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Reading Bataille: The Invention of the FootAuthor(s): Lucette Finas and Nelly FurmanSource: Diacritics, Vol. 26, No. 2, Georges Bataille: An Occasion for Misunderstanding(Summer, 1996), pp. 97-106Published by: The Johns Hopkins University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1566300
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Diacritics.
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READING BATAILLE
THE INVENTIONOFTHEFOOT
LUCETTEFINAS
? 1. Certainly, wroteLe mortbeforethespringof1944.This extmusthave
beencomposedprobably n 1943,notbefore.I do notknowwhereI wroteit, in
Normandy endof 1942), in Paris in December1942, or duringthe irst three
monthsof 1943; at Vizelay, from Marchto October1943? Or in Parisfrom
November'43 to thespringof '44?Perhapseven at Samois romApriltoJune.Or evenperhapsin Paris on Courde Rohanduringthe winterof '43-'44. I can
no longerremember. amcertainonly of havingrecopiedLe mortso as tosell
a small numberof manuscriptsbeforeJune 1944 (as I am certain that I wrote
thistextafterthespringof 1942,a timeat whichIfell ill; andevenattheearliest
during my stay in Normandy rom September o November'42).
? 2. Inanycase, thereis the closest relationshipbetweenLe mortand the
stayinNormandy fthe tubercularpatienthatIwas;inNormandy,notfarfromthevillage of Tilly(whichI nameQuilly n Le mort).Theinnof Quilly s in actthe innof Tilly;'thewoman
nnkeeper,he onefrom
Tilly.I invented heother
details,withtheexceptionoftherainthatwouldn't topinOctoberorNovember'42.With heexceptionalsooftheverydarknightwhenJulieknocked tthedoor
of the inn?I can no longer evenrememberf I slept in this inn?It seems to me
that yes. I believe furthermorethat in the room there were two or three
farmhandsingummedrubberboots andevena playerpiano. Whatever t was,it wassinister,andbeyondmeasure.Finally, it is certainthattheatmosphereofTilly's inn suggested to me the one of the inn of Le mort. I am also almostcertain-in the end-that I slept-alone-in thisplace thatterrifiedme.
? 3. The restis linkedto the renziedsexualarousal in whichI was during
November'sextravagance; nmyalmosttotalsolitude,I lived thennotfarfromTilly, but we lived apart,a kilometerrom one another,a beautifulgirl, mymistress,and I; I was ill, in an obscurestate of depression, of horror,and ofarousal. It is difficultto imagine the mudof the rough small roads where I
traveled,without herightfootwear,ona bicycle.Then,I ate mostof mymeals,butalone, with armers.
? 4. I remembernparticular havingheardonedaya plane whose engine
sputtered[avait des rat6s].Thenoise of the engine wasfollowed by a violent
shock. I tookmybicycle.I endedup indingtheplace where this Germanplane
hadfallen. It was burning n the middleof an immenseorchard(apple trees);several trees werecalcinated,and threeorfourdead,thrownaroundtheplane,were spreadout on thegrass. At some distance,in thevalley of the Seine,an
Englishmanhadprobablyjustshot downthisenemyplanethatcouldonlycrash
at some distance. The oot of one of theGermanswasbared[d6nud6],thesole
of theshoe havingbeen tornaway.Theheadsof thedead, it seems to me,were
shapeless. The lames musthavetouched hem; his oot alone was intact.Itwas
TranslatedromLucette inas'sbookLa toiseetle vertige, Desfemmes,1986.
1. Trans. ote:Cf thedescriptionfthis nn nL'impossible,vol.3 ofL'orestie199].
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the only humanthingbelongingto a body,and its nakedness,havingbecome
earthen,was inhuman: heheatof theblazehadtransfiguredt; thisthingwas
neitherbakednorcalcinated: n theupper 1'empeigne]withnosole oftheshoe,it was diabolical: butno, it was unreal,strippednaked[drnudre], indecentto
thehighestdegree.I remainedmotionlessor a longtimethatday, or this naked
foot was lookingat me.
? 5. [The truth, believe,has onlyoneface: thatof a violent denial. Truth
has nothingin commonwithallegoricalfigures,with igures of nakedwomen:
but this oot of a man who lived a whileago, it had the violence-the negative
violence-oftruth. Inotherwords,truth s notdeath: n a worldwhere ifewould
disappear, ruthwouldbe in act this "whatever"hatsuggestsapossibility,but
at the same time, takes it back.And withoutdoubt,across the immensity,an
eternal,indefinitepossibilityremains,but since in me(in the one who writes),this oot announcestheterrifyingdisappearanceof "thatwhichis,"fromnow
on,I will no longersee "thatwhich s" but n thetransparency fthefoot, which,betterthan a cry,announcesannihilation.]
