EXCERPT Bataille described existence as ‘a durable orgasm’. Both Reich and Bataille saw in the orgasm the ultimate relapse into undifferentiated plasma, yet Bataille was far clearer as to where this led: death. For Bataille, existence itself is synonymous with ineluctable expenditure, a fact betrayed by orgasm, sleep, laughter, and death—reversions from upright rectitude to bestial relapse and wanton disbursement, these are all stations on the inevitable downward route to ‘zero’. And, given the postural significance of each of these actions, Bataille was inevitably drawn to Spinal Catastrophism…