The Solar Anus

The Solar Anus (L'anus solaire) is a short surrealist text by the French writer Georges Bataille, written in 1927 and published with drawings by André Masson in 1931.

Albeit elliptically, its aphorisms refer to decay, death, vegetation, natural disasters, impotence, frustration, ennui and excrement. It makes ironic reference to the sun, which, although it brings life to the Earth, can also result in death from its unrestrained energies. Moreover, the anus may be seen as a symbol of the inevitability of residual waste due to its role in excretion.