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/lit/ - Literature

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10684455 No.10684455 [Reply] [Original]

Was this only meant to be shock value? I can appreciate the beauty of the language and the vivid imagery. I also understand what is meant to be a representation of the sheer uncontrollable force, passion and desire of a blossoming sexuality, however, why does it have to go so far if not for shock value?

>> No.10685040

I haven't read Story of the Eye, but I would not be inclined to assume he wrote anything merely for "shock value. I recommend "Solar Economy" as a straightforward introduction to him. Maybe reading some of that will help him make sense to you. He's honestly fantastic, one of the most original writers I've read.

>> No.10685112

Maybe literature isn't for you. Do you think the same of the great satirical work Naked Lunch by William Burroughs?

>> No.10685298

I really don't think it was just shock value. Have you never honestly talked about your most fucked up fantasies or desires honestly with someone? Maybe you don't have any or just repressed.

>> No.10685316

>>10685112
I have not read Naked Lunch, but I would very much like to.

>>10685040
Bataille is definitely very interesting, I thought about the subjects and read some critical essay I found online. What I find difficult to understand is the connection he creates between death and sex. From the bullfighting chapter I take it that according to him sadism is a "hidden" fetish of society with the causing of death being the ultimate form of sadism, hence the strongest representation of sexual desire. I am unsure whether this interpretation is correct. An aspect I really liked is the connection formed between sexual desires and the matter of the universe itself which can most clearly be seen at the moment when the protagonist observes the Milky Way and thinks of it as a trail of cum left on the "head" of the sky, at another point he describes sunlight as a shower of urine, or vice versa, I don't remember. Expanding this to the connection between eye, egg and testicle, I take it that the main idea is that anything can be potentially sexualized based on pure resemblance. All in all, I feel like the book really made me think, not sure if my thinking is particularly deep or even headed in the correct direction. As for the "shock value", I find it not in the sexual debauchery, but in the sacrilegious nature of the work and this is not only limited to the last chapter, but also to multiple allusions throughout the book, for example, the usage of litany for describing cries of orgasm.

>> No.10685536

If you want an intro to Bataille's ideas rather than just his weird surreal stuff, you might want to try the Labyrinth:

http://www.angelfire.com/nv/readpiss/Labyrinth.txt

>> No.10685619
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10685619

>>10685316
I'm not a huge fan of Mary McCarthy but I felt that her article she wrote for NYRB (http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1963/02/01/dejeuner-sur-lherbe/)) back when it came out is a nice primer for it retrospectively. Particularly the comparison with Swift is something I wouldn't have come to myself. If you have any interest in the AIDs crisis and the resulting activist art addressing it, Gregg Bordowitz has a short essay on General Idea's Imagevirus campaign that spends some time discussing Burrough's concept of language which is a nice addition to help understand his work.

>> No.10685675

>>10684455
Book went downhill after the "milk is for the pussy" line. Shit had me laffin'.

>> No.10685759

>>10685675
Pretty sure that line was something else that didn't translate well, so it was changed to that.