DAVID AMES CURTIS

27, rue Froidevaux 75014 Paris FRANCE TEL/FAX: 33 (0) 1 45 38 53 96
666 Main Street #305 Winchester, MA 01890 USA; TEL: 1-781-729-0523
CURTIS@MSH-PARIS.FR

Statement of David Ames Curtis
concerning the announcement of the
PDF electronic publication of
Cornelius Castoriadis/Paul Cardan's
Figures of the Thinkable
(Including Passion and Knowledge)

Dear www.costis.org and www.notbored.org :

Thank you for your announcements of the PDF electronic publication of Cornelius Castoriadis/Paul Cardan's Figures of the Thinkable (Including Passion and Knowledge). As with other electronic versions of Castoriadis texts -- for example the electronic partial reprint of "Power, Politics, Autonomy" and the first PDF electronic publication of a Cornelius Castoriadis/Paul Cardan volume, The Rising Tide of Insignificancy (The Big Sleep) -- the information you have sent us has been posted on the Cornelius Castoriadis/Agora International Website English-Language Webography. Noted is the "Notice," which urges worldwide shared distribution of this electronic book, using a "pyramid scheme" whereby each individual, on his or her own initiative, would contact ten persons or organizations about this publication, with a free-will donation sent to the Castoriadis family.

Similar to what I wrote in my first statement concerning the RTI(TBS) PDF electronic posting, I can now also state with regard to FT(P&K):

I have also read the Foreword to this FT(P&K) electronic edition and find it accurate as concerns my own self. As for the "Association Cornelius Castoriadis" (ACC) established by the Castoriadis family, the description in the RTI(TBS) Foreword, and reiterated in the Foreword to FT(P&K), of its moral and organizational failings strikes me as, if anything, too mild in light of their abuse and misuse of the name of the person it has adopted as its own. (See also, below, concerning the many questions posed to, but never answered by, the ACC.)

Allow me to state here, however, my continuing feelings of love for Zoe, Sparta, and Cybele Castoriadis as well as my profound regret and deep sadness with respect to the embarrassing and disturbing situation in which they have knowingly and willingly placed themselves. In addition, the word "heartbroken" has accurately depicted my feelings with regard to Pierre Vidal-Naquet and his failure to keep his word, not once but many times over since Cornelius Castoriadis's death seven years ago; I had thought better of him.

As pointed out in this FT(P&K) Foreword, if anyone wishes to dispute its factualness or discuss the substantive aspects of what is said, they need not object that it has been published anonymously. I will gladly enter the public arena to defend what is stated therein, as well as what was stated in the RTI(TBS) Foreword.

Moreover, I will be glad to receive at my e-mail address and post online suggestions for corrections or improvements that people would like to see incorporated into an eventual second edition. I have already, myself, begun to draw up a list of typos and other minor errors I have noticed.

To this statement, I now add:

Really, I do feel love as well as sadness for Zoe, Sparta and Cybele Castoriadis, with no personal animosity toward any one of them. I would be glad to resume labor negotiations with them and with the "Association Cornelius Castoriadis" at any moment, with no preconditions for any direct or indirect meeting, in order to resolve outstanding issues amicably and with mutual respect, so that I may resume regular publication in translation of the writings of the man who had full confidence in me and in my collaborative work with him over the last thirteen years of his life.

These labor negotiations were cut short by the Castoriadis family. After the Cerisy Colloquium in June 2003, Zoe Castoriadis and I had hammered out an eight-point agreement, to be OK'd by myself and by the other Castoriadis literary executors as a prelude to resumption of my Castoriadis translation work. When, at Zoe's request, I sent a copy of this eight-point agreement to Sparta Castoriadis, I did receive an initial positive response from her; that response did not, however, explicitly endorse the eight-point agreement, as Zoe had insisted must occur. I am still awaiting a response to my subsequent letter to Sparta Castoriadis, dated August 5, 2003, and thus consider these labor negotiations still open: Good-faith negotiations cannot be terminated unilaterally, by silence or other means, while there is still an agreement on the table endorsed by negotiators from both sides. Moreover, anyone who volunteers to replace a worker during ongoing labor negotiations can be considered, quite objectively (again without animosity), as a "scab." RTI(TBS), the first PDF electronic volume of Castoriadis/Cardan writings, it is to be noted, appeared December 6, 2003, four months to the day after a copy of the letter to Sparta Castoriadis was e-mailed on August 6, 2003 to Zoe Castoriadis, Secretary of the "Association Cornelius Castoriadis"; that e-mail, too, received no response, not even the requested return acknowledgment.

