Det har varit semester och det här med att blogga har fått ge vika för annat. Innan semestern funderade jag över det här med Barthes mytologier, men kommer just nu inte ihåg hur jag funderade. Jag funderade också att skriva något om Guy Debord. Och upptäckte att ämnet fyllde mig med viss leda. Inte Debord i sig, mer detta att skriva om. Dock hittade jag en intressant utläggning av Phil Edwards, som en gång planerade skriva en biografi om Debord men gav upp. När jag läste hans inlägg, påmindes jag även om alla de irriterade kontroverser som fortfarande blåser upp kring Debord, i detta fall en brevväxling mellan Edwards och Andrew Hussey, som verkligen skrivit en biografi om Debord, The game of war.
Själv tycker jag fortfarande att Andrew Merrifields bok om Debord är en av de bästa jag läst i ämnet, kanske för att den väcker känslor alldeles på egen hand. På tal om denne Merrifield vill jag dessutom varmt rekommendera dennes artikel om John Berger, The flight of the blackbird.
Och det var allt för idag.
juli 28, 2008 at 3:21 e m
Thanks for the mention, even though I’m not entirely sure what you said about my post & letters.
Merrifield on Berger is good – I might read his Debord book. I avoided reading Hussey & have managed to avoid all the others except Jappe. There’s a missing ‘r’ from your link, by the way.
Somewhere I’ve got a letter from Donald Nicholson-Smith where he says there never was a British section of the SI – I think the chronology is that first DN-S and then Clark joined in Paris, after which Charles Radcliffe and Chris Gray passed through quite rapidly (Gray never made it to Paris; I don’t think Radcliffe did either, although he was more or less on the run).
augusti 1, 2008 at 11:10 f m
Thank you for your kind reply! I usually work as a librarian and I watched out for your announced book on Debord for quite a while. My interest for the situationists started when I for some years ago stumbled upon a Swedish translation of some SI-texts. They then struck me as something completely different. Since then I have kept in touch so to speak. I do feel that they, and Debord in particular, are still worth listening to. And I have always been fascinated at how much a interest in these situationists generates; you get to places you never thought existed and you think things you never would have thought without them. All sorts of connections really. Sparks keep flying! Or something.
But there’s a lot of sour grapes to, people still tends to get quite flustered when it comes down to the “SI-legacy” and Debord in person. Somewhat irritating in my mind. But, on the other hand, I guess I am just an interested spectator. At least in this case.
And I wrote that I found your post very good and interesting, that was also the reason for me to mention it.
Thank you once more!
/Hans