/lit/ - Literature

[Anonymous No.20124556]

>But one needs there either the naivete—the purity—of the Hindu, or the European's sickly taste for an exotic color.
>But I know little, at bottom about India . . . The few judgments which I abide by—more in antipathy than in receptivity—are linked to my ignorance. I have no hesitation about two points: the Hindus' books are, if not unwieldy, then uneven; these Hindus have friends in Europe whom I don't like.
>That an anaemic, taciturn particle of life, showing reluctance before the excesses of joy, lacking freedom, should attain—or should claim to have attained—the extreme limit, is an illusion. One attains the extreme limit in the fullness of means: it demands fulfilled beings, ignoring no audacity. My principle against ascesis is that the extreme limit is accessible through excess, not through want. Even the ascesis of those who succeed in it takes on in my eyes the sense of a sin, of an impotent poverty.
>I don't look at anyone from on high, but laughingly, like the child, at ascetics and pleasure-seekers
Anyone know if he was influenced by, or at least aware of Chesterton? The style is different, but the sentiment is almost identical.

[Anonymous No.20124592]

>>20124556
>purity of the hindu

[Anonymous No.20124662]

Not that I know of, but Bataille did read French decadent Catholics in his youth, such as Leon Bloy and Remy de Gourmont. Also Klossowski wrote a preface to an edition of The Man Who Was Thursday.

[Anonymous No.20124886]

>>20124592
Must be another copy.
>>20124662
Good to know, thanks.