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2.61 AVERAGE
2.61 AVERAGE
So, I wrote this upon finishing this book: "Ummmm. Give me a while to pull some thoughts together. This was definitely a book. I will not be rating it."
That was mid-October. I don't think I've managed to pull those thoughts together. I don't think I ever will. I mean, I read some reviews going in to this book, but even the ones that were explicit about the contents didn't prepare me.
I picked this book up because of the Read Harder Challenge. One of the challenges was to read a book that was written in prison. And sure, I could have picked any one of a bunch of different potential books. But I chose this one for two reasons: 1) The manuscript was lost for decades after the storming of the Bastille, devastating de Sade that he would never get to finish his "masterpiece," and there seemed a sort of historical romanticism to the book because of that; and 2) My curiosity monster got the better of me. Why read any number of normal books when instead you can read one of the most famously perverse books ever written?
Before I get into what I will loosely call "the plot," I do want to talk a bit about the historical context, which I find fascinating. The introduction to this book was in many ways much more interesting than the book itself.
The Marquise de Sade is one of the most famous Libertines, a philosophical "movement" (for want of a more accurate term) wherein the adherents did not subscribe to any social morality whatsoever. Instead, they devoted themselves to the pursuit of pleasure, which was to them their highest calling and the only thing that mattered. de Sade actually spent most of his life imprisoned (or hiding from imprisonment) due to the various pleasurable acts he committed, which ranged from the harmless but morally sanctioned (same-sex sexual relations, threesomes, orgies, "sodomy," and what we would term kink today, i.e. watersports or bondage) to proclivities that harmed others and that were (and are) justifiably illegal (rape, kidnapping, sexual acts with minors, the giving of pain without consent). He was also later imprisoned for his prolific and shameless writings on the same subjects. In my opinion, as a man he was a selfish, privileged shithead, but as a historical figure, just for his sheer boldness and lack of shame in pushing back against the restrictive norms of his time, I do sort of kind of have a strange affection for the guy. The thing that's important to remember about de Sade is that he drew no moral distinction between any of the acts I've listed above. To him, they were all the same, in that they were capable of giving him pleasure, and even imprisonment wasn't enough deterrent to keep him from seeking that pleasure.
*It's worth noting, though, that even though the term sadism derived from de Sade, BDSM today is a very different beast. de Sade himself never would have agreed to a culture where safe, sane and consensual were the expected norms, so the thing he inspired has grown beyond him. Whether or not the person acts were being performed upon had agreed to them did not seem to matter to him, and in fact, their lack of consent seems to have been a turn-on for him, if the text of this book is anything to go by.
Trigger warning for pretty much everything:
So now, "the plot." de Sade called this his masterpiece, because it is essentially an escalating documentation of the depths of his sexual fantasies. There are four men who are the main characters, and they are all pretty old and gross and perverted. (I could never decide while reading if this was de Sade's attempt to distance himself from their depravities.) They come up with an idea to have the ultimate Libertine vacation (essentially). They will find the eight most beautiful and pure young girls, and the eight most beautiful and pure young boys, and get them one way or another (voluntarily, through kidnapping, bribing or slavery) to this old castle, where they will set up for themselves a months-long sexual experience. They hire old, ugly nannies, and wizened prostitutes to augment this experience. They are systematic about it all, and there is an extensive section of the book devoted to that planning, where all the men relish in the idea of the forthcoming pleasurefest. They structure it so that their days will be spent in various types of pleasure, and the nights will culminate in the prostitutes telling stories of their exploits, which all become increasingly deviant. They document and plan for the deflowering of each child, and each child's specific orifice. They also all bring along their adolescent daughters, whom they all take turns having sex with (oh yes, did I mention the incest?). At any point, acts of depravity may also bust out.
At first, before the "pleasures" really escalated, I was morbidly fascinated by the book. But the longer it went on, it became clear that even as a piece of erotica it was very flawed. When something is designed like this, solely to titillate, you become numb to it after a while. The worse things got for these poor kids, the more numb to it I became, and my fascination towards the end turned to disgust. I assume this is probably also a problem with actually being a Libertine. If all you are seeking is pleasure, nothing real or concrete or genuine to back it up, you're going to need to escalate your behaviors. The same things won't you give that pleasure burst anymore, and like the men in this book, you'll end up resorting to true depravity. There is no proof that de Sade himself ever actually committed a lot of the acts in this book (which get very, very extreme; when the men become bored of plain old sodomy, they start in with what is just actual torture and eventually, murder). Some scholars see this as a purely fantastical creation, and claim that de Sade was exercising the bounds of his literal fantasies, but I say if this is the stuff that got him going, it's probably a good thing that he was stuck in the Bastille most of the time.
