Society of the Spectacle - Tapa dura

Guy Ernest Debord (1931 - 1994) was a French Marxist theorist, writer, filmmaker, founder of the Letterist Faction, and founding member of the Situationist International (SI). Debord's first book, Memoires was published in 1959 bound with a sandpaper cover so that it would destroy other books placed next to it. Debord's best known work is his theoretical book, Society of the Spectacle (1967) which some consider a catalyst for the Paris uprising of 1968. Debord also wrote a number of autobiographical books and short pieces, and produced various films including a cinematic version of Society of the Spectacle. Will Self is an English author, journalist and television personality. Self is the author of nine novels, five collections of shorter fiction, three novellas and five collections of non-fiction writing. His work has been translated into 22 languages and his novel Umbrella was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize.

Debord argued that authentic human life had been replaced with mere representation, eroding our critical abilities, our knowledge and our perceptions. "In societies where modern conditions of production prevail, all of life presents itself as an immense accumulation of spectacles. Everything that was directly lived has moved away into a representation." "It reads - if you will savour a cliche - as fresh as paint - Never before has Debord's work seemed quite as relevant as it does now, in the permanent present that he so accurately foretold. Open it, read it, be amazed, pour yourself a glass of supermarket wine - as he would wish - and then forget all about it, which is what the Spectacle wants." Will Self