we're all perverts somehow

The book "The Story of the Eye" by George Bataille explores themes of blasphemy, profanation, horror, and evil. The podcast episode discusses the intense and disturbing aspects of sexuality. It also mentions other works, such as Bataille's "My Mother" and the film "Eyes Wide Shut," that delve into taboo subjects. The episode concludes by mentioning the film "Black Narcissus," which explores desire and madness within a group of missionary nuns. The speaker acknowledges the potential trauma caused by discussing these topics and invites feedback from listeners. Blasphemy, profanation, horror, evil are all underlying themes of this book. I am gonna say that again just to make sure you got that. Blasphemy, profanation, horror and evil. It's called the story of the eye and the author is the brilliant George Bataille. Now it's your time to leave. If you feel you are not brave enough just leave, leave now or never. Hi and welcome, yeah welcome to my first episode. Well you got me, I don't know how to start this. I mean look at the name, look at the name of it, look at the name of the episode. If you are here I am so sorry to say this but that means you are mental, yeah you are mental because you are listening to this. And yeah I know I started the episode by fanning you and I am sorry but I just wanna tell you that this episode has no shame. This episode has no fucking shame. Today's episode is going to be intense, erotic, erotic again, special somehow and for some aspects you may also find it disturbing. Yeah, I know, I know, I know that is not the best introduction but honestly I believe the best stuff to talk about is always characterized by a devilish erotic motif. After all we can't really turn our eyes away from the grotesque and make up, can we? What I always wanted to dive into is the realm of sexuality. Now we can all agree that sexuality is an integral part of being human. It is in everything we experience, every single day. It is what we are, what define us. However discovering ourselves and who we attract to is not an easy process. Now in one of the next episodes we'll try to navigate around the concepts of sex orientation and gender identity. But today I really wanted to dive into sex. Yeah, somehow the greatest expression of sexuality. The question is, why are we so easily pleased by the poetry of sex and the special intimacy that derive from it? And yet where do all those nasty thoughts everyone had in their sex life come from? Are they moral? Are they just an innermost part of sex? Very interesting questions of course and I'll try to answer a few of them by mentioning some weird stuff. So as I told you before, if you want to live, just do it now. But if you do, remember, you don't have a heart. Ok, I know, it all sounds very interesting, I hope so. But first I'd like to start doing with a book and what a book. Ok, I'm gonna say though, I'm probably going to have it drop the listening here and yeah, I'm serious. But really, trust me, stick around. Ok, before revealing the name of it, oh fuck, I already did it at the beginning. But by the way, I want you to know that I've already talked to friends about it and every person got literally horrified of what I told them. As I told you, blasphemy, profanation, horror and evil are all underlying themes of this book. And it's called The Story of the Eye and the author is George Bataille, a French novelist of the past century who loved to explore such subjects such as eroticism, mysticism, surrealism and transgression. Yeah, let's stress on transgression. Now, I don't know whether I can tell you the entire story here. I honestly think Spotify is going to ban me from here for the rest of my life. I'm serious, again, I'm being serious. And but to talk you into reading it, I'm going to mention a few details about it. In essence, it's the story of two teenagers that begin a journey together. But it's a dark journey into sexuality and its most obscene forms, leading to absolute debauchery and extreme forms of intercourse, including urination, necrophilia and the cult of sexualized objects such as eggs and oval-shaped objects in general. Now the eye here, quintessentially speaking, becomes the symbol of perversion and warped sexuality. And it's actually the dominant character of the final episode of the story that I'm so sorry, but I can't, I really can't mention here. But I highly suggest you give it a read. Now it is so erotically intense, but emotionally very disturbing, as I told you. And by the way, if you feel I am creepy, you may be right. But hold on, I'm going to introduce you to the creepiest person on this planet. And I'm going to give you a little taste of his lesson. The literature and evil by Georges Bataille. Okay, what you can hear is basically an interview. And the interviewer is asking Georges Bataille some questions. The very first one is, what evil are you talking about? And he says, I think there are two opposite kinds of evil. The first one is related to the necessity of human activity going well and having the desired results. And the other consists of deliberately violating some fundamental provisions, like for example, to subdue against murder and against some sexual possibilities. But then the interviewer asks, that means that evil and literature are inseparable. Okay, guys, I think his reply here is just, I don't know, unique. Because he says, I think so, yeah. Maybe it's not very clear at first. But to me, it seems that if literature stays away from evil, it rapidly becomes boring. This might seem surprising. Nevertheless, I think that soon it becomes clear that literature has to deal with anguish. And that anguish is based on something that is going the wrong way. Something that no doubt will turn into something very evil. Okay, guys, I got so intrigued that George Patagio got me reading another short novel of his. That is My Mother. And yeah, it's not a Christian story from the Bible, as you may have guessed. But it's on the same track of the story of the IAE. Now it's all about the initiation to sex and orgy of this guy by his