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Energy as the Basis of all Human Activity

Bataille’s Peak Energy, Religion, and Postsustainability
by Allan Stoekl

Penn State University

327S Burrowes Building

University Park, PA 16802 814.863.7499

ais3@psu.edu

$20.00 paper

An audacious exploration of Bataille’s philosophy of energy within current conservation debates.

As the price of oil climbs toward 100 dollars a barrel, our impending post-fossil fuel future appears to offer two alternatives: a bleak existence defined by scarcity and sacrifice or one in which humanity places its faith in technological solutions with unforeseen consequences. Are there other ways to imagine life in an era that will be characterized by resource depletion?

The French intellectual Georges Bataille saw energy as the basis of all human activity—the essence of the human—and he envisioned a society that, instead of renouncing profligate spending, would embrace a more radical type of energy expenditure: la dépense, or “spending without return.” In Bataille’s Peak, Allan Stoekl demonstrates how a close reading of Bataille—in the wake of Giordano Bruno and the Marquis de Sade—can help us rethink not only energy and consumption but also such related topics as the city, the body, eroticism, and religion. Through these cases, Stoekl identifies the differences between waste, which Bataille condemned, and expenditure, which he celebrated.

The challenge of living in the twenty-first century, Stoekl argues, will be to comprehend—without recourse to austerity and self-denial—the inevitable and necessary shift from a civilization founded on waste to one based on Bataillean expenditure.

Allan Stoekl is professor of French and comparative literature at Penn State University. His interests include twentieth-century French intellectual history, contemporary literary theory, theories of energy, and the history of energy production and use. He is the author of Agonies of the Intellectual: Commitment, Subjectivity, and the Performative in the Twentieth-Century French Tradition and translator of Bataille’s Visions of Excess: Selected Writings, 1927–1939.

280 pages November 2007

University of Minnesota Press

111 Third Avenue South Suite 290

Minneapolis, MN 55401

Publicist - Heather Skinner

612-627-1932

presspr@umn.edu

WETLANDS ACTIVISM COLLECTIVE'S 18TH BIRTHDAY! MARCH 24, 2007

From:
Adam Weissman
adam@wetlands-preserve.org

Sat, 3/24:
Party for Victoria's Secret Victory and Wetlands' Anniversary

PARTY FOR OUR PLANET'S FORESTS!

CELEBRATE OUR VICTORIA'S SECRET VICTORY
and
WETLANDS ACTIVISM COLLECTIVE'S 18TH BIRTHDAY!

MARCH 24, 2007, 7:30PM
Times Up Environmental Space,
49 East Houston Street,
between Mott and Mulberry.

TIME'S UP!
P.O. Box 2030
New York, NY 10009
212.802.8222
www.times-up.org
timesup@panix.com

Media Contact:
Call Bill at 917 577 5621
or Steven Stollman
212 431 0600

For 18 years, Wetlands Activism Collective has taken to the streets to defend our planet's forests. Over the years we've been part of major forest victories, winning reforms from companies like Mitsubishi, Home Depot, Barnes and Noble, the New York Times, Staples, Office Depot, Fidelity Investments,--- and VICTORIAS SECRET!

After 2 years of campaigning by eco-activists, Victoria's Secret has agreedto phase out their use of paper from endangered forests and increase use of recycled paper in their catalogs!

JOIN US TO CELEBRATE!

Meet forest activists, have fun, and learn what YOU can do to protect the planet!

* MUSIC * WALL PROJECTIONS OF FOREST ACTION PHOTOS* YUMMY FREEGAN FOOD* UPDATES ON THE LATEST BATTLES TO DEFEND OUR PLANET'S FORESTS FROMACTIVISTS FROM WETLANDS, RAINFOREST RELIEF, AND FORESTETHICS * FREE FORESTACTION LITERATURE* FOREST ACTIVISM MOVIES * AND MUCH MORE!

More details to be announced­ call for updates!
(201) 928-2831
activism@wetlands-preserve.org

Sponsored by Wetlands Activism Collective
Special thanks to Times Up! for providing space and support!

For announcements of human, animal, and earth liberation actions in New YorkCity, send a blank email message to
wetlands-activism-subscribe@lists.riseup.net

Wetlands Activism Collective
PO Box 344,
New York, NY 10108
(201) 928-2831
activism@wetlands-preserve.org

Visit these websites!
wetlands-preserve.org
freegan.info
ftaareferendum.org
freetradekillsanimals.org
foodnotfur.org
furfreenyc.org
JUST CREATED:
friendsofbradwill.org
andystepanian.com



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