Salvation Magazine Issue 1 - Magazine - Page 6
in an effort to pass the time, and partly to
quell the sexual turmoil that assailed mind
on a daily basis, de Sade wrote the novels
that would bring infamy to his name.
Dismissed either as vile pornography or as
the work of a sexual revolutionary and martyr to free expression novels such as ‘Justine’,
‘Juliette’, and most notably ‘120 Days of Sodom’ have gone from being banned and forbidden to being praised. Leading writers and
feminists like Simone de Beauvoir, Angela
Carter, and Susan Sontag have essentially
reinvented de Sade as a radical philosopher.
While conversely, he was cited at the trial of
Myra Hindley and Ian Brady as a possible
influence on their murderous actions making de Sade as controversial and contradictory today as he was over 200 years ago.
So, it’s no surprise to find illustrations of
Sade’s work by the master of biomechanical
eroticism, H.R. Giger. In Giger’s work, we
can also find a concept I’d like to discuss further: how the association of sex and violence
serves to challenge our ideas about death.
We can also find Sade as a Fumetti hero in
the ‘70s, illustrated by Gaspare di Fiore. Familiar with the Martine children book? It’s
almost the same, but in a perverted form.
Here we have Sade disguised as a nun getting into trouble, Sade whipping butts like
there’s no tomorrow, Sade putting an iron
maiden- like bra to a girl in front of a boar
(because why not?). Whilst the best way
to get really acquainted with his work is to
read it, it’s not the only way, and so I highly recommend a Belgo-French (semi cocorico right here) work by Henry Xhonneux
and Roland Topor: Marquis, from 1989. You
may have never witnessed a puppet fuck a
wall, or create a small theatre for his penis,
but after this movie, it’ll be familiar territory! (when I watched this for the first time, I
was sad that I didn’t have a cock myself, as
I would’ve loved to have donned a little wig
on it ready to play in a home-made theatre
set for the purpose, but anyway, I digress….)
with a dominatrix mare, a one-legged pig,
an ecclesiastical camel... this movie is an
improbable parade of strange animatronics
and will give a newcomer an illuminating
overview of Donatien Alphonse François
de Sade’s universe. By the way, Topor’s work
also holds some Sadian influence, so it
wouldn’t be unreasonable to say that it inThe marvellous Vlogger, Dolly Wood, delves into France’s psyche
spired a certain Clive Barker and his Coenobites. Barker, whose exploration of pleasure
to explore its darker nature
through suffering is both a great reinterpretation and continuation of Sade’s work. His
n this article, I am going to look at the No need to search for a very long time in our For those of you unfamiliar with the Marquis sentence “Be thankful if your skin crawls. It
differences I suggest exist between the history to quickly realize that the French can’t de Sade he was an 18th French aristocrat and means you’re still alive.” reiterates the comFrench way of looking at sex and the pretend to be cultural innocents with our can- libertine. Born in 1740 to a noble family, the mon association of sex and violence, as in, to
rest of the Western world. I’m sure you are non of emblematic literature figures such as young de Sade embraced a louche lifestyle but experience sexual feeling to the maximum.
aware that the French identity combines le Marquis de Sade. If you aren’t familiar with went far beyond the sort of behaviour that To push the limits of our bodies, of decency
both a tradition that is both alert to and his work in detail, you have still used both a was usually tolerated at time. Essentially rap- or even of Death itself. And it’s also hard not
embracing of, the carnal. This international word and concept that would not exist without ing and pillaging his way through an assort- to see Sade’s influence in Félicien Rops illusnotoriety is one that used to lead to people him: sadism. This man took it upon himself to ment of servant girls, prostitutes and, friends tration work.
giving a knowing look when they found out define the very pleasure that one can find in and associates of his wife, culminating in the
I was French “Ah but you’re French...” the inflicting pain and humiliation to others. How kidnapping, drugging and abuse of a num- This Belgian symbolist artist who died in
response would be! And so, I suggest, that very French indeed! Both his influence and ber of teenage girls aged between 14 and 16 Paris (another half-cocorico) has a way of
being a citizen of France, I was seen to some- reach are incontestable, and they successfully resulting in de Sade’s eventual arrest and im- mixing sex with violence, submission, and
how embody the national identity and our transcend the infamy that only his name could prisonment in 1778.
Death in a mesmerizing satanic maelstrom.
reputation; that we are happy to take risks provoke. And, even if BDSM had never waited
He said this in reference to himself; “The
with sexual representation and this in turn, to have a clear definition to exist, we can safely
rom this point on de Sade would, apart high maids, following each other walking
entails an openness towards exploring what say that Sade contributed towards the naming
from brief periods during the French down Bruxelles street, thigh themselves up
may be considered as perversion by the rest of it, therefore bringing it to the public eye and
Revolution, spend his entire life either in their immutable corsets as if I were to
of the world.
lessening its marginalization.
in prison or in mental asylums. Here, partly strip them in front of their daddy!”.
Quelle horreur!
Sex and Violence à la Française
I
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4/Salvation
