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Summary: should have videotaped me reading
Review: I was told by a Southern anthropology major male to read it alone, or with another person. I was seduced into a knot, squirming around because it go the point where I couldn't read any faster. I wonder who told the male, who mocked me in a Northern accent, how to read this book.
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Summary: Interesting erotica; written from a place of rebellion
Review: I wasn't sure what to make of The Story of an Eye when I first read it as an undergraduate in college twelve years ago. Recently rereading the book, I now have a clearer interpretation. I think the most interesting aspect of this book comes in Bataille's linking of his own "sexual perversions" to his childhood experiences with his father's eyes, urination, and the whole association of these experiences with eggs. It is facinating that Bataille apparently wrote this novella without the knowledge that he was dealing with parts of his childhood, but that all of this psychological material came through anyway. It made me contemplate my own childhood experiences and associations they have with my conceptions of sexuality as an adult. Another interpretation I have of this novella is that it is just a better-written version of de Sade. The Story of an Eye seeks to shock and offend in way that breaks down the repression of shame-based morality. In many respects, The Story of an Eye is just a listing of morally crude/violent sexual experiences. It's giving the finger to perceived patriarchal institutions such as the Catholic Church, mental hospitals, the government, parents, etc. by means of graphically describing perceived sexual "aberrations" in the eyes (no pun intended) of these institutions. The problem I have with this "sexual extremism = destruction of patriachy" philosophy is that this type of rebellion only creates the same type of violence and shame that it seeks to liberate people from. In my mind, the characters in The Story of the Eye become that which they rebel against. Still, this novella is well worth a read if you're a fan of rebellious sexual literature in the de Sade vein. It's also funny to think that The Story of the Eye was written around the same time of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby and Ernest Hemingway's The Sun Also Rises.
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Summary: stories of the bizarre
Review: I would not buy this book again. I found it only mildly entertaining.
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Summary: Porn as art? Why not?
Review: If you take this book, open it to a random page and read a random paragraph, you'll get some sort of twisted sexual image every time (I actually did this with a group of friends for about half an hour, and it worked). Bataille is a good writer, and it's a kick to see a serious author write some disturbingly graphic pornographic prose. Taken alone, the porn in this book is really entertaining because it's so imaginative (I'd love to see a film version of this novel), and its shock value is high enough to get you to either throw the book away or seriously contemplate what's going on in Bataille's writing. I suggest the latter. If aestheticism and nihilism had a baby, it would be Georges Bataille, at least when he writes novels like this. Does that sound infeasible? To quote from *The Deadman,* a more philosophical work by Bataille's: "I believe that truth has only one face: that of a violent contradiction."
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Summary: Nauseating In The Extreme--I'm Still Traumatized After 7 Yrs
Review: If you're looking for something appalling for sheer shock value, this is the book for you. It's been 7 yrs since I've read this story and I still get the creeps just thinking about it. This story is a non-stop depiction of murder as an erotic agent.
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Summary: i'm young, dumb, and hung
Review: inspirational piece of erotic fiction that makes better sinners out of all of us. its better not to know too much, but just dive right in. it's bataille vs. sexuality in all forms, religious, violent, depraved. i've bought this book like four times actually because i keep giving it to people and they never give it back.
Rating:
Summary: Pointless to say the least
Review: My first major problem with this book is the plot; yea, there isn't one. Yes it contains a lot of lewd porn, but that might not have been so bad had there actually been a storyline to this novel. There was no character development (except for the minor character development concerning the character of Marcelle) and a lack of character analysis. My second problem with this book is the revolting scences. Pissing on others is not something most people find erotic and neither are many of the other scences. The author seems childish, immmature and very underdeveloped. Of course there is also the possiblity that I just dont understand what he is trying to prove or say. I found no meaning whatsoever in this book.
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Summary: If you like Bjork, she reccomends this
Review: okay, I'm not your avid reader but I've read many of books, and this one stook out the most. Its extreme sexual content about a boys love affair with a girl which gets out of hand. The main reason I had bought this was due to my curiousity about the book when singer Bjork had made reference to it in one of her interviews. It surprised me alot, and had me raise a brow about what direction this book was going. Weird but compelling.
Rating:
Summary: the cover
Review: one of the best books...entirely weird....maximum surrealism...i've read this 3 times and have forced it upon many friends....a wonderful dream...my first awakening into the fiercly extreme.....made me WANT to go insane....you know there were never any bounds........
Rating:
Summary: A splendid tale of initiation
Review: Quite apart from the gruesome details, this is a wonderful story of a prolonged initiation to oversexuality. And also of the writer's initiation to writing, as this is his first book. Bataille plays with the goriness as if trying to find out how far his pen can go, just as we all did on couches when our parents were away. Literaturewise, however, there's nothing much in it. Anyone over 25 will find it tiresome.
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