The Collected Poems of Georges Bataille Paperback – December 21, 1998

Good seller, nice product matched description. You can't find the contents of this book anywhere online. On the rare occasion that happens, it's a good thing to be able to get what you want when you want it. Thanks.

I'm a fan of Bataille, but I'm afraid that in most translations into English this major thinker comes across as being merely silly about sex and excrement and the Absolute. From his own febrile, pathological alluvium located in a fertile triangle between Eros and Thanatos, anus and genitals, Bataille (said in the helpful introduction by the translator to be using poetry to reach the Eternal) comes up with cuties like these:The WallA hatchetgive me a hatchetso I can frighten myselfwith my shadow on the wallennuifeeling of emptinessfatigue.I have to admit feeling like that myself recently. And:LaughingTo laugh and laughat the sunat the nettlesat the pebblesat the ducksat the rainat the pope's p**at mommyand a coffin full of sh**.It doesn't get any better than that folks, although Bataille makes lots of references to the void, Zarathrustra, Heraclitus, and other touchstones of modern Western culture. I do admire his mixture of profundity and scatology and wish that more post-modern writers would follow Bataille's example. Why let the makers of popular movies and television sit-coms get a jump on the rest of us?

Bataille's poetry is often beautiful, using words and ideas to paint vague emotional pictures. You might get bored when he goes on and on about immensity or death, but it's worth it for the good parts.

Georges Bataille is not traditionally thought of as a poet. It's true that he wrote little "poetry" (that which one might consider a poem). Nevertheless, he must be considered a poet among his other titles. Unfortunately, this book fails to give Bataille's readers an appreciation of his poetry. The translator and editor, Mark Spitzer, haphazardly compiles Bataille's poems together, neglecting to contextualize them and provide them a useful order, while his translations fall short of capturing Bataille's words as it prefers lyrical consistency to poetic accuracy. Moreover, at least one poem (GLORIA IN EXCELSIS MIHI) is missing nearly half of the original. Spitzer also neglects to add a useful notes section to clarify the difficult choices a translator of Bataille must make.Readers beware!