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Originally Posted by ChronoGrl
LOL!! I'll stick to Goosebumps.  
I know I can't stomach reading or watching Sodom but I love reading/hearing people talk about it. It's fascinating to me. Just curious - What, in your opinion, and in the opinion of critics makes it a masterpiece? |
'The 120 Days of Sodom' is first and foremost de Sade's magnum opus because it is the foundation upon which all of his other works would be measured. Anybody that is audacious enough to dismiss the Marquis' greatest work as "repetitious and boring" has no real appreciation for Western literature, and the immense contribution de Sades work has given over to areas relating to and concerning psychology, especially pertaining to sexual deviance and developmental theory.
There is a juxtaposition to de Sades literary masterpiece which is in itself a critique of not just the 18th century he was imprisoned, but to the 21st century as well. The wealthy libertines each represent a position of authority: the church, the state, the bank, and the aristocracy. These libertines which hold positions of great authority, and which are so often perverted by corruption, are manifest in 'The 120 Days of Sodom' as sexual deviants. In his personal life, the Marquis was the subject of great persecution by all of these. It has even been suggested that he was ever only arrested for sexual misconduct unbecoming of an aristocrat because his father had many enemies. It was not uncommon in those days for the elite to beat prostitutes. Simpletons would not be able to see past the SCAT, bestiality, incest, pedophilia, the corruption of youth, and the torture of innocence so prevalent in 'The 120 Days of Sodom' because to them, its pornographic and nothing more. The consumption of feces is representative of the mass populace of squabbling idiots eagerness to consume whatever is spoon fed to them; most particularly religious ideology. Donatien's reputation was dragged through the dirt. The whores in '120 Days', which arouse the libertines through the telling of erotic stories, represent the propaganda machine. In his earlier work, 'Dialogue between a Priest and a Dying Man', Donatien made very clear his position as a militant atheist, but in "Les 120 Journees de Sodome", he expanded on that. There is so much to 'The 120 Days of Sodom', and when reading it, it would be best to go into it understanding the life that the Marquis lived prior to having written it.
I have little doubt that Hororcrux has read even a single chapter of 'The 120 Days of Sodom', and whose opinion is sadly based merely off the tasteless on-screen adaption of de Sade's great work.