An Analysis of George Bataille's The Story of the Eye
...awareness of the impossibility opens consciousness to all that is possible for it to think. In this gathering place, where violence is rife, at the boundary of that which escapes cohesion, he who reflects within cohesion realizes that there is no longer any room for him (Theory of Religion 10).
When Georges Bataille first published The Story of the Eye in 1928, anonymously and "in a limited edition of 134 copies" (Lechte 118), he had been at the Bibliothèque Nationale in the department of numismatics for nearly six years. Bataille was thirty-one at the time of publication, and it was not his first or the most violent piece. "The Solar Anus" which preceded it actually looks ahead to the serious ethnographic articles, albeit often of a scatological nature, which Bataille wrote for Documents, a short-lived journal which he edited and founded in 1929. Active in surrealist and avant-garde circles, Bataille courted the radical left of the political and aesthetic arenas, although his professional work compelled him to function within rigid systems.
While The Story of the Eye is often dismissed as adolescent writing (Bataille himself calling it juvenile in a preface to a later edition), I offer here a reading of The Story of the Eye in the context of his profession as a librarian and of his work as editor and writer for Documents, a journal that consolidates his reflections as antiquarian, literary artist, and amateur ethnographer. To read Bataille's fiction in concert with his sociological and critical writing elevates the radical negativity of its violent transgression to a positive value. The text of this novel contains, in an embryonic stage, the basic theories which...
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Stoekl, Allan. Introduction. Visions of Excess: Selected Writings, 1927-1939. Georges Bataille. Minneapolis: U of Minnesota P, 1985. ix-xxv.
Suleiman, Susan Rubin. "Transgression and the Avant-Garde: Bataille's Histoire de l'oeil." On Bataille: Critical Essays. Ed. and trans. Leslie Anne Boldt-Irons. Albany: SUNY P, 1995. 313-33.
Men know well that they are acted upon, but they do not know by whom. So they must invent by themselves the idea of these powers with which they feel themselves in connection, and from that, we are able to catch a glimpse of the way by which they are led to represent them under forms that are really foreign to their nature and to transfigure them by thought. (172)
Morgan, Michael L., ed. Classics of Moral and Political Theory. 3rd Edition. Indianapolis. Hackett, 2001.
Leiter, Brian. “Nietzsche’s Moral and Political Philosophy.” Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Metaphysics Research Lab, CSLI, Stanford University, 26 August 2004.
There would be a lot of benefits to having the drinking age change to eighteen. The amount of binge drinking would lessen, and the out rage to drink would also decrease. According to Smith, ?Reports of binge drinking come from all types of campuses across the country. In 1992, researchers reported that more college?s students
Lawmakers should not consider lowering the drinking age from twenty-one to eighteen. Despite the deep value this country places on freedom, personal liberties, and personal responsibilities, the data shows that public safety is greatly at risk if the drinking age were to be lowered to twenty-one. A variety of groups believe that the drinking age should be lowered to eighteen deeming that the twenty-one law is unconstitutional. On the opposing side, people agree that the law helps to protect our young people and the communities where they live.
Morgan, Michael L., ed. Classics of Moral and Political Theory. 5th ed. Indianapolis: Hackett Publishing Company, 2011.
Lowering the legal drinking age would create problems such as infringing on the mental and physical development of the young drinker. As a respected author, Matt Nagin puts it, “The late teens and early twenties are formative years where character building, leadership in the community, and scholastic excellence should be emphasized. Alcohol detracts from all of these.” In other words, Nagin believes that the teen years are an imperative time of growth in a person’s life. Scientists have proven that the brain is not fully developed until the age of twenty five. If Nagin’s argument is correct, and I believe it is, then people should understand that scientists have proven the negative affects that alcohol has on the development of the brain. Alcohol has the power to kill brain cells and damage growth hormones. By making alcohol legally accessible to an eighteen year old, we are literally poisoning his or her brain.
The legal age limit to drink in the U.S. is 21 years old currently. Even though the legal age limit is 21 to drink, there are many people who are abusing this law and drinking illegally. I believe that the legal age limit should be lowered to 18. In order for this to happen other U.S. citizens will have to vote to lower the age limit. I am interested in this because if it was lowered it would make it legal for my age group. Although there will possibly be more alcohol related incidents resulting in injury and possibly death. Lowering the legal age limit will allow people who do it illegally now to be able to do it in a safer environment. This will result in less alcohol related incidents. The age limit to drink alcohol should be lowered because the benefits overtime will out way the harm it will cause.
Adolescence is a time for teens to grow and mature into young adults. However, sometimes growing up takes a wrong turn when illegal substances are involved such as alcohol. Underaged drinking increases the risk for academic failure, and illegal drug or tobacco use. Underaged drinking also increases the risk for crime, health problems, and death. In 1984, an act was put in place to raise all fifty states’ minimum drinking age to 21; this act unfortunatley does not completely prevent underaged drinking, however it has helped save approximately 17,000 lives from alcohol related fatalities (Get Involved). Alcohol is a poison, and by lowering the legal drinking age to eighteen, you will be supporting the annihilation of our nation.
In 1887, two years before succumbing to utter madness, existential philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche writes his ethical polemic, On the Genealogy of Morals, in search of a man with the strength to evolve beyond humanity:
On Truth and Lies in a Nonmoral Sense, Nietzsche. United States of America: Bedford/St.Martin's, 2001. 1171-1179. Print
"Real Estate Agents and Brokers." Encyclopedia of Careers and Vocational Guidance. 15th ed. Vol. 5. Chicago: Ferguson's, 2010. 235-44. Print. Ferguson's.
P. 38-39, Friedrich Nietzsche, “Beyond Good and Evil” Cambridge Texts in the History of Philosophy, translated by Judith Norman, Cambridge University Press, 2002
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