Date: Thu, 7 Aug 1997 23:24:16 -0400
Subject: festival




I would like to open up the question of the festival in Bataille's
schema.  In his discussion of the festival (found in several different
texts), the related figures of sacrifice and consumption are present.
The strength of his position reverbrates in literature - one only has
to think of the description of the fire in Dostoevsky's novel the
<italic>Possessed</italic> or dance in <italic>Lord of the
Flies</italic> to be reminded of the curious pleasure one finds in
unfettered consuumption.  I am curious to hear what thoughts others may
have regarding the place of the spectator in the festival - that
witness who feels the pleasure of the festival without actually
participating in it.  I am thinking here of the witness to the disaster
or sensational event (both moments of "festival" in the sense of what
Mark Seltzer calls "wound culture."). 


eric