Comments on the Society of the Spectacle

Comments on the Society of the Spectacle

by Guy Debord

Overview

First published in 1967, Guy Debord’s stinging revolutionary critique ofcontemporary society, The Society of the Spectacle has since acquired acult status. Credited by many as being the inspiration for the ideasgenerated by the events of May 1968 in France, Debord’s pitiless attackon commodity fetishism and its incrustation in the practices of everydaylife continues to burn brightly in today’s age of satellite televisionand the soundbite. In Comments on the Society of the Spectacle, publishedtwenty years later, Debord returned to the themes of his previousanalysis and demonstrated how they were all the more relevant in aperiod when the “integrated spectacle” was dominant. Resolutely refusingto be reconciled to the system, Debord trenchantly slices through thedoxa and mystification offered tip by journalists and pundits to showhow aspects of reality as diverse as terrorism and the environment, theMafia and the media, were caught up in the logic of the spectacularsociety. Pointing the finger clearly at those who benefit from the logicof domination, Debord’s Comments convey the revolutionary impulse atthe heart of situationism.

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781844676729
Publisher: Verso Books
Publication date: 01/10/2011
Series: Radical Thinkers
Edition description: Third Edition
Pages: 94
Sales rank: 1,141,919
Product dimensions: 5.10(w) x 7.60(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Guy Debord was born in Paris in 1931 and committed suicide in 1994. A Marxist theorist, French writer, poet, filmmaker, hypergraphist and founding member of the groups Letterist International and Situationist International, Debord is best known as the leading theoretician of the situationist movement. His works translated into English include The Society of the Spectacle, Comments on the Society of the Spectacle, and Panegyric.

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Comments on the Society of the Spectacle 4 out of 5 based on 0 ratings. 1 reviews.
emptyw on LibraryThing More than 1 year ago
Guy Debord's follow up to Society of the Spectacle. While just as insightful, it's clear that at this point Debord has grown increasingly cynical about the prospects of destroying capitalism, and his emphasis on secret intelligence agencies and their level of power is enough to make anyone depressed.