Cornelius Castoriadis
Crossroads in the Labyrinth, Six-Volume Series
Crowdsourcing Feedback Version
For Castoriadis's 100th Birthday, March 11, 2022
(See Links Below)
With the knowledge and consent of the Castoriadis literary executors and the "Association Cornelius Castoriadis," Castoriadis's French Publisher, ditions du Seuil, agreed to allow the British publisher Eris to publish an English-translation of the entire six-volume Carrefours du labyrinthe series (1978-1999), with Castoriadis's longtime translator, David Ames Curtis,* as Translator/Editor, thus ostensibly breaking a quarter-century-long logjam and blacklisting.
However, while Eris's original proposal was to publish all six translations in a boxed set in time for Castoriadis's 100th birthday, March 11, 2022, this plan was undermined when the French publisher delayed for nearly a year the signature of the translation contract with Eris.
Moreover, after finally signing the contract in January 2022 and receiving payment from Eris, Le Seuil is now unilaterally blocking publication unless, to satisfy its private interests, the bibliographical information for the six volumes in translation is made to misrepresent the actual publication history of some of these translated Castoriadis texts by removing all references to their prior online publication by NOT BORED!.
Finally, despite having in their possession, for a period of more than three months, a list of potential errata for the first volume in the Carrefours du labyrinthe series, the Castoriadis Estatewhich has a moral obligation to cooperateand the "Association Cornelius Castoriadis"which has a legal obligation, according to its statutes, to cooperatehave not responded to the request to correct and/or to amend this first list and they have since then shown no indication that they will cooperate in examining and confirming or revising errata lists for the other five volumes in the series, let alone communicate any specific, constructive feedback regarding the draft translations sent thus far to Le Seuil. This, despite the fact that it is standard professional operating procedure, in the case of a translation, to work from such corrected versions of the originals, a process in which the owners of the originals bear a clear responsibility.
In order to work around this sabotage of the original plan and the roadblocks erected by lack of cooperation from those responsible for ensuring that the originals to be translated will indeed be the best renditions possible, we call on all people of good faith to cooperate in sending feedback about these "crowdsourcing" versions. To facilitate the reader's task, (1) a draft translation, (2) a list of errata, (3) another list covering a few unidentified quotations and paraphrases from authors Castoriadis cites, and (4) a highlighted version of the French original are available for immediate download.
Please send to curtis@msh-paris.fr your feedback for corrections and improvements regarding the errata and quotation lists as well as the contents. Your precious cooperation and collective intelligence will be most appreciated.
Cornelius Castoriadis. Crossroads in the Labyrinth, vol. 1.
List of errata for the French original of Carrefours du labyrinthe, tome 1.
List of unidentified quotations and paraphrases from authors Castoriadis cites, tome 1.
Highlighted version of the French original of Carrefours du labyrinthe, tome 1.
Cornelius Castoriadis. Crossroads in the Labyrinth, vol. 2: Human Domains (forthcoming).
Cornelius Castoriadis. Crossroads in the Labyrinth, vol. 3: World in Fragments (forthcoming).
Cornelius Castoriadis. Crossroads in the Labyrinth, vol. 4: The Rising Tide of Insignificancy (forthcoming).
Cornelius Castoriadis. Crossroads in the Labyrinth, vol. 5: Done and To Be Done (forthcoming).
Cornelius Castoriadis. Crossroads in the Labyrinth, vol. 6: Figures of the Thinkable (forthcoming).
*"David [Ames Curtis] est un traducteur comme on en rencontre rarement, consciencieux l'extrme, vrifiant inlassablement tout ce qu'il fait, n'hsitant jamais demander l'avis des auteurs sur ce qui peut poser problme dans les textes sur lesquels il travaille. Il a maintenant traduit six volumes de mes crits, qui ont t publis par la University Press of Minnesota, par la Oxford University Press, par la Stanford University Press et par Blackwell's. Pierre Vidal-Naquet, dont il a galement traduit et publi plusieurs ouvrages et qui, philologue de mtier, est d'une exigence scolastique sur l'exactitude et la prcision des expressions, ne tarit pas d'loges sur son compte." Cornelius Castoriadis, 19 July 1997.