Sade My NeighborEnlightenment ideals of a society rooted in liberationist reason and morality were trampled in the wake of the savagery of the Second World War. That era's union of cold technology and ancient hatreds gave rise to a dark, alternative reason—an ethic that was value-free and indifferent with regard to virtue and vice, freedom, and slavery. In a world where "the unthinkable" had become reality, it is small wonder that theorists would turn to the writings of a man whose eighteenth-century imagination preceded twentieth-century history in its unbridled exploration of viciousness, perversion, and monstrosity: the Marquis de Sade. Klossowski was one of the first philosophers in postwar Europe to ask whether Sade's reason, although aberrant and perverted to evil passions, could be taken seriously. Klossowski's seminal work inspired virtually all subsequent study of Sadean thought, including that of de Beauvoir, Deleuze, Derrida, Bataille, Blanchot, Paulhan, and Lacan. |
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aberrant act accursed virility annihilate apathetic reiteration apathy aspiration Austryn Wainhouse become body Carpocratian committed conceived conscience consciousness creatures crime cruelty Days of Sodom death debauched libertine destroy destruction divine ennui eternal evil exasperation existence experience father Florville Franval freedom functions human impulsive forces individual integral monstrosity Joseph de Maistre Juliette Justine Klossowski laws libertine logically structured language Marcion Marquis de Sade MASK OF ATHEISM means Misfortunes of Virtue moral categories moral skepticism morose delectation mother murder never normative reason notion object Oedipus complex original OUTLINE OF SADE'S outrage passions perpetual motion perverse gesture PHILOSOPHER VILLAIN Philosopher-Villain Pierre Klossowski pleasure possession possible principle purity rational reality remorse revery Revolution SADE MY NEIGHBOR Sade's characters Sade's soul SADE'S SYSTEM Sade's thought Sadean mind sadism sense sensuous nature simulacrum singular social society sodomist sodomy species sufferings things tion transgression tribade ture virgin virtue wishes writing