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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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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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