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Outline of Georges Bataille Erotism Deat
Outline of Georges Bataille Erotism Deat
Introduction:
1) Eroticism is assenting to life to the point of death, independent of natural
goals, and re: erotic passion existence must be imagined.
2) Reproduction implies discontinuous beings, as does communication.
Reproduction opens gulf between death which implies continuity. In asexual
reproduction 1st (discontinuous) being disappears and 2nd new beings arise
with an instant of continuity between. These creatures have an inside. Sexual
creatures unite in fusion - discontinuous yearn for continuity individuality hard
to bear.
3) 3 Forms of eroticism: physical, emotional, religious - try to substitute
continuity for discontinuity: (a) all eroticism has a sacramental character (b)
Eroticism essentially a realm of violence - death most violent jerk from
discontinuity to continuity (d-->c) - physical eroticism is violation of
practitioners - dissolution of person - female as passive and male dissolved in
fusion (c) Stripped naked as contrast to discontinuity links act of love w/sacrifice
male as sacrificer female w/victim - Eroticism -> breaking patterns (of social
order) jolts discontinuous existence - sex unto death = the extreme endpoint of
violent element in erotic acts (d) Physical eroticism holds onto separateness -
Emotional eroticism not so constrained. Passion is violent agitation (d -->c,
much more than physical desire) - Calm follows suffering, which reveals the
significance of the beloved, death linked w/urge to possess - kill rather than not
possess - Love means suffering and the hope of a way out of suffering - promised
fusion made salient by suffering - love and union involve death, murder, suicide,
passion - re: religion eroticism: the beloved appears full and limitless being = the
truth of existence. (e) Death does not affect the continuity of existences
continuity may even be proved by death - religious sacrifices victims die and
spectators share in revelation of continuity by violent disruption of discontinuity
- compare personal God w/ negative theology of mysticism, reveals absence of
any object. (f) Eroticism = assenting to life unto death challenges death - life is
doomed, but continuity is not meeting of the ways for violent impulses at the
heart of things - Poetry leads, like all eroticism, to fusion of separate objects, to
eternity death and continuity.
C)The inner experience of eroticism; the degree of objectivity connected with the
discussion of it; the historical perspective in which this must be seen: Bataille
stresses subjective point of view, deliberate loss of self in eroticism - objective
views are necessary since inner experience is always bound up with some
objective considerations.
D) Eroticism is primarily a religious matter and the present work is nearer to
“theology” than to scientific or religious history: Focus on subjectivity like
theology (Christianity a bad e.g.) - no particular religious tradition, not anti-
science but not scientistic - religious aspirations expressed indirectly - an
experience outside specific religion - not objective history needing inner
experience but benefits by not bringing it into play - must consider objective
historical forms and experience cannot be separated from this and is illuminated
by it. Inner experience must be universal with some arbitrariness
E) The conditions of an impersonal inner experience; the contradictory
experiences of taboos and transgressions: knowledge of eroticism and religion
demand contradiction between prohibitions and transgressions. The dual
experience is rare, religion is seen as either prohibition or transgression - Religion
and Erotic experience does not occur if taboo hold good or taboo doesn’t hold
good and taboo is seen (objectively [Freud]) as neurotic. This minimizes the
significance of the experience. Objectivity sees Religion and Erotic experience as
monstrous, in Science taboos are seen as irrational but science depends on subject
denying themselves to get at objects. This is OK if it opposes eroticism, but such
opposition is not justified and so neither is scientific attitude in studying
eroticism. Taboo acting for science externalizes the object and removing terror in
order to attain clarity. Since science depends on taboos it tries to subdue the
violence by prohibition. But if awareness tries to focus on violent impulses it
must do so using the taboos necessary to its function. But then taboos if not
transgressed eliminate the very consciousness to be studied. Transgression ->
anguish of violation necessary for the existence of taboo. So anguish at the heart
of taboo. so religious sensibility like terror, anguish and intense pleasure. Inner
experience achieved in moment of anguish tearing oneself (≠ object) and move
beyond objective awareness.
laws of operation) - Humans identified with the (rational) world of work and
opposed to the world of violence.
