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artist. For art to be possible at all-that is to say,
in order that an aesthetic mode of action and of
observation may exist, a certain preliminary physiological
state is indispensable: ecsta.ry, This state
of ecstasy must first have intensified the susceptibility
of the whole machine: otherwise, no art is
possible. All kinds of ecstasy, however differendy
produced, have this power to create art, and
above all the state dependent upon sexual excitement-
this most venerable and primitive form of
ecstasy. The same applies to that ecstasy which is
the outcome of all great desires, all strong passions;
the ecstasy of the feast, of the arena, of the
act of bravery ofvictory of all extreme action; the
ecstasy of cruelty; the ecstasy of destruction; the