mother. Yeah, I say his mother. And the book follows the incestuous relationship between a 17-year-old boy and his attractive promiscuous 43-year-old mother. Now the morbid story ends with a feverish episode depicting the mother dragging the son into death with her final act of masturbation. It's impossible. It's just impossible not to feel dirty after this reading. I must confess that awful and irrational thoughts assaulted me for some time. But when I first read it, I just wanted to forget everything. I just wanted to cleanse my mind. But I feel like I do need another reference to intrigue you more. Now who watched Eyes Wide Shut? I honestly reckon it one of the greatest films by Stanley Kubrick I ever watched along with An Orange Clockwise. And incidentally, we'll talk about it, we'll talk about An Orange Clockwise one day on this podcast with a very dear friend of mine. I know you're listening. But now let's stick to Eyes Wide Shut. Now Eyes Wide Shut is an erotic mystery psychological drama film. What got me thinking a lot was the choice of the name of the film. Why Eyes Wide Shut? Normally it would mean a person who refuses to see something in plain view. Thus, maybe, a preconceived notion of what this something should look like. Well in fact, Kubrick claims, following the revelation by this woman, Alice, played by Nicole Kidman, to her husband, Bill, a distinguished doctor played by Tom Cruise, about her meeting a very interesting person in the past and fantasising, well guess what, intercourse, yeah intercourse with him. Now from this point on, an odyssey into the occult world of sex begins. But Bill is in denial. He can't really come to terms with this revelation. He has always felt a wife to be extremely committed to her husband. But at some point, the subconscious becomes conscious, becomes real. It's like a dream that takes place in real life. During the celebration of nudity, orgy, humour and heterosex come into play. Now Bill, who just turned the suspicious club, is asked to pull his mask off and confront reality. A deep psychoanalysis reveals how sex is an undeniable part of everyone, a part that sometimes we keep underneath, because perhaps we are ashamed of it. But it is right there, we can't escape it. And Kubrick explored eroticism deeply, explored by Freud and Schindler. Sorry for my pronunciation. The last one is the author of Dream Story, that is the novel that inspired the film. Now I did love the scene of Alice undressing in front of a mirror, in her nudity, inducing sexual desire, even in the audience. You can see the video on Instagram. Ok, but the story of the eye, I know, I know, I'm obsessed with this book. But the story of the eye by Bataille has something more to tell. It's sacred and profane. The author brilliantly does set one of his provocative stories in a church. And it is the final scene that I prefer not to tell you here. And now if you read that episode, I swear to God, I'm joking tender here, ok, I swear to God. But by the way, I really swear to God that if you read that episode, you're gonna get traumatized. It is such a powerful, devastating, overwhelming, violent scene. And I'm actually crying now, but I don't know why, maybe because of my enthusiasm, or I don't know, maybe because of my trauma, I don't know. And now, according to Bataille, sex and eroticism are dangerous forces that, if not limited, may bring humans to extreme forms of intercourse, violence, and threat-crushing. Now the question is, can a priest, ok, not a priest, not a mummy, I'm just a priest, ok, so can a priest, or a nun, really repress that sexual urge we have been talking about? Well, to Bataille, of course not. Priests are human, and as human, they feel attracted to somebody sometimes. But their religious commitment is supposed to be strong enough to veil that urge. But of course, the last scene of the story of the eye rejects what we just said. And yeah, I always love stories about forbidden kind of love between a priest and a woman. I did solve, and I actually cried, over the last scene of Lay Back, a TV series that you should definitely watch. But I think I got something more appropriate now. And this something is Black Narcissus. Now Black Narcissus is a film directed by Michael Powell and released in 1947. It is a story of a group of missionary nuns who take over an empty monastery high up in the Himalayas. Now five nuns take over the building in order to help the locals with education and any sort of illnesses, but soon the air gets heavy and filled with undercurrents of desire. But one of the sisters, Sister Clodagh, begins to have visions of a past love, partly induced by the costume and masculine presence of a local Englishman. But she's not the only one. There is another nun who lusts after him. And another nun, Sister Ruth, begins to disintegrate because of her love for him, eventually turning manic, violent and possessed. Eventually she even tries to kill Sister Clodagh, but she herself tragically ends up falling down a cliff, a fall into her own perverted psyche. And I just wanna tell you that I can't forget the expression on Sister Ruth's face in the heat of the moment of pushing Sister Clodagh down the cliff. It's a devilish smile that recalls Jack Torrance's theme on the film The Shining, and still directed by Sonny Kubrick. After all, the overlooked hotel, the setting on the film The Shining, resembles a lot the nunnery, the monastery of Black Knight's Sisters. The hotel is remote, solitary, and its past, like the one at the monastery, arouses violence and sexual desire within the ones who choose to live in such places. And yeah, I think I traumatized you enough, and honestly, to be honest with you, I think I traumatized myself as well, again. And so I'll pay for your therapy, and so I should pay for my therapy again. And yeah, so I had been looking for a good way to end this episode. So watch the last video in the latest post on my Instagram, and I feel like that brilliantly sums up everything we just said. Now tell me what you think about this episode in the comments, and yeah, see you in the next episode.