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'An aphorism, properly stamped and molded, has not been "deciphered" when it has simply been read; rather one has then to begin its interpretation, for which is required an art of interpretation.' -- Nietzsche, 'On the Genealogy of Morals'

Bataille: spirituality & the morality of decline « Previous | |Next »
March 20, 2004

Since Caravaggio is flavour of the month in Australia I thought I might introduce his images into Bataille's discussion of the sacred in On Nietzsche.

In chapter 8, part 2, On Nietzsche Bataille is working within Nietzsche's category of decadence, which he reworks in terms of decline.
CaravaggioEcstasy1.jpg
Caravaggio, The Ecstasy of St Anthony, 1595

The sexuality of boys is incorporated into sacred art, which is the realm of the good, which is the primacy of the future over the present.

It also illustrates Bataille's thesis that the pathway to spirituality, through the resistance to temptation, belongs to exhaustion and fatigue. It is a part of the morality of decline. Bataille reasons in chapter 8, part 2, On Nietzsche thus:


"When we feel our strength ebbing and we decline, we condemn excesses of energy in the name of some higher good. As long as youthful excitement impels us, we consent to dangerous squandering, boldly taking the risks that present themselves. But as soon as our strength begins to ebb or we start to preceive the limits of this strength (when we start to decline), we're preoccupied with gaining and accummulating goods of all kinds... since we're thinking of the difficulties to come."

Now the spiritual summit ---which opposes sensuality and pits itself against it---is associated with efforts that desire to gain some good.

Hence the spiritual summit no longer comes with the horizons of a summit morality of excess (exuberance and tragic intensity). It is within the horizons of a decline morality.
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| Posted by Gary Sauer-Thompson at 11:44 PM | | Comments (0)
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