You really must be a piece of shit to dare to respond to us with something as stupid as your letter of 5 December [1977], after the just reproaches that we addressed to you.[2]
If it really was the first time in your "long professional career" that you experienced such a misfortune, it must be that this "long professional career" unfolded under Francoism. That is all over now. We do not know if you are a bigger liar than your translator, or the inverse: it is certainly not by chance that you work together.
The contradictions of your letter -- which we will publish -- will suffice to judge you, even in the eyes of a child educated under Francoism. You know well, you piece of shit, that the Argentineans have already translated The Society of the Spectacle, since it was mentioned in the 1974 edition published by Champ Libre and since your contract with Champ Libre was dated 5 July 1976. The Argentineans were pirate publishers, without availing themselves -- as you have done -- of an exclusive right that they do not in fact possess; thus you are no better than them, but worse, since you have not produced a translation that is as exact as theirs: a third, better translation will be authorized in Spain.
Because you know other pirates have published this book and because, at the same time, you have ignored them, you can thus claim that you are free from "legalist and rigorist" obligations to have the translation verified by the author.
Bullshit!
We return to you your two thousands francs.[3] Your mother.
Guy Debord, Gerard Lebovici[1] The Spanish publisher of The Society of the Spectacle.
[2] Cf. Editions Champ Libre Correspondance, volume I, pp. 135-143.
[3] To pay for the translation rights.
(Published in Guy Debord Correspondance, Vol 5: Janvier 1973-Decembre 1978 by Librairie Artheme Fayard, 2005. Translated from the French by NOT BORED! April 2007. Footnotes by Alice Debord.)