#michele bernstein

[harrypotterhousequotes]

RAVENCLAW: "There are always two reasons for anything. There is always the good reason, and there is always the real reason." –Michèle Bernstein

[werkboileddown]

[leliavilela]

Michèle Bernstein e Guy Debord na preparação de Critique de la séparation, 1961

[angeladawnwright72]

Illustrating the literary and artists as critics in the underground of Paris, Situationist International movement.

Interview with Michèle Bernstein reflecting on her time in Situationist International and with Guy Debord she was asked of her career in literary criticism and political critiques. Bernstein made it very clear no one is doing the same thing that she and Debord did. I’m interested in the way in which she and SI wrote novels as a way to make an income. Yet they never acted as a collective there were many quitters and expelled members, yet they did remain on an outside role to the SI. I’m keen to write a book, similarly autobiographical in this time to switch the light on to highlight the realities of modern living, how we are living and could live, and of course the realities of being on benefits.

[situationnisteblog-blog]

La Nuit [1961]

Bernstein, Michele. La Nuit. Paris: Buchet-Chastel, Septembre 1961. 181 p.; 20 cm; cream-colored cover in contemporary blue binding. Second roman de celle qui fut la première épouse de Guy Debord, La Nuit forme un savoureux pastiche du Nouveau du Roman – en vogue à l'époque. Reprenant la même histoire que dans Tous Les Chevaux du Roi (publié l'année précédente), l'ouvrage "dépeint le quotidien et les amours d'un jeune couple 'moderne', comme l'on disait alors. On peut reconnaitre Bernstein et Debord sous les traits des deux héros" (Gonzalvez). Longtemps épuisé – et introuvable – l'ouvrage est de nouveau disponible chez Allia (2013). L'exemplaire que nous présentons a la particularité d'être relié dans une couverture bleue cartonnée et entoilée qui n'est pas sans rappeler la dimension psychogéographique du roman: les longues ballades à pied dans Paris, qui sont légion dans le roman, évoquent la dérive si chère à Debord et aux membres de l'Internationale Situationniste.

[fifidunks]

...This book, All the King’s Horses, came out in 1961, and it was written to make money. Guy Debord didn’t work for money, so somebody had to make the money. So she wrote this novel and it was a very funny, witty narrative about a young couple in the art world who have an open marriage, and invite a naive young girl into their marriage. It was very racy. The late-50s in France was a pretty racy period in pop culture. You have Pauline Reage’s Story of O, which wins a major literary award, the Prix des Deux Magots. At 18 Francoise Sagan wrote Bonjour, Tristesse, about a seventeen-year-old girl’s love affair, and Sagan was a major pop star novelist, and all her novels were about slightly risque little set-ups. And there are the movies coming out like Les Liaisons Dangereuses, with Jeanne Moreau, so all of this is really in the air. Michele Bernstein’s book was participating in this light pop-porn genre that was going on, while also making fun of the domestic lifestyles of the Situationists. It was really popular, and it sold out, and they didn’t reprint it. It was out of print for decades, and came back into print maybe five years ago, when I found it in a bookshop. 

And she, too, wrote astrology.  

Yes, she wrote horoscopes for race horses. At least, that’s what Greil Marcus says. I’ve never been able to find the race horse horoscopes.

-Lisa Robertson on Michele Bernstein from her conversation with Michael

[delikatessensupreme]

The Situationist International (SI) was an international organization of social revolutionaries, the exclusive membership of which was made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and political theorists, active from its formation in 1957 to its dissolution in 1972.

The intellectual foundations of the Situationist International were derived primarily from anti-authoritarian Marxism and the avant-garde art movements of the early 20th century, particularly Dada and Surrealism. Overall, situationist theory represented an attempt to synthesize this diverse field of theoretical disciplines into a modern and comprehensive critique of mid-20th century advanced capitalism.

Source: Wikipedia

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

[zweite-natur]

H.L.: No one could figure out how they got by. One day one of my friends (someone to whom I had introduced Debord) asked him, "What do you live on?" And Guy Debord answered very proudly, "I live off my wits." [Laughter.] Actually, he must have had some money; I think that his family wasn't poor. His parents lived on the Cote d'Azur. I don't really think I really know the answer. And also Michele Bernstein had come up with a clever way to make money, or at least a bit of money. Or at least this is what she told me. She said she did horoscopes for horses, which were published in racing magazines. It was extremely funny. She determined the date of birth of the horses and did their horoscopes in order to predict the outcome of the race. And I think there were racing magazines that published them and paid her.

amazing interview w/ lefebvre on the situationists