6 Given in 1955, written in 1956, published in 1957, it is in 1966 that the Seminar receives its place at the head of the Ecrits , following an order which, although no longer chronological, perhaps is not simply derived from the theoretico-didactic system. This order could organize, perhaps, a certain scene of the Ecrits . In any event, the necessity of this priority finds itself confirmed, recalled, and underlined by the presentation of the Ecrits in the "Points " collection (1970): ". . . the text which maintains the gateway post that it has elsewhere will be essayed . . ." For whoever might wish to limit the import of the questions asked here, nothing prevents their being contained in the place which its "author" gives the Seminar: gateway post. "Le poste [in the sense of position] differs from la poste [in the sense of mail] only by gender," says Littre. [An explanation of the various editions and translations of Lacan: Derrida refers throughout to the two French editions of Lacan's Ecrits , the complete one-volume edition (Paris: Seuil, 1966), and the two-volume selection, with a new preface by Lacan, published in the "Points " collection (Paris: Editions de Minuit, 1970). I will refer to the former throughout as Ecrits (F), and to the latter as Points . The English version, a selection, also called Ecrits , translated by Alan Sheridan (New York: Norton, 1977), will be referred to as Ecrits (E). The latter volume does not contain the "Seminar," which is why I refer to the Mehlman translation here. In his translator's note, Alan Sheridan states that the selection of essays for the English Ecrits is Lacan's own'' (p. vii ). Thus, for reasons to be determined, something has changed: the ''Seminar'' no longer has the gatewas post that Lacan previously had emphasized, and, as just stated, does not appear in the volume at all.]