boredom is always counter-revolutionary

the anxiety of Situationist publications

At some point in the near future, I shall schematically lay out my reasons for studying the Situationist International. A compelling reason why is the mark of good academic work, but in my case the need for that justification is felt with particular urgency. The SI was, of course, deeply antipathetic to the academy: so I will need to justify why I as an academic have made the SI my object of study; and also what implications my work might have for thought and practice outside of the university. My work is particularly heretical in regard to the SI because I treat its work as, essentially, literature: again, I will need to justify this, hopefully without simply falling back on the repetition of a few of those words (‘radical’, ‘praxis’, ‘dialectic’) that are used so frequently and hubristically to give the impression that an academic work is more than a ‘mere’ academic work, before it has even had the chance to demonstrate so.

But, at the same time, feuds, interventions and denunciations are all part of the Situationist legacy; if my work does make it beyond the university, I would expect the same treatment. The Lettrist International emerged after a denunciation of Charlie Chaplin, and a subsequent denunciation of the denunciators, and the SI’s lifespan was filled with divisions, disputes and disagreements. This pattern of internecine quarrelling has been continued by each new generation of pro-situ–think of Stewart Home’s feuding; Principia Dialectica’s ad hominem attacks–issuing a fiery tract about how someone else has got the SI wrong seems to be something of a Situationist rite of passage.

There is, at the moment, another wave of publications on the SI; predictably, there is also another wave of calling-bullshit. So, firstly, there is McKenzie Wark’s The Beach Beneath the Streets, due out on Verso. Wark’s attempt to stage, perhaps parody, a Situationist denunciatory prank at a launch for the book in New York is itself denounced here. Then there is a new collection of essays on the lesser-spotted Scandinavian SI, Expect Anything Fear Nothing. As this collection features Stewart Home, it just wouldn’t be right if Principia Dialectica didn’t splutter some invective in its direction: PD duly obliged. The final publication, at least that I know of, is Spectacular Capitalism, published by Minor Compositions. The blurb for this book certainly indicates that anxiety of radical academia I mentioned above, but Minor Compositions is legit so I, in a distinctly un-Situationist manner, wait in keen anticipation.

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