Following John Cussans’ talk on Bataille and Haiti as part of the Strange Attractor Salon talks series, the excellent Bataille-inspired site Documents features an interesting discussion of the book that introduced many popular ideas about Voodoo to the wider world, Willy Seabrook’s The Magic Island.
Georges Bataille’s Surrealist journal Documents published an appreciative article on Seabrook’s ‘The Magic Island’, written by Michel Leiris and Bataille himself. Even if Seabrook’s reputation amongst anthropologists is quite bad (his account of Voodoo is often regarded as crypto-racist), Leiris credited Seabrook with being a “conscientious observer and the first man of the white race initiated into the mysteries of voodoo” and praised him for his “humane attitude” toward his subject.
You can read Seabrook’s book online here, though it requires registration for a free trial.
Meanwhile, Dr John’s talk can be heard here
