Guillermo[1] pleased me. He seems to have understood how it was that the "Madrid Group" was released and he is in agreement concerning the sequel, which would be along the same lines: the three worker-convicts from Barcelona and the other "autonomous groups" in which everyone is to be held for seven years, which is quite long. I love the book[2] and have read it attentively: I found only one typographical error (p. 107, eleventh line, medio should be miedo).
We are agreed that, as far as the disk[3] is concerned, it should be transferred to cassettes. We already have four more songs. Have you caught up with Mara,[4] whose voice seems to me much improved since 1975? (But what kind of Leftist is she? also what favorable effect could Artmedia have for a singer who is so little known over the course of the last twenty-five years?)
Elisabeth[5] came by one day to deposit on my doorstep copies of Segovia and the tract.[6] As if I had to occupy myself with these Iberian trifles, whereas she had no accounting to render to me from the serious surpluses of Champ Libre.[7] Alice asked her if she wanted to come in and she responded "No." Thus, nothing new after what we had said. Except perhaps this lugubrious fact that one reported to me: a little before the "crisis," she expressed regret at having broken with, the prior winter, at my request, an informer who often came to visit her!
We have analyzed very carefully the forces in play during the night of 1 January.[8] Reine is a literature attorney, thirty years old, who has come up with I don't know what thesis about my book (like Guillermo, who -- while in prison -- obtained, concerning the same text, a doctorate of political science with the most exceptional honors, above all the norms, which corresponds to the reality of the author and the exegete. . . .). Francis,[9] the supposed Corsican, wants to be a photographer. All these beautiful people discovered my "identity" a little later, towards dawn, and the diverse reactions were what you might expect. I will recount the details to you in person. That cunt from Aix-Marseille[10] surpassed himself in ineptitude, by above all trying to make everyone admit that it was especially not necessary to say to me that one had recognized me!
I have just received the Sernam payment, the disk and the "Lattes."[11] Thank you.
What day would you like to come here, towards the end of the month? Bring me the s-h funds.[12]
I hope that all goes well with Sabrina [Mesrine][13] and that she will accompany you.
Best wishes,P.S. You must still send me 6 copies of Sexby and 3 copies of Censor, Correspondence, Schade and Khayyam.[14]
As El Pais now comes directly to me from Madrid (often arriving the next day), it is quite unnecessary to send me the same issues via Paris, which has already been the case for more than a dozen days.
[1] Guillermo Gonzalez Garcia, who went to Arles after his release from Segovia.
[2] Appeals from the prison in Segovia.
[3] A collection of detourned songs of Spanish folklore to draw attention to the prisoners in Segovia.
[4] Maria Jerez, accompanied by Paco Ibanez on guitar, interpreted the Songs of Spain in the 1970s for "Songs of the World."
[5] Elisabeth Gruet.
[6] Translator's note: "To libertarians."
[7] Dispensed by the publisher (so that Elisabeth Gruet could demonstrate a professional salary and thus gain guardianship of her daughter).
[8] At Arles, at Guy Debord's house. [Translator's note: in his letter to Reine, dated 21 January 1981, Debord wrote that "we knew none of the visitors on that evening, except for Maya, whom we knew a little. We could not understand her at first glance, but quite quickly nevertheless: intelligence, which deceives itself, and confusionism, which deceives no one."]
[9] Francis Romanetti.
[10] Professor of mathematics.
[11] The Death Instinct by Jacques Mesrine, published in 1977.
[12] Translator's note: Strategic-historic, a reference to the Limited Liability Company founded so as to sell Debord's kriegspiel cabinet game.
[13] Translator's note: Jacques Mesrine's daughter.
[14] Translator's note: titles published by Champ Libre.
(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.)