BUREAU OF PUBLIC SECRETS



 


 

What’s New

 

Please email Ken Knabb if you would like to be informed of updates and additions
to this site, or if you run into any errors in it or have any problems with it.


 

Added December 2024:
The Old Weird America (six Zoom presentations of American folksongs and blues)

November 2024:
Trump’s Spectacular Comeback

October 2024:
Exploring the Classics: Chronicle of a Book Group

September 2024:
Catalog (updated to note new PM Press editions of The Society of the Spectacle and the Situationist International Anthology)

August 2024:
Situationist Bibliography (reorganized and updated, adding comments on dozens of newer books by or about the situationists)
Classics Revisited (essay on Robert Burns added)

July 2024:
The Poetry of Pre-Literate Peoples (unpublished anthology gathered by Kenneth Rexroth)

May 2024:
The Chairman’s New Clothes: Mao and the Cultural Revolution (Simon Leys) [complete book]

March 2024:
Guy Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle (links to video recordings of a new ongoing Zoom group discussion)

December 2023:
The Return of the Durruti Column (1966 comic by André Bertrand)
Classics Revisited (essay on Njal’s Saga added)

November 2023:
With a Tabloid Biography, Who Needs an Oeuvre? (John Solt’s critique of Hamalian’s Rexroth bio)
Reich: How to Use (1973 comic-poster)
We’re Tired of Playing with Ourselves (1973 poster by Isaac Cronin, Dan Hammer & Jeanne Smith)
Notice Concerning the Reigning Society and “Modern Revolutionary Theory” (two 1973 posters by the “Notice” group)
The Opening in Iran (1979 poster)
Lulu’s Public Secrets (1998 comic-poster, reissued during the Occupy movement)
Chronique des secrets publics (Jeanne Charles & Daniel Denevert, 1975) [PDF]
I Koinonía tou Sitouasionismou (Greek translation of “The Society of Situationism”) [PDF]
Videos (links to several additional videos)

October 2023:
As of October 1, I have converted all the webpages at this site to the new format. I now plan to deal with some other issues — improving the quality of some of the graphics, adding a number of audio and video files, etc.
As of October 6, I’ve posted more readable versions of two large posters: Bureaucratic Comix and The Blind Men and the Elephant (Selected Opinions on the Situationists).
As of October 11, I’ve uploaded a number of videos (in most cases to YouTube) and added a Videos page with links to them.

September 2023:
The site upgrade is proceeding faster than I’d expected. As of September 6 I’ve converted about 350 webpages to the new format. Still to be done: all the Rexroth Archive (about 300 webpages) and all the foreign language texts (about 200 webpages).
 
August 2023:
WEBSITE UPGRADE! With a lot of help from some friends, I’m in the process of upgrading this website. For technical reasons, we cannot change the whole site at once. Instead, I’m manually changing one webpage at a time. Each page takes a few minutes to paste in the coding that links the page to the new site-design stylesheet (different background color, different fonts, larger print, narrower page width, etc.) and to make a few necessary adjustments to the html coding. So far I’ve converted all the articles in the Situationist International Anthology, all the chapters in The Society of the Spectacle, all the material relating to Guy Debord’s films, and all the texts in Public Secrets. That amounts to nearly 200 webpages. The whole site contains about 850 webpages. Over the next two or three months I hope to convert all of the remaining pages. I think you’ll find the new design more readable than the current one. —KK

February 2023:
Paris Komünü Üzerine Tezler (Turkish translation of “Theses on the Paris Commune”)
Lulu’nun Kamusal Sırları (Turkish translation of “Lulu’s Public Secrets”)

January 2023:
Classics Revisited (added essays on Sophocles’s Oedipus Cycle, Euripides’s Plays, and Apuleius’s The Golden Ass)
 
July 2022:
Inventory of the Ken Knabb Papers at Yale
 
December 2021:
Did the situationists hate psychology? [new addition to “Rapid Responses”]
Classics Revisited (added essays on The Mahabharata and The Greek Anthology)

November 2021:
Travel Diaries: Illustrated Accounts of Ken Knabb’s International Trips, 1971-2018 (accounts of twelve trips to France, England, Spain, Germany, Poland, Greece, Japan, Hong Kong, and Colombia, with 200+ photos)

July 2021:
The Secret World of French Songs [now also includes links to video recordings of all 10 Zoom presentations]
 
March 2021:
The Secret World of French Songs [links to hundreds of French songs featured in a 10-session Zoom series]
 
February 2021:
A meaningful life? [new addition to “Rapid Responses”]

December 2020:
Classics Revisited (essay on Yeats added)
 
October 2020:
More on Facebook [new addition to “Rapid Responses”]

September 2020:
Tactics for Today? [new addition to “Rapid Responses”]
 
June 2020:
Une grosse pause: Remarques sur la crise du coronavirus (French translation)
 
May 2020:
Pregnant Pause: Remarks on the Corona Crisis
Una pausa preñada: Consideraciones sobre la crisis del coronavirus (Spanish translation of the above article)
 
March 2019:
Petites scènes de débâcle en attendant l’implosion (article from new book by Daniel Denevert)
Farces and Fiascos Before the Cataclysm (translation of the above article)

August 2018:
Classics Revisited (essay on Flaubert added)
Classics Revisited (augmented table of contents, including the original publication order of the essays)
A céu aberto: Comentários sobre a Eleição de Trump

July 2018:
Appeal for an English Edition of Diderot’s Jack the Fatalist (Josef Weber) [PDF]

June 2018:
Africa’s Destroyed Civilization (Rexroth)
Surrealist Poetry (Rexroth)
The Bollingen Series (Rexroth)

May 2018:
Classics Revisited (essay on Balzac added)

March 2018:
Reformism and electoral politics (III) [new addition to “Rapid Responses”]

October 2017:
How do you run a book group? [new addition to “Rapid Responses”]

March 2017:
Au grand jour: Remarques sur l’élection de Trump
De dominion público: Observaciones sobre la elección de Trump
Interview with Rexroth (by David Meltzer)

February 2017:
San Francisco in the Sixties (Rexroth’s San Francisco Magazine columns from 1974)
San Francisco in the Sixties (Rexroth’s San Francisco Magazine columns from 1975)
The above concludes all of Rexroth’s columns from San Francisco Magazine.

