from Guy Debord

To Jean-Jacques Pauvert
5 June 1993
Dear Jean-Jacques:


The strikes have delayed our usually slow mail service. I read your letter of 30 May. I see that you still haven't received mine, dated the 27th and important. I hope that you have received it by now and sent a copy to Annie. (I have seen Antoine [Gallimard] since then and my conclusions are favorable.)

I have received the Archiloqus,[1] thanks. But not the Thiers.[2]

Concerning Memoires,[3] the cover must indeed be changed! One could limit oneself to making a nice "normal" cover, a photographic negative of the deformed title (collapsing) that had previously appeared on the inside. One could change the format by reducing it down. The important thing is that it remains readable; the extreme measure of the difficulty of doing so will be set by the final phrase: "I want to speak the beautiful language of my century." I suppose that the techniques of reproduction have made very great progress over the years. It must now be easy to have the color come out nicely; it had been variable in the first printing.

I believe it would be good to reprint a situ[ationist] text that was written by me: "The Decline and Fall of the Spectacular Market Economy" (1966).[4] It is approximately 30,000 words about the uprising in Los Angeles, which has recurred since then.[5] This must evoke the centuries in which there were many revolutionary pamphlets.

We will envision the rest together. Come when you like. Before 15 July, I expect no one other than Annie [Le Brun], about whom I have no news. She could speak to you directly.

Cordially,
Guy

[1] Translator's note: ancient Greek lyric poet.

[2] Adolphe Thiers, Du communisme (reprint of 1849 edition by the "Archives of Ideology Collection," begun by Jean-Jacques Pauvert at Editions du Terrain vague.

[3] Which Jean-Jacques Pauvert would reprint in November 1993 through Editions Belles Lettres.

[4] Which Jean-Jacques Pauvert would reprint in October 1993.

[5] Translator's note: the so-called Rodney King riots.


(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, except where noted.)




To Contact NOT BORED!
Info@notbored.org