Guy Debord and the Situationist International: Texts and Documents (October Books)

Book Description

This volume is a revised and expanded version of a special issue of the journal October (Winter 1997) that was devoted to the work of the Situationist International (SI). The first section of the issue contained previously unpublished critical texts, and the second section contained translations of primary texts that had previously been unavailable in English. The emphasis was on the SI's profound engagement with the art and cultural politics of their time (1957-1972), with a strong argument for their primarily political and activist stance by two former members of the group, T. J. Clark and Donald Nicholson-Smith.

Guy Debord and the Situationist International supplements both sections. It reprints important, hard-to-find essays by Giorgio Agamben, Libero Andreotti, Jonathan Crary, Thomas Y. Levin, Greil Marcus, and Tom McDonough and doubles the number of translations of primary texts, which now encompass a broader and more representative range of the SI's writings on culture and language. In a field still dominated by hagiography, the critical texts were selected for their willingness to confront critically the history and legacy of the SI. They examine the group within the broader framework of the historical and neo-avant-gardes and, beyond that, the postwar world in general. The translations trace the SI's reflections on the legacy of the avant-garde in art and architecture, particularly on the linguistic and spatial significance of montage aesthetics. Many of the translated works are by Guy Debord (1932-1994), the impresario of the SI, especially known for his book The Society of the Spectacle.

Customer Reviews:

ridiculous, pedantic, wrong.......2006-02-14

Skip this book and buy instead "The Situationist International: A User's Guide" by Simon Ford.

Tom McDonough's book embodies the worst aspects of contemporary academic re-appropriation of the Situationist movement. Don't put money into the hands of the people who did this (MIT press in case you were wondering, the providers of pseudo-hip cyber-semiotic fuel for the new glamor class of academia).

You can expect extremely complex scholarly arguments here which ultimately say one thing: "you the self-satisfied reader may rely on us the self-satisfied academics to dismantle and completely wash away any tendencies in the material under consideration which might in any way jostle or disturb the tranquility of your self-satisfaction."

The only interesting piece in this collection is an interview with Henri Lefebvre, author of "Critique of Everyday Life", who was involved with the situationists in the 1960s. In this interview Lefebvre spreads memories around like peanut butter, melding and stretching the past to the surprizing conclusion that he himself, not the situationists, was the instigator of the 1968 uprisings.

Revolution in the service of poetry.......2003-10-30

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 different individual emotions and the creation of a variety of environments to facilitate chance encounters. What could be a greater experimental realization of Marx's dictum that consiousness is shaped by environment?

Constant's early technological optimism contrasts sharply with Debord's later political pessimism. For by the mid-60's it was clear that not only would imaginative and non-alienating uses of technology not be on the horizon, but that a stronger defensive must be made for existing environments that were about to be totally consumed for capitalist techne. One is reminded of New York's Parks Commissioner Robert Moses and his hubristic schemes to run expressways through every borough of New York. When it finally came to running one through bohemian Lower Manhatten, an anti-Moses action group was formed to put a stop to the idea of motorwaying old communal neighbourhoods into the ground. As such maybe 'derives' are still possible in Lower Manhatten?

In Mustapha Khayati's 'Captive Words', there seems to be a slight acknowledgement of some structualist arguments that were bandied around at the time, "Power resides in language, which is the refuge of its police violence."p.174 Detournement - the situationist subversion of the signifier - was probably the most powerfully striking method of conveying dialectical conflict in the later 20th century. Khayati looks back to the dadaists in whom "the innocence of words was....consciously attacked."p.175 The situationists sought to challenge traditional signifieds by constant subversion of popular signifiers. This attack on comfortable images provoked an immediate questioning of received meanings. Their natural artistic sympathies were with the European avant-garde but they also disavowed much of it due to its often political ambiguity and its sometime outright reactionary nature. In the words of Greil Marcus "The situationist program....came down to Lautreamont and workers councils."p.14

Of the essays on the SI, Jonathan Crary's 'Spectacle, Attention, Counter-Memory', proved to be more than a little contentious, if all the more illuminating for it. He takes a sentence from Debord's 'Comments on the Society of the Spectacle' written in 1988 in which he states that when he wrote the original back in 1967, the spectacle was barely 40 years old. Crary then theorizes on what Debord meant by placing the beginning of the spectacle in 1927 or around the late 20's. He gives a number of insightful reasons, including 1: 1927 saw the technological perfection of television; 2: 'The Jazz Singer' premiered in 1927 and saw the birth of synchronized sound; 3: The rise of facism in the late 20's and its emphasis on using all available mediums to propogate its ideas.