January 2017:
San Francisco in the Sixties (Rexroth’s San Francisco Magazine columns from 1972)
San Francisco in the Sixties (Rexroth’s San Francisco Magazine columns from 1973)

December 2016:
San Francisco in the Sixties (Rexroth’s San Francisco Magazine columns from 1971)

November 2016:
Out in the Open: Remarks on the Trump Election
Ken Knabb, l’Internazionale Situazionista e la controcultura nord-americana (Jean-Pierre Depétris)
Sulle lutte del Terzo Mondo (Ngo Van)
Riflessioni preliminari sulla Guerra del Vietnam (Ngo Van)
San Francisco in the Sixties (Rexroth’s San Francisco Magazine columns from 1970)

October 2016:
Rabelais (eight different translations of a chapter from Gargantua and Pantagruel)
San Francisco in the Sixties (Rexroth’s San Francisco Magazine columns from 1969)
Beyond Voting (remarks on electoral politics, with update on the current U.S. election)
Al di là del voto (Italian translation of the above)
 
September 2016:
Montaigne (six different translations of a passage from one of his essays)
Classics Revisited (five additional Rexroth essays — on Gargantua and Pantagruel, Pilgrim’s Progress, Gulliver’s Travels, Moll Flanders, and Tom Jones)
[Note: The reason I have added these particular essays is that I am leading a discussion group in Berkeley on these and other classic works. We have already gone through Don Quixote and are currently exploring Montaigne’s Essays. If you are in the Bay Area and interested in joining us, let me know.]
San Francisco in the Sixties (Rexroth’s Bay Guardian articles from 1969)
San Francisco in the Sixties (Rexroth’s Bay Guardian articles from 1970)
San Francisco in the Sixties (Rexroth’s Bay Guardian articles from 1971)
San Francisco in the Sixties (Rexroth’s Bay Guardian articles from 1972)
The above concludes all of Rexroth’s articles from the San Francisco Bay Guardian.
I am now continuing the series with all of his monthly columns from San Francisco Magazine:
San Francisco in the Sixties (Rexroth’s San Francisco Magazine columns from 1967)
San Francisco in the Sixties (Rexroth’s San Francisco Magazine columns from 1968)
 
August 2016:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from May 1967)
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from June 1967)
The above concludes all of Rexroth’s columns from the San Francisco Examiner. For the complete listing, click here.
I am now continuing the series with all of his articles from the San Francisco Bay Guardian:
San Francisco in the Sixties (Rexroth’s Bay Guardian articles from 1967)
San Francisco in the Sixties (Rexroth’s Bay Guardian articles from 1968)

July 2016:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from March 1967)
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from April 1967)

June 2016:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from October 1966)
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from November 1966)
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from December 1966)
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from January 1967)
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from February 1967)
 
May 2016:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from May 1966)
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from June 1966)
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from July 1966)
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from August 1966)
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from September 1966)
[Note: I am now posting the remaining Rexroth columns whenever I have time, without waiting for the exact 50th-anniversary dates. So the entire series, which ended in July 1967, should be up within the next three or four months.]
 
April 2016:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from April 1966)
Comprendere Debord dialetticamente
 
March 2016:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from March 1966)
 
February 2016:
Al di là del voto
Riformismo y politica elettorale
Nota sullo stalinismo e sul trotskismo
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from February 1966)
Mirror site (note new URL for the BPS mirror site)
 
January 2016:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from January 1966)
 
December 2015:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from December 1965)
Don Quixote (13 different translations of the windmill episode)
Risposta ad un liberale del Midwest

November 2015:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from November 1965)

October 2015:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from October 1965)
Introduzione al libro di Ngo Van In the Crossfire: Adventures of a Vietnamese Revolutionary
 
September 2015:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from September 1965)
The Society of the Spectacle (includes a link to a new English-dubbed version of Debord’s film)

August 2015:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from August 1965)
I ciechi e l’elefante

July 2015:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from July 1965)

June 2015:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from June 1965)

May 2015:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from May 1965)

April 2015:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from April 1965)
 
March 2015:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from March 1965)
 
February 2015:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from February 1965)
Another review of The Society of the Spectacle: Annotated Edition (in Fifth Estate)
 
January 2015:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from January 1965)
Review of The Society of the Spectacle: Annotated Edition
 
December 2014:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from December 1964)
 
November 2014:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from November 1964)
 
October 2014:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from October 1964)
 
September 2014:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from September 1964)
 
August 2014:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from August 1964)
 
July 2014:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from July 1964)
Rapid Responses (including a new one re translating situationist texts)
 
June 2014:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from June 1964)

May 2014:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from May 1964)

April 2014:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from April 1964)
 
March 2014:
Rapid Responses (including a new one re commonly asked questions about the situationists)
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from March 1964)

February 2014:
Notes to Guy Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle (from the new Annotated Edition!)
Index to The Society of the Spectacle (more detailed than the previous version)
Preface and Table of Contents of the new Annotated Edition of The Society of the Spectacle
(The printed edition of this new annotated translation is now available. You can order it from any of the distributors listed in the Catalog.)
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from February 1964)
 
January 2014:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from January 1964)
 
December 2013:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from December 1963)
 
November 2013:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from November 1963)
 
October 2013:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from October 1963)
 
September 2013:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from September 1963)
 
August 2013:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from August 1963)
 
July 2013:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from July 1963)

June 2013:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from June 1963)
 
May 2013:
 San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from May 1963)
 
April 2013:
 San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from April 1963)
“Gösteri Toplumu” Filmi Üzerine Bugüne Dek Yapılmış Eleştirilerin -Lehte ya da Aleyhte- Reddi (Turkish translation of Debord’s film Refutation of All the Judgments...)
 In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni (Turkish translation of Debord’s film In girum imus nocte...)

