Georges Bataille Browsing in Borders, I picked…
Georges Bataille
Browsing in Borders, I picked up a new biography of French essayist, philosopher, novelist and “metaphysician of evil” Georges Bataille. He was a close friend of Maurice Blanchot�s, so I was interested to read the references connecting the two. As I flipped through the pages, I found the collection of photos one expects from a biography: Georges in front of the house, Georges at the side of the house, Georges outside a Benedictine monastery on the Isle of Wight. But, sadly, not one of Blanchot. There are only two known photos of him anyway, so what was I expecting? However, I did see a stunning photo of Bataille�s lover Colette ‘Laure’ Peignot on her deathbed. For a recently dead person, she was gorgeous. Her death inspired Blanchot�s awesome r�cit Death Sentence.
There were also some photos of a Chinese execution or torture session from 1905. Apparently they fascinated Bataille. He was into that sort of extremity � �sex, death, degradation, and the power and potentialities of the obscene� as this site tells us. (Wot, no pop references?)
One of these terrible images is included on Booklist�s site dedicated to Bataille�s work. To avoid nightmares, I imagine its really someone who made a smug comment on one of my blogs; that cheers me up. Unfortunately, most of the tempting links on the page fail. (Also have a look at the main page for links to similar pages on Walter Benjamin, Jorge Luis Borges, Charles Bukowski, Hunter S Thompson and loads of others.)
I�ve not got a handle on Bataille�s ideas despite Nick Land�s The Thirst for Annihilation: Georges Bataille and Virulent Nihilism, which has to be the funniest, most rancid work of philosophy to emerge from a British university EVER.
Other Splinters posts of interest:
- More Tragedy and Violence Despite The Complete …
- Gili Good Show
- Sidestreet
- The Book to Come
- Cultural and Religious Theory (Journal of)
