from Guy Debord

To Mr Thierry Levy
Arles, 4 February 1985
Dear Sir:

The attorney for Minute no doubt hopes to prove the good faith of this newspaper by showing that the situationists really merited all of the insults and still others (and it is obviously for this reason that he has quoted me, by way of comparison as a kind of bluff).

The works that you cite

-- Situationism, or the New International (E. Brau)[1]
-- Run, comrade, the old world is behind you! (J.-L. Brau)[2]
-- The young lion sleeps with his teeth (Lancelot)[3]

are no doubt presented, as is sometimes done, as "authorized" writings emanating from the situationist movement. They must be recused as fantasies and journalistic compilations by people who never had any relationship with this movement. To evoke these works is an attempt to justify malevolent and previously existing inventions made by others.

If [the reference to] Internationale Situationniste is, as I think, the short work by [Jean-Jacques] Raspaud and [Jean-Pierre] Voyer published by Champ Libre,[4] the same remarks are equally applicable. This book, which is a little more objective, pleases itself by offering a "list of insulted people." Perhaps one evokes this? But each person was only reprimanded once or twice, most often by a political characterization, and naturally there is nothing in these characterizations that recall the flood of insults concentrated upon me during the last year. No one has ever made a complaint.

Finally, this last work can also evoke [the name of] the journal Internationale Situationniste, the collected edition of which was also published by Champ Libre.[5] Here, things are quite different: I edited this journal and I assumed all of the responsibility for it. One has never imputed a slander or defamation to this journal. Its last issue was published in 1969. Among the prescriptions and amnesties, it seems extravagant to cite such examples so as to balance out the unbridled and arbitrary defamations made by Minute.

I ask you to believe, dear Sir, in the expression of my best wishes.

Guy Debord

[1] Translator's note: Eliane Brau, the former Eliane Mension. Her first husband, Jean-Michel Mension, was a member of the Lettrist International, which Debord co-founded.

[2] Translator's note: Jean-Louis Brau, a former member of the Lettrist International and Eliane's second husband.

[3] Translator's note: Michel Lancelot. This book was first published in 1974.

[4] The Situationist International: Protagonists, Chronology and Bibliography (with an index of insulted names), published by Editions Champ Libre in 1972.

[5] In 1975 (reprinted by Librairie Artheme Fayard in 1997).


(Published in Guy Debord Correspondance, Vol 5: Janvier 1979-Decembre 1987 by Librairie Artheme Fayard, 2006. Translated from the French by NOT BORED! May 2007. Footnotes by Alice Debord, except where noted.)




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