March 2013:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from March 1963)

February 2013:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from February 1963)
 
January 2013:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from January 1963)
 
December 2012:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from December 1962)

November 2012:
Looking Back on Occupy
Retour sur le mouvement Occupy
Au-delà du vote
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from November 1962)
 
October 2012:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from October 1962)
 
September 2012:
Beyond Voting (remarks on electoral politics and the current American election)
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from September 1962)

August 2012:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from August 1962)

July 2012:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from July 1962)
 
June 2012:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from June 1962)
 
May 2012:
Form and Structure (Asger Jorn)
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from May 1962)

April 2012:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from April 1962)
 
March 2012:
French Interview on the Occupy Movement [renamed “The Occupy Movement at Its Peak”]
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from March 1962)
 
February 2012:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from February 1962)
 
January 2012:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from January 1962)
En este teatro...
Oda sobre la ausencia de poesía real aquí esta tarde
 
December 2011:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from December 1961)
 
November 2011:
The Situationists and the Occupation Movements: 1968/2011
Les situationnistes et les mouvements des occupations: 1968/2011 (French translation of the above)
Entretien sur le mouvement des occupations aux États-Unis (interview in French about the Occupy movement)
O despertar nos EUA (Portuguese translation of “The Awakening in America”)
A Realização e Supressão da Religião
Anotações sobre Estalinismo e Trotskismo
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from November 1961)
 
October 2011:
The Awakening in America (enthusiastic analysis of the “Occupy Wall Street” movement)
El despertar en América (Spanish translation of the above)
Le réveil en Amérique (French translation of the above)
Il risveglio in America (Italian translation of the above)
Yesterday in Oakland (the police raid on Occupy Oakland)
Welcome to the Oakland General Strike (follow-up to the above)
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from October 1961)
 
September 2011:
In the Crossfire: Adventures of a Vietnamese Revolutionary (Ngo Van) (complete book now online)
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from September 1961)
 
August 2011:
Asger Jorn’s Writings on Art and Architecture (excerpts from a new comprehensive collection)
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from August 1961)
 
July 2011:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from July 1961)
Texti nabeloruskai move (Texts in Belarusian)
Тeoria vivedzitse (Belarusian translation of Debord’s “Theory of the Dérive”)
 
June 2011:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from June 1961)
 
May 2011:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from May 1961)
 
April 2011:
Les Black Muslims (Rexroth)
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from April 1961)
Mentransformasikan kerja dalam bermain (Indonesian translation of a section from The Joy of Revolution)
 
March 2011:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from March 1961)
Rapid Responses (new addition re “situationist music”)
 
February 2011:
Adventurer Seeks Adventuress: Three Years of Online Dating
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from February 1961)
Introduksi pada kritik terhadap geografi urban (Indonesian translation of Debord’s “Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography”)
 
January 2011:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from January 1961)
 
December 2010:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from December 1960)
Reflexiones sobre la guerra de Vietnam (Ngo Van)
Nota sobre el stalinismo y el trotskismo
Introducción a la Obra Cinematográfica Completa de Guy Debord
El diseño de las películas pacifistas (Paul Goodman)
 
November 2010:
Reflections on the Vietnam War (Ngo Van)
On Third World Struggles (Ngo Van)
Note on Stalinism and Trotskyism
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from November 1960)
Introduction à l’édition américaine de Au pays de la Cloche fêlée de Ngo Van
Chronologie dans l’édition américaine de Au pays de la Cloche fêlée de Ngo Van
Note sur le stalinisme et le trotskisme
Ngo Van, passeur de l’histoire vivante (Hélène Fleury)
La liberación femenina (Contradiction)
 

October 2010:
Beyond Voting (updated)
A Good Chance to Legalize Marijuana
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from October 1960)
Más allá del voto
Una buena oportunidad para legalizar la marihuana
Rapid Responses (new additions re “international organization” and “understanding Debord dialectically”)
La pobreza del primitivismo
Banalidades
 
September 2010:
In the Crossfire: Adventures of a Vietnamese Revolutionary (Ngo Van) (information on the newly published book, with online excerpts)
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from September 1960)
 
August 2010:
Rapid Responses (new addition re “international organization”)
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from August 1960)
 
July 2010:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from July 1960)
Une petite école remporte une grande victoire (French translation of the Shimer article)
 
June 2010:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from June 1960)
Le San Francisco de Kenneth Rexroth (translations of two additional columns)
 
May 2010:
A Little College Scores a Big Victory (Shimer College thwarts a hostile takeover)
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from May 1960)
 
April 2010:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from April 1960)
 
March 2010:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s columns from March 1960)
¿Dónde están las nuevas formas de arte y de cultura? (Rexroth)
 
February 2010:
San Francisco Fifty Years Ago (Rexroth’s complete columns for the San Francisco Examiner, posted on the 50th anniversary of their original appearance)
 
January 2010:
Rapid Responses (new additions re situationist photography, liberating technology, and Rexroth’s “utopianism”)
 
October 2009:
Le San Francisco de Kenneth Rexroth (three additional columns have been translated by Didier Mainguy)
 
September 2009:
The Lore and Language of Schoolchildren (Rexroth)
Rapid Responses (new addition re Peak Oil etc.)
 
