Summary of The Blue of the Sky:

Following the publication of three titles by Georges Bataille in The Vertical Smile, it's now the turn of another classic of erotic literature. Bataille wrote "The Blue of the Sky" in 1935, but, as he confesses in the preface, he ignored it for a long time. The war in Spain and the catastrophes humanity had to endure for 30 years had, in his opinion, robbed the work of its content. It wasn't until 1957, thanks to the advice of some friends, that the great French writer decided to make it available to the public through JJ Pauvert, his publisher in France.

Despite the luminosity of its title, this work is inspired by the transgression of a prudent moral in a dangerous quest: the recognition of death, the "impossible" depth of that blue sky that simultaneously attracts and repels us. London, Paris, and Barcelona draw a topography of corruption, a setting in which, through drunkenness, empty nights, and strange feasts, Troppman approaches this new form of purity, communion with death, thanks to the discovery of the illuminator of the filthy.

One could say that in "The Blue of the Sky," all of Bataille is present, all the themes that preoccupied him throughout his life: ideologies, death, states of ecstasy, sex... It's been thirteen years since we began publishing Georges Bataille. To date, six works have seen the light of day in various collections: The True Bluebeard (Infimos 35), Erotica (Marginales 61), History of the Eye, My Mother, Madame Edwarda, followed by The Dead Man (The Smile, verticals 10, 19, and 25) and The Tears of Eros (The 5 Senses 12).

ABOUT THE AUTHOR OF THE BLUE OF THE SKY

Georges Bataille was born in Billon, France, in 1897 and died in Malmaison in 1962. A man who preferred to work in obscurity, he nevertheless became one of the most innovative and important European thinkers of the interwar period. He founded several journals, including two that made history: Documents and Critique. He wrote essays such as "La littérature et le mal," "Erotique" (Marginales 61), "L'expérience intérieure," and "La part maudite," and, in the field of erotic narrative, extraordinary texts such as "History of the Eye," "My Mother," followed by "The Dead Man," "Madame Edwarda," and "The Blue of the Sky" (The Vertical Smile 10, 19, 25, and 44). For him, all of creation is a process in which man transcends himself by transgressing all taboos, especially those of eroticism and death.