I am very happy that we begin to animate the rue Saint-Sulpice:[1] the most risky of all our enterprises or the one that appears to be so at first glance.
In this well-informed newspaper,[2] I have discovered that, without being aware of it, I have employed a crowd of pseudonyms, which have certainly misled many other observers, but not these, because they so easily recognized my style. It is a privilege of the people of [good] taste. With the result that, if they have never wanted to unmask my works published under pseudonyms (nor the rest of the autonyms[3]), it is necessary to understand that this was simply due to discretion; a quality that is so esteemed everywhere and especially in a newspaper. Finally, if they published a photo that rejuvenates me to the age of twenty-nine, I believe that one must understand that, according to contemporary morals, this is a delicate flattery.
Thus, what must be said of me having been said, and in any case without having too much given in to the reassuring desire to laugh, I think that I can now happily move on to a completely different subject. I have the intention to make my next work[4] a veritable classic; at least in the sense that this means original and important. I believe that it will please you. I will reveal to you the project in its form and content very soon: when you are well.
Thanking you for all your obstinacy to date, and begging you to pursue it for a very long time, we embrace you tenderly.
Guy[1] Translator's note: the location in Paris of Editions Gerard Lebovici.
[2] Le Monde.
[3] Translator's note: automatically generated names.
[4] Panegyrique, which would be published in 1989.
(Published in Guy Debord Correspondance, Vol 7: Janvier 1988-Novembre 1994 by Librairie Artheme Fayard, 2008. Translated from the French by NOT BORED! October 2008. Footnotes by the publisher, except where noted.)