Seminar XXIV Final Sessions 1 - Lacan in Ireland

the Borromean knot [fig. V-3]. Ifyou have, if you try it twelve times,you have likewise anotherBorromean knot, which Borromeanknot is curiously not visualisedimmediately [Fig. V-4]. It hasnevertheless this character thatcontrary to the first Borromeanknot which, as you have seen justnow, passes above the one that isunderneath, since as you see, thered is above the green, underneaththe one that is underneath: that isthe principle from which theBorromean knot derives. It is infunction of this operation that theBorromean knot holds up.Likewise, in a fourfold operation,you will put one above, the other underneath, and in the same way you willoperate with underneath the one that isunderneath, you will therefore have a newBorromean knot which represents the one with12 crossovers.What is to be thought of this plait?This plait can be in space. There is no reason, inany case at the level of the ‘fourfold’ (‘quatresse’)that we cannot suppose it to be entirely suspended. The plait neverthelesscan be visualised insofar as it is flattened out. I spent another period, one thatwas supposedly reserved for holidays, exhausting myself in the same way, intrying to make function another type of Borromean knot, namely, one that wouldbe obligatorily made in space, since what I started from was not the circle as you50