Perspective

Georges Bataille writes "Visions of Excess" which is published in 1985. Bataille is a professional librarian, who lives from 1897 to 1962. He writes several other books and founds the French review titled "Documents," and "Critique." He quits high school in 1913 and then embraces Catholicism in 1918. By 1920 he falls out of faith after writing about the Cathedral Notre Dame de Reims nearly destroyed by the Germans. He is a trained medieval librarian and meets Michel Leiris who introduces him to surrealism, but he is rejected by Andre Breton, the surrealist leader, who considers Bataille obsessive. Breton criticizes Bataille as an "excremental philosopher" in part because he applies reason to unreasonable things. Bataille writes this collection of articles, essays, and meditations to express his views on philosophy, politics, and peers. He uses these means to critique and reply to criticisms of his own and others work. The style of his work is...