-Georges Bataille,fragmentof anunpublishedprefaceto Le mort2
After the war, when GeorgesBataille was consideringpublishingMadame Edwarda
anew(itsfirstprintinghadbeenminimalandreserved or afew people),heaskedMaurice
Blanchot,whorecounts hisinAprescoup,whathecould addtothestory.3Blanchot,who
thoughtMadameEdwardato be a work"such that therecould neverbe any word of
commentaryattached o it,"blurtedoutthis horrifiedanswer:"It'simpossible. I beg ofyou, don't touch it." Nonetheless,Bataille"couldnot preventhimself from writinga
preface under his own name, chiefly to introduce his name, so that he could take
responsibility(indirectly)for a piece of writingthat was still consideredscandalous."
Beyond the example providedby MadameEdwarda,prefacesexert an attractionon
Bataille that,given his wageron a certain form of writing,one would hardly suspect."Sucha temptations necessary.To give in to it is perhaps nevitable,"writesBlanchot.
While editingL'impossible,ThadeeKlossowski specifies that in Bataille'spapers,the
manuscript f theprefacewasfollowedby 184pagesof notesforyetanotherpreface hat
Bataille wished to be substantial.AndBataille writes nhisPremieresnotes:"Entitle he
book/ theimpossible explain nthepreface hetitleof the book."Laterhewrites:"Itwillhavetakenme fifteenyearstoexplainmyself."Ifwe areto takethesestatementsiterally,it would bejust as in a traditionalpreface,a matterof clarifyingandexplainingoneself,that is to say as Blanchotwrites,to "substitute or the legend(theenigmaof whatmustbe read)theliving andspeakingevidenceof a dictionandof apresencethat mposedits
meaning-or at least a meaning" 62].Let us follow Bataille's notes for the prefaceto L'impossible:"[ButtodayI amfar
fromcertainof makingmyselfbetterunderstood han ifteenyearsago....nevertheless
it seems to me thatI amclearer]."We couldmultiplyexamplesof thisappealto clarity,
and fall into the traphe sets, if we do not also read:"wherethe impossible prevails,explanation lips away.This book is in factentirelytheoppositeof theexplainable,"orfurthermore: Butthe explanations hat,some day, I will not avoid sketchingout, willdenounceme, or at leastI thusimagineit, as the liar that I could notcease being."
2. Trans. ote:Oeuvrescompletes4:64-65. WithpecialhanksoJudith urkisforheckingthis translation.
3. Trans. ote:Maurice lanchot's pres oupwas ranslatedntoEnglish yPaulAustersee
ViciousCircles,TwoFictions, nd"AfterheFact"].
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Confrontedonlywiththe bookthat s theimpossible, hepreface s theonly possible,"forto speakof theimpossibleis theonly waytodescribe hepossible since thepossibleman mustbe confrontedwith the impossible."In his letterto Lindon datedJanuary5,
1962,Bataille writes:"Thepreface-I hope it will be relatively ong-would deal with
the fact thatmanis in away
thecontrary
of theimpossible,
andyet,
nonetheless,he is
dependentonwhatone mustbynecessityname t."In thesame etter,he adds:"Naturally,apartof theprefacewill be reserved orreportinghistoricallyon themakingof thebook."
This double finality (reportinghistoricallyon the making and speaking of the
impossible as the only way of describingthe possible) engenders,it would seem, the
manuscriptprefaceto Lemort,4 and the actionof thespokenwordand offreedomwhich
makes a preface-as it is affirmedby Bataille-repeats the deception [tricherie]of
writing and the shackling [les liens] of thought: "My shackles and deception are
immutable,"writesBataille nan unidentifiedpreface,"and can stretchmyselfto death:
I am joking, I escape, and lie. I am false. I am for myself as weighty as a rock. My
weightinessis volatile,my freedom shackled."TheprefaceofLe mortisintwoparts.Thepassagewe arediscussing, iveparagraphs,
makesup the firstpartalmostentirely.Divided-for the reader,dividing is always an
inaugural esture whetherdealingwith thesky,temenos, emple,orachicken's oints)-dividedthen,itmakesa "whole,"preciseand ncoherent,dead andtransfigured,ustlike
thefoot, which is its objectandits splendidend.
