Who read it, and by that, I mean, FULLY, not just reading 200 pages and then saying it’s too disgusting for you, weaklings.
Well, I did, interesting book, some might say too graphic, but it does give an outlook on evil that most will never know.
Fuck that, no WAY is he holding that pose for 120 days straight. (/worstpunever)
You know that this pun is getting really freaking old, X.
I only used it once before! ;.;
Come on, it’s been done since Alpha 2 got out! (and I’d like to discuss the book now)
Would you be so kind as to give those who are not familiar with it an overview of the book Iga?
Giving an overview of the book would be going against the rules of the forum, so I will give you a SMALL synopsys.
It’s about four rich guys in renaissance France who are quite smitten with the idea of commiting evil and having sex. They get this idea about reuniting the best things they can do under one single castle with 8 feminine looking guys (yes, you can imagine them as bishounen), 8 cute young girls, 8 guys with long and big schlongs (not even kidding on that), 4 storytellers and their retinues, for a total of 46 people.
The storytellers each, for the duration of 120 days, take 30 days in these 120 to tell stories, each story even more disgusting and sexual than the first, the last one being titled “Hell’s Passion”, and the four rich guys reenact the stories. They have rules and whatnot.
There’s a quote in my sig, it’s by one of the rich guys, and the translation might be screwy.
120 days of sodom eh? Well I love the Venom song, “One Thousand Days Of Sodom”, so I’m intrigued. I’m assuming the book is in French, cause you said you translated it in your sig. Is there an English version of the book? It really does sound interesting.
There should be one, because it was written in the 17th century. Just look up the Marquis de Sade, and voila. He never completed it though.
So it’s unfinished?
Originally posted by MegamanX2K
Well, I’ll give him credit for the effort…
ahem
HAHAHAHAHAHA!:hahaha;
the marquis de sade is the definition of infamy. he was arrested multiple times in his life and eventually died in prison. ive read some of the 120 days of sodom. its gross stuff, and im the most liberal person in the world. if you ever wondered where the word “sadism” comes from, you know now…
also, there are a few sweet related movies, Quills is about the actual man, and Salo is a horrible movie about italian fascists at the end of ww2 who pull the same sort of shit. by horrible i mean not as in a bad movie, but as in a movie where youll probably need to turn your head away and/or cry when you watch it.
I watched Quills, and it freaked me out in an odd way.
I’ve never read any of his work, and I doubt I will - I don’t want my mind to be plunged to a new low, lol.
Originally posted by Igatona
There should be one, because it was written in the 17th century. Just look up the Marquis de Sade, and voila. He never completed it though.
Marquis de Sade lived from 1740 - 1814. That’s the 18th / 19th centuries, not 17th. Just correcting you.
BDSM is a very interesting topic to me, both from an intellectual and a personal perspective. Marquis de Sade was not what most would consider an important historical figure in the community, however. Marquis de Sade was a rapist - what he did to girls, he did without their consent. To me, this invalidates much of what he has to say. No, I have never finished 120 Days of Sodom. Not because I found it too disgusting, but rather too monotonous. He wasn’t the most creative writer ever, not very good with words, and his philosophy is about on par with the matrix.
If you are interested in BDSM, check out the novel “Story of O” by Pauline Reage. It’s a French novel from the mid 1950’s, and though it could probably described as “erotic literature”, it’s probably done the best job of any book at capturing the idea of wilful submission - what makes it so pleasurable to those who both submit and crave submission.
Yessir, I’ll bet you ten to one that the people who banned Harry Potter haven’t even bothered to look at THIS book.
This sounds like an abomination to me, the kind I would reserve for the fireplace.
Wait a minute, this book is FRENCH you say?! GAH! More proof.
readies the nukes
radios Germany “Okay, you can have France now!”
Watches the fireworks
Man, that book didn’t do anything to you.
