Diderot’s materialist pipe dream obviously echoes his belief that death is not really an ending, but a simple shifting of forms. But this fantasy also contains a powerfully erotic message. As Diderot’s and Sophie’s bodies break down over the centuries, he imagines that his dusty remains might start to quiver and, through molecular attraction, seek out the vestiges of his mistress. True love, in this letter, functions on an atomic level. Like iron dust being attracted to a magnet, Diderot’s molecules scurry about in a quest for the carnal and intellectual joy that he had felt in an earlier
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