Harold Carr

Harold Carr

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Tue, 17 Feb 2004

Bataille - no reassurance

Bataille demonstrates how it is possible to be alive in the midst of ruin. It may even be necessary to be ruined to be truly alive. And to stay awake right up to the last instant - participating without complaint - no attempt to escape.

He combines the patience of a saint with the eagerness of a lover. Patience to the details of the movements of life combined with the need to communicate with another - to be lost to the point of death.

His words, much of it written in a seemingly haphazard diary style or an occasional journal article, build a consistent structure of being which paradoxically exposes the entire edifice as non-sense - a joke - a trowel left behind in a corner after the palace is finished.

We have a fundamental need to reach beyond ourselves. Bataille explores that need - lives it - without recourse to salvation. Without simple formulas or hope. He shines a cold light on darkness - offering no reassurances.

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Harold Carr

Harold Carr