D) The horror of the corpse as a symbol of violence and as a threat of the
contagiousness of violence: Violence and death both horrify and fascinate and
disturb (we prefer life) - Death as sign of violence, corpse presents contrast
between everyday and unfamiliar w/symbolic thought the corpse is dangerous,
for the others, until buried and the rotting corpse is “contagious” until reduced
to dry bones.
E) The taboo on murder: A special case of taboo on violence - early human
thought all death is caused by violence. So everyone dies of murder. The forces
that murdered dead man must not be released on the others. Taboo works in the
community of work (cuts off violence), but not re: strangers. - What outlasts
transgression is the flouted taboo - repeated transgressions don’t abolish the
taboo. - Taboos founded on terror exist as temptations to transgression as well as
to be obeyed.
extravagant and excessive the means of engendering life, the more successful. In
general human life strives to excess to the point of anguish (unbearable). In the
end we want the honor of annihilation and yet regard it as impossible, a luxury
of torment.
D) Man’s “no” to Nature: Human’s try not to be carried away by the process, but
only accelerate it. Taboos are refusals to expend life in an orgy of annihilation.
So sex and death not distinguishable since both are festivals of excess. The
taboos re: sex and death are unified in destructive frenzy. Humans are possible
once “no” is spoken to excess even thought this “no” fails.
Chapter V: Transgression
A) The transgression does not deny the taboo but transcends it and completes it:
There is a prohibition that cannot be transgressed, some transgression is
permitted and some prescribed. Taboos are irrational (e.g. war OK but, don’t
kill) “The taboo is there in order to be violated.” positive emotion --> violate
taboo, negative emotion --> obey taboo. So taboo on murder doesn’t oppose war
and war is impossible w/o taboo (animals have no war) war like work is
purposive organization (war = organized violence). Transgression is violence
used by a rational creature. War arises when threshold of taboo on murder is
crossed. Organized transgression and taboo organize social life: frequency and
regularity of transgression gives increased force to prohibitions.
B) Transgression without limits: Transgression is often rule governed (unlimited
transgression is only possible sometimes) e.g. funeral ceremonies esp. for
sovereign lead to frenzy of the people which contains a form of sacrilege and
though they break rules these rules very will be restored. Disorder takes place
during period of decay ending w/clean skeleton. Mechanism of transgression:
taboo holds violence in check, this barrier is seen to be ineffective (king is dead),
unleashing penned up violence. Transgression ≠ animal liberty but is sacred
world as opposed to the profane world of work and taboo. Sacred1 = taboo -
negative df of sacred, feelings of devotion and terror. Sacred2 = transgression
fascinated awe. Economics distinguishes 2 meanings of “sacred” Taboo and
prohibition make work possible. During work consumption is minimized.
Sacred days are feast days when forbidden things are allowed or required and
expenditure is mandated. Accepting violence is vertiginous. So Religion is
moving force behind breaking taboos, founded on feeling of awe and terror and
reaffirming taboos by transgression of the law. Consciousness of the void exalts
and makes us aware of transgression.
transgression sin and expiation are deliberate acts. This is altered in Christianity
the passion is not a deliberate transgression
B) The ancient comparison of sacrifice and erotic intercourse: Transgressive acts
intentionally removal of discontinuous to continuous existence as in erotic act
which strips beloved of identity and exposes her to impersonal violence of sexual
organs. The chance to explore the similarity of feelings of piety in sacrifice and
in eroticism was lost when Christianity gave up the desire to use violent means
to discover existence.
C) The flesh in sacrifice and in love: Sacrifice brings life and death with
continuity (by eating the sacrificial meat). Sacrifice brings life and death into
harmony: death w/life’s upsurge and life w/death’s vertigo and unknown {Now
imagination must do the duty of sacrifice} We need to imagine sacrifice beyond
nausea. We hide killing of meat today. Both sacrifice and erotic acts reveal the
flesh each replaces ordered life with the blind convulsion of organs, urges of the
flesh go beyond bounds w/o controlling will. Yet it also returns, flesh signifies
threatening freedom.
D) The flesh, decency and the taboo on sexual freedom: Decency is chance matter
of time and place. Some taboos familiar but general taboo on sex yet to be
explored: Taboo in general is on violence of the flesh: move from objective
consideration of organs to experience starting w/plethora of explosive upsurge
beyond the agreement of the masses, outrageous, gratuitous and w/scope for
spectacle.