Readrapidly, histextresemblesa confidence(Mylife, my work,dates,similarities,"the ightestrelations")uponwhich theliteraryhistorianmighthopetodraw.Instead, his
prefaceopposes a "violentrefutation" o all pretensesthat infer the meaningof a work
fromeither ntentions,declarations,or its author'sdeclarationsof intention,orfrom theauthor'sbiography nthe usualmeaningof theword; nparticular,t opposesitself to the
pretenseof securinga writerby securinghis memory-or his Mimoires-all of which
takesnothingawayfrom the interestof thesewritingsandsayings,whosevalue is notat
all in their referential oundness.
? 1."Certainly,"t thevery beginning,endsupbeingcomical. Thesentenceit starts
endson a vagueindication,5 andtheparagraph iles upuncertainties.Erasure s theonly
certainty.After a few sentences,thereader eels like laughing, heimpressionof agame
prevails,the play of failing at all cost, in echo with the forgetfulaspect of memory:"memory s preciselywhat makes us laughwhen it turnssuddenly ntoforgetting."
Batailleseems to lend us aprobe. Butit is vertigothathe gives us.6From the initial
"Certainly"o the final "Iam certainonly," while passing through"must have been,"
"probably,""I do not know," "or"(twice), "perhaps,""or even," "I can no longerremember," oubt nvadesastatement hatannounced tself straightforwardly.hewhirl
of dates:44, 43, 42, 43, 44, 44, 43, 42, 42, 43, 43, 43, 44, 43-44, 44, 42, 42, whichlaid
outproducesregularcurves,almost scientificones;the waltz of the seasons andmonths:
spring,December,March,October,November,spring,April,June,winter,June,spring,
September,November;the geographic instability:Normandy,Paris, VWzelay,Paris,
Samois, Paris, Normandy, everything combines to confuse the mind of the reader,
incapableof registering hatwhich is immediately akenback;reconstructingunder heeyes of thereader he functioning,by eclipses, of memory, ts versatility, ts confusion,the suspicious qualityof thatwhich it thoughtto preserve.Whoevermight encounter
4. Writtenn1943-44[Oeuvres compltes 4: 363-66. AmongBataille'spapersthis text snext
to two typedcopies of Le mort corrected around1950, and a thirdcopy thatserved or thefirst
printingof Le mort in 1967.
5. Ontheprevious page: "Theirst draftingof Le mortdates at the latest rom 1944, beforeJune" . . . beforethesummer, hen.
6. Trans.note: "Here,I will always be betweentheprobe [la toise] of thescientist,and the
vertigo[le vertige]of the insane"-Honord de Balzac.
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Bataille'swriting through his "simple"paragraphwhose stakes areseeminglywithout
value,andwho, confused,wouldlaughat Bataille andathimself,thispersonwouldfind
himself in therequisiteframeof mind to go beyond.
Onlyone itemescapesthewreckageof time andplace:therecopyingof Le mortfor
commercialpurposes thatarenotthoseof Bouvardand Pecuchet . .)?2. Incontrast o the blurred riginof thewriting, hisparagraphffirms"theclosest
relationship" etween a momentof livedexperience inparticularhatof illness) andthe
text of Le mort;but,once again,as afterthe "Certainly"f the precedingparagraph,t
affirmsto carryout a most exciting deception. Surely, the narrativeborrowingsfrom
knownrealityarebeingaffirmed orcefully,with thehelpof verbal dentification:"The
inn of Quilly is in fact the inn of Tilly; the womaninnkeeper, he one fromTilly."The
passageof the realpropername to the fictionalone is visible in thequille8 hatfocuses it
awayfrom hewomanwhileleaving tapparent.Andthe author s prepared, rso itseems,to separatewithin Le mort the experientialfrom the invented:"I invented the other
details."But invention s affirmedonly to be, strokeafterstroke,rendered uspect,in a
reversemove fromparagraph where t is memory hat ncurssuspicion.Thus,"therain
that wouldn'tstop,""theverydarknight"puncture rom thedepthof memory,the veil
of fiction that the sentence sustained:"Iinvented he otherdetails."
The tenuousequilibriumbetween inventionandmemory s made moreperceptibleinthesentence:"With heexceptionalsoof theverydarknightwhen Julie knockedat the
door of the inn." Carriedby the nightthatBataille ascribesto experience,Juliecrosses
overtheline thatdivides fiction fromrealityto knock at thedoor of therealinn. Inother
words,even afterreadingLe mort(whereMariewas called Julie before all the changes
madeby Bataille),one wonders f, in thissentence,Juliebelongsto therealityof Tilly orthatof Quilly, to thehors-texteor to the text.A delicateandconstantperversion. nfact,the exceptions to inventionslide, in this reversemovement, into the perplexitiesof
memory.The rainandthenight(thoseof the fall of 1942,andthose of Le mort)are also
the rain and the night that shroudinventionand memory,and more particularly, he
memoryof invention.Theexceptionof "thedarknight" s not even a surething,as it is
putinto question.Here,theinterrogativemark s fundamental.A hinge, it repeats tself
attheendof the sentencethat ollows:"Ino longerevenrememberf I sleptinthis inn?"
where,notrequired,t evokes a monologue(Bataillespeaking o himself),orit attaches
a doubt to "Ino longerremember."Continuing paragraph1, paragraph2 multiplies again the hesitation: "I don't
rememberanymore,""itseems to me,""Ibelievefurthermore,"whatevert was."The
only certainty hatcloses this inventoryopenedby "thetubercular atientthatI was" is
terror:"sinister,beyondmeasure,this place whichterrifiedme."Only the atmosphereresistsforgetting "Finally,t is certain hat heatmosphere f Tilly's innsuggestedto me
theone of the innin Lemort"),as it happens or a bookread ong ago. Theatmosphere,
"Finally,"hreatens hehesitationsof thependulum didBataillesleep in thisinn,yes or
no?),andrightorwrong,theguaranteehatmemorygives itself is terror.Proofby terror.
Hallucinatoryertainty,tself suspendedbyan"Ibelieve":"Ibelieve furthermorehat n
theroomtherewere two orthreefarmhands n gummedrubberboots andeven a playerpiano."These men and theirboots seem to have steppedout of a novel by Kafka.The
"beyondmeasure"usedby Batailleto designatetheatmosphereof the innis applicabletotheincommensurable istancewithinandbetween ife andthe text: "In hemeantime,"he writes in Orestie,I readLesnuitsd'octobre,surprisedo feel a distance betweenmy
7. Trans. note: Bouvard and Pecuchet,copyists by trade,are theprotagonistsof GustaveFlaubert'sunfinishednovel,published n 1881, and which bears theirnames or its title.
8. Trans.note:Quille n French s "bowling in,"and inslangcan mean"girl,""leg,"or "the
end of militaryservice."Oneof themanymetaphors or "penis."
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cries and my life." In Orestie, the Tilly inn (or rather he bar)lends itself to a more
sustained,superbevocation of a parodicandtunelikerealism.9
Hence, afterthefact,I would like to place,inexergueto the firsttwo paragraphs f
this excerptof preface,thefour lines of thepoemMoi:"Iopenwithinmyself a theater
wherea falsesleepplays
/ aspecial
effect withoutobject
ashamefulness
romwhichIsweat";addthisphrase:"Irecognize straightoutmy abuses,my lies ... ," andthisother:
"Iembodiedthe gallery(thosewho listen),theirdesireto be surprised."? 3. "Therest s linkedto..." Whatremainder? hatwhich the inninNormandydoes
nothold within tswalls ..., andwhichtransfigurest:sexuality,war,winter, oneliness,
illness, all the elements markedby excess: "frenzied sexual arousal";hallucinatoryreificationof the warthrough heinsistenceon thedates,in thedowningof "thisenemy
plane;""November'sextravagance";he "almosttotal solitude"doubledby the ("welived apart,""then,I ate most of my meals, butalone");tuberculosis,acute and often
incurable:all the excesses whose effects Bataille summarizes n "anobscure state of
depression,of horror,and of arousal,"where"obscure" nd"horror"ortifyoneanother,where "arousal"contradictsand connects with "depression." n the middle of the
paragraph,he clause:"we livedapart,akilometer romoneanother,abeautifulgirl,mymistress,and I"is displayedandpunctuatedn suchamanner hatwe believe, in spiteof
the "fromone another" hat two arethree....Thenightof recollectionofparagraphs and2 istransformednto anightofeveryday
life. And"themudof theroughsmallroads" ecallsthebog ofmemory nwhich,"withouttherightfootwear,"Batailletriesto walk.
"without heright ootwear": romthisprosaicdetailemerges, nthenextparagraph,
the transfiguredoot; andfrom thebicycle, the plane.Inthe middleof theparagraph, abeautifulgirl"shines in theoverallobscurity, ust
as soon afterwards,"thisthing,""thisnakedfoot."
? 4. Just as man is born fromthe soil of the earth, hemud of paragraph fashionsthefoot thatfills theexpanseof paragraph . Bataillesnatches his foot fromthemudof
memory. In Orestie,mud clings to feet "of the big farmhands drunk,with muddied
boots)."Themattersbroachedwiththeneatestcontours,"Iremember articularly"epeating
thecertaintiesof theprecedingbeginnings:"Certainly," theclosestrelationship,""Therest is linkedto." This first
sentence,in its
divisions,in what it
picksup ("Iremember
in particular havingheard oneday/ aplane whoseengine/ sputteredJemesouviens/ enparticulier/d'avoir entendu un our/un avion/dont le moteur/avait des ratis]")and ts phonicchain(ien, -en, -en, -un-,-un, -on, -on)seemsto leadto aplasticrenderingof engine failures [des rat6s],helpedby the place of this word at the end of the run.
Similarly henextsentence,"thenoiseof theengine wasfollowed/ byaviolent shock,"
appears o fashion the succession of its statements o those of theevents.
Straightoff, two motionsanswerthesign fromabove:one vertical andpassive, thefall of theplane,the otherhorizontalandactive,theitineraryof thebicycle, its groping("Iendedupfindingtheplace"),whichcorrespondo thesputtering f theplane.Drawn
by the catastrophe,Bataille investigates.In the end, the two motions are linked. The
bicycleandtheplaneform "anarticulation f magicalvalue."•0AndBataille, ookingfor
9. ".... I remember n Tillymy liking or thepeople of thevillage, aftertherains,themud,the
cold, the masculinebarmaidshandlingthebottlesand the noses of thebig armhands(drunk,withmuddiedboots);atnight,thesongs of thestreetmoaning nvulgarthroats.Therewerethecomingsandgoings of boozing,the arts, thelaughterof thegirls in thecourtyard. was happyto listen totheirlives, writingin mynotebook, yingin a dirty(and rigid) room. Not a shadowof boredom,happywiththewarmthofthecries,thecharmofthesongs: theirmelancholiastuck none's throat."
10. "The two major motions are the revolving motion and the sexual motion, whose
articulation s expressedbya locomotive withwheelsandpistons."
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thefallenplane,finds.., thefoot, itsparody:"Everyones aware hat ife is parodicand
thataninterpretations lacking.""Thesceneevokes,gruesomely,Ledijeunersurl'herbe,22apicnicfallenfromthesky,
andwhichkeepsthetraceof theexterminating ireandtheGarden f Eden:"It theplane]
was burning n the middleof animmenseorchardappletrees)."Theforbidden ruit setoff by theparentheses,Eve, theFall,appear n thefield.
"several rees were charred": paintingby Max Ernst n overlay.The"threeor fourdead,""thrown round" reasmanyblocksof lavaflungfrom the
craterof theplane.Petrifiedbodiesof HerculaneumndPompeii.Whythreeor four?It's
no moreprecisethan"severalrees,"and hus,the treesandthe deadfuse.Memory apsesto the favorof one foot.
"spreadout on the grass":as in "Le dormeurdu val": "His feet in the gladioli, he
sleeps(...) / (...) / Peacefully.Hehas twored holes on therightside.""'Thefootraised,humanerection no
longerhas
anyfooting:"Hence, hefunctionof the human oot is to
give a firm foundation o this erectionthat man is so proudof."
Theexplanation hatBatailleprovidesfor thedowning s laid out in a sentence with
astrange tructure, sentence hatgiveschaseto itsownstartingpoint:"Atsomedistance,in thevalley of the Seine, anEnglishmanhadprobablyust shotdownthisenemyplanethatcould only crash at some distance."Thefirst half adoptsBataille's perspective(atsomedistance nrelation oBataille); he secondhalfassumestheviewpointof theplane
onlyable toimpactatsomedistance,crashingwhereBataille s standing.So much so that
thesecond"atsome distance" ancels out the first.Thesentenceseems toretracetssteps,to trackback in the imprintof its own steps. The focal points overlap, the reader is
disoriented;"thisenemyplane,"midwayfromthe two "atsomedistance,"exposes itselfastarget.AndBataille,surnamehere,findshimself,target ortarget, hefixedpointof the
battle[bataille]he reconstitutes.
Suddenly,hereis the foot, singular,raised,depicted, n contrast o the anonymous"oneof theGermans."Well before the finalclause,"thisnaked oot waslooking atme,"'it shows us hereits sole. The sequencearticulatedby the clauses "was bared the sole /
of the shoe / having been tornaway"marks the force of the explosion-which in its
intensitymagnifiesthecommongestureof one who wouldpull on yourshoe to take it
off-parodies andbringsto extremestheviolentnudity(therape[viol]) of a woman's
foot,parodiesandbrings oextremes hedisrobingof thegirlbyaninvisiblehand.Divineviolation.The fullweightof thegazefallsupon"thesole" whosetearingawaydressesthe
foot,thanks o theupperpartof theshoe,whichmakesthe foot evenmorenaked orbeing
partiallyclothed.
"the heads of the dead":the pluralis surprising;one thinksof Hamlet and open
graves; he CelestialFire mmediatelyiquifiestheskulls. Paradox: he firehas meltedthe
(hard)heads-"it seems"marksa new hesitationof memory-and keepsthe foot: "this
foot alone was intact."A strictlinguistic oppositionbetween"touched"and"intact,"between sexual touching,the "touch6"of a targetand the untouchedof virginity.But
"touched"uggeststhe lightnessof acontactthat suffices to consumethe planeand the
body.TheChristlike oot opposes a noli me tangereto the flameof Magdalene.
11. "Acar, a clock,or a sewingmachinecan beacceptedequallyas generatingprinciples."Anda bicycle.And an airplane.
12. "By tsthemeandarrangement,heone like theothermythological,he[Manet]introducedthe worldof thepresent, inding in thischangewhat he wanted,thereversalof thepast, thebirth
ofa new order. Thenakedwomanwasnext to men nmorningcoats. What s a child he had decidedto achieve,he achieved in thesedisguises that rediscovered hemajestyof art, butabsurd,in thehere andnow, and,all eloquencechoked, n the orms of his time."
13. Trans.note: Verse rom thepoem "Ledormeurdu val" byRimbaud.
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"Itwas the only human hing belongingto a body": hebig toe, forBataille,"isthe
most humanpartof the humanbody, in the sense thatno otherelement of thisbodyis as
differentiatedromthecorresponding lementof the anthropoid pe."Usually, it is the
least human[bite commeses pieds].14 This foot is miraculouslyhealed or sorcerous,
electedby God(BurningBush)or
bythe Devil
(firesof
hell).Salamander's oot.
"itsnakedness,havingbecomeearthen,was inhuman": ppositionbetween "it was
theonlyhuman hing"and "nakedness. . inhuman" t the two ends of the sentence.The
nakednesscoversitself whileremainingnaked,covers itself with what will be coveringit: the earth.The earthinessof the flesh belongs bothto the death of the flesh and to its
contactwith the soil. It turns the foot into a museumobject,the volcanic and porousevidenceof some distanteruption.The "humanhing" s at the same time"inhuman,"n
the double meaning of cruelty"5 s well as the passage to nonhumanity,meaning a
boundary rossing,underscored y the trans-of "transfigured."aphael'sTransfigura-tion,as werecall,raises heglorious eetoftheRedemptor bovetheheadsofhisdisciples,andMantegna'sIICristoMortoconfronts he readerwith thegreyfeet of the Crucified.
"theheat of the blaze":all the fires burn n this blaze:BurningBush,sacrifice,text.
"thisthing":reiterates"theonly ... thing."The foot returns o undifferentiation,
thingthat "bearsno name in anylanguage."
Waste,refuse,but most of all, absoluteotherness.
"itwas neitherbakednorcalcinated": he Devil's kitchen.One thinksof a defective
[rate]biscuit,andof limestone[chaux]aswell.16Thefoot: biscuitorstone?Themeaningand alliterations chaleur/chose,cuite/calcinde]combine to cook up the sentence that
beckonsmastication.
"in the upper[l'empeigne]with no sole of the shoe": thisclause is encased in thefollowing:"thesoleof the shoehavingbeentornaway"asif itwere.., the foot in the shoe.
Anotherexampleof thefoot trackingback on its ownfootsteps, Bataille'spunon step
[pas] andnot-at-all[point].The shoe's upper[l'empeigne],extended,evokes women's
ankle boots, and in theirwake, the fetish. The word "upper" l'empeigne]which [in
French]belongs to the technical exicon of shoemaking,bringsoutby its veryprecisionthe vaguenessof the "thing,"and allows for the puns with comb-crest[peigne], cone
[pigne],andpubis [penil]or Mount of Venus, that othercomb [pectiniculum].With the
disappearance f thesole, theupper 1'empeigne]s showing,so tospeak:"thesimplefact
ofletting
hedressed ootshow underheskirtwasconsidered ndecent."Upper[empeigne]-
penis.The sole beingrippedaway,theupper l'empeigne] iguresas anindecentsheath,the femininemoldof theorgan hat t encases as if in a cast. "The hing,""thisthing," s
the undifferentiated. here he feminineslipson the masculine.Girl-foot ntheconsump-tionof the sexes, and of their difference.
"itwas diabolical": hethingcamethroughhe flames untouched.Salamander's oot.
