Excess
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
[Excess energy] must be spent, willingly or not, gloriously or catastrophically. This is the logic of sacrifice." --The Accursed Share, Georges Bataille, tr. Zone Books |
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Excess is the state of exceeding or going beyond limits, beyond what is normal or usual. Related terms include eccentricity, extravagance and transgression. Georges Bataille, in works such as The Accursed Share, was a leading theorist on excess.
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Etymology
Old English exces, excess, ecstasy; Latin excessus a going out, loss of self-possession, from excedere, excessum, to go out, go beyond. See ex-cedere.
Namesakes
- Gamiani, ou Une Nuit d'Excès (1833) by Alfred de Musset
- Visions of Excess: Selected Writings, 1927-1939 (1985) by Georges Bataille
Contrast
See also
- Dissipation
- Extravagance
- Gratification
- Immoderateness
- Indulgence
- Intemperance
- Superfluity
- Superabundance
- Transgression
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