C) Solitude in prison and the terrifying truth of an imaginary moment of success:
Sovereign men are subject to no restraints, self-centered (not incited by the
people) their partners have no rights, they do not count at all, so that the violence
of eroticism is not invalidated. Absolute solitude is condition for sovereignty.
This denies interdependence necessary for human life, but also marks moments
of excess w/o which we would not understand ourselves. Excess, useless
pleasure, is by definition outside of reason and work, and logically implies
denial of others rights. Sade discovered this knowledge, even though it went
against his own practices, by considering only what he could imagine.
D) The mortal disorder of eroticism and “apathy”: Erotic excess expends and is
the opposite of work which accumulates. So it implies disorder and connects
w/death, destruction and betrayal. Nudity, partial nudity, brutality, murder,
prostitution, coarse talk all turn sensual pleasure into ruinous excess. Pleasure
squanders our resources to no purpose. W/o respect for others there are no
limits on desire showing what spending can mean. Respect leads to a cycle of
servitude that undermines respect. No one has the strength for this supreme
moment of sovereignty. {Blanchot: “Apathy” = spirit of denial necessary for
sovereignty. W/o apathy we spend energy on others in pity, gratitude, etc.
Apathy means cold blooded crime, i.e. crime w/o spontaneous passion which
becomes so insensible that cruelty needs to be taken to destructive explosion,
yielding pleasure on a new level of one’s whole being.}
E) The triumph of death and pain: Being, more that passive presence, is excess,
transcendent pleasure is more than sensuous (Clairwill’s crime that acts beyond
her life and consciousness). Unlimited denial is denial not just of others but of
oneself aiming at sovereignty. Historical sovereignty only evades necessity,
Sade’s sovereign man is a fiction w/o obligations and a victim of his own
sovereignty. Sade starts with absolute irresponsibility and ends in utter self-
control. Transgression is taken to the point that only crime matters, individuals,
as victims, don’t matter. Impersonal denial and crime tend to the continuity of
beings beyond death; it does not transcend yet links infinite continuity with
infinite destruction.
Sacrifice manifests this violence, which only protects once its need to consume
and ruin is sated. These facts show human needs which cannot be denied like
Sade’s fancies. The paradox of life is solved by separation of religious from
profane, anguish and joy from useful activity.
D) The normal man considers the paradox of sacredness or eroticism as
unhealthy: The attitude of normality cannot grasp the ambiguity of the sacred or
take its horrors seriously. They exist on the edge of awareness and Sade helps
make the horrors of sacrifice more accessible, if only as aberrations and
extensions of erotic impulses. Q: Can human being totally avoid excise the
denial of reasonand utility or is this negation essential to our being?
E) Vice is the deep truth at the heart of man: Can acetic will and punishment
remove our sadism or is overpowering excess at the heart of humanity? If the 1st,
then we will subdue nature, if the 2nd, this would destroy our humanity.
Consequence: $ essential excessive urge, which is sacred, and w/o which
humanity would languish, and which is connected with the normal quest for self
-knowledge which seeks to accept and limit these urges.
F) The two poles of human life: Use-value and violence; reason and excess;
civilization and barbarism; speech and silence; do not divide us into groups but
are present in all humanity.
G) Violence is silent and de Sade’s use of language is a contradiction in terms:
Common language cannot express violence, it treats it as a mistake. Silence
cannot eliminate violence, but reason denies it and it derides talk about it.
Torturers use the language of authority not of violence concealing violence.
Sade’s libertines talk to each other to justify their conformity to nature and insist
on the value of violence, excess, crime and torture. Sade’s ideas are opposed to
the torturer in that he refuses to cheat, his words are said by characters who
would be silent. Speechless solitude needs no justification which requires the
very moral energy in question. One who speaks has broken out of solitude.
Violence opposes solidarity, logic, laws, language, and Sade uses the most
forthright language opposed by sovereignty.
H) Sade’s language is that of a victim: Violence only comes to speech in the
language of the victim, since silence would imply acceptance. So Sade, in prison,
becomes judge attacking men, God and Nature.
I) De Sade spoke out in order to justify himself in his own eyes before other
people: Giving voice to violence fits well neither w/violence nor language.
