Emancipation from labor k2 vtl
Lavenz ‘20 – Timothy Lavenz is an independent writer and translator whose journeys in the word can be traced at fragilekeys.com. He earned his B.A. in creative writing and philosophy from the University of Iowa and his M.A. from the European Graduate School. His critical essays on literature appear in Kunst und Kirche and Oraxiom. Innerving the ghosts of language is his thing. He frees moths. How badass is that? “Sovereign Disregard: On Bataille’s Accursed Share”, Epoché Magazine, Issue #33, July 2020; https://epochemagazine.org/33/sovereign-disregard-on-batailles-accursed-share/ Accessed 07/24/2023 | RN
What characterizes traditional sovereignty, which the modern rebel rejects? A squandering of resources in useless expenditures; excess consumption in the present; scorn for useful activity; benefiting from property without laboring for it; and giving exorbitant gifts, indulging in luxuries beyond measure — whether by building palaces, churches, gardens to inspire wonder, or by destroying surpluses to win the challenge for prestige.
By definition, the sovereign does not work — “labor is the exact opposite of the sovereign attitude” (283). Not only are sovereigns free from the necessities that rule the work world, they also enjoy to no purpose what has been produced. The sovereign’s symbolic role is therefore separate from whatever practical ‘governing’ they may do, however much these aspects get mixed up — for example, in the classic theological problem: why did God, who is not constrained by any necessity, create and order the universe? The “perfect God,” constrained to uphold order in the universe, is for this reason not sovereign but constrained and servile. By contrast, for Bataille, the sovereign qua sovereignty possesses an utterly non-servile attitude. They are not subordinated to any goal, neither the maintenance of order (cosmic or worldly) nor individual survival, for “subordination is always grounded in the alleged need to avoid death” (222). At the limit, the sovereign denies the boundaries of the individual and risks death in the moment, preferring symbolic prestige over personal survival (220), magnificence over life (353). No caution or concern is exercised for the sake of future benefit or pay-off. Its existence is thus antithetical to the world of work, to the maintenance of society, and to concerns of rational accumulation and survival. Bataille links sovereign uselessness directly to joy: “The truth is that we have no real happiness except by spending to no purpose” (178); “Life beyond utility is the domain of sovereignty” (198).