In your letter of 3 March, you informed me of a request by a Mr. Daniel BOUGNOUX, a professor of information sciences and communication at the University of Grenoble, who would like to reproduce the first chapter of The Society of the Spectacle.[2] Naturally I have very little esteem for people who ply this trade, the sinister results of which can be seen everywhere. Furthermore, I have learned that this Mr. BOUGNOUX has taken it upon himself to emphasize a certain number of new phrases that he has rudely added to those that I myself had already emphasized. The machines of Grenoble believe that everything is permitted. They are deceived, here as everywhere else. I refuse Mr. BOUGNOUX the right to indulge in his small, stupid falsifications. So as to not obligate us to write additional letters about such minimal problems, I beg you to note that it will be necessary to refuse any other requests from this thinker concerning other subjects and, in addition and for good measure, to henceforth refuse every other professor from the University of Grenoble, since this foolish university includes a single BOUGNOUX among its chair holders.
With these expectations, I beg you to accept, dear Madame, the expression of my best wishes.
Guy Debord[1] At Editions Gallimard.
[2] In an anthology in which Guy Debord would appear between Michel Serres and Jacques Derrida.
(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.)