666

I don’t remember anything in Bataille’s writing that addresses suicide. However, Bataille’s reworking of potlatch, utility, and sacrifice were important to Jean Baudrillard’s understanding of suicide. In essence, Baudrillard sees capitalist society “gifting” us our semiotics and general equivalent in the form of currency. This gift cannot be returned and “one-upped” so to speak in regards to the rules of potlatch. This makes all representation exist outside antagonism. The semiotic field we are gifted exists only for the utility of creating consumer culture. Suicide, or the Bataillean sacrifice, is a return of the gift in that it denies the semiotics and utility we have been gifted with. Basically, Baudrillard thought it was one of the only forms of antagonism to our world. I will have to say I don’t find his reasoning convincing. He also thought suicide bombers and mass murders would also usurp utility. However, these moments of tragedy only have the staying power equated to their media coverage.