Other-Fiction - The 120 Days of Sodom

The 120 Days of Sodom

Published by dyingtomorrow
31-07-2009

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The 120 Days of Sodom

Authored by Marquis de Sade, whose name gives us the word "sadism," The 120 Days of Sodom is perhaps the most disturbing and horrific book ever written. It is the story of four wealthy 18th century Frenchmen, who plan and execute an intricate "vacation" of the most depraved pleasure. The boundaries of human sexuality are stretched to the utmost in their isolated castle, where they have gathered victims of all kinds for their escalating revelry in human suffering. The tone of the book is one of dark humor, which adds greatly to its disturbing quality. Many a reader will feel dirty for having read it, and perhaps destroy it afterward, not wanting anyone to know they have glimpsed such things with any possible implication that they could have enjoyed them. The strong affect it will have on any who picks this book up cannot be denied, which is perhaps the only compliment most would dare to offer.

__________________
"He was soft yet cruel; devoted to pleasure, but destitute of taste; and though exquisitely susceptible of vanity, indifferent to the public esteem."

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By Alfa on 31-07-2009, 21:12

Re: The 120 Days of Sodom

I found it rather dull. But how does this book relate to drugs?

By dyingtomorrow on 31-07-2009, 22:08

Re: The 120 Days of Sodom

Quote:

Originally Posted by Alfa

I found it rather dull.

Heheh, SWIM is rather impressed if this is a statement of desensitization due to extremes of experience.

To SWIM, this book, if anything highlights how woefully unexpressive the English language is compared to many others. SWIM could see such exquisite flourishes of language trying to bleed through from French in the translation. He read it as written to be humorous that people were being vivisected and raped and such, the curiosity and literary uniqueness of which makes him very interested in how one could percieve it as dull. What of it made it boring to you?

By LostCelestial on 31-07-2009, 21:30

Re: The 120 Days of Sodom

I think Dying saw the parralel between the whole 'depraved holiday' and how certain aquaintances of other members see their drugs.

Although de Sade probably didn't mean it to have directly that interpretation, it certainly is a salute to the dark side of human nature.

I think everyone on these boards can appreciate the idea of hedonism and the kind of escalation that leads one from experiance to experiance, although I severely hope no-one has quite reached the level of torturing people in their chateau in france.

As Dying pointed out, it leaves the reader feeling like they've looked into something that they genuinely didn't want to, and even though I found it oddly compelling in a 'car-crash on the freeway' fashion you'd rather not have other people, at least other normal people, knowing that this sort of thing is what you read to relax.

In that regard at least, the book is as close to a literary drug as one can get. Most people in main stream society won't have even opened it and wouldn't dream of it if they had the chance, but most of those that have tried haven't gotten to the end. Casually laying around the school library with a copy of this is like shooting up in a PTA meeting. So outlandish that people would probably have no idea what to say.

So that's how I see the connection to drugs.

By dyingtomorrow on 31-07-2009, 21:56

Re: The 120 Days of Sodom

Heh, thanks LostCelestial, I couldn't have said that better myself. But, if it's to be taken down, SWIM doesn't really care that much. He just saw in it all those parallels you mentioned, and thought it might draw some appreciation from this crowd.

By LostCelestial on 31-07-2009, 22:19

Re: The 120 Days of Sodom

You know sometimes I really wish I had paid more attention in French class.

English isn't especially expressive, at least not when most people write in it, and I'm near certain that depraved sexual acts really don't translate with quite the same flair they were written with. Although I do often wonder if other languages have a word or phrase that means doing *blank* to someones *blank*.

It's something that I've run into a lot, especially since I'm on a bit of Nieztchie binge at the moment, and although the translations are good, I'd love to hear it spoken aloud as it was written. Kinda treat it like an opera.

Maybe I'm weird like that.

By dyingtomorrow on 31-07-2009, 22:24

Re: The 120 Days of Sodom

Quote:

Originally Posted by LostCelestial

Heh, funny, reading Nietzsche and Goethe translations were the first things that made me realize that maybe English wasn't the awesomest language out there. I only know a little bit of German, my grandparents are from Germany, and I really regret that they didn't teach it to me fluently as a child.

What Nietzsche are you reading now? I wonder if he would approve of the "heroes" of de Sade - they are certainly living their "will to power" and dominating shit.

Oh, I wanted to add one other thing. Sometimes I wonder if the difference lies, at least partially, in the time period. I just finished reading The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire for the second time, and that, along with other 18th century English literature I've read, leads me to believe people were either just plain smarter, or at least better writers, back then.

Maybe it was the LEGAL morphine and cocaine. Haha.

By LostCelestial on 31-07-2009, 22:48

Re: The 120 Days of Sodom

I'm re-reading Zarathustra atm, already gotten through the gay science and beyond good and evil.

Although I don't think Nieztchie would have strictly approved of torturing peasant girls, I think he would have agreed with them imposing desires on those around them.

It is weird to think of all of the great literature that came out of europe between the renaisense and the enlightenment, and just how little of note has happened since.

Being able to indulge your darker side was definitely a part of that. Maybe not just because everyone could get high :P. But it seems that all the great writers wouldn't be allowed near a publisher these days, what with being insane, junkies and unpunctual to the point of frustration.

I think that factor is what makes those older works so much more valuable. Never written for profit, and mostly not read by more than a handful until after their deaths. Written to satisfy some other desire in themselves.

That's definitely something that de Sade had going on. Although I couldn't swear to the accuracy, the story goes that even after they cut out his tongue and locked him in a very dark room somewhere he was still trying to write on a wall with his own poo. Perhaps true, perhaps not. But it illustrates that whilever he was alive he was compelled to open his mind to the world and let it all bleed out.

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