No doubt this Semprunist Fargette[2] wants to show that the era of the Nuisances, since it has found such Encyclopedists, deserves better than the illusions of '68! When I read that X[3] is badly surrounded, I naturally think of you.[4] And since Barcelona in 1981,[5] I understand that it is my shadow that is denounced each time that someone complains of your unfortunate role.
See you soon.[1] Written on a card that accompanied a copy pf Debord's letter to Jean-Pierre Baudet dated 8 April 1987.
[2] Guy Fargette, a collaborator on The Encyclopedia of Nuisances who condemned the occupation of the Sorbonne and the erection of barricades on 6 December 1986, by supporting the thesis, spread by the media, according to which only "an irresponsible minority of nostalgic sixty-eighters" were involved, and by criticizing "several maniacs for riots." [Translator's note: see letter from Jean-Pierre Baudet to Guy Fargette dated 22 February 1987. The Encyclopedia of Nuisances was edited by Jaime Semprun, who defended Fargette and thus lost Debord's friendship.]
[3] Translator's note: in the text of this letter as it was published by Jean-Francois Martos in Correspondence with Guy Debord (Le fin de l'Histoire, Paris August 1998) -- a book that Librairie Artheme Fayard suppressed due to alledged "copyright infringement" -- this person is identified as Jean-Pierre Baudet. An explanation: in protest against the fact that Editions Fayard/Alice Debord did not include in Correspondance any of the letters addressed to Guy Debord, thereby "presenting the interlocutors of Mr Debord as reduced to mutism, and incapable of having inspired, nourished or contradicted what he expressed in his own letters," Baudet demanded on 5 April 2006 that Editions Fayard/Alice Debord not include any of the letters that Debord addressed to him between 1985 and 1989. Not only did they comply, but they also replaced any reference to "Jean-Pierre Baudet" with the letter X. For more, see Baudet's statement entitled Signed X.
[4] Translator's note: a reference to Debord's praise for Martos' distance from the pro-situ scene in Paris. See letters dated 10 January 1982 and 25 February 1982.
[5] Concerning the Segovia affair. [Translator's note: see letter dated 29 August 1981.]
(Published in Guy Debord Correspondance, Vol 6: Janvier 1979-Decembre 1987 by Librairie Artheme Fayard, 2006. Translated from the French by NOT BORED! June 2007. Footnotes by Alice Debord, except where noted.)