The Marquis De Sade

[muskrat]

Should you read him? Probably not, and I'll tell you why in a minute (not watcha think).

I've got him on the shelf, two big telephone-book thick compilations, Justine, Juliette, that junk. Why? C'mon, once one gets this deep in a horror library, the tendency is too push it as far as you can--man, I've got Monk Lewis on that damn shelf. Not just horror, but any kinda far out insane tome I can find. But sometimes I wanna take those De Sade's and lock em in a box--it is, indeed, terrible, evil sh*t. The insane ramblings of incarcerated madman, his rants against God and humanity, his rage and pure, distilled madness...like having Hannibal Lecter's personal journals on the shelf. Most of its too embarrassingly disgusting for words--think of the worst things you can imagine and yer still NO WHERE near it.

But worse than this, I must insist, is how damn boring the stuff is. Repetitive, boring, formulated drivel--make no mistake, in the end they read as what they are, religious tomes (anti-bibles, you would say), and all of it boils down to this over repeated formula: philosophy, positioning (yeah, that kind), bloody orgy. Philosophy, positioning, orgy (ultimately resulting in some horrible death, or deaths). The philosophy is the worst--pages upon pages of rationing an evil design. Then the tortures and sexual stuff is almost glossed over, told in rapid fire set-up and performance, then back to philosophy (yawn) for another forty pages, of how nature is our true ruler and one should always do exactly as one desires, blah de blah blah...

My dear Marquis, I would ask, which of natures creatures ( except maybe for cats) delight in torturing others? Then I'd call him out for the hack that he was and send em to the headsman. How THAT cat missed the guillotine I'll never know.

Just BORING, man. Bah.

 

[blunthead]

Should you read him? Probably not, and I'll tell you why in a minute (not watcha think).

I've got him on the shelf, two big telephone-book thick compilations, Justine, Juliette, that junk. Why? C'mon, once one gets this deep in a horror library, the tendency is too push it as far as you can--man, I've got Monk Lewis on that damn shelf. Not just horror, but any kinda far out insane tome I can find. But sometimes I wanna take those De Sade's and lock em in a box--it is, indeed, terrible, evil sh*t. The insane ramblings of incarcerated madman, his rants against God and humanity, his rage and pure, distilled madness...like having Hannibal Lecter's personal journals on the shelf. Most of its too embarrassingly disgusting for words--think of the worst things you can imagine and yer still NO WHERE near it.

But worse than this, I must insist, is how damn boring the stuff is. Repetitive, boring, formulated drivel--make no mistake, in the end they read as what they are, religious tomes (anti-bibles, you would say), and all of it boils down to this over repeated formula: philosophy, positioning (yeah, that kind), bloody orgy. Philosophy, positioning, orgy (ultimately resulting in some horrible death, or deaths). The philosophy is the worst--pages upon pages of rationing an evil design. Then the tortures and sexual stuff is almost glossed over, told in rapid fire set-up and performance, then back to philosophy (yawn) for another forty pages, of how nature is our true ruler and one should always do exactly as one desires, blah de blah blah...

My dear Marquis, I would ask, which of natures creatures ( except maybe for cats) delight in torturing others? Then I'd call him out for the hack that he was and send em to the headsman. How THAT cat missed the guillotine I'll never know.

Just BORING, man. Bah.

I appreciate the warning. Are his writings considered classics somehow?

 

[muskrat]

I appreciate the warning. Are his writings considered classics somehow?

In certain circles, yeah. There's cats that'll tell you he was a genius, a prophet, all that crap--and these are respected literary figures. I just get bored. I dig all the biographic essays and journal entries most of all, all that French Revolution jazz. The philosophy puts me to sleep, and the sleaze is just revolting (cat had a poop fetish, lemme warn ye).

No, folks, you don't wanna, trust me. As for the philosophy, Nietzsche said pretty much the same crap, but without all the disgusting sleaze.

Gee, this is great breakfast discussion, Muskie...

 

[blunthead]

In certain circles, yeah. There's cats that'll tell you he was a genius, a prophet, all that crap--and these are respected literary figures. I just get bored. I dig all the biographic essays and journal entries most of all, all that French Revolution jazz. The philosophy puts me to sleep, and the sleaze is just revolting (cat had a poop fetish, lemme warn ye).

No, folks, you don't wanna, trust me. As for the philosophy, Nietzsche said pretty much the same crap, but without all the disgusting sleaze.