I do not ever want to revisit this book again, but I may do more reading on de Sade himself, or in some of the scholarly writings that have come from intellectual thinkers grappling with this text (it has incredibly been used by sexologists like Masters and Johnson, and people interested in kink as an educational tool, and seems to have been very influential).
All this to say, I do not really recommend reading this book unless you are prepared to live with the images you'll then have in your brain until someone finally invents brain bleach.
Read Harder Challenge 2019: A book written in prison.
That was mid-October. I don't think I've managed to pull those thoughts together. I don't think I ever will. I mean, I read some reviews going in to this book, but even the ones that were explicit about the contents didn't prepare me.
I picked this book up because of the Read Harder Challenge. One of the challenges was to read a book that was written in prison. And sure, I could have picked any one of a bunch of different potential books. But I chose this one for two reasons: 1) The manuscript was lost for decades after the storming of the Bastille, devastating de Sade that he would never get to finish his "masterpiece," and there seemed a sort of historical romanticism to the book because of that; and 2) My curiosity monster got the better of me. Why read any number of normal books when instead you can read one of the most famously perverse books ever written?
Before I get into what I will loosely call "the plot," I do want to talk a bit about the historical context, which I find fascinating. The introduction to this book was in many ways much more interesting than the book itself.
The Marquise de Sade is one of the most famous Libertines, a philosophical "movement" (for want of a more accurate term) wherein the adherents did not subscribe to any social morality whatsoever. Instead, they devoted themselves to the pursuit of pleasure, which was to them their highest calling and the only thing that mattered. de Sade actually spent most of his life imprisoned (or hiding from imprisonment) due to the various pleasurable acts he committed, which ranged from the harmless but morally sanctioned (same-sex sexual relations, threesomes, orgies, "sodomy," and what we would term kink today, i.e. watersports or bondage) to proclivities that harmed others and that were (and are) justifiably illegal (rape, kidnapping, sexual acts with minors, the giving of pain without consent). He was also later imprisoned for his prolific and shameless writings on the same subjects. In my opinion, as a man he was a selfish, privileged shithead, but as a historical figure, just for his sheer boldness and lack of shame in pushing back against the restrictive norms of his time, I do sort of kind of have a strange affection for the guy. The thing that's important to remember about de Sade is that he drew no moral distinction between any of the acts I've listed above. To him, they were all the same, in that they were capable of giving him pleasure, and even imprisonment wasn't enough deterrent to keep him from seeking that pleasure.
*It's worth noting, though, that even though the term sadism derived from de Sade, BDSM today is a very different beast. de Sade himself never would have agreed to a culture where safe, sane and consensual were the expected norms, so the thing he inspired has grown beyond him. Whether or not the person acts were being performed upon had agreed to them did not seem to matter to him, and in fact, their lack of consent seems to have been a turn-on for him, if the text of this book is anything to go by.
Trigger warning for pretty much everything:
So now, "the plot." de Sade called this his masterpiece, because it is essentially an escalating documentation of the depths of his sexual fantasies. There are four men who are the main characters, and they are all pretty old and gross and perverted. (I could never decide while reading if this was de Sade's attempt to distance himself from their depravities.) They come up with an idea to have the ultimate Libertine vacation (essentially). They will find the eight most beautiful and pure young girls, and the eight most beautiful and pure young boys, and get them one way or another (voluntarily, through kidnapping, bribing or slavery) to this old castle, where they will set up for themselves a months-long sexual experience. They hire old, ugly nannies, and wizened prostitutes to augment this experience. They are systematic about it all, and there is an extensive section of the book devoted to that planning, where all the men relish in the idea of the forthcoming pleasurefest. They structure it so that their days will be spent in various types of pleasure, and the nights will culminate in the prostitutes telling stories of their exploits, which all become increasingly deviant. They document and plan for the deflowering of each child, and each child's specific orifice. They also all bring along their adolescent daughters, whom they all take turns having sex with (oh yes, did I mention the incest?). At any point, acts of depravity may also bust out.
