[my friend S. sent me an e-mail asserting that the marquis de sade's writings were not actually misogynistic nor did they depict women in an abusive light. needless to say, i contested this assertion with the following response. yes, i definitely went easy on him.]
S., i am intimately familiar with the marquis de sade's writings and his life. i am glad your interest in sadism as a philosophy is based on a foundation of the man's actual work - i had hoped this would be so. it makes our conversation all that much more interesting. while the practice of bdsm is quite delightful (i enjoy partaking in sex oriented masochism quite often), i must say that a familiarity with the man's life, work and philosophy are truly essential to time spent in pursuit of s&m fetish play.
in his writings, sade does portray women to be free of consequence to an extent, however, he is far less interested in them (as in the all-too-brief story of juliette) as he is in immersing himself in the luxuries of punishing the women who go against his credo of utter moral depravity and anti-socialism (as in the epic horror/fantasy of justine, 120 of sodom, et al).
i see his philosophy as largely reactionary. when you look at what he really offers in terms of a complex organism of thought, unfortunately, it isn't much more than life in "opposite land," where one merely says and does everything the church tells you not to. original and groundbreaking? eh, so-so. rebellion against organized religion
(christian and pre-) has existed since the institutions themselves. the sociopath had not only been documented but already glorified for centuries. and people had written about their personal exploits and sadistic fantasies in a fictional setting before - though perhaps not so detailed...but then again, there *is* the bible itself - lotsa glorified sadism there, and in a highly fantastical environment too!
was his work compelling? at first, but when you really start pouring over it, it isn't the most creatively written, even his fantasies are very narrow in scope, as most fetishists are. they're rigid as opposed to open and malleable, which translates into one dimensional work. it's legitimate literature, fer sure. and compliments the time he was living in very well (in fact, the timing of his life and work are critical factors in his success, I feel), but in the end, i came to believe his work's place in literary history was secured more for its novelty and simple, yet delicious declaration of pain=sexual pleasure (which is part of who we are as human beings) than for containing any elements of great sophisticated writing.
© 2009 Copyright by Paola Lopez
S., i am intimately familiar with the marquis de sade's writings and his life. i am glad your interest in sadism as a philosophy is based on a foundation of the man's actual work - i had hoped this would be so. it makes our conversation all that much more interesting. while the practice of bdsm is quite delightful (i enjoy partaking in sex oriented masochism quite often), i must say that a familiarity with the man's life, work and philosophy are truly essential to time spent in pursuit of s&m fetish play.
in his writings, sade does portray women to be free of consequence to an extent, however, he is far less interested in them (as in the all-too-brief story of juliette) as he is in immersing himself in the luxuries of punishing the women who go against his credo of utter moral depravity and anti-socialism (as in the epic horror/fantasy of justine, 120 of sodom, et al).
i see his philosophy as largely reactionary. when you look at what he really offers in terms of a complex organism of thought, unfortunately, it isn't much more than life in "opposite land," where one merely says and does everything the church tells you not to. original and groundbreaking? eh, so-so. rebellion against organized religion
(christian and pre-) has existed since the institutions themselves. the sociopath had not only been documented but already glorified for centuries. and people had written about their personal exploits and sadistic fantasies in a fictional setting before - though perhaps not so detailed...but then again, there *is* the bible itself - lotsa glorified sadism there, and in a highly fantastical environment too!
was his work compelling? at first, but when you really start pouring over it, it isn't the most creatively written, even his fantasies are very narrow in scope, as most fetishists are. they're rigid as opposed to open and malleable, which translates into one dimensional work. it's legitimate literature, fer sure. and compliments the time he was living in very well (in fact, the timing of his life and work are critical factors in his success, I feel), but in the end, i came to believe his work's place in literary history was secured more for its novelty and simple, yet delicious declaration of pain=sexual pleasure (which is part of who we are as human beings) than for containing any elements of great sophisticated writing.
© 2009 Copyright by Paola Lopez
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