The article in Liberation,[1] beyond its amusing, even flattering aspects, shows that a stage has been passed in an operation that will go much further. The venomous revelations already go far. I would if this does not call for some kind of response (which would in fact be destined to figure in volume II of Correspondence). We must speak about it.
The translation of C.C.W.[2] is completed but I must re-read it, with the result that Arcana[3] still has not paid for its rashness in 1978. Here are the Italian press clippings about the Vallechi edition.[4] The most interesting is the Stalinist from Paese sera, who evokes my preface (because the Historic Compromise has been paralyzed for 14 months). He wants to allow me ownership of the spirit of May 1968, now that it has been surpassed by "differentialist" struggles -- women, ecologists and terrorists, I suppose. To him, the most obviously dusty aspect is the fact that I work from a Hegelian-Marxist base. Such a base has always been badly seen, by Lenin as well as by Kautsky. Only Bakunin accepted it. But I rather like my definition by another newspaper: "Poet without poetry, without scruples, theoretician of the surpassing of art and the abolition of work, a self-avowed filmmaker . . . " I find that being designated as "without scruples" by someone in Italy today is to be placed at the heights of a Borgia, at least.
I await the last round of proofs of Manrique[5]: I will indicate the mistakes by telephone, if they are not too numerous.
I ask you to bring me the funds, because they begin to be lacking.
See you soon. Best wishes,[1] "Profession: impresario, veritable Guignolo," by Gilbert Rochu (Liberation, 26 March 1980). [Translator's note: Le Guignolo (The Puppet) was a film by Georges Lautner and produced by Lebovici's company.]
[2] In Italian, by Paolo Salvadori. [Translator's note: Debord's Complete Cinematographic Works.]
[3] See letter dated 12 November 1978.
[4] The Society of the Spectacle, preceded by Preface to the Fourth Italian Edition of "The Society of the Spectacle," both translated by Paolo Salvadori (Florence, 1979).
[5] Stanzas on the death of his father, translated from the Castellan by Guy Debord (finished at the printer on 25 April 1980, and reprinted at the end of 1995 by Editions Le Temps qu'il fait).
(Published in Guy Debord Correspondance, Vol 6: Janvier 1979-Decembre 1987 by Librairie Artheme Fayard, 2006. Translated from the French by NOT BORED! April 2007. Footnotes by Alice Debord, except where noted.)