At first, before the "pleasures" really escalated, I was morbidly fascinated by the book. But the longer it went on, it became clear that even as a piece of erotica it was very flawed. When something is designed like this, solely to titillate, you become numb to it after a while. The worse things got for these poor kids, the more numb to it I became, and my fascination towards the end turned to disgust. I assume this is probably also a problem with actually being a Libertine. If all you are seeking is pleasure, nothing real or concrete or genuine to back it up, you're going to need to escalate your behaviors. The same things won't you give that pleasure burst anymore, and like the men in this book, you'll end up resorting to true depravity. There is no proof that de Sade himself ever actually committed a lot of the acts in this book (which get very, very extreme; when the men become bored of plain old sodomy, they start in with what is just actual torture and eventually, murder). Some scholars see this as a purely fantastical creation, and claim that de Sade was exercising the bounds of his literal fantasies, but I say if this is the stuff that got him going, it's probably a good thing that he was stuck in the Bastille most of the time.
I do not ever want to revisit this book again, but I may do more reading on de Sade himself, or in some of the scholarly writings that have come from intellectual thinkers grappling with this text (it has incredibly been used by sexologists like Masters and Johnson, and people interested in kink as an educational tool, and seems to have been very influential).
All this to say, I do not really recommend reading this book unless you are prepared to live with the images you'll then have in your brain until someone finally invents brain bleach.
Read Harder Challenge 2019: A book written in prison.
challenging
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Qué triste es te libro, es impensable el grado al que puede llegar la maldad humana
Tomando en cuenta que lo escribió estando en La Bastilla... Poco rescatable de lo que suele atraer de sus escritos.
I couldn't endure the scale of intimately described abuses. I think this book may contain a darkly framed critique of humanity and aristocracy, but engaging with the themes warrants stopping.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body shaming, Child abuse, Child death, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Murder
We should reconsider what we are truly saying when labeling something "sadistic". There is plenty of cruel brutality, even that which others derive joy from yet still falls meaningfully short of Sade's 120 days of Sodom.
dark
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I DNF’d this last time I tried to read it. But I just couldn’t read this. If I think it’s too dark it’s really fucked up
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Blood, Cannibalism, Cultural appropriation, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, Classism
If you have any content sensitivities avoid this
девушка в тиктоке,которая поставила эту книгу на первое место в "топ 10 самых морально тяжелых книг" и не уточнила, какой именно пзд тут происходит - буду проклинать тебя еще долго.
Мне все-равно на подтекст, который кто-то каким-то чудесным образом тут нашел. Просто сборник плохо написаных сексуальных зарисовок, где они жрут дерьмо друг друга и занимаются всякими извращениями. Ну и какой-то конспект в конце, где кто-то мечтает изнасиловать 3-хлетнюю девочку.
Читать можно разве что по-приколу.
Мне все-равно на подтекст, который кто-то каким-то чудесным образом тут нашел. Просто сборник плохо написаных сексуальных зарисовок, где они жрут дерьмо друг друга и занимаются всякими извращениями. Ну и какой-то конспект в конце, где кто-то мечтает изнасиловать 3-хлетнюю девочку.
Читать можно разве что по-приколу.
she who shitted, whips; she who sucked, shits; she who whipped, sucks.
He likes to whip [...] and always finds a pretext so as to make it appear as if he were punishing them.
He likes to whip [...] and always finds a pretext so as to make it appear as if he were punishing them.
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Un texto el cual leí en conjunto a un grupo de lectura hace unos buenos años atrás, me originó un gran asombro lo escrito allí, pero más asombro unido a esta lectura, fue la película Salò o le 120 giornate di Sodoma una película de 1975 del poeta, ensayista, escritor y director de cine italiano Pier Paolo Pasolini, basada en dicho libro, fue toda una explosión ver a donde puede llegar la depravada imaginación de un hombre, donde se mezclan todas las aberraciones, donde tus sentidos, si es que te queda alguno, te hace cuestionar, y eso es el hombre, ese ser revestido de dos caras. Un escrito muy pornográfico, pero más allá de pornográfica, muy sádico, claro palabra en su honor. En Los 120 días de Sodoma, cuatro libertinos se involucran en las peores orgías con cuarenta y dos víctimas sometidas. Compuesto en cuatro partes - las pasiones simple, doble, criminal y asesina - la historia está incompleta. Solo la primera parte está completa, las demás son solo planos detallados
Encarcelado en varias ocasiones, el escritor Donatien Alphonse François de Sade acumula más de 26 años de prisión. Durante su estancia en la Bastilla en 1785, se propuso volver a copiar con letra minúscula, Los 120 días de Sodoma o la escuela del libertinaje en 33 páginas a doble cara que reunidas de punta a punta formarán un rollo de 11,2 cm x 12 metros de largo. El texto se guardará en un estuche de cuero que mantendrá escondido entre las piedras de su celda. Pero el 3 y 4 de julio de 1789, la Revolución estaba en marcha. Fue trasladado a Charenton sin haber podido llevarse su precioso manuscrito. Luego piensa que definitivamente está perdido. Arnoux de Saint-Maximin lo encontró y lo cobró con la familia del marqués de Villeneuve-Trans, pariente de los Sades que lo conservó durante tres generaciones. Se venderá a finales del siglo XIX a Iwan Bloch, un psiquiatra de Berlín que publicará una primera versión de la novela con el nombre de Eugène Duhren. La familia de Noailles volverá a comprar el manuscrito y Maurice Heine (1931-1935) publicará una edición limitada en suscripción. En 1948, Jean-Jacques Pauvert se embarcó en una publicación clandestina de Ciento veinte días ... seguida en 1952 por un proyecto para comercializar las obras completas del Marqués, pero la censura lo alcanzó en 1956 ...
