Story of the Eye | 
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Product Description
In 1928, Georges Bataille published this first novel under a pseudonym, a legendary shocker that uncovers the dark side of the erotic by means of forbidden obsessive fantasies of excess and sexual extremes. A classic of pornographic literature, Story of the Eye finds the parallels in Sade and Nietzsche and in the investigations of contemporary psychology; it also forecasts Bataille's own theories of ecstasy, death and transgression which he developed in later work.
Amazon.com
Only Georges Bataille could write, of an eyeball removed from a corpse, that "the caress of the eye over the skin is so utterly, so extraordinarily gentle, and the sensation is so bizarre that it has something of a rooster's horrible crowing." Bataille has been called a "metaphysician of evil," specializing in blasphemy, profanation, and horror. Story of the Eye, written in 1928, is his best-known work; it is unashamedly surrealistic, both disgusting and fascinating, and packed with seemingly endless violations. It's something of an underground classic, rediscovered by each new generation. Most recently, the Icelandic pop singer Björk Guðdmundsdóttir cites Story of the Eye as a major inspiration: she made a music video that alludes to Bataille's erotic uses of eggs, and she plans to read an excerpt for an album. Warning: Story of the Eye is graphically sexual, and is only for adults who are not easily offended.
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Customer Reviews:
• Not For Kids! 30 January, 2008
I found this book looking through my wife's "recently viewed" list and thought it would be an excellent gift for our 12 year old niece who loves R.L. Stein's "Goosebumps" and "Fear Street" series. Boy, was I wrong! I thought the spooky cover, title, and foreign name of the author indicated a classic horror novel in the vein of Frankenstein or Dracula. I naturally assumed that my wife had found a book for our niece and I would handle the financial end. Unfortunately I found out I had misjudged the book a few weeks later when my sister-in-law called in hysterics, accusing me of sending their daughter pornography! I told her I did no such thing and suggested maybe there was a mix up in shipping as I had sent her a book and not a movie. She told me that they had indeed received the book and was certain it was porn as they owned the book. I apologized profusely and asked my wife about the book. She explained that her sister had recommended it as an inspirational tool for the bedroom. we eventually got around to reading the book and found that these kids are quite imaginative, insane maybe, but very imaginative! Five Stars.
- Reviewed by customer ID: APQ9QYHU9C5
• Nope, Haven't Read It Yet. 15 December, 2007
Hiya folks, this is Susan the Puddle Jumper. Story of the Eye sounds like a very good book, and I'm tempted to get myself a copy. But I'd rather wait until Björk buys me a copy herself. Have a good one.
- Reviewed by customer ID: ARH1GPG6QW4G4
• Thought Provoking, Brilliant And Grotesque ... 29 June, 2008
What causes a mind to embrace gross sexual abstractions? When does a moment of teenage reckless abandon turn into a debauched nightmare? What causes a young mind to lean towards fetishism?
Professionals have grappled with those questions for decades, and many of these and similar questions will forever remain unanswered in The Story of The Eye. And yet, even with its horrific and gruesome imagery, one cannot help but desire to know the answers. However, one must understand the human shadow with some semblance of clarity for those answers to make any sense. Georges Bataille is one philosopher who truly understands, and he does not leave us wanting. In part two of this edition, he offers some clarity as he mulls over a few of the aberrations of his own childhood - how he came to understand his own shadow and its relationship to events and images within the story itself.
While Story of The Eye chronicles the deviant sexual escapades of two young lovers, this is not what I would consider a pornographic novel, as it was originally labelled. Yes, the erotic scenes are quite intense - intense enough to make the faint of heart put the book down in order to vomit. But the erotica is not the true bite of the story. The deep emotional, psychological, and pathological attachment between the two main characters is what drives this story. Their disdain for the banal is apparent in everything they do.
The narration is surreal, slipping in an out of conscious thought and action so fluidly it's like sinking into quicksand - struggle against it and drown or remain still and experience this work as the true artistic endeavour that it is. If you dare to remain still, you certainly will not be disappointed.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2QBCUXQP6ZBZJ
• Don't Get Caught Up In The Hype 08 December, 2007
I decided to read "Story of the Eye" after seeing it placed on a reading list with a sidenote remarking, "if you enjoy reading it, you are in no danger of being normal". Taking the bait to see if I was in any certain danger, I ordered it off amazon and dove head first into the small erotic novella.
I think it might be my age and the way our culture today has stiffened us, but it was not as shocking as many of the reviews I had claimed it would be, and in that way I was most definitely let down. Yeah, the characters have some fetishes, but I can't imagine anyone in the generation who has touched even a Chuck Palahniuk book to be fazed by the actions of the characters.
At some points, it does feel like the plot is a bit dry, they often are just traveling from one setting to another where they perform yet another random sex act driven by fetish.
The good points of the book are that I was when I would often laugh out loud at some of the actions(the sitting in milk, the inverted sexual positions, the priest they essentially rape), and that gives the book its real entertainment value. Also parts of the book are beautifully written, my only issue with that is it seems that those beautifully written slots with the philosophical overtone's did sometimes seemed forced into the story, but i'm still glad they have been put in.
Overall, worth the five bucks it is going to cost you to get used on here, and the couple hours you'll kill on the chair reading it.
Best read while eating boiled eggs and drinking milk.
- Reviewed by customer ID: ACQ2YU0CP68WC
• Grotesque And Astonishing 29 June, 2008
George Bataille's brief Sade-esque novella is a mordantly brilliant dip into the post-Nietzschen world modernity. The Story of the Eye is a pornographic disintegration of the Western ethical code. It is both magnificent and foul; a more daring and original work than his later philosophy/anthropology. A seminal piece of 20th century literature; although it was published well before the cultural abominations of our current nihilism, we are still not ready for this bleak and punkish work of literary debauchery.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A114YQ7ZT9Y1W5
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