Reply to : Dot
Oh yeah....I'd get on my knees for JonnyDepp!
I didn't much enjoy the film 'the Libertine' 
Johnny Depp plays the main character, the 2nd Earl of Rochester - an english character only one generation removed from de Sade. .... "He didn't resist temptation. He pursued it."
"Extreme sort of freedom'.......to me that means lots of things...but for now... to read books...and to write what you like. I haven't read his books closely enough ....so I can't really say how it might affect me but in my view the bible is doing the exactly that. Saying that's its OK to torture and kill people. & I agree it not OK. One of the differences between a book like the bible and the literature of de Sade....is the religion of christianity, which to me is based on 'masochism'. Christianity has 'hurt' countless... sqwillions of people - justified by 'worship'. If that's not a 'pleasure' to those that 'feel god'....I don't know what is. On a personal level.....unlike the characters in a book from whom you don't need to get permission ....real life individuals, like myself have provided at times 'pleasure' to the christian without so much of a 'please' or 'thankyou'- my permission is never an issue to an evangelisin' christian. To me that's a fuckedup 'freedom'.
I think you've hit on something that I'm interested in. I'd like to read more about his life and how his work has affected other's..(.its right up my alley.).....quotes Wikky...
Numerous writers and artistes, especially those concerned with sexuality, have been both repelled and fascinated by de Sade.
Simone de Beauvoir (in her essay Must we burn Sade?, published in Les Temps modernes, December 1951 and January 1952) and other writers have attempted to locate traces of a radical philosophy of freedom in Sade's writings, preceding that of existentialism by some 150 years. He has also been seen as a precursor of Sigmund Freud's psychoanalysis in his focus on sexuality as a motive force. The surrealists admired him as one of their forerunners, and Guillaume Apollinaire famously called him "the freest spirit that has yet existed".
Pierre Klossowski, in his 1947 book Sade Mon Prochain ("Sade My Neighbor"), analyzes Sade's philosophy as a precursor of Nietzsche's nihilism, negating both Christian values and the materialism of the Enlightenment.
From what I know of history ...de Sade didn't stand out as particularly 'evil' or 'brutal'. Back in those days....late 1700's Pre-revolution France, the upper classes openly enjoy 'freedom' to brutalise the peasant population......& of course not only in France but England as well. The class system is a great example of how 'freedom' is a term that's largely subjective. However to me de Sade, stands out as a writer.
I don't see why his books were banned in England untill early 1980. ?
The goth novel called Justine: the misfortunes of virtue - Vice vs. Virtue....Which can be read online ....seems like a very thought provoking book. ie...that 'virtue is a sacrifice' to me seems to provoke a feeling that I'm familiar with. Also the idea that to break with traditions (any kind) is not something 'other's' will be entirely happy about and judge 'you' as 'evil'.
I don't think the literature of de Sade...can influence 'you' without your permission.
Wealth and Pleasure be yours! If my scribblings have brought you a measure of both, set me to advantage on your bookshelf. If I have bored you, accept my apologies and consign me to the flames. -- The Marquis de Sade
Looooverly ...