Es un libro para leer una sola vez, así como ver la película, pues al leerlo por primera vez queda tan marcado, que te es común recordar episodios, aborrece las obscenidades cometidas por estos cuatros libertinos: el Presidente, el Duque, el Obispo y el Magistrado, de clase social alta que con mucho dinero y poder, en el Chateau de Silling llevan a cabo toda clase de perversiones. Un libro que transita lo atractivo y repugnante a la vez por sus implacables métodos rituales que se llevan a cabo en la escuela de libertinaje, que incluye la sodomización o los crímenes en medio de un acto sexual. Deciden reunir a los 8 chicos más apuestos de Francia y a las ocho chicas más hermosas; también a ocho de los hombres mejor “dotados”, a cuatro “viejas” que servirán para diferentes tareas, a las cuatro esposas de los libertinos y a cuatro prostitutas que se encargarán de contar historias a lo largo de un mes cada una.
Más allá del buen estomago que hay que tener, no olvidemos el trasfondo del texto, y también de la película, qué vino a representar sus personajes en la sociedad de aquel entonces, una introspección de la condición humana sobre nuestro actual frente a una situación así.
Encarcelado en varias ocasiones, el escritor Donatien Alphonse François de Sade acumula más de 26 años de prisión. Durante su estancia en la Bastilla en 1785, se propuso volver a copiar con letra minúscula, Los 120 días de Sodoma o la escuela del libertinaje en 33 páginas a doble cara que reunidas de punta a punta formarán un rollo de 11,2 cm x 12 metros de largo. El texto se guardará en un estuche de cuero que mantendrá escondido entre las piedras de su celda. Pero el 3 y 4 de julio de 1789, la Revolución estaba en marcha. Fue trasladado a Charenton sin haber podido llevarse su precioso manuscrito. Luego piensa que definitivamente está perdido. Arnoux de Saint-Maximin lo encontró y lo cobró con la familia del marqués de Villeneuve-Trans, pariente de los Sades que lo conservó durante tres generaciones. Se venderá a finales del siglo XIX a Iwan Bloch, un psiquiatra de Berlín que publicará una primera versión de la novela con el nombre de Eugène Duhren. La familia de Noailles volverá a comprar el manuscrito y Maurice Heine (1931-1935) publicará una edición limitada en suscripción. En 1948, Jean-Jacques Pauvert se embarcó en una publicación clandestina de Ciento veinte días ... seguida en 1952 por un proyecto para comercializar las obras completas del Marqués, pero la censura lo alcanzó en 1956 ...
Es un libro para leer una sola vez, así como ver la película, pues al leerlo por primera vez queda tan marcado, que te es común recordar episodios, aborrece las obscenidades cometidas por estos cuatros libertinos: el Presidente, el Duque, el Obispo y el Magistrado, de clase social alta que con mucho dinero y poder, en el Chateau de Silling llevan a cabo toda clase de perversiones. Un libro que transita lo atractivo y repugnante a la vez por sus implacables métodos rituales que se llevan a cabo en la escuela de libertinaje, que incluye la sodomización o los crímenes en medio de un acto sexual. Deciden reunir a los 8 chicos más apuestos de Francia y a las ocho chicas más hermosas; también a ocho de los hombres mejor “dotados”, a cuatro “viejas” que servirán para diferentes tareas, a las cuatro esposas de los libertinos y a cuatro prostitutas que se encargarán de contar historias a lo largo de un mes cada una.
Más allá del buen estomago que hay que tener, no olvidemos el trasfondo del texto, y también de la película, qué vino a representar sus personajes en la sociedad de aquel entonces, una introspección de la condición humana sobre nuestro actual frente a una situación así.