QuoteProject
Obscenity is our name for the uneasiness which upsets the physical state associated with self-possession, with the possession of a recognized and stable individuality.
Georges Bataille
ShareWTF𝕏

Interpretation

What this quote means

Obscenity reflects the discomfort that disrupts our sense of self and individuality.

Georges Bataille's quote suggests that what we deem 'obscene' arises from feelings of instability and discomfort in our identity. It connects the concept of obscenity to the human experience of self-possession, indicating that profound unease can challenge our understanding of ourselves and what constitutes a stable and recognizable individuality.

Themes

ObscenityIndividualitySelf-PossessionDiscomfortIdentityPhilosophy

In practice

Example use cases

In a philosophical debate about the nature of obscenity in art.

More from Georges Bataille

The anguish of the neurotic individual is the same as that of the saint. The neurotic, the saint are engaged in the same battle. Their blood flows from similar wounds. But the first one gasps and the other one gives.
Georges BatailleRead
A judgment about life has no meaning except the truth of the one who speaks last, and the mind is at ease only at the moment when everyone is shouting at once and no one can hear a thing.
Georges BatailleRead
I believe that truth has only one face: that of a violent contradiction.
Georges BatailleRead
What does physical eroticism signify if not a violation of the very being of its practitioners? – A violation bordering on death, bordering on murder?
Georges BatailleRead
It is clear that the world is purely parodic, that each thing seen is the parody of another, or is the same thing in a deceptive form.
Georges BatailleRead
I think that knowledge enslaves us, that at the base of all knowledge there is a servility, the acceptation of a way of life wherein each moment has meaning only in relation to another or others that will follow it.
Georges BatailleRead

Similar quotes

You can cry about death and very properly so, your own as well as anybody else's. But it's inevitable, so you'd better grapple with it and cope and be aware that not only is it inevitable, but it has always been inevitable, if you see what I mean.
David AttenboroughRead
For mines are for men, not for money. And money is not something to go mad about, and throw your hat into the air for. Money is for food and clothes and comfort, and a visit to the pictures. Money is to make happy the lives of children. Money is for security, and for dreams, and for hopes, and for purposes. Money is for buying the fruits of the earth, of the land where you were born.
Alan PatonRead
This is sweet to see your foe, perish and pay to justice all he owes.
EuripidesRead
Evil does not exist sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is not like faith, or love that exist just as does light and heat. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God's love present in his heart. It's like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light.
Albert EinsteinRead
What if I told you insane was working fifty hours a week in some office for fifty years at the end of which they tell you to p*ss off; ending up in some retirement village hoping to die before suffering the indignity of trying to make it to the toilet on time? Wouldn't you consider that to be insane?
Steve BuscemiRead
The rise of capitalist practice and morality brought with it a radical revision of how the commons are treated, and also of how they are conceived.
Noam ChomskyRead

A little wisdom, now and then

Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.