I cannot stand any of Sade’s books. In a strictly <i>literary</i> sense, they have little to no value. They are extremely monotonous (as Zeppy said), their characters are barely one-dimensional, and they are written in leaden prose. Worse, they’re not even that imaginative. It takes more than a catalogue of disgusting acts to make an imaginative book. “Oh boy, now she’s going to get raped. Oh look, she does. Now they’re going to fuck her in the ass while spewing proto-fascist rhetoric. Oh look, they do.”
As for the outlook on evil, I would say that the evil men depicted in the books don’t have much bearing on reality. It’s hard to consider them as relevant to humanity at all, since none of the characters, victims or tormentors, could ever pass for real people. And the notion that horrible acts and sexual desire are linked practically to the exclusion of anything else seems extremely shallow to me.
I know the book sucks, hell, it was unfinished and I thought it had some lengths. Imagine if he had actually finished the 2nd, 3rd and 4th parts.
I’m not saying that I enjoy Sade’s works (like most people assume when I tell them I’ve read the book and gotten somewhat of an enjoyment in reading it, the same when I tell them I read On The Road and loved it).
I’m not necessarily interested in BDSM, I just wanted to read 120 Days of Sodom.
zepp : Sorry, I meant to say 1700s, my bad.
SK : Literary sense, yes it sucks. Even in the original version, however, just the supposition of evil being the center of sexual pleasures, and that the augmentation of evil brings even more pleasure is a way of thinking that, in the 18th-19th century, is rather interesting to study. However, the biological parts of it were completley wrong for the most part, and that I will oh-so-naturally concede.
In addition, the girls in the first part were whores, except when Duclos tells stories of her childhood, and that’s borderline whoring. In the second part, they were mostly whores. It’s truly in the third and fourth part that there was raping, with the 600th story taking precedence over everything ever written as the “Most repetitive thing ever, yet still managing to be the worst thing ever written in a moral sense”.
In addition, Marquis de Sade had a fascination for big dicks.
As far as proto-fascist rhetoric, I’m surprised that the domination the rich have over the poor (almost the whole BASIS of the book, I would say, that along with the commiting evil acts = orgasm theory). I personally took it as a criticism of the times (where it was true that the rich could do pretty much anything they wanted…he just pushed it to the extreme), just looking at the original Declaration of Human Rights is enough proof of that.
SK, I know very well you’re going to answer to this post with a satirical-slash-ironical comment based on politics of this time and with, of course, no hard feelings nor intent to do harm, but that will end up hurting someone in the end. Instead, I’d just ask you to say I’m wrong, and we’ll leave it at that. It’s unnecessary to keep this discussion going, the almighty SK has spoken!
“Even in the original version, however, just the supposition of evil being the center of sexual pleasures, and that the augmentation of evil brings even more pleasure is a way of thinking that, in the 18th-19th centuries, is rather interesting to study.”
Again, as the sole or primary explanation, it seems shallow (especially in its current form, where some people think that terrorism is derived from some kind of sexual death-drive, but that’s another thing), especially when shown to the exclusion of everything else, since it can’t be applied to historical contexts with much success and it ignores any number of other factors completely.
“As far as proto-fascist rhetoric, I’m surprised that the domination the rich have over the poor (almost the whole BASIS of the book, I would say, that along with the commiting evil acts = orgasm theory). I personally took it as a criticism of the times (where it was true that the rich could do pretty much anything they wanted…he just pushed it to the extreme), just looking at the original Declaration of Human Rights is enough proof of that.”
I suppose that’s possible (“Justine” seems to have that angle to it, as well), but I would say that any social commentary is kind of lost when you have such an extreme that it ceases to resemble whatever it was commenting on, and when it’s delivered so badly. Additionally, since Sade himself appeared to have taken advantage of this rich/poor thing some times, it’s not hugely likely in the first place. The main drive behind the book may be Sade’s frustration and sick fantasies in prison more than anything else.
“It’s unnecessary to keep this discussion going, the almighty SK has spoken!”
You opened a discussion looking for opinions, dude, I gave you one.