Gee, this is great breakfast discussion, Muskie...

Poop is the latest in literary circles. I remember when it used to be another kind of circle.

 

[GNTLGNT]

 

[Kurben]

In certain circles, yeah. There's cats that'll tell you he was a genius, a prophet, all that crap--and these are respected literary figures. I just get bored. I dig all the biographic essays and journal entries most of all, all that French Revolution jazz. The philosophy puts me to sleep, and the sleaze is just revolting (cat had a poop fetish, lemme warn ye).

No, folks, you don't wanna, trust me. As for the philosophy, Nietzsche said pretty much the same crap, but without all the disgusting sleaze.

Gee, this is great breakfast discussion, Muskie...

Well, there is a reason they named sadism after him. If you want to study the history of that subject he might be interesting, otherwise not.

 

[HollyGolightly]

I've read some stuff from The Oyster volumes. It's been a very long time ago since I read those erotica underground volumes - I don't remember anything about a poop fetish, but I'm sure what I read was very edited - being Victorian underground and all.

I did see the movie Quills, and learned a little more about him. I didn't know the history when I read the stories, but it certainly made more sense after that. I did not know he wrote horror and torture and insane philosophy, and I don't think I'd like to read it. I scare easily. Lock them up I say.


Fifty Shades of Grey - pfft - for novices, I say. Find yerself some hardcore Best America Erotica, or maybe read some Bret Easton Ellis if that's your thing. Or Penthouse forum.

 

[muskrat]

I've read some stuff from The Oyster volumes. It's been a very long time ago since I read those erotica underground volumes - I don't remember anything about a poop fetish, but I'm sure what I read was very edited - being Victorian underground and all.

I did see the movie Quills, and learned a little more about him. I didn't know the history when I read the stories, but it certainly made more sense after that. I did not know he wrote horror and torture and insane philosophy, and I don't think I'd like to read it. I scare easily. Lock them up I say.


Fifty Shades of Grey - pfft - for novices, I say. Find yerself some hardcore Best America Erotica, or maybe read some Bret Easton Ellis if that's your thing. Or Penthouse forum.

Quills is a good movie, gotta love Geoffery Rush, but it's a buncha malarkey. Glaring factual inaccuracies abound, especially the end--but it was based on a play, I guess, and wasn't intended as a bio flick (whatever). Instead it's just another attempt to spit shine the Marquis, and portray him as a sort of anti-hero. Bah, he was a fiend.

 

[Kurben]

Quills is a good movie, gotta love Geoffery Rush, but it's a buncha malarkey. Glaring factual inaccuracies abound, especially the end--but it was based on a play, I guess, and wasn't intended as a bio flick (whatever). Instead it's just another attempt to spit shine the Marquis, and portray him as a sort of anti-hero. Bah, he was a fiend.

It has been made several tries to paint him in a better light during the years. He spent 30+ of his living years in prison and probably for a reason. He was freed when the revolution took place in France and even won a seat in an assembly but was soon back in prison. Wrote a an appreciated eulogy over Marat, the french revolution leader that was murdered in his bathtub by Charlotte Corday, but his political views was extreme. An extreme libertin i guess you could call him. He was under the opinion that freedom should have no restraints, not from any morality, not from a a religious point of looking at things and certainly not from laws. He was fascinated by violence in combination with sex and had a relationship, sexual of course, with a 14-year old. This libertin streak in him is the main reason some have tried to raise him as a forerunner to later views but i agree that he was a fiend and belonged behind bars. Ended his days in an insane asylum during Napoleons reign i believe.

 

[muskrat]

I'm of the opinion a part of him preferred incarceration. He had hard times in the Bastille (and gave em a hard time), but at Clarendon (think that's the name of the insane asylum) he had it pretty good, if ye ask me. When they'd let him write, that is; he had everything he needed, even had a lady friend who stayed there with him for awhile. During his last flings with freedom he was reduced to extreme poverty, but at the nut house he had a room, books, paper and quills (when he was a good boy)--died old and fat.

The circumstances as to why he was locked up for so long have never been fully explained. In an age when heads rolled for the simplest of reasons, how did he keep his? As Hannibal Lecter said, "either kill me, or put me to some use..."

 

[HollyGolightly]

Sounds like he might have been the first torture porn writer - no thanks. Geoffrey Rush made me feel sympathetic toward him - had me going until y'all enlightened me. I didn't realize he was so despicable.