Love this post. Bataille has a mysterious quality that seems spiritual but is rank and cadaverous at the same time. When I was studying altered states of consciousness in literature and criticism, I was confounded by Bataille. Maybe it is the translation from French to English, I am not sure but I found him beautifully perplexing. Like modern art some times is.
what an great photo. it's mesmerizing. i'm a fan of bataille... so full of humor.
i haven't read the sacrifice article, but as for "sacred horror" it seems like the previous commenter hit it on the head - bataille seems spiritual because he is rank/cadaverous. my understanding is that both of these qualities belong in the realm of the ecstatic (in the sense of ex stasis; outside the self). in transgressing a taboo (thereby entering the realm of the sacred), we feel ecstasy, in the forms of both pleasure and fear. like st. augustine confronted with the divine, we are both chilled with horror and transported with love. bataille said horror is the immediate limit of ecstasy, meaning that as we draw closer to the point where horror will force us to recoil, we are able to reach "the state where joy slips into delirium." this would all have come from the overlapping realms of 'sacred' and 'taboo;' the sacred is what is off-limits, what is outside of the profane (common) world. but for bataille specifically, baseness and degradation are crucial to his conception of the sacred.
"...scandalous narratives are the modern writer's appropriation of evil; they constitute his criminal act. Since crime and evil form the foundation of divinity [according to Bataille], the modern artist is in effect usurping the role of god: 'The one who creates, who... writes can no longer allow any limit to writing: all of a sudden, he holds alone in his grasp all the human convulsions possible and he cannot avoid his divine inheritance - which belongs to him.'"
Revisiting this post over two years later, I would like to go no record as now understanding exactly what Bataille is saying. Though I'm not exactly happy about that.
Great post nonetheless. I'm inspired to dig out some of my Bataille poetry now!
ReplyDeleteI have to know where that last photo is from...?
Bergman ripped of Jesus: "I did not come to bring peace, but a sword" ((Matthew 10:34-39)
ReplyDeleteLove this post. Bataille has a mysterious quality that seems spiritual but is rank and cadaverous at the same time. When I was studying altered states of consciousness in literature and criticism, I was confounded by Bataille. Maybe it is the translation from French to English, I am not sure but I found him beautifully perplexing. Like modern art some times is.
ReplyDeletewhat an great photo. it's mesmerizing. i'm a fan of bataille... so full of humor.
ReplyDeletei haven't read the sacrifice article, but as for "sacred horror" it seems like the previous commenter hit it on the head - bataille seems spiritual because he is rank/cadaverous. my understanding is that both of these qualities belong in the realm of the ecstatic (in the sense of ex stasis; outside the self). in transgressing a taboo (thereby entering the realm of the sacred), we feel ecstasy, in the forms of both pleasure and fear. like st. augustine confronted with the divine, we are both chilled with horror and transported with love. bataille said horror is the immediate limit of ecstasy, meaning that as we draw closer to the point where horror will force us to recoil, we are able to reach "the state where joy slips into delirium." this would all have come from the overlapping realms of 'sacred' and 'taboo;' the sacred is what is off-limits, what is outside of the profane (common) world. but for bataille specifically, baseness and degradation are crucial to his conception of the sacred.
"...scandalous narratives are the modern writer's appropriation of evil; they constitute his criminal act. Since crime and evil form the foundation of divinity [according to Bataille], the modern artist is in effect usurping the role of god: 'The one who creates, who... writes can no longer allow any limit to writing: all of a sudden, he holds alone in his grasp all the human convulsions possible and he cannot avoid his divine inheritance - which belongs to him.'"
Revisiting this post over two years later, I would like to go no record as now understanding exactly what Bataille is saying. Though I'm not exactly happy about that.
ReplyDeleteThe second is probably from the 1890's or thereabouts.
ReplyDelete