I leave you with Theo Frey's vision of our Internet future written in 1966(!) "Henceforth a universal communication network supresses the distance between things while increasing the distance between people, the future solution will consist in making people circulate less and information circulate more. People will stay at home, transformed into mere audiovisual 'receivers' of information."p.170

Excellent,long overdue study of this brilliant difficult man.......2002-09-26

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 Utopia
The Long Walk of the Situationist International 1
The Great Sleep and Its Clients (1955) 21
One Step Back (1957) 25
Report on the Construction of Situations and on the Terms of Organization and Action of the International Situationist Tendency (1957) 29
One More Try If You Want to Be Situationists (The SI in and against Decomposition) (1957) 51
Theses on Cultural Revolution (1958) 61
Contribution to the Debate "Is Surrealism Dead or Alive?" (1958) 67
In Praise of Pinot-Gallizio (1958) 69
Extracts from Letters to the Situationist International (1958) 75
Editorial Notes: Absence and Its Costumers (1958) 79
Editorial Notes: The Meaning of Decay in Art (1959) 85
A Different City for a Different Life (1959) 95
Editorial Notes: Critique of Urbanism (1961) 103
Editorial Notes: Once Again, on Decomposition (1961) 115
Comments against Urbanism (1961) 119
Editorial Notes: Priority Communication (1962) 129
Editorial Notes: The Avant-Garde of Presence (1963) 137
Editorial Notes: All the King's Men (1963) 153
The Situationists and the New Forms of Action in Politics or Art (1963) 159
Perspectives for a Generation (1966) 167
Captive Words - (Preface to a Situationist Dictionary) (1966) 173
The Situationists and the New Forms of Action against Politics and Art (1967) 181
The Practice of Theory: Cinema and Revolution (1969) 187
Asger Jorn's Avant-Garde Archives 189
Architecture and Play 213
Situationist Space 241
Lefebvre on the Situationists: An Interview 267
Angels of Purity 285
Difference and Repetition: On Guy Debord's Films 313
Dismantling the Spectacle: The Cinema of Guy Debord 321

Spectacle, Attention, Counter-Memory 455
Why Art Can't Kill the Situationist International 467
Letter and Response 489

RELATED TITLES

* Comments on the Society of the Spectacle (The Verso Classics Series) by Guy Debord

* The Situationist City by Simon Sadler
* Situationist International Anthology by Ken Knabb
* Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the 20th Century by Greil Marcus * The Tribe by Jean-Michel Mension, Donald Nicholson-Smith (Translator)
* May '68 and Its Afterlives by Kristin Ross
* Considerations on the Assassination of Gérard Lebovici by Guy Debord, Robert Greene
Revolution of Everyday Life
by Raoul Vaneigem)
* Beneath the Paving Stones: Situationists and the Beach, May 1968

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Guy Debord and the Situationist International: Texts and Documents
Tom (ed.) McDonough
Manufacturer: The MIT Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OQD04S

Book Description

This volume features the never-before-published prints of corrupt politicians, gangsters, Hebrew sages, fascist generals, mythological figures, and much more by the major American artist and social commentator, Jack Levine. Plate-by-plate commentaries. Introduction. Biographical Outline. 84 black-and-white illustrations.

The Complete Graphic Work of Jack Levine

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The Complete Graphic Work of Jack Levine
Kenneth W. & Emma-Stina PRESCOTT
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000KPF9PG

Customer Reviews:

Relaxing read while passing the time.......2002-11-12

I read this book while visiting Bobobudur over 4 days. It perfectly suited the relaxing atmosphere of my vacation.

The first few sections are devoted to the history and the archaeology of the site. Each successive chapters are devoted to the bas reliefs which tell 3 major stories of Buddhist texts.

Personally, I found the latter sections on the stories harder to follow since the books only gives bits and pieces of the story (and sometimes the photo illustrations, which are in great abundance, do not follow the text) and I am not at all versed in these stories. I would have much preferred
a more detailed book on the history and archaeology of the monument. But perhaps that is more difficult to come by because it is not a deeply studied area.

But I think the photographs more than make up for any perceived deficiencies on my part. Each page has at least one big photo which occupies half of the page and that makes it a great coffee table book to browse.

Golden Tales of the Buddhas.......2000-05-01

An excellent book that summarises Borobudur's past and archaeological symbolism. It is a light and informative read of the ancient Buddhist monument in Central Java. The photography is excellent, with lots of close ups of the reliefs. Very often you get whole pages of pictures which tell a story of their own. It's really worth buying this because you'll definitely read it more than once.

Ageless Borobudur: Buddhist mystery in stone, decay and restoration, Mendut and Pawon, folklife in ancient Java

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Ageless Borobudur: Buddhist mystery in stone, decay and restoration, Mendut and Pawon, folklife in ancient Java
August Johan Bernet Kempers
Manufacturer: Servire
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

The Mysteries of Borobudur: Discover Indonesia Series

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A Compact Introduction to Borobudur

The Mysteries of Borobudur: Discover Indonesia Series
John Miksic
Manufacturer: Periplus Editions (Hk)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Guidebooks | Reference & Tips | Travel | Subjects | Books

Tourist Destinations & Museums | Reference & Tips | Travel | Subjects | Books

Southeast | Asia | Travel | Subjects | Books

General | Travel | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 9625931988

Book Description

Discover Indonesia: The Mysteries of Borobudur is a comprehensive guide to the ultimate Buddhist monument of Borobudur, a glorious nin-century stupa in the lush Kedu Plain of Central Java in Indonesia, visited annually by over a million people.