It is most unfortunate, moreover, that Castoriadis family members have repeatedly refused since then to heed private calls from third parties that they seek to find common ground again with me. They have sometimes even refused the simple politeness of acknowledging that such private calls for conciliation, mediation, or negotiation have been addressed to them.

I reiterate: I will gladly resume labor negotiations at any moment. Because approval of this eight-point agreement was a precondition for my being authorized by the Castoriadis literary executors to resume contact with Stanford University Press (SUP), I have held off on all substantive contacts with SUP in the interim. I still consider my SUP contract valid (even though I was told at one point by a SUP representative that they had no intention of honoring it, because they had made a "mistake" in what they had legally signed!), and I am still owed a substantial sum of money (though money is not my principal concern or objective) for work a SUP representative asked me to complete while awaiting replacement contracts I was promised would be forthcoming but which never arrived. I trust this information will put to rest the rumors you, Costis, have informed me Zoe Castoriadis is now spreading to some of Castoriadis's comrades in Greece that I somehow have pocketed "her" (!) money.

There have been some questions as to why I would "insist" upon writing a Translator's Foreword for published works and as to whether these Translator's Forewords might be either acts of "egotism" on my part or, rather, superfluous ("Castoriadis doesn't need to be introduced/explained/commented upon," etc.). Actually, it is usually a publisher and/or an author who has insisted, requested, or agreed that I write a Translator's Foreword, Helen Tartar, SUP's Editor at the time my contract was signed, offering me 6,000 words per volume (see now the eight-point agreement).

A telling case in point: Upon a request from Paul Gordon, Editor of Free Associations, I coauthored an introduction to my translation of a Castoriadis interview, "From the Monad to Autonomy," with one of the interviewers...Sparta Castoriadis! At the time, Castoriadis's daughter saw no reason not to participate with me in such an endeavor, and we worked well together, spending a lovely afternoon writing and discussing in the Parc de Saint-Cloud. Unless my recollection is faulty, we presented this introduction to her father as a surprise gift, never asking for or expecting her father's "approval" for what we wrote under our own names, jointly and amicably. I now electronically reprint that introduction here as one of my Translator's Forewords (in this case, coauthored). I trust that Sparta will not object; but I will gladly remove the piece if she would like to get back in touch with me about this (and, hopefully, also about other outstanding matters, including the unanswered August 5, 2003 letter I sent to her). Of note, too, is that each of the posthumous Castoriadis seminar volumes Castoriadis's family now publishes contains a preface or postface from the French Editors, sometimes telling us which points "merit commentary." It would seem that, despite certain phrasings I've heard, the objection is not one in principle to providing additional commentary, analysis, or reflections within the confines of a published Castoriadis volume but, rather, an objection to a plurality of points of view, when this plurality cannot be subjected to the family's absolute control (prior censorship). This double standard is unbecoming for a group calling itself the "Association Cornelius Castoriadis" and is, as one can now readily see, directly contradicted by my prior, wholly positive experience with Castoriadis's own daughter. I trust that this particularly instructive example will also put to rest the claims Castoriadis family members have been making that I am somehow incapable of working with others.

A few remarks about the PDF electronic publication of The Rising Tide of Insignificancy (The Big Sleep) in relation to the new Le Seuil volume, Une société à la dérive, published this month in French by the Castoriadis family:

I have undertaken a quick comparison of the new Castoriadis volume from Le Seuil, Une société à la dérive. Entretiens et débats 1974-1997 (SD), put out by the Castoriadis family, with the RTI(TBS) Appendix list entitled "Among the non-Carrefours texts considered for possible inclusion in RTI," where it was announced that "translations of some of these texts may be prepared at a later date for publication in an electronic volume devoted to Castoriadis's post-S. ou B. interventions."

There are 5 texts in the "Itinéraires" section, of which 1 is the 1974 interview that appeared as the first chapter of the Castoriadis Reader but never made it into any of the Carrefours du labyrinthe volumes. I'm glad to see this text in a French volume, if for no other reason than that it means that Agora International will no longer have to make expensive photocopies for all the French-speaking people who write in to request this important (and crumbling) mimeographed text that provides a retrospective history of the Socialisme ou Barbarie group. Interestingly, another chapter is a text I've had in transcript form for a decade, which Castoriadis gave to me, though he couldn't tell me where, if anywhere, it had been published. The family seems to have tracked down this interview ("Le projet d'autonomie n'est pas une utopie") to a journal in Strasbourg. Good for them. Two of the three other texts were previously unknown, I believe, to most people. I was able to confirm that one of them, Castoriadis's response to a lecture given by Rorty in Paris, which I attended, occurred back in 1991, not in 1995 as the French Editors report.

