Story of the Eye (Penguin Modern Classics)

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Well, η Σιμόν η πρωταγωνίστρια προς το τέλος της ιστορίας ήθελε να της σερβίρουν ωμά αρχίδια ταύρου ενώ παρακολουθούσε ταυρομαχίες, τις θύμιζαν αυγά. Και μένα τα τέτοια του σκύλου μου, αυγά ορτυκιού μου θύμισαν. The two lovers are transformed, deformed, unrecognizable, "at first glance, solely to my eyes, solely because during that deformation they acquired the lewdest of meanings.”

If Bataille’s novel was an attempt to write that which should not be written – it is his work that introduced the notion of transgression, the violent, ecstatic breaking of taboos that became so important to postmodern thinkers like Michel Foucault and Susan Sontag – Mr. McElhinney’s film is an attempt to show that which should not be shown. That means hard-core sex, performed in all the possible permutations by a fearless young cast. The cat isn’t mentioned in the chapter. However, symbolically, at least for the Egyptians, cats’ eyes refer to birth, love, life and immortality. There is also a link with the moon, the womb, menstruation and pregnancy. Similarly, for the Romans, cats’ eyes are associated with Venus, love, femininity and fertility.

Though a narrator briefly intones a few sentences about Bataille and his work, there is no dialogue among the principals. Words have been banished from this privileged space, where, true to the work’s title, the eye is the protagonist. We look, but we also look away, and Mr. McElhinney wants to make us aware of our conflicting impulses. Every spectator will have his or her own limits, and when we instinctively glance away, we learn where those limits are. Eyes feature in subsequent chapters. Eyes are opened as we readers progress. With each chapter, we are shown more and more institutional corruption, hypocrisy and violence: a family home, an insane asylum, a bull-fight, the Church. The narrator feels he is watched by the eyes of a dead woman. A bull-fighter loses an eye when gored by a bull. A dead priest has his eye removed with a scalpel. In 1994, while in High School at Abington Friends, he formed “ARMcinema25.com”, a company devoted to producing avant-garde movies.

The eroticism of the human eye plays a prominent, profanely obscene role throughout the novel. A woman comes to orgasm upon seeing a man being gored by a bull, the man’s eye impaled by the horn. Later, she sits upon a plate of said bull’s testicles, her vulva bare, and exalts in delight. I mean, is it supposed to turn me on, if I read that a fictitious character has had sex? Or someone else, someone real (you, for example)? Then again, as I could not relate to the imagery used, especially in the sexual exploits, there is a huge part of the story that means nothing to me, and is thus viewed only as a bizarre perversion. I'm certain, however, that those who can relate to the imagery and objects will understand this work on a different level. Not necessarily a more wholesome level, but on a different sexual level. I ventured to explain such extraordinary relations by assuming a profound region of my mind, where certain images coincide, the elementary ones, the completely obscene ones, i.e., the most scandalous, precisely those on which the conscious floats indefinitely, unable to endure them without an explosion or aberration.”This is an extremely un-sexy story to read and it fascinated and disturbed me in equal measure. *swallows* Histoire de l’œil fut publiée clandestinement en 1928 sous le pseudonyme de Lord Auch (entendez : aux chiottes), et plusieurs fois saisie et condamnée après sa parution. Elle ne fut reconnue comme œuvre de Georges Bataille qu’après la mort de l’auteur. Le récit explore les expériences érotiques de deux adolescents en quête d’expériences de plus en plus intenses et de plus en plus tordues. Blinking – the action of opening and closing the eyelids helps to keep the eye clean and lubricated. It is estimated that the average person blinks twelve times a minute. The Eye is a 2008 supernatural horror- thriller film directed by David Moreau and Xavier Palud, scripted by Sebastian Gutierrez, and starring Jessica Alba, Parker Posey, Alessandro Nivola, and Rade Šerbedžija. It is a remake of the Pang Brothers' 2002 film of the same name.

Conventions exist for a reason, and only a precious few have the strength of will to remain in control, he seems to say. Far from a puritan (for obvious reasons), but an advocate of boundless anarchy he isn’t at all either. More of a jester perhaps, just tempting you, inviting you to join the game, but to then suddenly pull the rug out from under your feet, revealing a gaping abyss below. Rather, the internal stirring I had while reading this came due to George Bataille's (1897-1962) deep philosophical musings and the effective use of symbols. I grew up in a family where sex was not discussed in the open. Ours was a devout Catholic in a way so we did not feel that our parents encouraged us to ask questions about sex. We learned sex in school, media or with our peers. In school, we were taught that masturbation can make us blind, it was immodest not to wear shorts inside the church, lip kissing in public was inappropriate and sex was only to be done in private and within the sanctity of marriage. I remember that I was scared whenever I had to please myself as a teenage boy with raging hormones because of this passage in the Bible (Matthew 5:30) saying that "And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away." I remember that I felt guilty after each time I did it and I always looked at my hands and could not imagine parting with them only to stop what I could not stop doing. The problem with "pornography" as literature or art, or even as comedy, is that any criticism one raises to it will be seen by its advocates as prudery, whether that is the case or not.

In Simone's hairy vagina, I saw the wan blue eye of Marcelle, gazing at me through tears of urine. Streaks of come in the steaming hair helped give that dreamy vision a disastrous sadness. I held the thighs open while Simone was convulsed by the urinary spasm, and the burning urine streamed out from under the eye down to the thighs below… these are not spoilers. dear reader, you are dealing with abstractions. abstractions cannot be spoiled. you can look at them and your eye will see what it wants to see. Video by: James Boatwright, Brian Clark, Liz Chow, Isaac Johnson, Geoff Krawczyk, Josh Parkins, Scott Ries, Anna Scime, & Neil Terry