120 Days of Sodom

[Anonymous No.10775398]

Best translation for this? I was going to write about it for one of 100 level history courses.

[Anonymous No.10775660]

french isn't a language in which you need to worry about translation

[Anonymous No.10775820]

Probably the translation I'm making.

[Anonymous No.10775828]

>>10775398
>reading smut because its old smut

Literally, its about of the level of Sasha Grey's book. Sex-positive types aren't capable of profound thought.

[Anonymous No.10775941]

>>10775828
This has to be trolling. De Sade was a brilliant philosopher.

[Anonymous No.10775946]

>>10775941
This has to be trolling. He wasn't.

[Anonymous No.10775950]

>>10775946
No. He was.

[Anonymous No.10775960]

>>10775950
proof? Give us an aphorism dear. Let us rejoice in the wisdom of a dissipated libertine edgelord.

[Anonymous No.10775964]

>>10775960
“However, society is only composed of weak persons and strong; well, if the pact must perforce displease both weak and strong, there is great cause to suppose it will fail to suit society, and the previously existing state of warfare must appear infinitely preferable, since it permitted everyone the free exercise of his strength and his industry, whereof he would discover himself deprived by a society's unjust pact which takes too much from the one and never accords enough to the other; hence, the truly intelligent person is he who, indifferent to the risk of renewing the state of war that reigned prior to the contract, lashes out in irrevocable violation of that contract, violates it as much and often as he is able, full certain that what he will gain from these ruptures will always be more important than what he will lose if he happens to be a member of the weaker class; for such he was when he respected the treaty; by breaking it he may become one of the stronger; and if the laws return him to the class whence he wished to emerge, the worst that can befall him is the loss of his life, which is a misfortune infinitely less great than that of existing in opprobrium and wretchedness.
There are then two positions available to us: either crime, which renders us happy, or the noose, which prevents us from being unhappy. I ask whether there can be any hesitation, lovely Therese, and where will your little mind find an argument able to combat that one?”

[Anonymous No.10775969]

de Sade's early versions of Justine (The Misfortunes of Virtue) and his short fiction are a better introduction than Sodom. Yeah, Sodom has the novelty aspect, but its a deliberate exercise in pure forbidden indulgence. People looking for more measured literary and philosophical talent in Sade get put off by it. Unfairly, I think. He wrote it in prison for himself you fucks

[Anonymous No.10776010]

>>10775969
Sounds about right. I'm this guy:

>>10775950
>>10775964

and I've actually only read the intro to 120 Days. I've only read Justine and now in the middle of Juliette.

But as far as those books go, for every one paragraph of pornography or violence, the author goes off on a philosophical rant about morality/nature/society/religion.etc. for another five.

If 120 Days is just the smut turned up to 11 minus the philosophy, that still sounds good, honestly, but anyone who doesn't think the guy was damned brilliant had better read the two aforementioned.

[Anonymous No.10776031]

>>10775964
lol that's so retarded, he's thinking in a dichotomy and if he wasn't locked up he would have murdered whores like the psychopath he was. Luckily his murderous paroxysm was expressed in words and not deeds in his masturbatory oubliette. The fucker was a slave to his cock.

[Anonymous No.10776044]

>>10776031
he never murdered a single person cuck. sure he BDSM'd people unwillingly but who wouldn't? slave moralists no doubt. during the french revolution he spared as many people the guillotine as he could, including his in-laws who had put him in prison indefinitely without any trial. his moderation eventual leading to his own death sentence (luckily never came to pass thanks to robespierre getting overthrown)

[Anonymous No.10776049]

>>10776044
you should say tortured because BDSM is simulated torture and he most certainly did murder people since murder was a pass-time of the french elite who were quite literally blood thirsty sex maniac vampire people

[Anonymous No.10776063]

>>10776049
if he was murdering people all the time everyone that had it in for him would have pounced on that immediately. instead they tried to send him off for giving some girls and boys a few whips and bumfucks. he did get accused (and convicted in absentia) of attempted murder by poisoning once but the medical and circumstantial evidence turned out to be against that.
*rapes you*

[Anonymous No.10776074]

>>10776031
You're a faggot. I don't know what "paradox" of thought you're referring to, but "thought" and theory aside, it's a philosophy that works perfectly well in action and practice.

If you disagree, you're either a part of the ruling elite already and don't want the peasants getting any ideas, or (more likely) a drooling dog who doesn't realize how bad he has it yet.

Either way, every argument you will ever make is automatkically invalid, consider suicide

>>10776044
>slave moralists no doubt

And show me one person who doesn't fall into that category and thinks he wasn't intelligent.

Only reason he gets a bad rap here is because 4chan is full of opportunists preaching neo-reactionary and Christian crap to the impressionable teens known to frequent the site...

This site has turned into such a steaming pile of shit in the past few years.

[Anonymous No.10776099]

>>10776074
>Only reason he gets a bad rap here is because 4chan is full of opportunists preaching neo-reactionary and Christian crap to the impressionable teens known to frequent the site...
Though it plays a part on /lit/, de Sade is going to be unpalatable to a lot of people regardless. Revolutionaries and ideologues have plenty to object to in Sade too, despite his ostensibly hyper-liberated hyper-revolutionary spirit. He's been accused of being reactionary, probably for the fact that la Revolution fall under the hammer of his brutal scepticism too. I can't remember who it was, I think Flaubert, called Marquis de Sade the "most Catholic writer".