In the second and final section, "Interventions," there are 20 texts -- 9 of which are listed in the RTI(TBS) Appendix. Moreover, this section includes the French originals of two RTI(TBS) texts ("The Gulf War Laid Bare" and "The Revolutionary Force of Ecology") that had not been included in the family's posthumously edited Carrefours volume, Figures du pensable. So, more than half of the SD "Interventions" texts appeared, one way or another, in RTI(TBS). Four more of the 20 SD "Interventions" texts are mainly about the Soviet Union and totalitarianism, a topic not highlighted in RTI(TBS).

The RTI(TBS) Appendix list included 22 suggested texts, 9 of which, as I said, are now in the second (the larger) half of SD. Four more of the 22 texts are in fact briefer repetitions of the "Gulf War Laid Bare" theme, occasioned by the publication of this controversial text in Libération. I'm a bit disappointed to see that neither of the two spoken texts on the 1986 student-railworker protests (a Libération interview and a public talk at the Sorbonne) was chosen, especially for a French volume, as these protests were an important precursor to the December 1995 protests in France that, Castoriadis wrote in La Montée de l'insignifiance, were a countercurrent to the social-historical analyses he was developing about "the rising tide of insignificancy" in "a society adrift." The remaining 7 items are all interviews, of varying interest and length; understandably, not all could/should have been chosen. Interestingly, the family seems to have chosen NOT to include the text whose title served, in part, to justify the subtitle of RTI(TBS): "Le grand sommeil des démocraties" (The Big Sleep of the democracies)....

I'm so pleased to see this new volume of Castoriadis's interviews, talks, and writings available in French, which helps to show how Castoriadis continued to intervene, where possible, on issues of a political and social nature and thus did not just go off to do disembodied philosophy and "pure ontology" for the rest of his life. It seems clear to me that RTI(TBS), and its Appendix list of significant non-Carrefours du labyrinthe Castoriadis texts, served to catalyze this significant new publication (previously, Zoe had told me that there would be no further nonseminar collections of Castoriadis's writings and talks). I congratulate the family on its willingness to listen, albeit in so tardy and indirect a way.

Finally, I am thankful for the reference to the Cornelius Castoriadis/Agora International Website on p. 281 of Une société à la dérive . Perhaps there might be an indication here of the possibility of a resumption of communications that might lead to a search for common ground and an opportunity for me to once again publish Castoriadis translations with the family's authorization. At least, that is my hope. If some of what follows seems harsh, it is because my love for Zoe, Sparta, and Cybele Castoriadis is a tough love, and it flows from my conviction that they have sullied the memory of Cornelius Castoriadis by not respecting, in everyday life and in the decisions that count, his radical direct-democratic convictions.

A few additional remarks on Figures of the Thinkable (Including Passion and Knowledge):

The publication histories of some of the texts that appear in FT(P&K) are rather amusing, and perhaps on some points also instructive.

