ERRATA
in Ken Knabb’s Publications

Situationist International Anthology
The Society of the Spectacle (Debord)
Complete Cinematic Works (Debord)
Public Secrets

Situationist International Anthology
(Bureau of Public Secrets, 1981. Revised and Expanded Edition, 2006)

The first edition has virtually no errors, although the new edition includes numerous minor stylistic revisions to those earlier translations. So far, I have found the following errata in the new revised edition:

Page ix: the I.S. articles > the I.S. articles [italic]
96: purpose of which is earn > purpose of which is to earn
159: nothing but than twenty-four hours > nothing but twenty-four hours
256: Ta Tu Thau > Ta Thu Thau

The Society of the Spectacle (Debord)
(Rebel Press, 2004)

In the first printing the publisher erroneously referred to this as “a new authorized translation.” The translation was in fact done independently and was not authorized.
Chapter 2 begins with thesis #38. It should begin with #35.
Chapter 8 epigraph: March 1844 > March 1843
#29:  world’s loss of the unity > world’s loss of unity

The above errors have all been corrected in the second printing (2007).

Other errata and revisions:
#5: visual deception > visual excess
#6: the result and the goal > the result and the project
#62: replacing each another > replacing each other
#78: saved > salvaged
#103: radical bureaucrats > radical-left bureaucrats
#104: A tottering capitalist property system > An impotent capitalist property system
#111: destruction of the worker-class movement > destruction of the working-class movement

Complete Cinematic Works (Debord)
(AK Press, 2003)

Errata and revisions:
Page 5. below freezing or > below freezing point or
11. Would you like an orange > Would you like an orange? [Strangely, some copies lack the question mark, others do not.]
37. Terrible sound, > its dreadful,
37. but the scenery > but the scene
38. The wine of life is drunk; in this pretentious nightclub only the dregs remain. > The wine of life is drawn; in this cellar of vanity only the dregs remain.
45. the result and the goal > the result and the project
62. city spectacle wants to > city spectacle needs to
69. is the critique of human geography > is this critique of human geography
146. every kind rubbish > every kind of rubbish
147. placed outside all the laws > placed beyond all the laws
149. This is one of main > This is one of the main
182. On the eve of a battle > On a battlefield
228. description of the some of the images > description of some of the images
231 (note 78). Delete “The image is from the classic painting by Jacques-Louis David.” (David did indeed do a famous painting of this event, but on closer examination the picture in the film seems to be by some other artist.)
235 (note 124). Le Nouvel Observateur > Charlie-Hebdo
235 (note 128). The Philosophy of Poverty > The Poverty of Philosophy
240 (note 189). Richard Lester > Tony Richardson
246. Benny Colson > Benny Golson

Additional notes:
9. The published script reads “on the Shenandoah,” but the voice in the film actually says “on the Chattanooga.” Probably Debord intended to evoke the Shenandoah film passage that he later used in The Society of the Spectacle (see  p. 78), but misremembered the name during the original preparation of the 1952 film.
36. Already farther away than India or China: line from Baudelaire’s poem “Moesta et Errabunda” (“Sad and Restless”).
37. sentence fragments: “The production . . . but the scene”: The three sentence fragments (along with the Macbeth line on the following page) are from Debord’s 1958 Mémoires (a book which itself consists entirely of fragmentary elements detourned from other sources).
38. The wine of life . . . remain: Cf. “The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees is left this vault to brag of” (Macbeth, II, iii).
86. TEXT FRAME (“Those who . . . hierarchical parties”): Cf. “Whoever makes himself tyrant of a state and does not kill Brutus will not last long; nor will he who restores the liberty to a state and does not kill the sons of Brutus” (Machiavelli, Discourses, III.3).
114. The spectacle does not debase people to the point of making them love it: Cf. Vauvenargues’s Maxim #22: “Servitude debases people to the point of making them love it.”
145. Dramatized anecdotes have been the building blocks of the cinema: Cf. “Prisons are built with stones of Law, Brothels with bricks of Religion” (Blake, The Marriage of Heaven and Hell).
147. “It is no small satisfaction . . .” follows the French translation quoted by Debord. Swift’s actual words (from the final chapter of Gulliver’s Travels) are: “I am not a little pleased that this Work of mine can possibly meet with no Censurers.”
156. Bliss it was to be young . . .: Cf. “Bliss was it in that dawn to be alive, But to be young was very heaven!” (Wordsworth, The Prelude, Book XI, referring to the French Revolution).
166. The same reappears refers to a repeat of the image of Éliane Papaï.

There are also a number of fairly trivial détournements that I have not bothered to indicate, e.g. when a phrase was perhaps originally suggested by a passage in Shakespeare or the Cardinal de Retz or some other classic author, but has no particular significance and could just as easily have come from any number of other sources.

Public Secrets
(Bureau of Public Secrets, 1997)

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