Reflections on the study of Georges Bataille - Part #3

Having acquired a copy of Georges Bataille's book, visions of access, selected Writings 1927 to 1939, it is formed as a series of essays that Bataille wrote, starting with the first very short essay entitled "Dream", which is ostensibly about an incident that he had whilst as a child living in Reims, France. He talks about the terrors of childhood, and I'm not sure if he is recounting real events, or is more likely a confabulation various fragments of memories, a deep-seated emotional trauma that seems to have affected him for the rest of his life. (I have briefly discussed that issue in some of the previous blogs related to this author).

In the next essay entitled "The Solar Anus", he makes a comment about the perception of the world being a parody of itself. He talks within this essay about the continuous movement of life, the routine of getting up in the morning and falling asleep again; and this is all because our world revolves around the Sun. The reproduction and fecundity of life, with its inevitable endings and rebirths, is united. The importance of the sea, and its relationship with the cycle of tides, rising and falling, in rotation with the moon and the earth, all bound intrinsically with the Sun, coupled with what Bataille describes in his essay in very graphic and phallic terms, also plays a highly charged part in his thinking. Ultimately this essay seems to be about Bataille's guilt, perhaps during an event whilst he was exploring some of the most extreme and debauched parts of his research into hedonism and excess.

In the essay "The Language of Flowers", there seems to be a deeper analysis and in his words "the role given to symbols in psychoanalytic interpretations" (Bataille, page 11), suggests a much more quantified thought about appearance and phenomena, and the value of appearance in itself. Again though he rapidly associates symbology found in the construction, or indeed deconstruction of flowers, with the ideas of beauty juxtaposed with repugnance.

I'm glad to have found a copy of this book of very unusual essays which reflect the thoughts of Georges Bataille, and whilst it seems that each one had been written at the time with considerably deep thought and attention, much of what he says, can be reinterpreted and applied to contemporary culture. It must also be considered in context at the time of great turmoil in Europe, both politically and culturally.

Other essays in the book are for example "The Big Toe", which he argues is the most human part of the human body, underlying its importance in order to keep us standing upright. In "the Lugubrious Game", he refers to the painting of the same name, by Salvador Dali. It appears from further reading that Bataille had a certain inferiority complex with regard to Salvador Dali, and whilst both were exploring areas of culture which had hitherto been off-limits, there is an observation of emasculation in Dali's paintings, which Bataille seems to be drawing out with provocation.

Conclusions;

Further essays deal with the interpretation of language and its translations of meanings from one to another, in which it necessarily follows that confusion or indeed errors may result. One particular essay of interest to me at the moment is the essay entitled "The Old Mole and the prefix 'Sur' in the words surhomme [Superman] and surrealist". It is in this essay that he brings in some of the thoughts of Frederick Wilhelm Nietzsche, together with materialism, free spirit, and nihilism. This particular essay requires much more research, suffice it to say, that it will provide a great reference source for some of my future works no doubt.

References;

Richardson, M. (1994), Georges Bataille. London: Routledge
Stoekl, A. (1985), Georges Bataille, Visions of Excess, (Selected Writings, 1927-1939), Edited and Translated by Allan Stoekl, Theory and History of Literature, Volume 14, University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis.