Guy Debord

Guy Debord

For decades, Guy Debord's The Society of the Spectacle was only available in English in a so-called "pirate" edition published by Black & Red, and its informative—perhaps essential—critique of modern society languished in the sort of obscurity familiar to political radicals and the avant-garde. Originally published in France in 1967, it rarely receives more than passing mention in some of the fields most heavily influenced by its ideas—media studies, social theory, economics, and political science. A new translation by Donald Nicholson-Smith issued by Zone Books last year, however, may finally bring about some well-deserved recognition to the recently-deceased Debord. Society of the Spectacle has been called "the Capital of the new generation," and the co mparison bears investigation. Debord's intention was to provide a comprehensive critique of the social and political manifestations of modern forms of production, and the analysis he offered in 1967 is as authoritative now as it was then. Comprised of nin e chapters broken into a total of 221 theses, Society of the Spectacle tends toward the succinct in its proclamations, favoring polemically poetic ambiguities over the vacuous detail of purely analytical discourse. There is, however, no shortage of justif ication for its radical claims. Hegel finds his place, Marx finds acclaim and criticism, Lenin and Rosa Luxemburg add their contributions, and Debord's own insights are convincingly argued. It becomes evident quite quickly that Debord has done his homewor k—Society of the Spectacle is no art manifesto in need of historical or theoretical basis. Debord's provocations are supported where others would have failed. The first chapter, "Separation Perfected," contains the fundamental assertions on which much of Debord's influence rests, and the very first thesis, that the whole of life of those societies in which modern conditions of production prevail presents itself as...

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