1. Initially, the Castoriadis family did not wish to publish at all Castoriadis's "Anthropogony" text -- now the first chapter of FT(P&K) -- in either Thesis Eleven or in any Thesis Eleven-related volume based on the April 1997 "Agon" conference Cornelius and I attended at Ohio State University eight months before his death. During an early 1998 meeting with the organizing committee of what would become the family's "Association Cornelius Castoriadis," at the risk of alienating family members, I -- in my capacities as an invited member of this organizing committee, as a long-standing member of Thesis Eleven's Board of Editorial Advisors, and as someone publicly acknowledged and thanked by the "Agon" conference organizers as having been instrumental in its conception and organization -- vigorously defended the proposition that Castoriadis's "Anthropogony" text, delivered at this April 1997 conference, should be published along with the rest of the acts of the conference. The attitude of family members was that (1) they were not bound to respect Castoriadis's own commitments on this score and, besides, (2) how large was Thesis Eleven's circulation, anyway? A decision was later made that this talk would indeed be given to conference organizer Peter Murphy and his coeditor Johann Arnason for publication. I assisted the family in bringing together the various necessary elements (the talk existed in Greek, French, and English-language versions). As soon as I provided the material I had at my disposal, however, I heard nothing more. It was only much later that I learned from Stathis Gourgouris that he had been asked by the family to translate the text from the Greek -- with the specific proviso that he would be sworn to secrecy and must hide this decision from me in particular while he was working on the translation. Apparently, Arnason and Murphy were also in on this charade, concealing their decision from me, a member of Thesis Eleven's Editorial Advisory Board.* Gourgouris subsequently explained to me his furtive behavior as an exemplification of Castoriadis's analysis of Antigone--though I was never able to understand whether he meant that Zoe was therefore the feared autocrat Creon, whom no one dared to trespass...which would thus make me the mournful Antigone (true, Castoriadis had requested burial across the street from my apartment, but he was indeed buried there without incident, and I am not a relative of the late thinker either by blood or marriage)...or whether I -- blacklisted, locked out from work in a multi-year labor dispute, and the subject of a conspiracy of silence in which he himself had been a principal player -- was, in Gourgouris's creative imagination, myself the powerful Creon. When it came to hammering out the eight-point agreement in the Summer of 2003, however, Zoe Castoriadis informed me -- with the same vehement conviction she had previously expressed concerning the necessity of the text being translated from the Greek -- that now the text must be translated from the French version in Figures du pensable. I need not even inform Gourgouris of my renewed translation work, let alone consult him about it in relation to his published translation, she insisted, and she even refused to include language in the eight-point agreement to the effect that she was authorizing contacts with Gourgouris and other involved parties (see the tortured wording of point 5). No longer useful to the family, Gourgouris was now to be left by the wayside. I would still have been glad to work with Gourgouris, in particular in order to discuss with him the numerous instances in which his translation from the Greek raises serious questions, as is now abundantly clear in the anonymous Translator/Editor's footnoted comments for the FT(P&K) version.

*An amusing side development: In the most recent issue of the Australian social theory review Thesis Eleven (#80, February 2005), Johann Arnason describes his erstwhile coeditor Peter Murphy's recent "statement in support of the Iraq war" as "the most objectionable piece of writing that has appeared in the journal since it was founded in 1980" (p. 108). Perhaps now Arnason will want to express some gratitude to me for my summary rejection of a wildly incoherent plan Murphy presented to me in 1997 when he flew especially from Texas to Massachusetts in order to propose that I join him in a substance-less "generational coup" that would have forced Arnason to step down prematurely from his position as a Thesis Eleven Coordinating Editor; somehow, this improbable "coup" was to be accomplished in part by my going out of my way to insult fellow Thesis Eleven Editorial Advisory Board member Dick Howard, another bizarre Murphy suggestion I rejected out of hand.

As I have now learned from experience, when one is asked to join an "Editorial Advisory Board," or the like, for a review purporting to show an interest in the work of a radical direct-democratic thinker like Castoriadis (say, Thesis Eleven or the erstwhile Democracy and Nature), one would do well to inquire how the Editors of such a review view the question of internal democratic organization and simple information sharing.

2. The publication history of "The 'Rationality' of Capitalism" proved even more humorous. While visiting an unconscious Castoriadis in the hospital along with the family one evening in the Fall of 1997, at the family's request I gladly translated into English on the spot, in the hospital waiting room, the "abstract" (a sort of brief "Foreword"...) composed for the original French-language journal publication of this text. When Thesis Eleven came to request a full translation, it was I who was called upon again by the family to translate this text (which was also to be included as a chapter in what was, at the time, an agreed-upon augmented one-volume Figures of the Thinkable tome). But "the 'rationality' of capitalism" itself then went into high gear. Back before the tech-market crash, nearly every publisher in the world was trying to figure out how to cash in on internet-based reprint rights (usually this involved electronic resale schemes from which the author and the translator were to be, both in financial terms and with respect to copyright or oversight, completely excluded) as a way of keeping their own hard-copy-laden heads above water in this new and volatile environment. Suddenly, Le Seuil (the French publisher of Figures), as well as Sage Publications (Thesis Eleven's publisher) -- and, not to be outdone, Stanford University Press (the publisher of this prospective enlarged Figures of the Thinkable volume), too -- all got into the act, claiming that each of them, and only that one, already possessed or should be granted exclusive internet-based reprint rights to this lovely Castoriadis article that explains why capitalism's self-justification in terms of "rationality" is multiply erroneous. On "principle," none of these three companies, their eyes aglow with future electron cash flows, were willing to relent in the least or even to consider compromise concerning this one little text that, despite what we might wish for, would never yield huge profits from such imagined residual electronic rights. The result? Le Seuil, I imagine, has missed out on its foreign rights sales for this text and the French volume in which it was reprinted; Stanford University Press has never managed to issue an English-language edition of that volume; and Sage's Thesis Eleven ended up publishing a special issue on capitalism (minus this Castoriadis text) that, in my humble opinion as to its ultimate content, was a total embarrassment to this journal and to its editors. Castoriadis/Cardan's "The 'Rationality' of Capitalism" is now thankfully available to all online as part of FT(P&K), no longer hindered by the "rationality" of such irrational capitalist publishing ventures.

