all was perfectly well in the best possible world, but
simultaneously, of course, it led to what he later described as an 
endless, repetitive series of unrecognized and unadmitted conflicts.
Being who he was (``je connais bien la solidit\'e et la rigidit\'e de
tes convictions'' wrote Serre in 1985 check date), he would possibly have
been able to consciously force himself to continue working in this state 
of increasingly tightly contained repression to the end of his life,
driven by his obsessional sense of task and of duty.  Having invested
everything in his mathematical program, it is impossible to imagine
that he could have freely abandoned it on such a small catalyst as a matter
of a tiny amount of military funding.  The explanation is quite simply 
insufficient, as no one can fail to notice: this is the question that
Serre asks insistently: ``Pourquoi, toi, as-tu abandonn\'e ton
programme?''  

\bye
