I remember George Lichtheim telling us that he liked Guy Debord’s  Chapter IV of La Societe du spectacle , the one about the proletariat as subject and as representation. The chapter about history..”Why don’t you try the NLR , they might want to do it”. said George. We told him that we did not think that the NLR would take it on. We had seen their output, it was grim stuff, all althusserian. It still is!

At that time we were translating The Veritable Split in the International -public circular- of the Situationist International. It was the last book of the SI. As Colin Carsten’s  parents were away we were staying at their house in Reddington road in London. It made a difference from our tiny “flat”. The bathroom was twice as big as our room!  George  Lichtheim lived upstairs. One time he came down in his dressing gown to the kitchen, to make some tea or something similar, it was around midnight, it was bible pitchblack outside. He asked us what we were doing -he could see papers , dictionaries, books on the table-, we told him were translating a book. Which one? he said. So we told him. He replied: “It is a terrible book.”. We told him we were splitting from that horrible world. Drastic stuff. George said goodnight and went upstairs to his abode.

George Lichtheim was kind, intelligent, a cultured man you don’t meet everyday.  You could always talk to him about anything. His dilemma was he loved a woman who did not want him. Then Colin’s parents were on their wayback, so we retreated to our Ladbroke road one room flat.

A few months later Colin told us that George had taken his life. That was a tragedy and a waste . What a harsh system we live under. I salute his memory here. People can use insights from Lichtheim, Marcuse, Horkheimer, Pollock, Adorno, Lukacs, But you have to criticize them. It is the same with Guy Debord. Moishe Postone in his book Time, labor and social domination  has made good use of those mentioned, especially those I speak to start with.

That is the misery of the NLR – they don’t criticize the shortcomings of their sacred cows or shall I say bulls. It is no good enough, it does not help anyone.

written as part of The Memoirs of a Situationist Drummer  on the 17 of February 2010, by M.P.W. Prigent.