This week, our acephalic princess Dysnomia Strophalos offers up a set of loosely-connected readings on gnosticism and Georges Bataille. First, a short introduction to the phenomenon called ‘gnosticism’ excerpted from Jane Goodall’s introduction to Artaud and the Gnostic Drama. The excerpt begins with the second paragraph of page 7 (“Orthodox doctrines of ontology…”) and concludes halfway down page 16 (“… arising from the field of shadows and reflections which is the natural world.”) Following that, two pieces from the Bataille collection Visions of Excess: “Base Materialism and Gnosticism” (pp. 45-52) and “The Pineal Eye” (pp. 79-90). Remember, all page numbers refer to those within the original text, not the digital document. See you Wednesday!