The Bataille Industry

For Bataille, the supposed ruinous nature of ecstasy takes down the lord and elevates the slave. This book attacks this absurd economy, insisting instead that ecstasy is simply ecstasy. Moreover, the slave is a slave and the lord a lord, forever. Bataille's philosophy thus remains merely a sentimental 'slave aesthetic'. In attacking Bataille's economy of ruinous expenditure the author also lays siege to the academic reception of Bataille, 'The Bataille Industry' tended to by the 'virgin scholars'. Finally, this attack on the Bataille Industry becomes a wider attack on 'the cathedral', the culture of ambiguity which confuses winning and losing in order to blunt the ambition of the strong man.