Sorceress's foot. Fire engendered n the genitalorgansof the sorceress.Enemy foot,
strangero itselfasispointedoutby"the ecret errorhat hefoot causesman."Malicious
14. "Humanifecomprisesn acttherageofseeing hattisamovementack ndforthromtrash to theideal,andfromthe ideal to trash,a rage thatis easy toprojecton an organas base as
afoot.""The oblest fanimals, ehasnonethelessornson his eet,that s tosay,he has eet,and
hisfeet lead, independently f him,a debasedexistence."
Trans.note:Betemeans "animal" nd "stupid"; ndpiedmeans"foot";hence theexpressionbate comme ses piedsmeans "asstupidas one'sfeet."
15.Trans.note.:Cruel sfromtheLatincrudelis,meaningboth "ruthless" nd "raw,"pointingoutat one and the same time the humannessof violence,and in its violence towardhumans, ts
inhumanness.16.Trans. ote:Etymologically,iscuitmeans"cookedwice";hauxs rom heLatin alx,
calcis,meaning lso "heel" nd"footstep."
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foot. The thingis a perversethingthat throws itself across(diabolos!)Bataille andthe
reader,escapingdefinition andcatastrophe ndfloutingGod.17In oppositionto thefoot
is "theshoe"["la chaussure"],so to speak,whichbelongstocivilization,to fashion,and
in contrastwith footwear[le soulier] to woman,to refinement.The disasterreturns he
shoe to the artificial,to theridiculous."butno": heclause,asif gasping,divides toamplify.Theadjective"diabolical,"he
sole predicate,is followed by three attributes:"unreal,""strippednaked [dinudde],""indecent."Unreal:it's an apparition,of a ghost or the Virgin Mary;strippednaked
[dinudde]: n relationship o "nakedness" omprisesthe gestureof strippingdown and
reiterates,withafemininemarking,"the oot... bared";ndecent: hetornsole opensthe
fly of the foot, freeingthe sex. By meansof "thething"-but doesn't "thething"also
designatethe sexual scene-these threeadjectivesin the femininedesignateBataille's
girls, in particularEdwarda.
"to thehighest degree":physically(theblaze)andsymbolically.Onedistinguishesthemovement of a prayer n theselines, a lyricalsolemnity("Iincarnatedhe gallery...")underscoredby thealliterationof thed:diabolical,naked[d6nud6e], ndecent,to thelast [dernier]degree.
"Iremainedmotionlessfor a long timethatday":Bataillepetrifiedby theMedusa-foot.
"for this naked foot was looking at me [car ce pied nu me regardait]":this
octosyllable s theconclusionof thestoryand ts revelation. nGreek, tsapocalupsis.Thebare foot looking at the narrator ecalls that "someone" who "in the middle of the
chandeliers,"ookedat SaintJohn:"hisfeet resembledbrassscorched n a furnace.""'
"was ookingatme":physicallyandsymbolically pertainingome).Thelook of theraised,erected ootupontheguilty."Theeye wasinthetomb,andwaslookingatCain."19
The footis atonce themostdown-to-earth,hemost sullied(bloated oot of Oedipus,clubfootof Hephaestus,washingof thefeet),themostvulnerable Achilles'heel),and he
purest,mostelevated,most invulnerable foot of theBuddha, eetof Christ,angels'feet,foot of Abraham).20
"thisnaked oot was lookingat me": hefoot hasbecomeaneye. Theparadigm oot/
sex/eye rises, a snake,in front of thefascinatedsubject."thisnakedfoot":host of thetext, "neitherbaked norcalcinated."A Seraph's foot
[fromthe Hebrew
Saraph:the
burningone),which burnswithout
being consumed.? 5. A bracketedparagraph, ntirelyundererasure(unrati?). Caught n the game,exhausted romlookingat thisnakedfoot, I lapidate hetext."Truth, believe, hasonlyone face [visage]"throws a stoneintotheclich6of a truth n multipleformswhich haditself throwna stone to truthas one. Here,"face[visage],"meansthat whichconfronts.Thesplendidaffirmation eceives a slap,a smack:"thatof aviolent denial"whichslaps,blowsawaythe cover.The"figuresof nakedwomen"are"allegories,"becausetheyrefertoa discourse.Stable igures,the "nakedwomen"arehere inked odeath.A singular ace
opposes itself to themultiplicityof masks. Andthis face [visage]-this vis-is a man's
17. "thedivisionof theuniversebetweenan underground elland aperfectlyclear heaven isan undeletableconcept;mudanddarknessbeingtheprinciplesof evil,as lightandcelestialspaceare theprinciplesofgood. Theirfeet n themud,butwiththeirheadsalmost n thelight,obstinately,menimagineaflow thatwouldmake themrise withoutebbingintopure space."