August 2009:
Grafitis del levantamiento en Francia
The Society of the Spectacle (new PDF version, in addition to HTML)
 
July 2009:
Ken Knabb, la Internacional Situacioniste y la contracultura norteamericana (Depétris)
 
June 2009:
A brecha do Irã (Portuguese translation of “The Opening in Iran”)
Erotismo, Misticismo y Revolución (newly revised Spanish translation of The Relevance of Rexroth), included as an introduction to a collection of Rexroth’s essays: Desconexión y otros ensayos (Pepitas de Calabaza)
 
February 2009:
Harold Gilliam’s San Francisco Bay (Rexroth)
Sterne’s
Tristram Shandy (Rexroth)

 
January 2009:
Cervantes’s Don Quixote (four translations of a passage)
 
December 2008:
Ken Knabb, the Situationist International, and the American Counterculture (Depétris)
Ken Knabb, l’Internationale Situationniste et la contre-culture nord-américaine (Depétris)
Selected Opinions on the Bureau of Public Secrets (2006-present)
Les mouvements radicaux sur la défensive (Rexroth)

 
November 2008:
Türkçe Metinler (Texts in Turkish)
Sitüasyonizm Toplumu (Turkish translation of “The Society of Situationism”)
Hippi Hayatın Sefilliği Üzerine (Turkish translation of “On the Poverty of Hip Life”)
 
October 2008:
Beyond Voting (updated)
 
September 2008:
Dix ans sur le Web
 
August 2008:
Ten Years on the Web (reflections on the 10th anniversary of this website)
Rapid Responses (more email replies, re Peak Oil, electoral politics, etc.)
 
July 2008:
The Heat (Rexroth essay on the police)
Porta d’ingresso ai vasti domini (Introduzione)
 
June 2008:
Opinioni francofone sull’Ufficio des Segreti Pubblici
In questo teatro...
Ode sull’assenza di vera poesia oggi questo pomeriggio
 
May 2008:
Beyond Voting
Rapid Responses (more email replies, re Frankfurt School, engaged Buddhism, classical music, etc.)
Graffiti may 1968 goda (Russian translation of May 1968 graffiti)
 
April 2008:
Six Japanese Novelists (Rexroth)
Lady Murasaki’s The Tale of Genji (three translations of a passage)
Rapid Responses (more email replies, re Wilhelm Reich, etc.)
Note: La Joie de la Révolution (a French translation of The Joy of Revolution) has just been published by Sabotart Éditions (Montréal).
 
March 2008:
Rapid Responses (more email replies, re translating Debord, etc.)
Selected Opinions on the Bureau of Public Secrets (a few new reviews have been added)
 
February 2008:
Rapid Responses (more email replies, re suicide, primitivism, etc.)
Opinions francophones sur le BPS
 
January 2008:
Technical Notes on Guy Debord’s First Three Films (Debord)
Letter about Debords Film On the Passage of a Few Persons... (Debord)
Original Announcement of Debord’s Film The Society of the Spectacle
The Use of Stolen Films (Debord)
The Themes of Debord’s Film In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni (Debord)
Instructions to the In girum Sound Engineer (Debord)
Debord Chronology
Debord Filmography
Texts Relating to Debord’s Films

 
December 2007:
Rapid Responses (replies to email queries re Debord, CrimethInc, etc.)
 
November 2007:
Ten Influential Books (Rexroth)
On Translating Roman Verse (Rexroth)
Coleridge and Zen? (Rexroth)
The Victorian Conspiracy of Cant (Rexroth)
Note: Secrets Publics, a 416-page collection of French translations of Ken Knabb’s writings, has just been published by Éditions Sulliver.

October 2007:
Martin Buber’s I and Thou (excerpts)
Bashô’s Narrow Road to the Interior (nine translations of the opening paragraph)
Haiku and Japanese Religion (Rexroth)
 
September 2007:
Secrets Publics (table of contents and other material from the book about to be published by Éditions Sulliver)
 
August 2007:
Karl Marx (complete book by Karl Korsch)
 
July 2007:
Reflexiones sobre el levantamiento en Francia
Selected Opinions on the Bureau of Public Secrets (a few new ones have just been added)
Thomas More’s Utopia (Rexroth)
The Spiritual Alchemy of Thomas Vaughan (Rexroth)
Lamennais: From Reaction to Revolution (Rexroth)
The Evolution of Anglo-Catholicism (Rexroth)
The Catholic Modernists (Rexroth)
 
June 2007:
Tentang kemiskinan hidup mahasiswa (Indonesian translation of “On the Poverty of Student Life”)
 
May 2007:
Anti-Prison Resources
 
April 2007:
D.H. Lawrence: The Other Face of the Coin (Rexroth)
Henry Miller: The Iconoclast as Everyman’s Friend (Rexroth)
Blaise Cendrars (Rexroth)
Ford Madox Ford (Rexroth)
Richard Wright and the Persistence of Racism (Rexroth)
Errata in Ken Knabb’s Publications
Préface à la traduction de La Société du Spectacle
 
March 2007:
The Revised and Expanded Edition of the Situationist International Anthology is now available.
 
