"A man who finds himself among others is irritated because he does not know why he is not one of the others. In bed next to a girl he loves, he forgets that he does not know why he is himself instead of the body he touches. Without knowing it, he suffers from the mental darkness that keeps him from screaming that he himself is the girl who forgets his presence while shuddering in his arms."

Source : Georges Bataille (1985). “Visions of Excess: Selected Writings 1927-1939”, p.6, Manchester University Press

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