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by Anselm Jappe.
Translated from the French by Donald Nicholson-Smith
with a Foreword by T. J. Clark and a new afterward by the Author
University of California Press, Berkeley CA, USA 1999.
190 pp. Reviewed by Molly Cox, E-mail: mollybh@netspace.net.au


This superb addition to a growing body of biography on Debord, by independent scholar, Anselm Jappe is an excellent text.Jappe has managed, with significant passion, to recuperate the historic figure of Guy Debord from the clutches of mainstream thought in which "situationism" is often currently passed off as a trendy form of rebellion. Debord and his contemporaries refused the idea of their work becoming any '-ism' just as they refused to become leaders after 1968 when their followers wanted to follow. It is a tragedy that discourses as central to the last 35 years as that generated by the Situationist Internationale (1961-1972) should be so ameliorated in knowledge-production. This book, alternatively, is an intellectually, qualitative account of Debord's life and thought from his early sympathies with the hypergraphic "anti-art" Lettristes to his filmmaking;through the active years of the SI; to his death and after. The text traces major ideas in Debord's theory, from the concept of the spectacle to prospects for revolutionaryaction, to their attacks on French culture, amply contextualizing him as a theoretician, within the context of European intellectual debates and historic events. >From the arrivalof post-war reconstructions of Paris to May 1968 to his televised "farewell" message 'Son Art et Son Temps" in the 1990's--(Debord's last film made with Brigitte Cornand), the Debord myth is unveiled.

Jappe puts Debord within the European Hegelian-Marxist tradition, as an "heir" to George Lukacs, examining the influence of texts such as 'History and Class Consciousness' on the young Debord as well as discussing indepth, Debord's long encounters with the Lettristes International and to a lesser degree, the influence of art movements and artists such as the Dadaists, Asger Jorn, the architect Constant, modernism, and Arthur Rimbaud on both Debord and members of the SI.

Jappe's clear fondness and sympathy for the art and times of Guy Debord and the S I, shines through long, lusciously-detailed chapters commenting on the writer's style, politics, and collaborators within European political traditions from anarchy to socialism. The author traces, for example, Debord's extensive relationship with the German group SPUR, members of the SI, ( who were booted out); to his intersection with 'Socialism ou Barbarie' and the eponymous publication; and with the prolific and difficult theorist, Henri Lefebre. In Jappe's text, Debord's intellectual differences are fleshed out in critical, historically-vibrant writing which portrays the artist as a man determined to express the conflict he felt with the world around him.

Jappe's text is an exception for its well-researched citing of many rare publications. To some extent looking at the residue of Debord from 'Internationale Situationiste' to the books 'Cahier du Cinema', 'Fin du Copenhague' and 'Memoires' (the notorious sandpaper-covered book created to destroy books on either side of it) to the film 'The Society of the Spectacle' and its pamphlet by same name, best show in hindsight the intentions of the SI as an art group and their relationship to spectacular power. These artifacts were their own form of "propaganda" and functioned as interstices, in many cases, to dominant media. It is particularly poignant that Debord shot himself, for example, after televising 3 of his films, including his last diatribe on 1990's Paris.

Guy Debord is described through many of his own words; by the "constructed situations" which he actively created; by converging notions of social and political life; by the 1968 revolution and its outcomes; by his events and their effects. The author's considerable knowledge of Gianfranco Sanguinetti's contribution to the SI, as well as his lengthy protrayal of Debord's troublesome connection to the wealthy, left-supporter,Gerard Lebovici, as add specific,new dimension to public biography on Guy Debord, the man.

This book is a powerful read for Debord enthusiasts and anyone interested in politics, art, the SI, Europe in the 60's, or the project of revolution.