Customer Reviews:

A Compact Introduction to Borobudur.......2000-04-17

This well-illustrated book on Borobudur serves only as a light introduction to a more in-depth study on the Buddhist temple. Each chapter spans two-pages long, and considering that the book measures only 9x6," each chapter goes by quickly. Think "Borobudur in 10 minutes."

Because the author has perhaps chosen to limit each chapter to two pages (including the photographic illustrations), he could only go so far on the number of symbolism in the temple's reliefs and the history of the temple. Still, the book provides a light and wonderful introduction to the majestic Prayer in Stone" by Soekmono, Casparis, Dumarcay (ISBN 2878680049), and "Borobudur" by Nou and Frederic (ISBN 0789201348.) Both are filled with photographs, but the latter has more text and a catalog of all the reliefs in the temple.

"The Mysteries of Borobudur" happens to be part of a series in Periplus' "Discover Indonesia." One might want to check out (ISBN 962-593-196-1,) and Balinese Architecture (ISBN 962-593-194-5,) both by Davison and Granquist. END

Average customer rating:

You won't be boring to read this book

Borobudur: The Buddhist Legend in Stone
Bedrich Forman
Manufacturer: Smithmark Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0706414446

Customer Reviews:

You won't be boring to read this book.......1997-04-11

This book telling You about the history of Borobudur that's based on Buddhis

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Barabudur: Archaeological Description
Nicolaas J. Krom
Manufacturer: Ams Pr Inc
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Southeast Asia | Asia | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0404167500

Barabudur: History and Significance of a Buddhist Monument. Ed by Luis O. Gomez. Based on Conf Held May 1974 at the University of Michigan (253p#)

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Barabudur: History and Significance of a Buddhist Monument. Ed by Luis O. Gomez. Based on Conf Held May 1974 at the University of Michigan (253p#)
Gomez
Manufacturer: Asian Humanities Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Other Eastern Religions | Religion & Spirituality | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0895811510

Book Description

Barabudur, on the island of Java, is one of the world's most impressive religious structures. This collection of papers by an international group of scholars attempts to put into perspective the current theories and latest information about Barabudur.

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BOROBUDUR
Dr. Heide Theisen
Manufacturer: no imprint
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000NG4SOA

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Borobudur
A. J. Bernet Kempers
Manufacturer: N. V. Servire/Wassenaar
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000QV5Y54

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Borobudur
Jacques Dumarcay , and Soekmono
Manufacturer: Thames & Hudson Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Architecture | Professional & Technical | Subjects | Books

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Borobudur
Jürgen D Wickert
Manufacturer: Intermasa
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0007C0YS4

Book Description

Grimmy is back! And hes on a rampage of laughs. Grimmy is the irresistible, devilishly charming, witty and highly opinionated hero of the enormously popular comic strip, Mother Goose and Grimm. Mother Goose and Grimm is part of an extensive licensing program that produces more than 100 different Grimmy products. Mother Goose and Grimm consistently appears in the top five most read categories in newspaper surveys.

Customer Reviews:

Blows the other out of the water.......2000-08-08

This is by far the best of the Peters collection. With it's brilliant colors and new y2k design, it takes you on yet another Grimmy trip. The man just doesn't seem to have an end to his wit and charm. Way to go.

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Grimmy: The Revenge of Grimzilla!
Mike Peters
Manufacturer: Tor Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OTQESO

Book Description

"Low Profile" is the autobiography of Frank Herrmann, author, publisher, one-time director of Sotheby's, and founder of Bloomsbury Book Auctions. This unique work offers a tantalizing, behind-the-scenes look into the hidden worlds of Herrmann's life.

Beginning with his early years as a book designer at Faber (publishers of TS Eliot), the author goes on to share his experiences working for firms who published Beatrix Potter and Ernest Shepard (illustrator of A A Milne's books). From this exposure, Herrmann began to write his first works. He soon published a long history of art collecting in England and then was asked to compile the history of Sotheby's. Subsequently, he became an advisor and then later director of Sotheby's overseas operations. In interesting detail, the author describes his stormy career at Sotheby's. Shortly thereafter, he founded his own publishing comapny and antiquarian book auction house.

Book Description

This digital document is an article from Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada, published by Bibliographical Society of Canada on March 22, 2003. The length of the article is 1059 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Citation Details
Title: Frank Herrmann. Low Profile: a Life in the World of Books.(Book Review) (book review)
Author: Marie Korey
Publication: Papers of the Bibliographical Society of Canada (Refereed)
Date: March 22, 2003
Publisher: Bibliographical Society of Canada
Volume: 41 Issue: 1 Page: 121(3)

Article Type: Book Review

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Customer Reviews:

Amazing!!.......2002-03-29

This is A Great Book about mordern day homesteading....Its about a Couple and a Brother traveling to Alaska in The 50's because of the homesteading act...It Tells the trails and tribulations the couple and brother had will suriviving in wildness like people experianced in the 1800s....I DEFINATLY WOULD GET THIS BOOK!!!!...

Homesteading in the Kenai-Homer area of Alaska

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Homesteading in the Kenai-Homer area of Alaska
Walt Pedersen
Manufacturer: W. Pedersen
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0007JWI5Y

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