February 2007:
Teksti Latviski (Texts in Latvian)
Mēs nevēlamies pilnīgu nodarbinātību, mēs vēlamies pilnīgas dzīves! (Latvian translation of the Introduction to “We Don’t Want Full Employment, We Want Full Lives!”)
Baudelaire: The Balcony (French poem with 20 translations)
 
January 2007:
Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War (Rexroth)
Tacitus, Histories (Rexroth)
Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire (Rexroth)
Gibbon’s Letters (Rexroth)
Francis Parkman (Rexroth)
The Unchristian Crusades (Rexroth)
The Sicilian Vespers (Rexroth)
 
October 2006:
Comics détournés
Dans ce théâtre...
Ode sur l’absence de la véritable poésie ici cet après-midi
Critique de la Nouvelle Gauche américaine (extraits)
De la misère en milieu hippie (extraits)
Remarques sur le style de Double-Réflexion
Avis à propos de la société dominante et de ceux qui la contestent
Un bref guide de l’image situationniste anglo-américaine
Les pépins, c’est mes oignons
Lettre ouverte au groupe “Libertaire” de Tokyo
Un groupe radical à Hong Kong
Banalités
Préface à la Situationist International Anthology
Notes et comptes-rendus
Examen de quelques-unes des réactions à Public Secrets
Portes des vastes domaines (Introduction)
     Note: These translations of various writings by Ken Knabb, previously included in the “Traductions provisoires” pages, have been revised with the help of several French friends for inclusion in the book Secrets Publics: Escarmouches choisies de Ken Knabb, soon to be published by Éditions Sulliver.
     Ces traductions de divers écrits de Ken Knabb ont été révisées avec l’aide de plusieurs amis français pour le livre Secrets Publics: Escarmouches choisies de Ken Knabb, à paraître prochainement aux Éditions Sulliver.
 
September 2006:
Documenti della sollevazione anti-CPE in Francia
Aviso relativo a la sociedad dominante y a los que la desafían

August 2006:
Réflexions sur le soulèvement en France
Riflessioni sulla sollevazione in Francia
Furansu no 2006nen boudou ni okeru rakugaki (Japanese translation of Graffiti from the Anti-CPE Uprising in France)
Formulary for a New Urbanism (Chtcheglov) [translation of the newly published complete text]
 
July 2006:
Nihongo no tekisuto (Texts in Japanese)
Furansu ni okeru hanran no shousatsu (Japanese translation of “Reflections on the Uprising in France”)
 
May 2006:
Reflections on the Uprising in France
Documents from the Anti-CPE Uprising in France
Graffiti from the Anti-CPE Uprising in France
Documents du soulèvement anti-CPE en France
La fin d’un âge d’or (Rexroth)
 
April 2006:
Proposals for Rationally Improving the City of Paris (Lettrist International)
Theses on Cultural Revolution (Debord)
Another City for Another Life (Constant)
How Not To Understand Situationist Books [complete text]
Les débuts d’une nouvelle révolte (Rexroth)
 
March 2006:
The Power of Negative Thinking, or Robin Hood Rides Again (Robert Chasse)
The Situationists and Automation (Jorn) [complete text]
Texter på Svenska (Texts in Swedish)
Vi vill inte ha full sysselsättning, vi vill ha allt! (Swedish translation of “We Don’t Want Full Employment, We Want Full Lives!”)
 
January 2006:
Jack Kerouac (Rexroth)
Jazz Poetry (Rexroth)
Les Classiques Revisités (Rexroth)

December 2005:
Greek Tragedy in Translation (Rexroth)
Tragedy and Philosophy (Rexroth)
William Blake (Rexroth)
Henry James and H.G. Wells (Rexroth)
Samuel Beckett and the Importance of Waiting (Rexroth)
Introduction to Bird in the Bush: Obvious Essays (Rexroth)
 
November 2005:
El placer de la revolución (new PDF version, in addition to HTML)
See also new information about the rerelease of Guy Debord’s films

September 2005:
The New American Poetry (Rexroth)
The Poetry of Eli Siegel (Rexroth)
Allen Ginsberg in America (Rexroth)
The Authentic Joy of Philip Whalen (Rexroth)
Gary Snyder: Smokey the Bear Bodhisattva (Rexroth)
Prefaces to Rexroth’s Poetry (Rexroth)
 
August 2005:
Banning Cars from Manhattan (Paul & Percival Goodman)
Urbanism and Community Planning (Rexroth)
 
July 2005:
Stories of Mr. Keuner (Brecht)
The Making of the Counterculture (Rexroth)
Tamlilim be-ivrit (Texts in Hebrew)
Hedvat ha-mahapecha (Hebrew translation of The Joy of Revolution)
Radost Revolutsii (Russian translation of The Joy of Revolution — complete text in PDF plus Chapter 1 in HTML)
 
June 2005:
Turner: Painting as an Organism of Light (Rexroth)
Turner and Whistler (Rexroth)
The Letters of Van Gogh (Rexroth)
The Heroic Object and Fernand Léger (Rexroth)
Mark Tobey: Painter of the Humane Abstract (Rexroth)
The Visionary Painting of Morris Graves (Rexroth)
Terjemahan di dalam bahasa indonesia (Texts in Indonesian)
Kami tidak menginginkan kesempatan kerja yang total (Indonesian translation of “We Don’t Want Full Employment, We Want Full Lives!”)
 
May 2005:
The Problem of Social Consciousness in Our Time (Josef Weber)
Errata and Additional Notes for Debord
s Complete Cinematic Works [now included here]
 
January 2005:
Ecclesiastes (Rexroth)
Gnosticism (Rexroth)
The Holy Kabbalah (Rexroth)
Simone Weil (Rexroth)
The New English Bible (Rexroth)
My Head Gets Tooken Apart (Rexroth)
Citizen Fromm (Rexroth)
A short essay by Robert Aitken has also been added to the Bashô haiku page.
Note: Ken Knabb’s new translation of Guy Debord’s The Society of the Spectacle is now available in book form.
 
