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Literature and Evil QUOTES

Literature and Evil QUOTES

1 " Indeed, the direction of the future is only there in order to elude us. "

― Georges Bataille , Literature and Evil

2 " Only literature could reveal the process of breaking the law - without which the law would have no end - independently of the necessity to create order. "

― Georges Bataille , Literature and Evil

3 " The road to the kingdom of childhood, governed by ingenuousness and innocence, is thus regained in the horror of atonement. The purity of love is regained in its intimate truth which, as I said, is that of death. Death and the instant of divine intoxication merge when they both oppose those intentions of Good which are based on rational calculation. And death indicates the instant which, in so far as it is instantaneous, renounces the calculated quest for survival. The instant of the new individual being depended on the death of other beings. Had they not died there would have been no room for new ones. Reproduction and death condition the immortal renewal of life; they condition the instant which is always new. That is why we can only have a tragic view of the enchantment of life, but that is also why tragedy is the symbol of enchantment. "

― Georges Bataille , Literature and Evil

4 " Boredom seeps from the monstrosity of Sade’s work, but it is this very boredom which constitutes its significance. As the Christian Klossowski says, his endless novels are more like prayer books than books of entertainment. The accomplished technique behind them is that of the ‘monk … who sets his soul in prayer before the divine mystery’. One must read them as they were written, with the intention of fathoming a mystery which is no less profound, nor perhaps less ‘divine’, than that of theology. "

― Georges Bataille , Literature and Evil

5 " Only literature could reveal the process of breaking the law –without which the law would have no end –independently of the necessity to create order. Literature cannot assume the task of regulating collective necessity. It should not conclude that ‘what I have said commits us to a fundamental respect for the laws of the city’ or, like Christianity, that ‘what I have said (the tragedy of the Gospel) shows us the path of Good’ (which is really the path of reason). Literature, like the infringement of moral laws, is dangerous. "

― Georges Bataille , Literature and Evil

6 " Assim, a via de criação de um elemento soberano (ou sagrado) — de um personagem institucional ou de uma vítima oferecida à consumação — é uma negação de um desses interditos cuja observação geral faz de nós seres humanos em vez de animais. Isso quer dizer que a soberania, na medida em que a humanidade se esforça em direção a ela, exige que nos situemos "acima da essência" que a constitui. Isso quer dizer também que a comunicação só pode ocorrer sob uma condição: que recorramos ao Mal, ou seja, à violação do interdito. "

― Georges Bataille , Literature and Evil

7 " La poesía, en un primer impulso, destruye los objetos que aprehende, los restituye, mediante esa destrucción, a la inasible fluidez de la existencia del poeta, y a ese precio espera encontrar la identidad del mundo y del hombre. Pero al mismo tiempo que realiza un desasimiento, intenta asir (captar) ese desasimiento. Y lo único que le es dado hacer es sustituir el desasimiento a las cosas asidas (captadas) de la vida reducida: no puede evitar que el desasimiento pase a ocupar el lugar de las cosas. "

― Georges Bataille , Literature and Evil

8 " Literature is communication. Communication requires loyalty. A rigorous morality results from complicity in the knowledge of Evil, which is the basis of intense communication. "

― Georges Bataille , Literature and Evil

9 " Charles Baudelaire’s refusal was the most profound form of refusal, for it was in no way the assertion of an opposite principle. It only expressed that which was indefensible and impossible in the poet’s obstructed state of mind. "

― Georges Bataille , Literature and Evil

10 " The chaos of the mind cannot constitute a reply to the providence of the universe. All it can be is an awakening in the night, where all that can be heard is anguished poetry let loose. "

― Georges Bataille , Literature and Evil