GAMBLING WITH ELIADE: LAS VEGAS AND THE DISASTER OF THE SACRED
GAMBLING WITH ELIADE: LAS VEGAS AND THE DISASTER OF THE SACRED
Author(s): Jeremy BilesSubject(s): Literary Texts
Published by: Romanian Assoc. for the History of Religions & Inst. for the History of Religions, Romanian Academy
Keywords: Mircea Eliade; Georges Bataille; sacred; uncanny; ecstasy; festival; Las Vegas.
Summary/Abstract: Though Mircea Eliade claims that the sacred is ambivalent – both holy and cursed – a close examination of his writings reveals a privileging of the right, or pure, side of the sacred and a concomitant suppression of the left, or impure, side. This paper turns to Georges Bataille’s theory of the sacred in order to return the suppressed, left sacred in Eliade. An investigation of the sacred “camouflaged” within the profane excesses of Las Vegas testifies to the full amplitude of the sacred, demonstrating that the ecstasies of Sin City are ambivalent, simultaneously exalting and exhausting.
Journal: ARCHÆVS. Studies in the History of Religions
- Issue Year: XV/2011
- Issue No: 01+02
- Page Range: 93-117
- Page Count: 25
- Language: English
- Content File-PDF