The Limit of the Useful: Bataille, War, and Fascism

In the decade prior to the publication of Inner Experience
(L'expérience intérieure), the twentieth-century French
philosopher Georges Bataille produced a nascent masterwork
containing some of his most original and extensive reflections on
a range of subjects. With thoughts on ritual sacrifice and
military conquest, the nature of laughter, and the mechanisms of
capitalism, The Limit of the Useful, as Bataille had planned to
title the work, illuminates the philosopher's later corpus, yet
it remained unfinished and unpublished in his lifetime, and
untranslated until now. 

This is the first English-language translation of what Cory
Austin Knudson and Tomas Elliott argue is one of Bataille's most
structurally consistent works. Paired with draft essays and plans
for The Accursed Share, along with over a hundred pages of
appendixes and notes, the volume distinctively elaborates
Bataille's thought. The Limit of the Useful spans a decade of
rich intellectual ferment in Bataille's life as he first
formulated his challenge to capitalism, engaging with concepts
and ideas in ways not seen in his other published works. The
volume bridges the gap between Bataille's surrealist literary
writings and later scientific pretensions, drawing attention to,
and filling in, an overlooked lacuna in his oeuvre.

The book:
https://mitpress.mit.edu/9780262047333/the-limit-of-the-useful/


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Support the show


Support the podcast:

https://www.acidhorizonpodcast.com/

Linktree: https://linktr.ee/acidhorizon

Acid Horizon on Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/acidhorizonpodcast


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Happy Hour at Hippel's (Adam’s blog):
https://happyhourathippels.wordpress.com

​Revolting Bodies (Will's Blog):
https://revoltingbodies.com

​Split Infinities (Craig’s Substack):
https://splitinfinities.substack.com/

​Music: https://sereptie.bandcamp.com/ and
https://thecominginsurrection.bandcamp.com/