November 2004:
Science and Civilization in China (Rexroth)
Sung Dynasty Culture (Rexroth)
The Tao of Painting (Rexroth)
Japanese Literature (Rexroth)
The World of Genji (Rexroth)
Japanese Noh Plays (Rexroth)
The Poetry of the Far East in a General Education (Rexroth)
Matteo Ricci’s China Journals (Rexroth)
 
October 2004:
Gateway to the Vast Realms: Recommended Readings from Literature to Revolution (a list of over 500 recommended books, with brief comments on why they are worth reading)
 
August 2004:
Baudelaire’s Ennobling Revulsion (Rexroth)
Rimbaud as Capitalist Adventurer (Rexroth)
The Cubist Poetry of Pierre Reverdy (Rexroth)
The Influence of French Poetry on American (Rexroth)
 
April 2004:
The Art of Literature (Rexroth: Encyclopaedia Britannica article)
Lawrence Durrell (Rexroth)
Isaac Bashevis Singer (Rexroth)
 
February 2004:
Two Talks on Poetry and Society (Rexroth)
The Poet as Translator (Rexroth)
See also the Rexroth Archive page for links to a new offsite collection of essays about Rexroth and to recordings of Rexroth reading four of his poems to jazz.
Le San Francisco de Kenneth Rexroth (chroniques, 1960-1975)
 
January 2004:
Due saggi critici sul buddismo impegnato
La Joie de la Révolution (nouvelle traduction achevée)
 
November 2003:
Georges Brassens et la renaissance de la chanson française
Introdução à Obra Cinematográfica Completa de Guy Debord (Portuguese translation)

October 2003:
Doppia riflessione
Camping in the Western Mountains (Rexroth: complete, never-published book)
Georges Brassens and the French “Renaissance of Song”
Ballad of the Ladies of Bygone Times (Villon poem & translation)
 
September 2003:
Neveshtarha-ye Farsi (Texts in Farsi)
Rowzane-ye omid dar Iran (Farsi translation of “The Opening in Iran”)
The Society of the Spectacle (Debord film soundtrack — new translation)
Refutation of All the Judgments on the Film The Society of the Spectacle (Debord film soundtrack — new translation)
In girum imus nocte et consumimur igni (Debord film soundtrack — new translation)
Introduzione ai film di Guy Debord
Corrispondenza sulla questione della religione (Baudet & Knabb)
Sul film di René Viénet: Può la dialettica spezzare i mattoni?
 
August 2003:
La società del situazionismo
La realizzazione e la soppressione della religione
Avviso riguardo la società dominante e coloro che la contestano
Lettera aperta al gruppo “Libertaire” di Tokio
Confessioni di un garbato nemico dello stato
Banalità

July 2003:
Testi in Italiano
La guerra e lo spettacolo
La breccia in Iran
 
June 2003:
Introduction aux films de Guy Debord
 
May 2003:
Guy Debord’s Films
Introduction to Debord’s Complete Cinematic Works
Howls for Sade (Debord film soundtrack — new translation)
On the Passage of a Few Persons (Debord film soundtrack — new translation)
Critique of Separation (Debord film soundtrack — new translation)
 
March 2003:
Deux critiques du bouddhisme engagé
 
February 2003:
Voina i zrelische (Russian translation of “The War and the Spectacle”)
Treschina v Irane (Russian translation of “The Opening in Iran”)
Banalnosti (Russian translation of “Banalities”)
Otkritoe pismo tokiyskoi gruppe Libertaire (Russian translation of “Open Letter to the Tokyo Libertaire Group”)
 
January 2003:
A Alegria da Revolução (Portuguese translation of “The Joy of Revolution”)
 
 
 



Earlier Site History

(Texts are by Ken Knabb unless otherwise specified)


 

This website was opened August 1998 and originally included the following pages:
 
Catalog
Comics:
        Terry and the Situationists
        Dagwood on D
étournement
        Lulu’s Public Secrets
Situationist International Anthology:
       
Formulary for a New Urbanism (Chtcheglov)
        Questionnaire
        Address to Revolutionaries of Algeria and of All Countries
        The Decline and Fall of the Spectacle-Commodity Economy (Watts riot)
        Two Local Wars (Vietnam and Arab-Israel)
        Minimum Definition of Revolutionary Organizations
        Address to All Workers (May 1968)
        Situationist Bibliography (continually updated)
Public Secrets:
        The Joy of Revolution:
                chapter 1: Some Facts of Life
                chapter 2: Foreplay
                chapter 3: Climaxes
                chapter 4: Rebirth
        Confessions of a Mild-Mannered Enemy of the State (excerpts):
                How I Became an Anarchist
                How I Became a Situationist
        Do We Need Snyder for Poet-Priest?
        Double-Reflection
        Arms and the Woman (Charles)
        The Realization and Suppression of Religion
        The Opening in Iran
        The Relevance of Rexroth (excerpt)
        The War and the Spectacle (Gulf war)
        Strong Lessons for Engaged Buddhists
        On Guy Debord’s Film The Society of the Spectacle
We Don’t Want Full Employment, We Want Full Lives! (1998 French jobless actions)
La guerre et le spectacle


 

Added September 1998:
Reich: How To Use (Voyer)
Discretion Is the Better Part of Value (Voyer)
Report on the Construction of Situations (Debord)

October 1998:
La brèche en Iran
Éloge de Kenneth Rexroth
La critique ad mulierem (Charles)
Definitions (SI)
Perspectives for Conscious Changes in Everyday Life (Debord)
Setting Straight Some Popular Misconceptions About Revolutions in the Underdeveloped Countries (Khayati)

