The Necessity of the Mind by Roger Callois

Translated by Michael Syrotinski

Afterward by Denis Hollier

This is the first English translation of one of the most brilliant and eccentric works of modern French literature. Roger Collois (1913-1978) was a member of the surrealist group for a brief period of time, from the 1932-34. A few years later, he founded the College de Sociologie and was intimately associated with Georges Bataille, Michel Leiris, Jacques Lacan, and others who blended aspects of surrealism with radical ideas in sociology, anthropology, and psychology. Begun around 1933 and not published until after Callois's death, The Necessity of the Mind dicsusses, the mind's need- its pulsion and driving determination - to create correspondences and meanings. Untimely, Caillois's subject is perception in the extreme. 

The intimate relationship between sexuality creation, and annihilation inspired Caillois to fasten on the motif of the Mantis, the insect whose female eats the male in the act of mating. Man and instinct, adoration and cannibalism, come together in this highly eccentric exposition of the mind. Illustrated with many unusual plates in color and black and white. 

Published by The Lapis Press, Santa Monica, California, 1990, 7in.  x 10 in. , 160 pages

ISBN: 0932499406