the
unfinished system
of
non knowledge
Georges Bataille
Edited and with an Introduction
by Stuart Kendall
Transla...
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the
unfinished system
of
non knowledge
Georges Bataille
Edited and with an Introduction
by Stuart Kendall
Translated by Michelle Kendall and Stuart Kendall
University of Minnesota Press Minneapolis -
London
The University of Minnesota Press gratefully acknowledges financial assistance provided by the French Ministry of Culture for the translation of this book.
This transl~tion presents selections from Georges Bataille's CEuvres completes, copyright Editions Gallimard, 1973-88 (12 volumes). English transfation and introduction copyright 2001 by the Regents of the University of Minnesota
The foundation of one's thought is the thought of another; thought is like a brick cemented in a wall. It is the simulacrum ofthought if, in his looking back on himself, the being who thinks sees a free brick and not the price this semblance of freedom cost him: he doesn't see the waste ground and the heaps of detritus to
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which a sensitive vanity consigns him with his brick. The work of the mason, who assembles, is the work that matters. Thus the adjoining bricks, in a book, should not be less visible than the new brick, which is the book. What is offered the reader, in fact, cannot be an element, but must be an ensemble in which it is inserted: it is the whole human assemblage and edi-
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fice, which must be, not just a pile of scraps, but rather a self-consciousness. In a sense, the unlimited assemblage is the impossible. It takes courage and stubbornness not to go slack. Everything invites one to drop the substance for the shadow, to forsake the open and impersonal movement of thought for the isolated opinion. Of course the isolated opinion is also the shortest means
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of revealing what the assemblage essentially is-the impossible. But it has this deep meaning only if it is not conscious of the fact.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bataille, Georges, 1897-1962. [Works. 2001] The unfinished system of nonknowledge / Georges Bataille ; edited and with an introduction by Stuart Kendall; translated by Michelle Kendall and Stuart Kendall. p. em. Includes bibliographical references and index. [SBN 0-8[66-3505-6 (PBIl : alk. paper) 1. Philosophy. I. Kendall, Stuart. II. Title. B2430 .B33952 2001 848'.91209-