tory of the Eye consists of several vignettes, centered around the sexual passion existing between the

unnamed late adolescent male narrator and Simone, his primary female partner. Within this episodic
narrative two secondary figures emerge: Marcelle, a mentally ill sixteen-year-old girl who comes to a sad
end, and Lord Edmund, a voyeuristic English émigré aristocrat.

Simone and the narrator first consummate their lust on a beach near their home, and involve Marcelle
within their activity. The couple are exhibitionists, copulating within Simone's house in full view of her
mother. During this second episode, Simone derives pleasure from inserting hard and soft-boiled eggs
for her vaginal and anal stimulation; she also experiences considerable enjoyment from the viscosity of
various liquids.

The pair undertake an orgy with other adolescents, which involves some broken glass and involuntary
bloodletting, and ends with Marcelle's psychological breakdown. The narrator flees his own parents'
home, taking a pistol from the office of his bedridden, senile, and violent father. They view Marcelle
within a sanatorium, but fail to break her out. Naked, they flee during night back to Simone's home, and
more displays of exhibitionist sex ensue before Simone's widowed mother. Later, they finally break
Marcelle out of the institution, but unfortunately, Marcelle is totally insane. Deprived of her therapeutic
environment, she hangs herself. The pair have sex next to her corpse.

After Marcelle's suicide, the two flee to Spain, where they meet Sir Edmund. They witness a Madrid
bullfight, which involves the prowess of handsome twenty-year-old matador, El Granero. Initially, El
Granero kills the first bull that he encounters and the animal is consequently castrated. Simone then
pleasures herself by vaginally inserting these taurine testicles. Unfortunately, El Granero is killed by the
next bull that he fights, and his face is mutilated. As the corpse of El Granero is removed from the
stadium, his right eye has worked loose from its socket, and is hanging, bloody and distended.

Simone, Sir Edmund, and the narrator visit the Catholic Church of San Seville after the day's events.
Simone aggressively seduces Don Aminado, a handsome, young, Catholic priest, fellating him while
Simone and the narrator have sex. Sir Edmund undertakes a blasphemous parody of the Catholic
Eucharist involving desecration of the bread and wine using Don Aminado's urine and semen before
Simone strangles Don Aminado to death during his final orgasm. Sir Edmund enucleates one of the dead
priests' eyes, and Simone inserts it within her vagina, while she and the narrator have sex. The trio
successfully elude apprehension for the murder of Don Aminado, and make their way down Andalusia.
Sir Edmund purchases an African-staffed yacht so that they can continue their debaucheries, whereupon
the story ends.
In a postscript, Bataille reveals that the character of Marcelle may have been partially inspired by his
own mother, who suffered from bipolar disorder, while the narrator's father is also modeled after his
own unhappy paternal relationship. In an English language edition, Roland Barthes and Susan Sontag
provide critical comment on the events.

Barthes: Metaphors of the eye and liquid

Roland Barthes published the original French version of his essay "Metaphor of the Eye" in Bataille's
own journal Critique, shortly after Bataille's death in 1962. Barthes' analysis centers on the centrality of
the eye to this series of vignettes, and notices that it is interchangeable with eggs, bulls' testicles and
other ovular objects within the narrative. He also traces a second series of liquid metaphors within the
text, which flow through tears, cat's milk, egg yolks, frequent urination scenes, blood and semen.

Furthermore, he argues that he does not believe that Story of the Eye is necessarily a pornographic
narrative, given that these structuring chains of metaphors do provide coherent underpinning
sequences.

Cultural references

Singer/songwriter Björk was inspired by this book. See for example the music video to her song "Venus
as a Boy".[1][2] Before The Sugarcubes and her solo material, Björk was the singer/flutist/songwriter in a
band called Kukl, their 1984 debut album "The Eye" is also a reference to Story of the Eye.

The band Of Montreal refers to this book in the lyrics of the song "The Past Is a Grotesque Animal": "I
fell in love with the first cute girl that I met, Who could appreciate Georges Bataille, Standing at a
Swedish festival discussing Story of the Eye, Discussing Story of the Eye.[3]

The band Eyehategod recorded a song called "Story of the Eye" (later included on the album Southern
Discomfort).

The progressive rock band Seranati recorded the song Simone based on the book.[4]

Danish punk rock band Iceage references this book in the song "Ecstasy", and vocalist Elias Bender
Rønnenfelt cited Story of the Eye as an influence in writing the album You're Nothing.[5][6]

Pornographic film star and writer, Stoya, references this book: "I’d taken this white tunic ... and
transcribed the first few chapters of Bataille’s ‘Story of Eye’ onto it with black fine point Sharpie."[7]

In David Mitchell's book, Black Swan Green, Mr. Dunwoody, the art teacher at the narrators (Jason
Taylor) school, is reading this book when Jason comes in to the staff room to retrieve a whistle for Mr.
Kempsey. Mr. Dunwoody tells him it is a book on the history of opticians. Page 212.
See also

Georges Bataille's Story of the Eye – 2004 experimental film adaptation of the novel

References

"A biography of Bjork with a reference to The Story of the Eye". Archived from the original on 2008-04-
30.

"City Lights Bookstore in San Francisco, CA".

"Website with lyrics to the song "The Past Is a Grotesque Animal"". Retrieved 28 July 2012.

https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/simone-single/id845368091

http://pitchfork.com/features/update/9031-iceage/

http://songmeanings.com/songs/view/3530822107859451243/

http://graphicdescriptions.com/19-slow-correspondence