Can you publish the text that I’ve enclosed?

[1] Publisher’s note: on 30 September 1976, André Migeot addressed the following letter to Gérard Lebovici.

Sir,

I have just received the check you sent me and I have collected the 40 copies of the book provided for in the contract (I must have about 20 with errata). Could you indicate the approximate number of points of sale in Paris and the provinces, and keep me regularly up-to-date concerning the critiques that might be published in the press or elsewhere, each time giving me precise references? Furthermore, I don’t want to allow myself to be approached too easily, and thus I intend to not meet anyone, first of all because I wish to keep the initiative for my actions and what these actions truly speak of, and then because I think that I will be judged at least as much on my “moral” attitude as on the text itself, which doesn’t displease me, and finally because it would no doubt be quite a shame if this text struck a blow for nothing: there are so many people today who speak of revolution that it depends on each one to be taken seriously. To conclude, I would like to thank the entire team at Champ Libre for the manner in which the publication of this book was done, because I am not at all sure that things would have gone as smoothly with other publishers. Sincerely yours [André Migeot].

[2] Author of two books published by Champ Libre: Manuel relatif aux Conditions et aux Possibilités actuelles du Jeu de l'Histoire (1976) and De la Manière de s'imposer dans le monde (1978).

How can you think that I could publish a text as lamentable as the one you have sent to me, which presents itself as a bad parody of your previous writings?

I return your text to you.

I have just received your letter.

In the meantime, I have undertaken to completely re-work my text, because believing that I am not at all disposed to publish just anything, which moreover – and from whatever point of view that one places oneself – would be the least irrational thing to do in my case.

If I sent you a text that was in a bad condition, this was because, for reasons that only concern me, it was necessary for me to express myself as quickly as possible on the theme in question. Thus I wrote it very quickly and from diverse notes made during the preceding months. But I also imagine that a publisher does not enter into such considerations and that he must have texts that are good right away.

Could you publish this text – re-worked and re-thought – that I have enclosed?

I do not have a better opinion of the second version of your text that you have sent me – although it was “re-worked and re-thought” – and notably the poor lines that you’ve dedicated to the cinema and to the film La Société du Spectacle [in particular].

No, it isn’t you who will say and show that Guy Debord’s films are assuredly among the most innovative and devastating works in the entire history of the cinema.

[1] On 27 August 1979, André Migeot responded and continued to lobby for the publication of his third book. Gérard Lebovici didn’t respond.

(Published in Editions Champ Libre, Correspondance, Vol. 2, Editions Champ Libre, Paris, 1981. Translated from the French and footnoted, except where noted, by NOT BORED! August 2012.)