Excess and Desire: Exploring Georges Bataille’s Vision in The Accursed Share

You’ve heard of living on the edge, right? Well, Georges Bataille wrote the book on it—and not just any book, but one that dives straight into the soul of human madness and absurdity.

He said to excess, “I’ll have it all.” And now you’re about to take a drink from that cup.

Author Bio

Georges Bataille (1897-1962) was a French philosopher, writer, and intellectual bad boy. Known for his love of the absurd, the erotic, and the mystical, Bataille’s work pushed the boundaries of culture, philosophy, and even sanity. If there’s a line between “art” and “madness,” he lived on the side of the wild.

Plot

In The Accursed Share, Bataille dissects the human need for excess.

The book’s central idea is that societies are doomed to overflow with excess energy—be it economic, sexual, or otherwise.

Bataille argues that this “accursed share” is something we try to dispose of in destructive, extravagant ways.

Sacrifice, war, parties, and lavish spending: all part of the grotesque human condition.

6 Factors to Consider in Bataille’s The Accursed Share

1. The Principle of Excess

You ever have one of those days when everything’s just too much?

Too much food, too much drink, too much noise in your head.

You feel like you’re drowning in the details of your life—what you said, what you didn’t, what you ate, what you didn’t eat.

You end up shoving your face full of things, trying to fill a hole you can’t see, let alone understand.

Maybe it’s even too much life, just shoving you around, making you feel like you’re running on some machine you can’t turn off.

You think you’re in control, but deep down, you’re not. You’re never in control.

Bataille knew this.

He understood that we’re not supposed to be satisfied with what we have.

Not in his world, at least. He said we’re not designed to sit pretty and smile at the simple things.

No, in Bataille’s world, we’re cursed by this thing called excess.

We can’t help ourselves. It’s like a fire inside that keeps pushing, demanding more, until we’ve got nothing left to give.

We’re wired to overflow, to burn through anything and everything until it’s gone, and then start again.

It’s inevitable. All of it.

It’s the essence of being human. The only thing we’re truly good at is consuming, spending, wasting—until there’s nothing left but the smell of burnt bridges and empty pockets.

And just when you think you’ve had enough, the cycle starts all over again.

Because that’s what we are. That’s what Bataille understood. He got it, like no one else. We are creatures of excess. There’s no end to it.

You can try to hold back, but the beast will break loose. It always does.

2. The Concept of the “Accursed Share”

Bataille throws a real curveball at you with this one, and it’s a pitch you didn’t see coming.

The “accursed share” is what he calls the extra, the stuff we can’t hold onto.

It’s the surplus energy that gets built up in every society—call it waste, call it whatever you want—but it’s not just some harmless byproduct of our way of living.

It’s the lifeblood of it.

You see, the economy doesn’t run on just resources—no, it’s built on waste, on what gets tossed aside, what gets thrown into the fire.

And that’s where it gets weird.

That waste? That’s the thing that makes us feel like we’re alive.

We think we’re out here living, breathing, but we’re just burning through everything, every little scrap.

Think of it like this: people dropping cash like it’s worthless, throwing it into some pointless art project, or heading to wild parties that don’t mean a damn thing except to drown out the noise inside.

Or that dark side—the self-destructive stuff we all flirt with, whether it’s throwing ourselves into a meaningless relationship or downing whiskey just to get through the night.

It’s all part of the equation. We’re not just running from the waste—we’re running toward it, too.

We seek it. We crave it.

Because, in some twisted way, it’s the only thing that makes us feel alive.

It’s like a shot of adrenaline, or maybe a knife-edge of danger, that keeps us going when the rest of life feels stale.

And this cycle? It’s terrifying. It’s intoxicating.

You start to lose track of whether you’re using the waste, or if the waste is using you.

Before you know it, you’re in a spiral. One you can’t get out of. One that makes you dizzy, but somehow, it’s the only thing that reminds you that you’re even here at all.

3. Sacrifice and the Mystical

You didn’t think this was just about the party, did you? Nah, Bataille doesn’t stop at the surface.

