I rejoice in all these fortunate coincidences, and I hope that they will multiply. I remember that Cieszkowski was one of them. You will surely not be disappointed by reading it, and I am happy to know about the head he had.[1] To tell the truth, I was surprised at first: because it is him, one immediately places him in the "Socratic" category, but if he was another man, perhaps one would think he was a criminal idiot.
I admire the richness of the information accumulated in your American libraries. If it will be necessary to remake the world, one will not lack the materials. Whereas the poor Russians can only make use of a samizdat edition of The Society of the Spectacle that only includes 16 theses, of which several are incomplete . . . [2] Since my malevolence spares neither East nor West, I also announce to you that gloomy Gorbachev -- that maladroit person who unleashed revolutions everywhere he had the imprudence to go -- ended up falsifying vodka, which had never been "soviet" but which was until recently real vodka.
I am drafting for you a particular text to clarify the history, until now almost unknown, of the "Theses of Hamburg." I believe that it merits from being so.
I desire that, beyond the cinema, you also become the definitive authority on the entirety of the situationist adventure, of which [Greil] Marcus only treated the beginnings, or even my complete works, if the teaching of Plato does not detain you for too long. In these domains, I will not be obliged to place so many obstacles before you as on the cinematographic terrain! Perhaps you can envision which contracts with American publishers would be desirable for certain publications? In this moment, one can see a strange "success" declare itself on several different terrains. Simultaneously, I must worry about certain unfortunate circumstances, which perhaps might be susceptible of altering (I don't know when) the admirable manner in which Editions Lebovici has functioned until now.[3] We will speak of all this in December. Tell us as soon as possible the day on which you will arrive in Paris.
Receive our greetings,[1] According to the engraving that illustrated the Polish edition of the Prolegomena to Historiosophy.
[2] In 2000, a translation of The Society of the Spectacle and the Comments on the Society of the Spectacle was published in Moscow.
[3] Translator's note: a reference to the sons of Gerard and Floriana Lebovici.
(Published in Guy Debord Correspondance, Vol 7: Janvier 1988-Novembre 1994 by Librairie Artheme Fayard, 2008. Translated from the French by NOT BORED! December 2008. Footnotes by the publisher, except where noted.)