Such a Deathly Desire

by Pierre Klossowski, Russell Ford (Translator, editor, afterword)

Provocative essays on language, literature, and the aesthetics of embodiment.

Shocking, brilliant, and eccentric, the French author, translator, and artist Pierre Klossowski (1905–2001) exerted a profound effect on French intellectual culture throughout the twentieth century. The older brother of the painter Balthus, secretary to the novelist André Gide, friend to Georges Bataille and Maurice Blanchot, and heralded as one of the most important voices in the French "return to Nietzsche" by Michel Foucault and Gilles Deleuze, Klossowski pursued his singular vision of mortal embodiment through a variety of scholarly manifestations. In Such a Deathly Desire (Un si funeste désir), Klossowsk's original interpretation of Nietzsche's eternal return is developed around the enigmatic figure of the "demon" then deepened with provocative readings of Gide's correspondence; Barbey d'Aurevilly's novel A Married Priest; and the intertwining of language and death in the work of Bataille, Blanchot, and Brice Parain. The book concludes with the powerful essay "Nietzsche, Polytheism, and Parody," in which Klossowski articulates the consequences of the eternal return and the meaning of Nietzsche's genealogy of the fabulation of the world. Intersecting with and confounding a range of disciplines—including psychoanalysis, literary criticism, gender studies, and philosophy—Klossowski's critical writings on language, literature, and the aesthetics of embodiment remain powerful and original contributions to contemporary concerns in the theoretical humanities.

"Pierre Klossowski was one of the most influential (albeit idiosyncratic) literary figures in France during the postwar years, yet his work remains strangely unknown in the English-speaking world. Such a Deathly Desire was one of the essential books of Klossowski's oeuvre, and it includes seminal articles on Gide, Bataille, and Blanchot, as well as his now-classic essay 'Nietzsche, Polytheism, and Parody.' The appearance of the book in English has long been anticipated, and we owe an immense debt to Russell Ford for providing us with an accessible and accurate translation."— Daniel W. Smith, Purdue University

Genres: Philosophy

162 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1963

About the author

Pierre Klossowski (August 9, 1905, Paris – August 12, 2001, Paris) was a French writer, translator and artist. He was the eldest son of the artists Erich Klossowski and Baladine Klossowska, and his younger brother was the painter Balthus.

Reviews

[Alyosha · Rating 4 out of 5]

A perversely delightful little collection of essays - it is a shame that it is so expensive. Klossowski is always a difficult figure to pin down and speak of, for (as these essays evince) even when he is writing of others, he is writing about himself, and when he is writing about himself, he is writing about another. A parody, by necessity.

The first and last essays of the collection, both on Nietzsche, are essential additions to anyone looking to struggle through the madness of Nietzsche and the Vicious Circle.
The two essays on Gide and his demoniacal obsessions (here perverted in themselves through the darkened mirror of Christianity) are intriguing, especially given that they relate little, if at all, to his literary works, and focus rather on his life and epistolary relations.
The preface to Barbey D'Aurevilly's novel, which looked to be of the least interest, turns out to be a fascinating reflection on the relations between science and faith, atheism and religious morality.
The short review of Bataille's L'Abbé C is rather forgettable. Klossowski's continual argument that Bataille remains an inverted Christian has always seemed a bit facile to me, though his ruminations concerning language and the flesh (which run throughout the next couple essays as well) are intriguing.
Klossowski's chapter on Brice Parain is perhaps the most fascinating of the book, weaving the thread between language, death, existence, communism, and silence in the knowledge of the unknown, faith in the hopeless hope, all while twisting and diverting the Catholic tones of Parain's thought.
Finally, while Klossowski's reading of Blanchot's Le Très-Haut is a bit misguided (granted Klossowski's inveterate, idiosyncratic readings of everything, and his confession to the literality of the reading he gives here), while still exposing intriguing potentials within the text in question. This ever remains Klossowski's perverse power, his solicitous strength. One must learn to read him (accomplishable only through reading him, of course), in order to benefit from the singularity of his readings.