Georges Bataille: A Critical Introduction

by Benjamin Noys

This is a clear and concise guide to the life and work of the French intellectual Georges Bataille, best known as the author of the celebrated erotic novel, The Story of the Eye. Benjamin Noys introduces Bataille as a writer out of step with the dominant intellectual trends of his day - surrealism and existentialism - and shows that it was his very marginality that accounted in large part for his subsequent importance for the post-structuralists and the counterculture, in Europe and in the United States. Treating Bataille's work as a whole rather than focusing, as other studies have done, on aspects of his work (i.e. as social theory or philosophy), Noys' study is intended to be sensitive to the needs of students new to Bataille's work while at the same time drawing on the latest research on Bataille to offer new interpretations of Bataille's oeuvre for more experienced readers. This is the first clear, introductory reading of Bataille in English - challenging current reductive readings, and stressing the range of disciplines affected by Bataille's work, at a time when interest in Bataille is growing.

Genres: Philosophy, Nonfiction

176 pages, Paperback

First published May 20, 2000

Reviews

[Severin M · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wonder if Noys thought it would be clever to dedicate a book of such shit quality to analyzing the man once referred to as an excrement philosopher. It wasn't.

[Shulamith Farhi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Succeeds in its mission of seducing readers into reading Bataille. The animating theory Noys develops concerning the assimilation and expelling of foreign/alien thought, which uses Bataille to diagnose the failure to engage with difference that characterises both his enthusiasts and detractors, is essential for any theory that wishes to embrace the porous nature of desire.

-Second Thoughts-

Noys cites a striking image from the Visions of Excess and Encyclopedia Acephalica respectively:

"Like the dictionary, science divides up the world into discrete units, trying to impose ‘a mathematical frock coat’ (VE, 31) on the world. Philosophy, on the other hand, tries to contain these forces within metaphysical wholes. What remains is the leftover, the remainder, which cannot be assimilated. The event of eruption is like ‘a fly on an orator’s nose’ (EA, 102), whose comic effect of ‘acute perturbation’ mocks the discourses of knowledge."

The reaction provoked by this fly is a good example of Bataille's non-dialectical negation. If reading Bataille is like an addiction, as Noys suggests in the conclusion, how might we wean ourselves from this passion for self-destruction without falling into the twin traps of division (the frock coat) and assimilation/containment (the fly)?

-Third Thoughts-

Having now read Bataille's little novella, I am prepared to fully endorse Ben's interpretation. Unlike Nick Land, Noys sees clearly the arbitrariness of Bataille's construction. Contingency is very sexy; sexiness doesn't suffice to guarantee conceptual rigor.

Happily, the situation is salvageable. The market makes us cum, but reason teaches us that some orgasms feel good, and others feel exploitative. Land's Bataille can't distinguish between the feedback loops induced by the life and death drives. Noys' Bataille can.

[Jay Rothermel · Rating 2 out of 5]

Noys tries hard to find a program or testable procedure in Bataille's fiction and nonfiction.

In the end, Noys can only mirror the starry-butthole flaneur's subjective impressionism.

Subjective impressionism has its place, especially when done well. But like the work of Baudrillard, it's useless for understand the world.

[Andrei Hognogi · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fair introduction. The author was both admiring and critical to Bataille, but i found it clear and concise.

[44444444444 · Rating 4 out of 5]

Will write a review later!