3. As recounted in the RTI(TBS) Foreword, Castoriadis family members once invited me to a Paris café for a discussion. They had decided to engage another translator/editor, Fuyuki Kurasawa, to partially retranslate into English from the French a Castoriadis text that already existed in Castoriadis's own English-language prose; it was at this meeting that Zoe Castoriadis stood up in public, began screaming uncontrollably, and then ran out of the café, distraught, to the embarrassment of the rest of us at the table and to the surprise of all the other people in the upstairs room. The name of the text in question? "The Psychical and Social Roots of Hate"...

At issue was the insistence of Castoriadis's widow (in direct contradiction to the agreement worked out with her, Sparta Castoriadis, and Enrique Escobar moments beforehand) that she sign my name to this text as someone who had aided in its preparation -- without, however, my being allowed to see the final version. Considering the state of the Kurasawa version eventually published in Free Associations, as is now revealed in the anonymous Translator/Editor's footnotes to the FT(P&K) version, I am both glad and relieved that I refused to allow my name to be associated with such a questionable endeavor: that partial retranslation unnecessarily and uncritically Frenchifies Castoriadis's generally good English, Kurasawa exhibits an unfamiliarity with some Freudian and Castoriadian terminology, there are several instances of apparent editorial and copy-editing error and omission, and considerable mysteries remain as to why this English-language version published in Free Associations differs on significant points from the final French version published in Figures du pensable...whereas the family's original justification for this partial retranslation was to harmonize the English with the French.

The many editorial and translation problems the anonymous Translator/Editor has found and brought to light in FT(P&K) raise the question of the reliability of an exclusively family-controlled editorial enterprise that is not transparent and open to public scrutiny. Indeed, a group of Castoriadis enthusiasts has discovered numerous transcription errors, inaccurate attributions of speakers, and sections of text missing from the family-authorized published version of Castoriadis's discussion with members of La Revue du MAUSS. One can only begin to wonder about the accuracy and reliability of other posthumously published work overseen by the Castoriadis family heirs without any independent oversight or control.

4. One purely personal note: Besides noting the strong and well-presented reasons the anonymous Translator/Editor gave as to why to include "Passion and Knowledge" in FT(P&K), I would like to recall that an excerpt from this beautiful Castoriadis text was used by my life partner, the dancer/choreographer Clara Gibson Maxwell, during a free public performance she gave at the invitation of former S. ou B. member Danièle Auffray. Indeed, a number of former S. ou B. members as well as others historically associated with the S. ou B. review have also generously responded to my blacklisting by, and my labor difficulties with, the Castoriadis heirs by offering me remunerated translation work. For this solidarity I am quite grateful as I remain in a lengthy labor dispute that has cost me thousands of dollars in unpaid Castoriadis translation work.

In light of secretive dealings, failures to keep an "Editorial Advisory Board" member duly informed of matters of direct concern to him, multiple claims to exclusive electronic ownership, attempts to secure a false signature, and also numerous disturbingly opaque and unexplained editorial discrepancies, all described above in my humorous encounters regarding Figures of the Thinkable, allow me to suggest that it might be instructive to read the FT(P&K) text entitled "What Democracy?" as a prelude to your rereading my second statement concerning the RTI(TBS) PDF electronic posting, addressed to www.costis.org, where I further stated:

