Author: Northfile

Childhood and Youth
Throughout his life The Marquis de Sade was in and out of the police authority’s hands. Sade was born into an old French aristocratic family and lived with the Prince of Conde. During this time, French society was dominated by a rigid class structure, where nobles and royalty lived at the top. His parents had hoped the two boys would get along, which would set up Sade for life. What they did not anticipate was that Sade was incontrollable and spoiled. Since his parents left him alone at a young age, he was used to getting the way he wanted, he was used to being served. So when the Prince of Conde entered the picture, Sade’s power felt threatened and he beat up the young prince. His life seems to only get worse from there. Sade’s mother and father divorce years after, and she becomes a nun (which may have influenced Sade’s religious views). In 1750, 10 year old Sade was sent to a prestigious school, although his father was heavily in debt at the time, where he continued to misbehave and was punished for it, might have influenced his sexual development. At 15 he joined the 7 years war but once it was over he was quickly discharged from his position. At this time his father had arranged an arranged marriage between Sade and the eldest daughter of another noble family, in hopes that the marriage could relieve financial stress. Sade reluctantly agrees.

Imprisonment

4 months after his marriage, Sade hired a prostitute and was accused of blasphemy, which was a capital offense at the time. He is then imprisoned for a few weeks until his family released him. This continues for the next few years. Every time he commits acts of depravity and blasphemy, and lands himself in prison, his family tries their best to hide the scandals and lessen his sentence. Which really goes to show the privilege of the aristocracy. Sade is only sentenced for years at a time and every single time he’s free, he goes straight to indulging in his fantasies again. Finally his family had enough of him tarnishing their name. In 1777 he was finally caught again and put into prison. In Vincennes 1782 he began writing the 120 days, 2 years later he was transferred to Bastille. Where he wrote the novel on a long piece of paper he could roll up and fit into a crack the wall. In 1789 he escaped from the Bastille, 10 days before it was stormed. During this time the French revolution was already underway and the lower class demanded a new government.

Note: His life is really summarised so I’ve missed a lot of details

In summary
There are a lot of factours that contributed to Marquis de Sade’s life and to the writing of 120 days. His childhood and privileged background set him up to believe that he was above the law. The enlightenment that was happening at the time influenced him to start writing his thoughts into novels. Till this day, although infamous, his writings have contributed and influenced many writers and scientists. I still don’t fully believe that his work was satirical, but it would be on par with the works that were released during his time. Nevertheless 120 Days can be seen as a satirical attack on the elite classes of French society.

First of all the name of the book is inaccurate… it should be 120 days of torture… Although I only read the introduction and then a summary of the books contents, it was too disturbing to continue reading. I was not expecting such a twisted novel, Sade was truly a messed up and disgusting man. The way his novel only gets worse the longer it progresses and that’s what he wanted.. baffles me. Sexual assault and r*pe was already bad enough, add human torture to the mix? Now you’ve got a scum soup cooking. And it wasn’t even “light” torture (if torture can even be light..) it was like full on limb chopping and human roasting type of torture. The 4 characters (I refuse to call them heroes) were the embodiment of how nobles or the elite of society had the freedom to doing anything and not be punished for it.

My anger for the novel exceeds its contents, how could some parts of society react positively to his novel? Anyone supporting his work, like thinking of it as research or a moral novel is so wrong. Horrid and disgusting barely begins to describe it, it’s straight up dehumanizing. Young boys and girls are the main 4 characters play things. After the first 90 days, the characters become more and more are sadistic, for example one of them would cut up children and another would burn them alive. This novel is a self indulgence of Sade’s own twisted fantasies where from his childhood and all the way till adulthood he’s always had an entitled notion of other people should “serve me”. I’ve always believed that people could change, but even after transferring through multiple prisons, almost being killed, and being divorced from his wife, Sade still acts the way he’s always acted. It’s disgusting.

