For much of my adult life I’ve felt drawn to the writings of Nietzsche.  I have speculated inwardly the reasons why this is so.  I think my attraction to this troubled writer from the 19th century was inevitable.  Do we have any say in the time and place of our birth, the circumstances and manner of our upbringing?  What about the strengths and weaknesses of our education, and the individuals we happened to meet as time spools out?  Happenstance, chance, serendipity would be my appraisal…

Parallel to the observation made by Bataille, here I am, alive, language runs through me as a stream, a relentless reminder of my alive status, and that I owe what I can never pay…  That is the moral goal.  And Bataille is quite correct, that you cannot substitute any project, however commendable, for this mountain top which we fail to reach…

It is possible to opt out, to decide to “not give a shit.” and follow the slopes of decline…

But I live,
And life, (language) is in me.
Now language in me cannot abandon its moral goal…
It must in any case be affirmed that,
If I follow the slopes of decline, I cannot encounter this goal.

And this said, I continue to live.

I will add – I speak for myself – that I cannot seek a good
to substitute for the goal that escapes me.

I no longer know of any reason—external to myself –
to sacrifice myself or the little strength that I have.
I live at the mercy of laughter, which cheers me,
and the sexual excitation which agonizes me.

…Before those who possess a motive, a reason,
I don’t feel I’m missing anything;
I am not envious of anyone.
On the contrary I encourage them to share my fate.
I experience my hatred of motives and my fragility as happy.
The extreme difficulty of my situation is my luck.
I am intoxicated with it.

But, I carry within me, despite myself, like an explosive charge,
A question:

WHAT CAN A LUCID MAN DO IN THIS WORLD?
BEARING WITHIN HIMSELF A LIMITLESS DEMAND.

-excerpt On Nietzsche, by Georges Bataille, trans. by Stuart Kendall p. 13