He digs deep. He doesn’t just point at the madness we’re chasing, he takes it apart and finds something darker, something almost unbearable.

He says, if you’ve got this surplus, this overflow of energy, it’s gotta go somewhere.

And no, it can’t just be squandered in a few wild nights or a few empty gestures.

It needs to be dealt with—and sometimes the only way to handle it is through sacrifice. Yeah, real sacrifice.

But don’t get cute thinking this is about some kind of serene, spiritual cleansing.

Oh no, this isn’t that kind of sacrifice where you light a candle and send your wishes up into the stars.

No, Bataille’s talking about sacrifice that gets dirty. It gets bloody. It’s messy. Sometimes it’s ritualistic, almost mystical, like a primal scream you can’t control.

And what’s the point of it? It’s not just destruction for destruction’s sake. It’s about transcendence—about crossing into something bigger, something more real. It’s about burning away the old crap, but the fire leaves scars.

This transcendence isn’t about peace and light. It’s a violent sort of release. You let go, but you don’t come out clean.

There’s no purity here. It’s more like breaking yourself down so you can find something new—but that something new isn’t all clear skies and roses.

It’s raw, it’s unrefined, and it’s always waiting to consume you.

You think you can transcend, but in the end, you’re just another piece of the wreckage.

That’s what Bataille gets. You want transcendence? Fine, but be prepared to get your hands dirty.

4. The Erotic and the Economic

Now things get fun—or horrifying, depending on your stance. Bataille suggests that the erotic (read: sex, lust, the body) and the economic (money, power, trade) aren’t as different as you think.

For him, both systems work on the same principle: using up what we have in extravagant ways until we have nothing left. He’s got a dirty mind, but hell, so does the world.

5. The Role of War

Bataille’s vision isn’t all glitter and sex. The “accursed share” inevitably spills into violence, conflict, and war. Societies, once they’ve exhausted their pleasures, turn to destruction.

War becomes an outlet for human energy—an attempt to deal with the unspeakable overflow.

6. The Ultimate Absurdity: Waste as Meaning

Bataille proposes that, in the end, we find meaning not in preserving life, but in squandering it.

Nothing truly matters unless it’s being squandered in the most extravagant way possible.

Money, time, energy, life—just throw it away. Because, to Bataille, nothing else is quite as authentically human.

Table 1: Bataille’s Key Concepts in The Accursed Share

Concept	Definition	Example
Excess	The idea that humanity is defined by its inability to control surplus energy.	The human compulsion to overeat, over-spend, and overindulge.
The Accursed Share	The surplus energy within societies that must be spent or destroyed.	War, parties
Sacrifice	Destruction as a form of spiritual or societal release.	Burning money, ritual slaughter, or warfare.
Erotic Economy	The connection between sexual energy and the economy.	Using sex to control or disrupt power dynamics.
War as Overflow	The connection between excess energy and violence.	Societies turning to war when pleasure and luxury fail.
Waste as Meaning	The idea that wasting resources or life is the true meaning of existence.	Throwing a lavish party that costs a fortune for no purpose.

Table 2: Bataille vs. Traditional Philosophers

Philosopher	View on Excess	View on Sacrifice
Bataille	Excess is essential to human life. It cannot be avoided.	Sacrifice is the only authentic release of surplus.
Nietzsche	Embraced excess as a sign of strength, but not destruction for its own sake.	Embraced self-overcoming, but without self-sacrifice.
Kant	Excess is immoral; humanity should strive for moderation.	Sacrifice is not necessary and does not lead to transcendence.
Marx	Economic excess is produced by capitalist systems, and it should be redistributed.	Sacrifice is unnecessary in a classless society.

Conclusion

Bataille’s The Accursed Share isn’t for the faint of heart. It’s messy. It’s excessive. It’s borderline insane.

But it’s also oddly truthful. Humanity is hooked on excess, whether it’s in the form of food, sex, war, or luxury.

And the more we try to run from it, the more we fall face-first into the void of it.