I read with great interest the book by your friend Georges Laffly.[1] The Catholic extremists are the only ones who seem sympathetic to me; Leon Bloy especially. This is the type of book that one rarely finds: it has the air of perfect sincerity. Furthermore, I find that he treats me very well. From the author's point of view, it is coherent that he attributes so many misfortunes to the disappearance of God; and I would certainly not say that it is improbable that everything will end up in some abominable "best of all possible worlds."[2] But finally we have embarked. Isn't it in our nature [essence] to be imprudent?
That my names "circulates freely in the most official milieus" seems to me to be a quite dubious advantage. I do not believe that mankind progresses, not these days, in any case. I think that it has been liberated from many things, but surely not the most redoubtable. I hardly believe in participating in the objective complicity of the Godless who would have me pass just above the censorship line. It could be that, having considerably limited the distribution of my writings in the new artificial conditions, one [now] considers me to be, in sum, very sufficient proof of the "fact" that censorship no longer exists. Besides, I have disconcerted the thinking of a slightly simplistic adversary, because I really have no ambitions.
Alice's book greatly displeases. The masters of illiteracy[2] are extremely vexed because they hadn't thought of it [first].
I regret that you cannot spend a week-end [3] in the little chateau[4] that we squat every winter. Perhaps next winter?
Many good wishes,[1] Mes livres politiques. [Translator: Of course, Georges Laffly was a right-wing journalist and author, and so Debord's expression "your friend" was meant sardonically. Laffly's book was published in 1992. He died in 2008.]
[2] Allusion to Ricardo Paseyro's book, Eulogy for Illiteracy.
[3] Translator's note: English in original.
[4] In Normandy.
(Published in Guy Debord Correspondance, Vol 7: Janvier 1988-Novembre 1994 by Librairie Artheme Fayard, 2008. Translated from the French by NOT BORED! June 2009. Footnotes by the publisher, except where noted.)