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Taboo and sacrifice, transgression and language, death and sensuality--Georges Bataille pursues these themes with an original, often startling perspective. He challenges any single discourse on the erotic. The scope of his inquiry ranges from Emily Bronte to Sade, from St. Therese to Claude Levi-Strauss and Dr. Kinsey; and the subjects he covers include prostitution, mythical ecstasy, cruelty, and organized war. Investigating desire prior to and extending beyond the realm of sexuality, heargues that eroticism is "a psychological quest not alien to death." " . . . one of the most original and unsettling of those thinkers who, in the wake of Sade and Nietzsche, have confronted the possibility of thought in a world that has lost its myth of transcendence."--Peter Brooks,New York Times Book Review "Bataille is one of the most important writers of the century."--Michel Foucault "[An] urgent, thrusting book about love, sex, death and spirituality by Georges Bataille."--Mark Price,Philosophy Now Georges Bataille (1897-1962) was a French intellectual and literary icon who wrote essays, novels, and poems exploring philosophical and sociological subjects such as eroticism and surrealism. City Lights published more of Bataille's works includingThe Impossible,The Tears of Eros, andStory of the Eye.… (more)
User reviews
Though this work is now over fifty years old, it is doubtful that any book since has improved upon it nor even come close to it, nor that one has even dared. Some may find portions of the work misogynist, others may even find the work dated, and nearly all readers will find that at certain points an explanation of mere pornography borders on the esoteric and indecipherable. However, Bataille is trying to express that which cannot be expressed in language. Most concepts defy language itself, they are outside of it. Bataille himself states this. We see then what a lofty undertaking this work is, and the fact that it is so fluid, enlightening, and precise in spite of that is a monumental achievement.
Bataille has been referred to as the "metaphysician of evil", a moniker that I find to be sensational. According to Bataille, eroticism moves man towards death; or alternatively, man moves towards death in pursuing the erotic, which he cannot help but doing, since eroticism is intrinsic to his very nature. Work acts as a barrier against the potentially malign influence of decadent eroticism. Although sex and sexuality in themselves are amoral -- Bataille makes use of a moral perspective in his study of the connection between eroticism and death. Human sacrifice (and its evolution into pastel Christianity / puritanical monotheism) and the writings of Marquis DeSade appear as two memorable themes in this work; as several other Goodreads reviewers have noted -- The chapter on DeSade is compelling.
While reading "Erotism" I asked myself the question: "Must I now view life through Bataille's dark prism? And the answer was unequivocally: "Yes". On a technical note, I find the translation to be problematic [this has been observed by other Goodreads reviewers as well]; typos abound and while many of them are innocuous -- There are instances where both the typos and the mistranslations possibly contribute to misinterpretation of specific shades of meaning.