[HN Gopher] Joel Warner's "The Curse of the Marquis de Sade"
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Joel Warner's "The Curse of the Marquis de Sade"
Author : samclemens
Score : 26 points
Date : 2023-04-14 02:40 UTC (20 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (lareviewofbooks.org)
(TXT) w3m dump (lareviewofbooks.org)
| fatneckbeard wrote:
| never understand why people are fascinated by this child rapist.
| just like the "dahmer fans".
|
| here is an interesting french person. Sophie Germain. Write an
| article about her. spend money studying her. put a biography of
| her out. put her in your literary magazines. celebrate her. make
| movies about her. she never raped anyone. she helped found number
| theory which you use every time you pick up a phone or a
| computer.
| epups wrote:
| Most famous people from that period are child rapists or worse
| (slavers, serial murderers, etc.). I don't care about Sade but
| this is not a great argument
| marginalia_nu wrote:
| Instead of putting down what others are creating, how about you
| submit a creation of your own that is more to your liking?
| eternalban wrote:
| OP was asking why de Sade is promoted so heavily. From a
| philosophical point of view he is _a non-entity_ , from an
| erotica point of view he is _dime a dozen_ , but it is true
| that as far as how low can the beastly nature of man get, he
| has 'contributed' to literature.
|
| OP's question is also my question. Why is this vile little
| man being promoted so much? After all, his entire existence
| and works are simply a declaration that humanity and nature
| are really just _playthings for pleasure and settling scores
| with an abhored nature_ for a people like the Marquis. I can
| see how that sort of 'philosophy' would carry weight in some
| influential quarters.
| narag wrote:
| _OP was asking why de Sade is promoted so heavily._
|
| "Promoted" or "fascinated" are the wrong words. Sade is a
| classic and that's not because he was a nice guy. The same
| happens with many other famous authors. Fame is not a prize
| for being virtuous. It's what he wrote, not what he was.
|
| If you want to censor his books, you're not punishing him,
| the man has been dead for a long time, he doesn't care.
| You're punishing all potential readers.
| eternalban wrote:
| I said nothing about censorship. I read it and strongly
| suggest anyone who runs into the de Sade promotion parade
| to actually read his output. Pick any book. [Not just the
| naughty bits! Read the 'philosophical' interludes so as
| to not miss the wisdom of this 'fascinating' man.]
|
| No. Not fascinated, heavily promoted:
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marquis_de_Sade_in_popular_
| cul...
| [deleted]
| cafard wrote:
| Once at Borders, I was interested to see a small sign in
| the D area of fiction, informing customers that de Sade was
| shelved under S. I assumed that they didn't have a sign in
| the Vs for Goethe.
| distant_hat wrote:
| A simple answer is that people are fascinated by the
| grotesque whereas wholesome stuff is just blah. 50 Shades
| of Grey is an perfectly mediocre novel, but will sell many
| tens of multiples of critically acclaimed books.
| eternalban wrote:
| Sure, but this stuff is pushed from on high not down
| below. Sade is promoted and held up as something (not
| sure precisely what) important.
|
| So the simple rebut is that the pseudo intellectual
| classes always poo poo what appeals to the common man.
| But they love this stuff, and, the common people do not
| like it. That's really the only thing that is interesting
| about de Sade and his fan club: _the curious inversion_.
|
| & p.s. my personal sense is that de Sade legitimizes
| oppression as _natural pleasure_ and that's what makes
| him the court philosopher of the modern elite.
| cubefox wrote:
| When I read "the modern elite" ... like who? Elon Musk?
| Joe Biden? NYT journalists?
| eternalban wrote:
| > elon musk
|
| that's funny in a sad way. no, the post-enlightenment
| post-rationalist elite, the 'modern age'.
| Centigonal wrote:
| I mean, this does exist:
| https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/214636339474345984
|
| And this: https://groups.google.com/g/comp.sys.ibm.pc.har
| dware.misc/c/...
|
| Safe to say Elon has some affinity for De Sade.
| [deleted]
| ggm wrote:
| Really? its about cultural appropriation, UNESCO treaties and
| Switzerland, and the securitisation of investment in documents
| and stamps with a dash of tax, ponzi more than the effect "Sade"
| has on any story. I don't think very many prior owners felt it
| was "cursed" -They just disputed the means of owning it, and who
| had better claim. Value wise, it certainly went up (until the
| Ponzi scheme value went bananas)
|
| There's not a perversion in sight, except the financial. He wrote
| it on a roll like Kerouac. That was new to me (Kerouac had a
| typewriter. De Sade had a pot of glue. I hope it was glue. Maybe
| he made do with what was to hand...)
|
| The same curse can be said to vest in almost any literary work
| which has gone missing in action. It's why "the Hitler Diaries"
| happened: the value to some of the goods as handled is
| inestimable. People still say the Mona Lisa returned after theft
| is a fake and some Mafia lord has the real one in a safe, to
| gloat over. Perhaps that's why "glass onion" had it?
|
| "Possession" by A.S.Byatt is a fictionalisation of the problem.
| Beautifully written.
|
| If you were a soi-disant author, man of letters, handy with a
| whip, and about to be consumed by the wreckage of your prison ..
| wouldn't you grab that roll of bog-paper you'd been writing on?
| Apparently not. Maybe he was saner than people think?
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(page generated 2023-04-14 23:01 UTC)