Now there's a common denominator! posted by Zack_Replica at 2:52 PM on May 3, 2006
Incidentally, another metafilter thread on Situationism lead me to purchase Society of the Spectacle. My response to the book is best characterized as "wot?" I can't say I really followed it. Not recommended for those lacking a grounding in theoretical discourse & Marxism & other things I probably don't even know I don't know. posted by jcruelty at 3:03 PM on May 3, 2006
and since then, strikes have been a bi-weekly occurrance in France. posted by wumpus at 3:12 PM on May 3, 2006
C'est quelques choses qu'on aurait besoin d'un television afin de comprendre? posted by blue_beetle at 3:16 PM on May 3, 2006
A wonderful reminder that sous les pavés still and always lies la plage. About all I can add is to ask that you always remember to vivez sans temps mort. posted by adamgreenfield at 3:47 PM on May 3, 2006
BOP secrets also has many Situationist and other texts if people are interested--they're great, and applicable today in many ways. posted by amberglow at 3:51 PM on May 3, 2006
"Mais parmi les chacals, les panthères, les lices,
Les singes, les scorpions, les vautours, les serpents,
Les monstres glapissants, hurlants, grognants, rampants,
Dans la ménagerie infâme de nos vices,
II en est un plus laid, plus méchant, plus immonde!
Quoiqu'il ne pousse ni grands gestes ni grands cris,
Il ferait volontiers de la terre un débris
Et dans un bâillement avalerait le monde;
C'est l'Ennui! L'oeil chargé d'un pleur involontaire,
II rêve d'échafauds en fumant son houka.
Tu le connais, lecteur, ce monstre délicat,
— Hypocrite lecteur, — mon semblable, — mon frère!"
-----
"Amongst the jackals, leopards, mongrels, apes,
Snakes, scorpions, vultures, that with hellish din,
Squeal, roar, writhe, gambol, crawl, with monstrous shapes,
In each man's foul menagerie of sin —
There's one more damned than all. He never gambols,
Nor crawls, nor roars, but, from the rest withdrawn,
Gladly of this whole earth would make a shambles
And swallow up existence with a yawn...
Boredom! He smokes his hookah, while he dreams
Of gibbets, weeping tears he cannot smother.
You know this dainty monster, too, it seems —
Hypocrite reader! — You! — My twin! — My brother!"
The trouble with Situationist thought, of course, is that it's triumphed, and been inverted in its triumph.
"Unitary urbanism," with its collapse of all distinctions between work and leisure, public and private - what is that but a hard-chargin' Type A dude/tte in Starbucks making loudly with the Blackberry?
It's a got-damn shame that things never quite work out the way we might like. I guess we'll just have to bury our adoration for Mai '68 and find something appropriate to our own moment...which was, of course, the point all along. Debord and Vaneigem and the others would probably be appalled by the pedestal onto which we've hoisted them (and me no less than anyone else). posted by adamgreenfield at 3:55 PM on May 3, 2006
Nobody's brought up Lipstick Traces yet? Weird. posted by allen.spaulding at 4:03 PM on May 3, 2006
The Situationists have had such a large pop culture impact beyond May 68, it is really surprising for such a marginal group (and ironic because of their politics). When I was a bit younger, I was very enamored of Guy Debord. posted by Falconetti at 4:17 PM on May 3, 2006
Vive L'Ennui! Nice post! I *heart* Debord (but don't put him on a pedestal). posted by shoepal at 5:01 PM on May 3, 2006
allen.spaulding, here's an interview a friend did with Marcus, if you're interested. (though it is more about invis. repub.) posted by shoepal at 5:05 PM on May 3, 2006
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That it was--the best and worst of times.
posted by y2karl at 2:30 PM on May 3, 2006