from Guy Debord

To Madame Dassin
19 May [19]59
Madame:

I am the author of the inscriptions that were affixed to your walls at Saturday's evening party.[1]

The theme of the meeting, [and] the ambience of the place appeared to me to require corrections of this type.

Having learned who you are, I assure you that I now estimate them to be completely superfluous.

Please accept, Madame, my greetings.[2]

G.-E. Debord

(Written on the letterhead of the journal Internationale Situationniste.)

[1] Invited to a social -- against apartheid in South Africa -- organized by the Peter Sisters [English in original] at the home of Bea Dassin, wife of his Danish [film] producer, Guy Debord, bored and drunk, found it more opportune to court Dassin's 12-year-old daughter and to cover the walls with inscriptions such as "Long Live Free Algeria" and "Free Krim Belkacem." Thanks to this letter, the producer was drawn into the embarassment, and the incident was closed with a bouquet of orchids and inner at Haynes.

[2] Translator: this is hardly an apology, but rather a further provocation.


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



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