November 1998:
Introduction to a Critique of Urban Geography (Debord)
Textos en Español
La réalisation et la suppression de la religion
Theory of the Dérive (Debord)
The Relevance of Rexroth [complete]
Confessions of a Mild-Mannered Enemy of the State [complete]

December 1998:
The Beginning of an Era (SI on May 1968 revolt)
 
January 1999:
On the Poverty of Student Life (SI Strasbourg pamphlet)
Our Goals and Methods in the Strasbourg Scandal (SI)
A Radical Group in Hong Kong
Preliminaries on Councils and Councilist Organization (Riesel)
Notice to the Civilized Concerning Generalized Self-Management (Vaneigem)

February 1999:
Geopolitics of Hibernation (SI)
The Bad Days Will End (SI)
Ideologies, Classes, and the Domination of Nature (SI)

March 1999:
Notes and Reviews
Crossfire
A Non-Dogmatic Approach to Marxism (Korsch)
The Great Utopia (Josef Weber)
May 1968 Graffiti
Theses on the Paris Commune (Debord, Kotányi, Vaneigem)
Nous ne voulons pas le plein emploi, mais une vie pleine!
May 1968 Documents

April  1999:
Basic Program of the Bureau of Unitary Urbanism (Kotányi & Vaneigem)
All the King’s Men (SI)
Captive Words: Preface to a Situationist Dictionary (Khayati)
In This Theater...
Ode on the Absence of Real Poetry Here This Afternoon
A Short Guide to the Anglo-American Situationist Image
Affective Détournement: A Case Study
Remarks on Contradiction and Its Failure
Theory of Poverty, Poverty of Theory (Denevert)
To Clarify Some Aspects of the Moment (Denevert)
Declaration Concerning the Center for Research on the Social Question (CRQS)
Notice Concerning the Reigning Society and Those Who Contest It

May 1999:
Basic Banalities (Vaneigem)
The Society of Situationism
Trouble Is My Business
Notes Toward a Situationist Manifesto (Charles & Denevert)
From Science’s End (Moinet)

June 1999:
Open Letter to the Tokyo “Libertaire” Group
On René Viénet’s Film Can Dialectics Break Bricks?
Los Angeles 1965/1992
The Blind Men and the Elephant (Selected Opinions on the Situationists)
The Blind Men and the Elephant (1975 poster excerpts)

July 1999:
The Explosion Point of Ideology in China (SI)
The Class Struggles in Algeria (SI)
Reform and Counterreform in the Bureaucratic Bloc (SI on Prague Spring)
How Not To Understand Situationist Books (SI)
Evading the Transformation of Reality (Engaged Buddhism at an Impasse)

August 1999:
A User’s Guide to Détournement (Debord & Wolman)
The Alba Platform (Lettrist International)
Notes on the Formation of an Imaginist Bauhaus (Jorn)
Film Soundtracks (Debord)
The Sound and the Fury (SI)
Preliminary Problems in Constructing a Situation (SI)
The Situationists and Automation (Jorn)
No Useless Leniency (Bernstein)
Action in Belgium Against the International Assembly of Art Critics (SI)
Détournement as Negation and Prelude (SI)
Situationist Theses on Traffic (Debord)
Gangland and Philosophy (Kotányi)
Selected Opinions on the Bureau of Public Secrets:
          part I (1975-1996)
          part II (1997-present)
The Adventure (SI)
The Fourth SI Conference in London (SI)
Instructions for an Insurrection (SI)
The Fifth SI Conference in Göteborg (SI)
The Avant-Garde of Presence (SI)
The Counter-Situationist Campaign in Various Countries (SI)
Situationist International Anti-Public Relations Notice (SI)
Now, the SI (SI)
Response to a Questionnaire from the Center for Socio-Experimental Art (SI)
Some Theoretical Topics That Need To Be Dealt With (Vaneigem)
The Role of Godard (SI)
The Ideology of Dialogue (SI)
Interview with an Imbecile (SI)
The Algeria of Daniel Guérin, Libertarian (SI)
Domenach versus Alienation (SI)
Three Postscripts to the Previous Issue (SI)

September 1999:
Preface to the Situationist International Anthology (updated)
The Situationists and the New Forms of Action Against Politics and Art (Viénet)
Aiming for Practical Truth (Vaneigem)
The Conquest of Space in the Time of Power (Rothe)
The Latest Exclusions (SI)
Maitron the Historian (SI) [omitted from updated edition, some of the material moved to footnote #5 here]
The Elite and the Backward (SI)
Cinema and Revolution (SI)
The Organization Question for the SI (Debord)
Preliminaries Toward Defining a Unitary Revolutionary Program (Canjuers & Debord)
For a Revolutionary Judgment of Art (Debord)
The Situationists and the New Forms of Action in Politics and Art (Debord)
In Short (two summaries of situationist perspectives)
Internal SI Texts

October 1999:
Site Index (over 2000 name and subject entries!)
Notes on BPS Publications (reprints, translations, etc.)
Leaflets (Council for the Eruption of the Marvelous)
“Great Moments in the Void” Trading Cards (CEM)
On Wielding the Subversive Scalpel (CEM)
Riot and Representation (“Herbert Marcuse”)
Open Letter to John Zerzan (Contradiction)
Critique of Anti-Mass (Contradiction)
Critique of the New Left Movement (Contradiction) [complete text]
On the Poverty of Hip Life (Contradiction) [complete text]

November 1999:
Index to Debord’s Society of the Spectacle
Index to Vaneigem’s Revolution of Everyday Life
Additions to On the Poverty of Student Life (CEM)
“Hello, Men!” balloon
Bureaucratic Comix
Wildcat Comics (Contradiction)
“Reich: How To Use” (comic)
Still Out of Order (comic by Contradiction & Point-Blank)
New graphics were also added to the CEM Leaflets page, to On Wielding the Subversive Scalpel, to In This Theater, to Confessions (part 2), and to La brèche en Iran.