Hence, misunderstanding and revulsion are the best responses to Sade’s writings
as justifications.
J) De Sade’s language takes us out of the field of violence: Sade’s expression
changes violence into a reflective rational will to violence. Sade’s discourses
make exhausting reading; in their excess, they give us vertigo, pointing to our
own nature. In their logical incoherence these discourses take us away from
violence, since their conscious desire to profit from violence denies the frenzy of
being beside oneself that violence requires. Conscious understanding tries to
comprehend violence and violence makes us lose ourselves and our
consciousness drawing toward consciousness to intensify itself.
K) For the sake of greater satisfaction de Sade strove to infuse violence with the
orderly calm of awareness: Eroticism is the sexual activity of a conscious being
which is inaccessible to consciousness. Sade tries to make something solid and
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measurable out of violence. the attempt to talk about his delirium as an external
object postpones and intensifies the climax of pleasure(/pain).
L) De Sade’s perversion brings violence into the field of conscious experience: In
focusing on an antinomy of violence and awareness Sade tends to make us aware
that violence (Sade’s punishment) is w/o justification. The calmness of reason in
violence attempts to bring to the surface what revolts us and induces pleasure.
Nothing excites passion more than irregularity. This Sadean doctrine leads the
way to an understanding of the paradox of transgression and taboo, by making it
possible to want to know that which most repels us.
erotic giving an extra intensity to sexual desire in setting a limit. Reciprocity has
economic utility, but this opposes eroticism. Eroticisms alternating denial and
affirmation, fascination and horror are subject to rules only temporarily. Rules
for distributing women as objects of desire also serve to distribute labor force.
G) Lévi-Strauss’s propositions describe only one aspect of the transition from
animal to man. This transition should be considered as a whole: As total social
phenomenon taboos on incest cannot be explained as just economic. Total being
cannot be separated from a state of becoming where human and animal nature
confront one another instead of being separated abstractly they have to be looked
at historically in transition not in synchronic stages.
H) The specific qualities of man: Subjectively the transition from animal to
human is marked by nausea. Humans alter, contradict, exterior nature w/tools
and their own nature education. Work and education are connected in humans.
Taboos on animal needs, e.g. excretions, is so total it never gets mentioned. and
3rd taboo on death (Hegel concentrates on 1st and 3rd).
I) The variability of the rules about incest and the general variability of sexual
taboos: We should ignore taboo on obscenity, since this varies as a relation
between subjects and objects. Incest, also arbitrary in this way, its universality
proves of connection between humanity and denial of (animal) sensuality.
Sexual activity cannot be cast off instead we can only separate off forbidden
times, places and persons, arbitrarily defined, e.g. nakedness. The disorder of
the animal world is always contrasted with human order, but how varies.
J) The essence of humanity is to be found in the taboo on incest and the gift of
women resulting from it: The absolute denial of the animal is situated just where
Lévi-Strauss explores, viz. marriage as site of convergence of economic utility
and purity, sensuality and taboo, generosity and avarice. It begins w/ the gift
which is a refusal of immediate animal satisfaction (w/o strings). Marriage is for
the man who gives the woman he could have had. A gift substitutes for sex a
form of expenditure of resources, making giving and humanity possible.
Renunciation adds to value of gift, helps create control of violence and
complements eroticism which requires respect for desired object. Respect keeps
order where violence is forbidden and makes violent eruptions possible. Taboo
makes transgression possible. There are moments when transgression is
unthinkable and those when the erotic completely overturns the law. These
extremes exist within a constant flux of circumstances.
ordinary life and its needs, and anguish opening the spontaneous surge of life.
But mysticism confines significance to inner states, though it may set off or be set
off by sexual climax. Communication is always possible between mysticism and
sensuality.
J) Continence and the condition of an unconditioned moment: Continence
separates from material constraints; it aims at sovereignty marked by
indifference to what happens losing subject in continuity. Yet greatest tension of
movement toward death takes place at end of intelligent effort, but Bataille
doubts whether such a state can be reached but only approached by calculation.
Refusal of servile work for transcendence calls for truer indifference than in
striving to reach such indifference. Sovereignty requires chance, self
abandonment, free play; hence the disorderliness of eroticism, rather than the
control of continence, may also lead us to explore the farthest potentialities of
being.
CONCLUSION: