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Georges Bataille

THE IMPOSSIBLE

A Story of Rats

followed by

Dianus

and by The Oresteia

Robert Hurle y

CITY LIGHTS BOOKS

San Francisco

Translated

Cover design by Rex Ray

Lib rary of Congre ss Cata loging-i n-Public ation D ata

CONTENTS

Bataill e, Georg es, 189 7-1962.

[Impo ssible. E nglish]

T he impo ssible / by Geo rges Bat aille : tr anslated from

t he Frenc h by Ro bert Hu rley.

p. cm.

Tran slation of: L'lm possibl e.

ISBN 0 -87286-2 62-3 : $ 10.95

I. Ti tle.

PQ2603. A69514613

848'.91209-dc20

PREFACE

.................................. ·· .. ········· ...... .

A STORY OF RATS

.............................. · .. ····

DIANUS

.................................... ············ ....... .

1991

THE OR EST ........ ..................... ....

EIA

... .....

119

91-21312

CIP

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"His lips kept murmuring 'Jesus!' ... then, 'Catherine!'

As he spoke my name I took his head between my hands,

reminding him of the goodness of God and I said to him: 'I

wish it!'

"When he was buried, my soul reposed in peace and

quiet and in such a fragrance of blood that I could not bear

the idea of washing away that blood which had lowed from

him onto me. "

-Saint Catherine o f Siena

"During this agony, the soul is inundated with inexpress

ible delights."

-Saint Teresa o f Avila

10 - PREFACE

I irst published this book ifteen years ago, giving it an obscure

title: The Hatred of Poetry. It seemed to me that true poetry was

reached only by hatred.Poetry had no poweful meaning except in

the violence of r.Olt. But poetry attains this violence only by

evoking the impossible. Almost no one understood the meaning of

the irst title, which is why I prfer inally to speak of The

Impossible.

It's true that this second title isfa r fr om being clearer.

But it may be one day ...: I perceive the course of a convulsion

that involves the whole movement of beings. This convulsion goes

fr om death's disappearance to that voluptuous rage which, per

haps, is the meaning of the disappearance.

PART ONE

A STORY OF RATS

v iolent p leasure , horro r, and d eath- precisel y the pe rspectiv e of

p oetry- and in the opp osite d irection, that of science or the real

journal of Dianus)

w orld of utility. Only the useful, the rea l, have a serious charac ter.

W e are n ever wi thin ou r rights in pre ferring seductio n: trut h has

r ights ov er us. Indeed, it has very r ight. A nd yet we can, and

in deed w e must , respon d to so methin g which , not b eing G od, is

st ronger than v ery righ t, that impo ssible to w hich w e accede only

by fo rget ting th e truth of al l these rights, only b y acce pting

di sappea rance.

G.B.

Huma nity is f a ced w ith a do uble pe rspectiv e: in on e direct ion,

Georges Bataille - The Impossible.pdf

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