With respect to the point made about further possible concerns, please note that a number of pertinent queries were posted on an electronic discussion group to which Castoriadis family members subscribe, queries that raised questions about the actions and behavior of the Association Cornelius Castoriadis as well as, specifically, about the Castoriadis literary executors. (In past years, the Council of the Association Cornelius Castoriadis has ignored member requests to place questions on the Assemblée générale agenda.) These questions were not of a personal nature but, rather, substantive issues regarding roles of officers of a legally recognized French "association loi 1901" as well as of persons claiming legal status as heirs. In particular, there was a query about possible large sums of money being disbursed to organize events in Greece around Castoriadis's work in 2002 without the knowledge or participation either of Association Cornelius Castoriadis rank-and-file members or of Castoriadis's old comrades in Greece, including yourself. (One wonders how many others have been blacklisted or excluded, each person or group being told that no one else is complaining.) Moreover, a copy of these questions (reproduced below) were hand delivered by a former member of Socialisme ou Barbarie to Sparta Castoriadis on December 12, 2003, right before the start of the Association Cornelius Castoriadis's biennial Assemblée générale. That former member demanded an explanation on the spot but was put off by her.

Because many people, like yourself, have asked me about these questions and about the response, if any, of the Association Cornelius Castoriadis and/or of Castoriadis family members, I respond here, as someone who attended the entire meeting, that no answers were forthcoming at all from officers or family members (an overlapping group) to the serious charges these questions raise, either at the Assemblée générale or, to my knowledge, at any later point up to the present moment. The only noticeable change is that the website of the Association Cornelius Castoriadis, which used to greet its own dues-paying members with a welcome notice reading "Forbidden ... access" has since altered its introductory page to read "En reconstruction." It is a shame that such "reconstruction" is not being redirected generally in a thoroughly democratic and forthcoming way with the officers and heirs answering these serious questions. {That website is no longer is functioning at all; answers still not forthcoming.}

Herebelow, please find the complete list of these unanswered questions {with a few small editorial comments added, February 2005, along with a translation of each question into English}:

QQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQQ

Pourquoi le premier trésorier de l'Association Cornelius Castoriadis a-t-il démissionné? Pourquoi a-t-il refusé d'expliquer les raisons de sa démission?
{Why did the first Treasurer of the Association Cornelius Castoriadis resign? Why did he refuse to explain the reasons for his resignation?}

Pendant la dernière Assemblée Générale de l'Association Cornelius Castoriadis, le Président de l'Association, Pierre Vidal-Naquet, a promis que le Conseil étudierait la création d'un "anti-conseil" désigné par tirage au sort.
Le Conseil, a-t-il étudié cette proposition?
Le Conseil, a-t-il fait une décision?
Pourquoi le Président de l'Association Cornelius Castoriadis a-t-il refusé de communiquer la disposition de cette affaire pendant deux ans et demi?
{During the last General Assembly meeting of the Association Cornelius Castoriadis, the President of the Association, Pierre Vidal-Naquet, promised that the Council would study the creation of an "anti-Council" chosen by lot.
Has the Council studied this proposal?
Has the Council made a decision?
Why has the President of the Association Cornelius Castoriadis refused to communicate the resolution of this matter for two and a half years? [And still no response, even after another biennial General Assembly in December 2003].}

Pourquoi le Conseil de l'association qui s'appelle "Association Cornelius Castoriadis" tient-il des réunions à huis clos?
{Why does the Council of a publicly registered nonprofit organization that calls itself the "Association Cornelius Castoriadis" hold its meetings behind closed doors?}

Pourquoi le Conseil de cette Association refuse-t-il d'annoncer à l'avance le tenu de ses réunions?
{Why does the Council of this Association refuse to announce in advance when its meetings will be held?}

Pourquoi ce Conseil n'annonce-t-il pas l'ordre du jour de ses réunions?
{Why does this Council not announce the Agenda of its meetings?}

Pourquoi ce Conseil ne sollicite-t-il pas à l'avance des suggestions concernant cet ordre du jour?
{Why does this Council not solicit in advance suggestions concerning this Agenda?}

Pourquoi ce Conseil ne communique-t-il pas par la suite les décisions de ses réunions?
{Why does this Council not communicate after the fact the decisions made during its meetings?}

Pourquoi tous les membres du Comité de publication de l'Association Cornelius Castoriadis ont-ils démissionné?
{Why have all the members of the Association Cornelius Castoriadis's Publication Committee resigned?}

Pourquoi le Conseil de l'Association Cornelius Castoriadis a-t-il refusé de solliciter la participation d'autres personnes intéressées à faire partie éventuellement de ce Comité de publication?
{Why has the Council of the Association Cornelius Castoriadis refused to solicit the participation of other individuals possibly interested in taking part in this Publication Committee?}