December 1999:
Double-Réflexion
Théorie de la misère, misère de la théorie (Denevert)
Pour l’intelligence de quelques aspects du moment (Denevert)
Déclaration à propos du Centre de Recherche sur la Question Sociale (CRQS)
Notes pour une manifeste situationniste (Charles & Denevert)
Lettre de loin (Denevert)
Reich, mode d’emploi (Voyer)
Discrétion est mère de valeur (Voyer)
Fin de la science (Moinet)
Remarques sur le groupe Contradiction
La société du situationnisme
Le détournement affectif : une étude de cas
 
January 2000:
War Is the Health of the State (Bourne)
Graffiti de Mai 1968
Éloge de Kenneth Rexroth [livre intégral]

March 2000:
Disinterest Compounded Daily: A Critique of Point-Blank (Rosenberg & Shutes)

April 2000:
A Look at Some of the Reactions to Public Secrets
La guerra y el espectáculo
La realización y la supresión de la religión
El placer de la revolución

May 2000:
Report on the Construction of Situations (Debord) [complete text]
Gangland and Philosophy (Kotányi) [complete text]

June 2000:
Kenneth Rexroth Archive
Communalism: From Its Origins to the Twentieth Century (complete book by Rexroth) 

July 2000:
Ébauches de traduction [draft French translations by Ken Knabb of several of his texts; the French is far from perfect, but may be useful until better versions are made by native French speakers] [Note: As of October 2006, most of these texts have now been well translated and are accessible via the Textes en Français page. The few remaining ones are still at this “Ébauches” page, renamed “Traductions provisoires”.]

August 2000:
Subversive Aspects of Popular Songs (Rexroth)

September 2000:
Links [now moved and retitled Loren Goldner’s Website]

October 2000:
The Social Lie (Rexroth)
The Chinese Classic Novel (Rexroth)
The Reality of Henry Miller (Rexroth)

November 2000:
Contribution to a Councilist Program in Spain (SI)
The Use of Free Time (SI)
The Adventure (SI) [complete text]

December 2000:
The Decline of American Humor (Rexroth)
Two Gulf War Documents (Brook et al.)

January 2001:
Search This Site [originally pointed to mirror site search form]
Some Thoughts on Jazz (Rexroth)

February 2001:
Five More Articles on Jazz (Rexroth)
Disengagement: The Art of the Beat Generation (Rexroth)
Talking about Rexroth (Gibson & Knabb)
Crime and Criminals: Address to the Prisoners in the Chicago Jail (Clarence Darrow)
Site Dedication
Beginnings of a New Revolt (Rexroth)
American Indian Songs (Rexroth)

March 2001:
The Poverty of Primitivism (Knabb)
The Hasidism of Martin Buber (Rexroth)
Lafcadio Hearn and Japanese Buddhism (Rexroth)
The Tao Te Ching (Rexroth)
Greeks and Buddhists in Afghanistan (Rexroth)

April 2001:
La misère du primitivisme (traduction provisoire)
Rexroth Poems (selections from six decades)

May 2001:
Rexroth Autobiography (excerpts)
Total Self-Management (previously untranslated chapter from Vaneigem book)
Rexroth Translations (from Chinese, Japanese, Greek, Latin, French, Italian & Spanish)

June 2001:
La misère du primitivisme (traduction corrigée)
Classics Revisited (selections from two Rexroth books)

July 2001:
The Society of the Spectacle (new translation of Chapter 4 of Debord’s book)

August 2001:
Introduction to a Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right (Marx)
The Tyranny of Structurelessness (Jo Freeman)
La sociedad del situacionismo
Sobre la miseria de la vida hippie
La brecha en Irán
Duras lecciones para budistas comprometidos

September 2001:
The Society of the Spectacle (new translation of Chapters 5 and 7 of Debord’s book)
Reflexión doble
Introducción a Secretos a voces

November 2001:
Eludiendo la transformación de la realidad

January 2002:
Poèmes de Kenneth Rexroth (Rexroth poems translated into French)

February 2002:
Search This Site (new onsite search form)
Poèmes de Kenneth Rexroth (sélection augmentée et réorganisée)
The Society of the Spectacle (new translation of Debord’s book, now completed)

March 2002:
Mark Twain (Rexroth)
D.H. Lawrence (Rexroth)
Kenneth Patchen (Rexroth)
See also the end of the Situationist Bibliography for new information on the re-release of Debord’s films. [This information is now at Guy Debord’s Films.]

May 2002:
Rexroth’s San Francisco (newspaper and magazine columns, 1960-1975)
Erotismo, Misticismo y Revolución (Spanish translation of The Relevance of Rexroth)

June 2002:
Texte in Deutsch
Doppel-Reflexion (German translation of Double-Reflection)
Die Gesellschaft des Situationismus (German translation of The Society of Situationism)

July 2002:
The Society of the Spectacle (Debord) [revised translation]
The Tyranny of Structurelessness (Freeman) [new version incorporating author’s revisions]

September 2002:
The Phoenix and the Tortoise (excerpts from a long Rexroth poem)
The Dragon and the Unicorn (excerpts from a book-length Rexroth poem)
A few more short Rexroth poems have also been added.

October 2002:
Designing Pacifist Films (Paul Goodman)
Confessions d’un ennemi débonnaire de l’État

November 2002:
Buddhist Anarchism (Gary Snyder)

December 2002:
Mirror Site
Introduction to Secretos a Voces
Textos em Português (Texts in Portuguese)
Texti po Russki (Texts in Russian)
Radost Revolutsii (Russian translation of The Joy of Revolution)