Amazon.com: Jennifer Armstrong "Lots of fleas"'s review of Theory of Religion
Bataille self-identifies as a proletarian, by contrast with Nietzsche's aristocratic self-identification. For him, "religion" invokes a mantra of destruction. One destroys the surplus provided by the Capitalist system whenever one is not working to reproduce that system. This everyday destruction of the commodity (through use), and of oneself (through festivals, including drinking) is the enjoyment of God on the last day of the week, having invented everything. Nietzsche saw "God" in the human consciousness and its capacity to create. Bataille adds a Marxist twist and sees "God" in his capacity to DESTROY.
Much of Bataille's writing urges us toward a retraining of the Superego for nonconformity in the face of servitude and slavery. Transgression is not for its own sake, nor to indulge whims and desire. It involves a reorientation towards the world on the basis of one's individual strength to do that which was previously forbidden for one to do.
Destruction is transgressive and therefore freedom-inspiring. It is undertaken between the individual and himself (formerly his society's mores, that have been introjected as Superego). There is much at stake here -- much to lose. But every gain is an improvement in the range and power of one's will. The territory that one ultimately conquers is one's self. (That is a beginning.)
Nietzsche has a similarly defiant relationship to his Superego. Zarathustra desires to break the law tables of "the good and the just". Such principled destruction also requires transgression of the Christian value judgements that had commanded European society. These values would probably have been internalised by his intended readers, meaning that, in a way, to destroy the value judgements of the "good and the just" meant destroying themselves, and recreating themselves anew:
Bataille self-identifies as a proletarian, by contrast with Nietzsche's aristocratic self-identification. For him, "religion" invokes a mantra of destruction. One destroys the surplus provided by the Capitalist system whenever one is not working to reproduce that system. This everyday destruction of the commodity (through use), and of oneself (through festivals, including drinking) is the enjoyment of God on the last day of the week, having invented everything. Nietzsche saw "God" in the human consciousness and its capacity to create. Bataille adds a Marxist twist and sees "God" in his capacity to DESTROY.
Much of Bataille's writing urges us toward a retraining of the Superego for nonconformity in the face of servitude and slavery. Transgression is not for its own sake, nor to indulge whims and desire. It involves a reorientation towards the world on the basis of one's individual strength to do that which was previously forbidden for one to do.
Destruction is transgressive and therefore freedom-inspiring. It is undertaken between the individual and himself (formerly his society's mores, that have been introjected as Superego). There is much at stake here -- much to lose. But every gain is an improvement in the range and power of one's will. The territory that one ultimately conquers is one's self. (That is a beginning.)
Nietzsche has a similarly defiant relationship to his Superego. Zarathustra desires to break the law tables of "the good and the just". Such principled destruction also requires transgression of the Christian value judgements that had commanded European society. These values would probably have been internalised by his intended readers, meaning that, in a way, to destroy the value judgements of the "good and the just" meant destroying themselves, and recreating themselves anew:
It is not your sin-it is your self-satisfaction that crieth unto heaven; your very sparingness in sin crieth unto heaven!Whereas Nietzsche self-identifies as an aristocrat and wants to overcome his limitations, Bataille sets the stage for revolution.
Where is the lightning to lick you with its tongue? Where is the frenzy with which ye should be inoculated?
Lo, I teach you the Superman: he is that lightning, he is that frenzy!-NIETZSCHE, ZARATHUSTRA
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