Georges Bataille

Georges Bataille is the author of "Visions of Excess." He lives from 1897 to 1962 and is a professional librarian. Born in Reims, France, Georges and his mother abandon his paralytic, blind, and syphilitic father when the Germans arrive there in 1915. He quits high school in 1913 and embraces Catholicism in 1918. By 1920 however, he falls out of faith after writing a story about the Cathedral Notre Dame de Reims nearly destroyed by the Germans. He is trained as a medieval librarian. Bataille accepts a position in Paris at the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris where he remains until he gets sick and has to leave in 1942.

Michel Leiris introduces Bataille to surrealism. He is rejected by Andre Breton, the surrealist leader, who considers Bataille obsessive. Breton criticizes Bataille as an "excremental philosopher" when he tries to apply reason to unreasonable things and his writing topics. Bataille forms French reviews titled "Documents...