Pourquoi le Conseil de l'Association a-t-il décidé plutôt de cumuler les mandats en se désignant lui-même le Comité de publication?
{Why has the Council of the Association decided rather to hold several offices at once by designating itself this Publication Committee?}

Un ancien membre du Conseil de l'Association Cornelius Castoriadis a expliqué que les ayant droits Castoriadis, en tant qu'ayants droit, sont là uniquement "pour signer les contrats" et que les décisions concernant la publication des écrits de Cornelius Castoriadis relèvent de la compétence de l'Association. Un des ayants droit a déclaré pourtant que l'Association Cornelius Castoriadis (dont son Comité de publication) ne décident rien concernant la publication des écrits de Cornelius Castoriadis. Où se trouve la réalité?
{A former member of the Council of the Association Cornelius Castoriadis has explained that the Castoriadis literary heirs, qua literary heirs, are there solely "to sign contracts" and that the decisions concerning the publication of Castoriadis's writings are within the sphere of competence of the Association. One of the literary heirs has nevertheless declared that the Association Cornelius Castoriadis (including its Publication Committee) decide nothing concerning the publication of Cornelius Castoriadis's writings? What's the reality?}

Lorsqu'on visite le site web dont l'Association Cornelius Castoriadis est propriétaire, <www.castoriadis.org> , le message d'accueil s'affiche: "Forbidden ... access." Les membres de l'Association Cornelius Castoriadis, payent-ils pour un site web secret dont ils sont exclus d'office?
{When one visits the website owned by the Association Cornelius Castoriadis, <www.castoriadis.org> , the welcome message states: "Forbidden . . . access." Are the members of the Association Cornelius Castoriadis paying for a secret website from which they are summarily excluded. [See now above. As I wrote earlier to you, Costis: quite perplexed, I have so far been able to find four different website URLs that are apparently owned or run by the Association Cornelius Castoriadis].}

Certains organisateurs des colloques autour de l'œuvre de Cornelius Castoriadis ont fait appel à l'Association Cornelius Castoriadis. Est-il vrai que Mme Zoé Castoriadis s'efforce à exclure certaines personnes, à cause de leurs positions dans Socialisme ou Barbarie (Canjuers/Daniel Blanchard), ou à cause de leurs désaccords avec les ayants droit (David Ames Curtis)? (Selon un des organisateurs du Colloque de Cerisy 2003 autour de Cornelius Castoriadis, Curtis a été exclu de participation dans ce colloque, et il fallait lutter contre Mme Zoé Castoriadis afin d'y inviter Canjuers/Blanchard.)
{Some organizers of colloquia around the work of Cornelius Castoriadis have called upon the Association Cornelius Castoriadis. Is it true that Mme Zoe Castoriadis endeavors to exclude certain individuals on account of their positions in Socialisme ou Barbarie (Canjuers/Daniel Blanchard) or on account of their disagreements with the literary heirs (David Ames Curtis)? (According to one of the organizers of the 2003 Cerisy Castoriadis Colloquium, Curtis was kept from participating in this colloquium, and one had to struggle against Mme Zoe Castoriadis in order to have Canjuers/Blanchard invited there.}

Selon le même organisateur, le Conseil est devenu une "lutte de tous contre tous". Pourquoi les membres de l'Association Cornelius Castoriadis ne sont-ils pas informé des désaccords au sein de leur organisation?
{According to the same conference organizer, the Council has become a "struggle of all against all." Why are the members of the Association Cornelius Castoriadis not informed of the disagreements within their own organization?}

Le Conseil de l'Association Cornelius Castoriadis a demandé aux membres de l'Association des listes de coquilles dans les livres de Castoriadis. Pourquoi le Conseil n'a-t-il jamais communiqué aux membres les résultats de cette sollicitation d'information?
{The Council of the Association Cornelius Castoriadis has asked members of the Association to furnish lists of misprints found in Castoriadis's books. Why has the Council never communicated the results of this solicitation of information?}

