society of the spectacular!
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This book - in conjunction with some secondary literature and other NOT RANDOM situ texts - is one of the few which can come to revolutionise your perception ALL THE WAY DOWN. Of course : it is obscure and relies on a familiarity with alot of marxist terminology - but it bares, and demands, repeated readings which demonstrates how these concepts have alot of life in them! If I was to formulate its thesis then today it would be : you are always watching others do things instead of doing something which would exceed the gaze of another watching you. This is the road towards de-reification et al...
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Disconcertingly accurate statement of things in general.
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Don't let the other reviews put you off, this is a great book, although I've not read this translation. It's nothing as tedious as a critique of consumerism or the like - its a really revolutionary book. The surprise that such a thing can exist tends to disorientate its younger readers for a while.
Get it, read it, resist his tendency to overwhelm you with his impressive grasp of reality, and then go around feeling superior to everybody else while musing on how to overthrow the autonomous rule of our products, preferably in your lifetime. I recommend it.
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Personal helicopters
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To put things into perspective, this is a Guy (boom boom to you too, dewd) who reckoned everyone would have their own private helicopter by c. 1980 - prescient, huh? Still, without TSotS Vaneigem's brilliant Revolution of Everyday Life could never have the resonance it does, so credit where it's due - and GD did invent pyschogeography as a discipline...
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A thorough-going deconstruction of modernity
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As trenchant as Foucault and as dogmatic as Wittgenstein, rarely has a work of political or cultural criticism provided such a thorough-going and penetrative exposition of the modern world's formulation of life as commodity. Debord's approach is refreshingly independent of conventional leftist thought, owing little to the positivist teleolgy of Marx of the ruralistic utopianism of Kropotkin. Though not without its faults, especially his sometimes confused and overly 'clever' prose, Debord's work is a true modern classic, a revolutionary text for the consumer age. Far from seeming dated it becomes more relavent with time - witness the growth of surrogate programming (gardening programmes, cooking programmes and 'fly-on-the wall' documentaries) of fabricated experience as commodity. I reccomend this book to anyone who feels bemused by the banality of everyday life.
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A truly SPECTACULAR piece of cultural theory (boom, boom!)
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Absolute genius. A lucid, miraculously acute dissection of the true nature of consumerism and commodity culture, which seems even more pertinent today, what with the ever-spiralling drive towards globalisation and the free market. Debord is wonderfully dogmatic, yet the cogency of his argument mean that we have no problem whatsoever in being spoonfed. But, be warned *THIS BOOK COULD CHANGE YOU LIFE* This book truly removes any blinkers, and exposes you to a world turned on it's head, mediated by this sinister, over-arching Spectacle. Also, from a literary point of view, it is very easy to become enmeshed in Debord's epigrammatical style, and certain passages need to re-read for full comprehension. As a result, THIS BOOK IS NOT FOR THE FAINT HEARTED, and is not, I repeat not, A LIGHT READ! Laid out as a compendium of ~200 theses, vaguely resembling a series of (ultra-cryptic!)crossword puzzles, it includes discussion of (to list but a few points) the cult of celebrity, out-of-town shopping cenntres, festivals, holidays et al. as well as a huge no. of more conventional topics for analysis (e.g. the proletarian class, time, urbanism, marxist discussion etc. etc.) So, overall, a brilliant elucidation of Situationist theory. It has changed the way I think, and it is no over-estimation to say the way I live as well. I just hope that Debord's masterpiece is re-discovered in a big way over the next few years REVOLUTIONISE EVERYDAY LIFE. LIVE WITHOUT DEAD TIME.
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