from Guy Debord

To Edmond Buchet
4 December 1968
Dear Sir:

As you imagine, I am radically hostile to all literary prizes.[1] If you please, inform the people concerned so as to avoid a blunder. I must even confess to you that, if such an occasion arose, I would no doubt be incapable of preventing assault and battery: the young situationists, who would be outraged, would surely take themselves to the jury that had awarded such a distinction.[2]

I am grateful for your taking note, in your letter of 28 November [1968], that, in the future, foreign translations [of The Society of the Spectacle] must be verified by my attentions, and that I am opposed to any impropriety [by a translator] that might distort the meaning of the text.

Please accept, my dear sir, my distinguished salutations.

Guy Debord

[1] Edmond Buchet had asked Guy Debord: "If you would possibly accept a literary prize under the circumstances, the Saint-Beuve Prize will be awarded on 10 December [1968]. Your book might be nominated. . . ."

[2] The award was given to Madame Lucie Faure.


(Published in Guy Debord, Correspondance, Volume 3, 1965-1968. Footnotes by Alice Debord. Translated from the French by NOT BORED! September 2005.)



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