From Library Journal
Bataille (1897-1962), French avant-garde critic, editor, and novelist, is best known for provocative "erotic" novels and offbeat philosophical theories. His overlooked poetry, here translated into English for the first time, mingles religious and scatological imagery. Nonbelieving, anti-Puritan, aspiring to freedom of thought without "moral and social constraint," Bataille's world is one in which love and passion are obstacles to openness of mind. Using X-rated erotic motifs, Bataille turns visceral functions into a "headless bird with wings that beat the night"; idealism becomes the "funereal immodesty of dead bones," and stars "anguish beyond compare." Like the better-known Jean-Paul Sartre, Bataille fends off "self-annihilation" by envisioning a beleaguered and austere existence: "the immense universe is death/ I am the fever/ the desire." Confronting "the void," Bataille bravely concludes, "I was grimacing and laughing, lips wide apart, teeth naked." This is the audacious, frightful side of surrealism.?Frank Allen, Northampton Community Coll., Tannersville, PA
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Der Autor über sein Buch
On Bataille's PoetryUsually, the first comment people make about the book is that it looks great, and it does (judge this book by its cover). Then, people tend to comment on how filthy Bataille’s poems are—which they are. Others seem to be shocked by the smut. Others roll on the floor holding their sides, laughing like hyenas. It’s important stuff, highly imagistic, hyper-metaphoric, and striking—as it fills a missing chapter in the history of surrealism in that it is the first English translation of the virtually unknown poetry of Bataille. Dufour Editions did an excellent job of putting the book together, and the translations, of course, are (modesty aside) just as graphic, poetic, philosophical and controversial as the semi-scatological, partially profane pornographer intended. A fitting companion to Story of the Eye. --Mark Spitzer (the translator)
