from Guy Debord

To Floriana Lebovici
27 July 1988
Dear Floriana:

I am very happy that we begin to animate the rue Saint-Sulpice:[1] the most risky of all our enterprises or the one that appears to be so at first glance.

In this well-informed newspaper,[2] I have discovered that, without being aware of it, I have employed a crowd of pseudonyms, which have certainly misled many other observers, but not these, because they so easily recognized my style. It is a privilege of the people of [good] taste. With the result that, if they have never wanted to unmask my works published under pseudonyms (nor the rest of the autonyms[3]), it is necessary to understand that this was simply due to discretion; a quality that is so esteemed everywhere and especially in a newspaper. Finally, if they published a photo that rejuvenates me to the age of twenty-nine, I believe that one must understand that, according to contemporary morals, this is a delicate flattery.

Thus, what must be said of me having been said, and in any case without having too much given in to the reassuring desire to laugh, I think that I can now happily move on to a completely different subject. I have the intention to make my next work[4] a veritable classic; at least in the sense that this means original and important. I believe that it will please you. I will reveal to you the project in its form and content very soon: when you are well.

Thanking you for all your obstinacy to date, and begging you to pursue it for a very long time, we embrace you tenderly.

Guy


[1] Translator's note: the location in Paris of Editions Gerard Lebovici.

[2] Le Monde.

[3] Translator's note: automatically generated names.

[4] Panegyrique, which would be published in 1989.


(Published in Guy Debord Correspondance, Vol 7: Janvier 1988-Novembre 1994 by Librairie Artheme Fayard, 2008. Translated from the French by NOT BORED! October 2008. Footnotes by the publisher, except where noted.)




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