from Guy Debord

To Asger Jorn
11 July 1959
Dear Asger:

Today I sent you an issue of Temps Modernes in which there is an interesting article that is relevant to your work on value. It is "Reification," by Lucien Goldmann.

In independent Marxist thought, Goldmann is very important and original. He is still relatively unknown. But his influence is destined to spread very quickly.

If your brochure [Critique of Political Economy] presents a critique of Goldmann that touches on the same themes as you do -- and, if possible, a critique of the book by [Georgs] Lukacs[1] that you can read in German (here in France Lukacs becomes very fashionable) -- this would be a very useful element of your exposition. But especially if you reach an agreement with Goldmann's conceptions, this would be very positive, at least for our relationship with the Parisian intelligentsia.

Have you news about Memoires? At Gugusse[2] or elsewhere? I now have need, not only of Wittenborn[3] but also of a library that can diffuse copies of it in Argentina. Same thing for On Form.

I still haven't received the American films! At the moment, the time I've lost isn't very serious, since the film [On the passage of several people through a short unity of time] didn't come out in June and can now only be released in October. But I am worried by the possible reasons for this delay -- and by the duration it can still have.

If you pass through Milan, can you find a good (non-"nuclear"[4]) library to be the unique depository in Italy for the [situationists'] journal?

Cordially yours,
Guy

[1] History and Class Consciousness.

[2] Augustinci.

[3] Georges Wittenborn, Inc., distributor and editor of art in New York.

[4] Not tied to the members of the Movimento dell'Arte Nucleare [Movement for a Nuclear Art].


(Published in Guy Debord, Correspondance, Volume 1, 1957-1960. Footnotes by Alice Debord. Translated from the French by NOT BORED! May 2005.)



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