The Story of the Eye Georges Bataille (1897-1962)

1. The Story of the EyeGeorges Bataille (1897-1962) French intellectual, anthropologist, writer, economist, sociologist, philosopher initially a big fan of surrealism* interested in human sacrifice, ritual, expenditure pure loss, pleasure, total commitment potlatch, human sacrifice, orgasm, annihilation

2. The Story of the EyeGeorges Bataille (1897-1962) • founded in Paris between WWI and WWII • focus on the unconscious, dreams, the occult • belief that the conscious mind keeps us from the truth • automatic writing, exquisite corpse game, ouja boards • drugs, séances, altered states of consciousness • juxtaposing ordinary items to make the everyday superreal • the chance meeting of an umbrella and a sewing machine on an operating table • Salvador Dalí, André Breton, Max Ernst, Giorgio di Chirico, Man Ray, Paul Eluard, Michel Leiris, &c. &c. • aim is to discover the truth that is hidden from us by civilization, consciousness, prudery SURREALISM

3. The Story of the EyeGeorges Bataille (1897-1962) SURREALISM

4. The Story of the EyeGeorges Bataille (1897-1962) SURREALISM

5. The Story of the EyeGeorges Bataille (1897-1962) SURREALISM

6. The Story of the EyeGeorges Bataille (1897-1962) story of erotic awakening of the narrator and Simone teen love, tender discovery of their erotic/sensual sides they wait to make love, preserve their innocence as love blooms

7. The Story of the EyeGeorges Bataille (1897-1962) story of erotic awakening of the narrator and Simone teen love, tender discovery of their erotic/sensual sides they wait to make love, preserve their innocence as love blooms

8. The Story of the EyeGeorges Bataille (1897-1962) story that begins with innocence and rapidly moves through depravity Episodes: I – Narrator and Simone on the beach (avec Marcelle) II – Narrator, Simone at Simone’s III – orgy at Simone’s @ which Marcelle masturbates in the wardrobe (not in Narnia anymore!) and urinates and breaks down IV – 2 Attempts to break Marcelle out of asylum; final success V – Marcelle hangs self in wardrobe and narrator and Simone have sex next to her corpse VI – they flee to Spain (as one does) and meet Sir Edmund VII – bull fight and ughness

9. The Story of the EyeGeorges Bataille (1897-1962) we have to talk orbs – this is after all the story of the eye - eyeballs - eggs - testicles Castration, testicles, fertility, origins, muck and fuck Bullfight – masculinity, display, seduction, sex and death el Granero’s eyeball inter urinas et faecesnascitur selfhood and subjectivity there is nothing inside you, no core self just a void, absence, pleasure – orgasm (jouissance) is the vision of this emptiness a cosmic nothingness

10. The Story of the EyeGeorges Bataille (1897-1962) • and we have to talk fluids • - egg • - urine • - semen • - blood • madness • sex/death • pain/pleasure • the self and others • “l’enfer, c’est les autres” (Sartre) • at the same time, the unruliness of desire, lust, pleasure • the danger of unsavoury revelation

11. The Story of the EyeGeorges Bataille (1897-1962) • unsavoury revelations: • - children are sexual beings • - children are violent beings • - morality is learned and repressive • Freud – Civilisation and Its Discontents • true enjoyment must be unfettered and unburdened • only pure expenditure, pure release can be fully gratifying • Hard to believe it, but this will make de Sade look vanilla • and the mid-term seem like …

12. The Mid-Term • Next class is the mid-term • you may NOT bring any books, notes, devices, etc. with you • it will take the whole class; when you are done, you are done • when we return: • from Myra Breckenridge • from Justine, or Philosophy in the Bedroom [both selections] • “Marriage à la Mode”