Extra: I want to burn this book, I no longer want to have possession of it

I’m not sure what I was expecting but I know it was not this at all. At first I thought Swift was talking about repurposing the poor, like putting them to work, but the more I read the more I realised that was not the case. If you remove the moral aspect, his idea is reasonable. (If that term can even be used) I know this writing is a satirical critique towards the (insensitive) wealthy upper class, but his proposal would solve a lot of issues. It would provide financial relief to the poor and their children would not need to suffer famine and disease. If you’re looking from an objective point of view and you have no regards for human life, uneducated and sick children do not contribute to society, instead they drain resources and food. Less “useless mouths” to feed, as Swift puts it as in his proposal, meaning more food and money for useful and capable people in society. Of course this proposal is wrong in every moral way and I hope that society never becomes desperate enough to resort to this.

A Modest Proposal is a satirical stance on the cruelty of the wealthy and state of poverty during 18th century Ireland. Where the starving poor are not considered an issue for the wealthy. They’re seen as animals and property, exploited for profit. Hence why Swift suggests selling babies like how they do with animals. Nevertheless his proposal writes a perfect critique that is still accurate today. In every era no matter where you are, enough and power makes you lose your sense of humanity. It makes you incapable of sympathising with those beneath you.

I wish there was a better solution to this issue but there will always be selfish and corrupt people in this world. Perhaps my thoughts are too simple minded but as long as famine and poverty does not affect them, they do not care.

(Note: I always write with the word “you” it’s not targeted to anyone, it just makes me feel like I’m talking to the subject of the text, in this case the rich)

Mary Magdala
When I first started reading I didn’t realise that Disciples could be women, it was really nice to see that Mary was well respected by the Savior and some of the other male disciples. Although she still faced opposition in her text from Peter and Andrew (section 10), her gospel reveals the importance of women involvement in religion, yet it also highlights how women are not treated with the same respect as men. Peter and Andrew do not trust her words and believe that their Savior only favours her because she is a woman, “Are we to turn around and listen to her? Did he choose her over us?”(section 10, line 4) The disciples are offended by her words, believing that she’s incapable and that she must be lying, instead of perhaps thinking they made an error in their own ways. They don’t question their own actions and instead blame her. Mary was chosen because she understood the Savior’s teachings better than any of the other disciples and proved herself trustworthy and honest.

In The Savior’s Farewell Jesus confirms this distrust in his disciples, he says to them “[Do] not lay down any rule beyond what I determined for you, nor promulgate law like the lawgiver, or else you might be dominated by it.” (section 4, line 10-11) Where in which Jesus warns his disciples that they are prone to power corruption.

Judas Iscariot
I’ve always seen Judas being painted as the bad guy in Christianity, but his gospel tells a different story. I’ve always had a curiosity for Judas, I questioned why he gave up Jesus to the Romans, and for so little too. How I see it is that Judas fulfilled the prophecy, someone needed to be the villain. It’s curious because he was Jesus’ most trusted apostle, he was the only one on the right path, he was even shared the secret of the cosmos. I don’t believe Judas was inherently a bad guy, he just happened to play the part so Jesus could be elevated.

Looping back to Jesus, he seems to be distrustful of both his disciples and apostles, only choosing a few honest ones. This is seen in The Disciples See The Temple and Discuss It, where the Disciples have this vision about 12 priests that commit evil deeds. Jesus then tells them that those are their future selves, consumed by greed and corruption.

Summary/ Final notes

I really enjoyed reading these gospels and I can certainly understand why they’re so controversial. They basically go against everything Christians believed were true. “There is no such thing as sin”? (Mary, section 3) Of course there’s sin! That’s preposterous!! How could there not be? What can I blame my own misdeeds on besides temptation!
Okay enough with the sarcasm, there are a lot of lost gospels and religious texts I’m sure would have given us a clearer picture. If 85% are lost.. that means we have 15%, but the 15% has been mistranslated and altered through out the years.. so that would mean only 1% or even less is pure text. I hope that in the future more texts will be discovered and we’ll be able to paint a fuller picture.

hehehhehehehehehehheheheh