L'Association Cornelius Castoriadis s'affichait l'ambition d'être le lieu officiel en ce qui concerne l'œuvre de Castoriadis. Selon des amis grecs de Castoriadis, lorsqu'une série d'événements autour de l'œuvre de Castoriadis a eu lieu en Grèce en été 2002, des membres du Conseil de l'Association Cornelius Castoriadis (Mme Zoé Castoriadis, Cybèle Castoriadis) y ont participé, et pourtant, ni les amis et collègues de Castoriadis en Grèce, ni les membres de l'Association Cornelius Castoriadis ont été informés de la tenue de cet événement. Selon des journaux, les organisateurs ont reçu 700,000 euros. Pourquoi cette série d'événements a-t-elle été tenue secret? Combien d'argent ont-ils touché, soit les membres du Conseil, soit les ayants droits Castoriadis?
{The Association Cornelius Castoriadis has expressed the ambition to be the official site as concerns Castoriadis's work. According to some Greek friends of Castoriadis, when a series of events around the work of Castoriadis took place in Greece in the Summer of 2002, some members of the Council of the Association Cornelius Castoriadis (Mme Zoe Castoriadis, Cybele Castoriadis) participated therein, and yet, neither the friends and colleagues of Castoriadis in Greece nor the members of the Association Cornelius Castoriadis were informed that this event was taking place. According to newspaper accounts, the organizers received 700,000 euros. Why was this series of events kept a secret? How much money did either Council members or Castoriadis literary heirs receive?}

Selon un ancien membre du Conseil de l'Association, il y a eu des désaccords au sein du Conseil de l'Association Cornelius Castoriadis concernant son efficacité. Une proposition a été faite de changer le siège social de l'Association (1, rue de l'Alboni 75016 Paris), à laquelle s'est opposée Mme Zoé Castoriadis, résidente à cette adresse. De quoi s'agit-il?
{According to a former member of the Council of the Association, there were some disagreements within the Council of the Association Cornelius Castoriadis as to the Association's effectiveness. A proposal was advanced to change the address of the headquarters of the Association (currently, 1 rue de l'Alboni 75016 Paris), to which Mme Zoe Castoriadis, who resides at this address, expressed her opposition. What is going on here?}

Un chercheur sud-américain qui projetait de préparer un livre en espagnol autour de Castoriadis s'est présenté devant la porte de l'Association Cornelius Castoriadis (1, rue de l'Alboni 75016 Paris) aux heures ouvrables. Selon ce chercheur, Mme Zoé Castoriadis lui a expliqué que les archives de Castoriadis sont "privés" et ne lui sont pas disponibles. Il a été prié par Mme Zoé Castoriadis d'aller ailleurs afin de poursuivre sa recherche. Cette histoire, est-elle vraie? Les Archives de l'Association Cornelius Castoriadis ont-elles devenues vraiment "privées" et ne sont-elles plus disponibles à des chercheurs qualifiés, ou uniquement selon l'humeur de la résidente? Par quelle décision de quelle instance de l'Association Cornelius Castoriadis?
{A South American researcher who was planning to prepare a book in Spanish on Castoriadis knocked at the door of the Association Cornelius Castoriadis (1 rue de l'Alboni 75016 Paris) during regular business hours. According to this researcher, Mme Zoe Castoriadis explained to him that Castoriadis's archives are "private" and are not available to him. He was told by Mme Zoe Castoriadis to go elsewhere in order to pursue his research. Is this story true? Have the Archives of the Association Cornelius Castoriadis really become "private" and are they no longer available to qualified researchers, or are they so solely at the whim of the person residing there? By what decision of the Association Cornelius Castoriadis?}

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Allow me to take the opportunity to express once again my admiration for www.costis.org's ongoing efforts to feature and to promote knowledge of Cornelius Castoriadis's work by posting a considerable number of texts by and about him in English, French, Greek, and Portuguese on a section of your website at:

http://www.costis.org/x/castoriadis/.

Allow me also to take the opportunity to express once again my admiration for Not Bored's trilogy of serious appreciations of the work of Cornelius Castoriadis:

Bill Brown. "Workers' Councils, Cornelius Castoriadis and the SI." Not Bored!, 26 (November 1996): 44-53.
http://www.notbored.org/councils.html

Bill Brown. "Cornelius Castoriadis, 1922 to 1997" (review of PSW 3). Not Bored!, 29 (July 1998): 64-69.
http://www.notbored.org/castoriadis.html

Bill Brown. "Strangers in the Night...." Not Bored!, 31 (June 1999): 74-83.
http://www.notbored.org/strangers.html

I am posting this reply at: <http://perso.wanadoo.fr/www.kaloskaisophos.org/rt/rtdac/rtdactf/rtdacftp&kblogstatement1.html>, for the record.

Yours in the struggle,

David Ames Curtis