18. "When saw him,Ifell tohisfeet as ifdead;and heputhisrighthand on me,saying:Do
notfear; Iam theFirstand theLast,and theLiving;I wasdead,and here Iamlivinginthecenturyof centuries;I hold thekeysof deathand of hell."
19. Trans.note: The last lineof VictorHugo's poem "Laconscience,"fromLa 16gendedessiecles.
20. The black stone, Kaaba, keeps the imprintof thefoot of Abraham.Face-to-face with
Edwarda,B. cries out: "Iwas alone infront of thisblackstone."
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foot!21This textplaceswoman(one mightremember he "shoeof the deadwoman")on
the side of the unalterable nd the false: "thisfoot of a man"specifies it, as well as the
emphasis:"it had the violence."It [lui]and notthey [elles] in thefeminine.Face to face
of Batailleand theangel.Meetingof the face [vis] and the [vit],22andof the strengthof
vis. Serpentine bsorption f the feminineby"this oot of a manthatresorbs tsownfall."And lives!
The "negativeviolence" reiterates he "violentdenial,"recalls the "violentshock,"andexplodes this otherclich6 (the same?):thatof death as unsurpassableruth.Truth,
according o Bataille(does he havefaithin it?), is in thegiving andwithdrawing don-
retrait]of one's being, in the affirmation-negation,n the catastrophe hat puts into
presencethe he "who lived a while ago"and the "terrifying isappearance,"n therapeof figures.A negativetheology.If Edwarda s God,God,on the otherhand, s a foot.
"across heimmensity,""acry" "Icryout.No one hearsme. Thedarkness, ternity,
silence,all empty [vides]-obviously [Vvidemment]withoutme"):23 hecry,ephemeral,withdrawnas soon as emitted,tells of annihilation; ut thefoot, "better han a cry,"has
the advantagecarriedby theglorious body.The gloriousbody is not the foot: it is the
transparencyof the foot, that is to say, the incorruptibleplace where apparitionand
disappearanceareexchangeable.Transparent, this naked foot" is a windowpanethat
reflects truthandreturns t to theface [visage].24
"thatwhichis," "thatwhichis,"as a repeatedand an indefinitedemonstrative,s a
replyto "thething,""that hing,"and an answer to the "anything.""thisfoot announces": he foot (thething,theanything) s theprismof "thatwhich
is."Itis theannunciationromabove:Annunciation oMary, he footassuming,as much
as theFall, theNativitythatredeems t. Angel foot,Virginfoot,Foot of Christ.BurningBush,itannounces oMoses-Bataillehis"mission": heatheologicalgospel havingas its
prophet"theone who writes"-"me"-: "I will no longersee 'thatwhichis' butin the
transparency f the foot."
The end of theparagraphnvokes Genesis("Andperhaps,acrosstheimmensity,an
eternal, ndefinitepossibility,remains") nlytodenyanddefyit ("but ince inme, etc.").TheflamingFallof theAngel of Evil (butis notLuciferalso thepoeticname of the star
of Venus) leaves as testimony"a foot"thaterects thecatastrophen theface of Genesis,and theAngel Batailleagainstthe Germanplane,thisenemyangel.This face-to-face is
also the face-to-faceof mass,a blackmass,theface-to-faceof thecommunicantand thediabolic host. Above all, it turns the narratorBataille into a survivor,the one that
annihilation esuscitateseverytime.
TranslatedbyNelly Furman
WORKSCITED
Bataille,Georges.Le mort. Paris:Pauvert,1967.
. Oeuvrescompletes.12 vols. Paris:Gallimard,1970-88.
Blanchot,Maurice. ViciousCircles, TwoFictions, and "After he Fact." Trans.PaulAuster. Trans.of Apres coup.
Finas,Lucette.La toise et le vertige.Paris:Des Femmes, 1986.
21. Trans. note: Visage, meaning "face,"keepsin Frenchthe trace of its Latinetymologyvisus: "appearance,aspect"; rom de videre, "to see."
22. Trans.note:vit in French s both thepreterittenseof the verbtosee, and thepresenttense
of theverbto live, in the thirdperson singular.InLatinvis means "force,strength."23. Trans.note: Pun on the Frenchwords6videmment,meaning "obviously,"6videment,
meaning "anemptyingout,"and vide, "empty ;hence, an emptyingof theself24. "Theglass which, in the crash of crumpled-up rains, suddenlycuts a throat is the
expression of this-implacable-imperative advent whichis, however,alreadyannihilated."
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