Guy Debord and the Situationist International: Texts and Documents

The Situationist International has retained a certain cache in postmodern thought. Guy Debord's concept of 'spectacle' is now widely bantered about in any discussion on the nature of consumer society. Ironically, in the eyes of the traditional left, the situationists have been seen as variously elitist, nihilistic and childishly utopian. Yet their central focus, on how consumer capitalism affects the most intimate and mundane aspects of our everyday lives, brings us right back to the essence of Marx's theory of alienation.This book gathers together previously unpublished texts and acts as a useful supplement to 'The Situationist International Anthology' edited by Ken Knabb. Fortunately for the art historian Tom McDonagh (who edits the book) and the other art historians who add complementary blurbs on the back of the jacket, most of these previously unpublished texts were written when the SI still had an enthusiasm for art. Post '63 the political came to dominate their work. This was almost a realization that they were on the defensive, that in the socio-political world of the mid-60's art as a means of authentic experience had been pushed to the margins. 'The poetry of the streets' was the only sure-fire way of taking back everyday life. This form of aggressive poetry eventually culminated in the events of May '68 in Paris.California it seems was the nemesis of the SI's Latin Quarter. The radicalism that evolved from the Beat Generation in the U.S. is dealt with by nothing but contempt by Debord and his cohorts. Freudian psychology: "We know that the unconscious imagination is poor, that automatic writing is monotonous"p.33; ecology: "...a greater domination of nature, a greater freedom."p.42; and eastern spirituality: "...the mental infirmity of American capitalist culture has enrolled in the school of Zen Buddhism"p.80 This searing revulsion of American hippie culture may have been one of the reasons the SI was so attractive to certain strains within the punk movement from Malcolm McLaren to the Gang of 4 (who's 'Natural's Not In It' is the best distillation of situationist ideas set to music).What also sets the situationists apart from the radicals within the U.S. was their unbridled enthusiasm for technology. This might seem like evidence of their utopian strain, a throwback to pre-war surrealism. But a belief that technology will eventually relieve us of unnecessary toil is an idea that goes back as least as far as the 18th century. As far as I can deduce from the early texts included here, the most impressive and imaginative of the early situationists was not Debord or even Asger Jorn, but the Dutch painter Constant Nieuwenhuys. His 'A Different City for a Different Life' is fascinating in its vision of a situationist city in a post-capitalist world. New Babylon would be constructed above ground level with most of the traffic condemned below. Moving walls, changeable spaces, climate-controlled communities, neighbourhoods designed for differ

Guy debord,progenitor of the extraordianry Situationist Internationale, was brillaint, autocratic,difficult,syncretic genius who took his own life. He first came to "notieriety" with the Letterist Internationale,the forerunner of the situationists. His greatest known work, still, is THE SOCIETY OF THE SPECTACLE, a post-modern,post-marxist analysis of modern society,which in his terms, had gone form a commodity based to spectacle based. Difficult to read, even harder to catorgorize, Debord later wote{20 years later} COMMENTS ON THE SOCIETY OF THE SPECTACLE,which further[in his mind] established the spectacle based modern capitalist society]Now This book, gorgeously if expensively produced by MIT Press, places Debord front and center.It Starts with an introductory essay by the volume editor, Tom Mc Donough, which attempts to introduce the cast of characters, sch as they were[are]. Next, a brilliant essay by Greil Marcus, who with his book Lipstick Traces brought the situationists back[for the first time to many] into view. the essays that follow are by Debord[the first 6 are}then one by Michele Bernstein[former memeber,the SI disbanded in 1972]others by the brilliant,poeticlly inclined Raoul Vaneigem[who was proably nearer to Debords intellectual level than many of the others]t j clark,libero anderotti[architecture and play, a suerb essay] among others. The book itself is very well produced,which is nice considering the price.Though incomplete[it is a reprint of the magazine OCTOBER issue on the SI} it helps fill in the missing pieces with this vital thinker and his times. Though not as complete as I would have liked{no Ralph rumney,for example,who has such interesting things to say in his book, THE CONSUL} it is another in the growing interst to the SI.Well doneIntroduction: Ideology and the Situations UtopiaThe Long Walk of the Situationist International 1The Great Sleep and Its Clients (1955) 21One Step Back (1957) 25Report on the Construction of Situations and on the Terms of Organization and Action of the International Situationist Tendency (1957) 29One More Try If You Want to Be Situationists (The SI in and against Decomposition) (1957) 51Theses on Cultural Revolution (1958) 61Contribution to the Debate "Is Surrealism Dead or Alive?" (1958) 67In Praise of Pinot-Gallizio (1958) 69Extracts from Letters to the Situationist International (1958) 75Editorial Notes: Absence and Its Costumers (1958) 79Editorial Notes: The Meaning of Decay in Art (1959) 85A Different City for a Different Life (1959) 95Editorial Notes: Critique of Urbanism (1961) 103Editorial Notes: Once Again, on Decomposition (1961) 115Comments against Urbanism (1961) 119Editorial Notes: Priority Communication (1962) 129Editorial Notes: The Avant-Garde of Presence (1963) 137Editorial Notes: All the King's Men (1963) 153The Situationists and the New Forms of Action in Politics or Art (1963) 159Perspectives for a Generation (1966) 167Captive Words - (Preface to a Situationist Dictionar