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A Few Extra Remarks |
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4 . l e n b r a c k e n
HERE IS THE ORIGINAL PARAGRAPH and my translation of
Debord's relatively minor essay, "The Situationists and New
Forms of Action in Politics and Art" containing the original
use of the so-called "reversible connecting factor" (this
portion of the essay is untranslated in Knabb's excerpt).
REPRENDRE AINSI LE RADICALISME implique naturellement
aussi un approfondissement considérable de toutes les
anciennes tentatives libératrices. L'expérience de leur
inachèvement dans l'isolement, ou de leur retournement en
mystification globale, conduit à mieux comprendre la
cohérence du monde à transformer - et, à partir de la
cohérence retrouvée, on peut sauver beaucoup de recherches
partielles continuées dans le passé récent, qui accèdent de
la sorte à leur vérité. L'appréhension de cette cohérence
réversible du monde, tel qu'il est et tel qu'il est
possible, dévoile le caractère fallacieux des demi-mesures,
et le fait qu'il y a essentiellement demi-mesure chaque fois
que le modèle de fonctionnement de la société dominante
-avec ses catégories de hiérarchisation et de
spécialisation, corollairement ses habitudes ou ses goûts -
se reconstitue àl'intérieur des forces de la négation.
My translation and emphasis:
TO REVIVE RADICALISM NATURALLY implies considerable
deepening of all past liberatory initiatives. The
experience of their failure in isolation, or their
transformation into total mystification, leads to greater
understanding of the coherence of the world that needs to
be transformed. And through a newly found coherence, one
can salvage much partial research that was continued in the
recent past and can thus be verified. The apprehension of
this reversible coherence of the world, such as it is and
is possible, unmasks the fallacious character of
half-measures. And the fact is, half-measures exist every
time the dominant model for the functioning of society -
with its hierarchical categories and specialization, and as
a corollary, its habits and tastes - is reconstituted inside
the forces of negation.
AS YOU CAN SEE, IN MY version, Debord's "cette cohérence
réversible du monde" (not his most eloquent formulation)
becomes "this reversible coherence of the world" (not "this
reversible connecting factor"). What follows is the portion
of the SI translation, graciously forwarded by Greil Marcus:
TO REVIVE RADICALISM also involves considerable
research work, with a view to all the earlier attempts at
freedom. Experience concerning how they have ended in
isolation or turned into global mystification leads to a
greater understanding of the continuity in the world that
is to be changed - and by means of this understanding it is
possible to salvage many of the single results that research
in the most recent past has reached and which can thus be
verified. This understanding of the reversible connecting
factor in the world exposes - to the extent that it exists
and is possible - the false character of halfway
measures... (SI trans.)
NOTE THAT WHERE DEBORD uses cohérence (a cognate with the
English "coherence") the SI translators use "continuity,"
"understanding" and "connecting." Compare their variation
with my repetition of the cognate "coherence" - the meaning
is much more clear: he's talking about opposing the totality. . .
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