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He was initially tempted by priesthood and went to a Catholic seminary but lost his faith in 1922. He is often quoted as regarding the brothels of Paris as his true churches, a sentiment which reflects the concepts in his work. He then worked as a librarian, thus keeping some relative freedom in not having to treat his thinking as work.
Founder of several journals and groups of writers, Bataille is the author of an oeuvre both abundant and diverse: readings, poems, essays on innumerable subjects (on the mysticism of economy, in passing of poetry, philosophy, the arts, eroticism). He sometimes published under pseudonyms, and some publications were banned. He was relatively ignored in his lifetime and scorned by contemporaries such as Jean-Paul Sartre as an advocate of mysticism, but has had considerable influence after his death on authors such as Michel Foucault, Philippe Sollers and Jacques Derrida, all of whom were affiliated with the Tel QuelTel Quel (in English "as it is") was an avant-garde journal for literature, founded in 1960 in Paris (Editions du Seuil) by Philippe Sollers and Jean-Edern Hallier. It was mainly influenced by Friedrich Nietzsche, Jacques Lacan, Roland Barthes, Julia Kris journal.
Bataille was a member of the extremely influential College of SociologyThe College of Sociology was a loosely-knit group of French intellectuals, named after the informal discussion series that they organized. The College was founded in 1937 in Paris and continued operating until 1939, when it was disrupted by the war. Found in France between World War IWorld War I (also known as the First World War , the Great War the War of the Nations and the "War to End All Wars") was a world conflict occurring from 1914 to 1918. No previous conflict had mobilized so many soldiers, or involved so many in the field of and World War IIWorld War II was the most extensive and costly armed conflict in the history of the world, involving the great majority of the world's nations, being fought simultaneously in several major theatres, and costing tens of millions of lives. The war was fough. He was heavily influenced by Hegel, Freud, MarxKarl Heinrich Marx ( May 5, 1818 March 14, 1883) was an influential German economist, philosopher, social and political theorist. Although Marx addressed many issues in his career as a journalist and philosopher, he is most famous for his analysis of hist, Marcel MaussMarcel Mauss ( 1872- 1950) was a French sociologist best known his role in elaborating on and securing the legacy of his uncle, Emile Durkheim and the Annee Sociologique. Mauss was born in Epinal to a Jewish family, and studied philosophy at Bordeaux, whe, the Marquis de Sade, and Friedrich Nietzsche, the last of whom he defended in a notable essay against appropriation by the Nazis.
Bataille was fascinated by human sacrifice. He claimed to have founded the secret society L'Acéphale (the symbol of which was a decapitated man) in order to instigate a new religion, and planned to sacrifice his lover of the time as an inaugration. An indemnity was offered to the executioner, but a willing executioner was never found.
Bataille had an amazing interdisciplinary talent -- he drew from diverse influences and used diverse modes of discourse to create his work. His novel The Story of the Eye, for example, published under the pseudonym Lord Auch (literally, Lord "to the shithouse" -- "auch" being slang for telling somebody off by sending them to the toilet), is pure pornography, and yet it has the philosophical and emotional depth of a great novel. The imagery of the novel is built upon a series of metaphors which in turn refer to philosophical constructs developed in his work: the eye, the egg, the sun, the earth, the testicle.