Give me your best defence of the literary value of 120…
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Give me your best defence of the literary value of 120 Days of Sodom
In the last 30 years the book has been issued in Penguin Classic and Pléiade editions. The French government declared the original manuscript a national treasure and paid nearly 5 million euros to get hold of it.
And all I can say is "what the fuck"
It's not that I don't think that what is shocking can also be valuable, or that an early work of extreme pornography doesn't have some value in terms of tracing the history of atypical sexual behavior. Indeed I kinda get why we'd say it's an interesting document for historical sexology.
But a work of literature? With themes and depth and value beyond being pornography for those with the most extreme paraphilias and kinks? A French national treasure? The mind boggles. Colour me skeptical.
I know I'm not the only one to question the literary treatment of the book, and I'm not super interested in a comment section of people agreeing with me, so if you're also like "yeah man it's all bullshit, smut of the most irredeemable kind", maybe hold your comment.
#entertainment
In the last 30 years the book has been issued in Penguin Classic and Pléiade editions. The French government declared the original manuscript a national treasure and paid nearly 5 million euros to get hold of it.
And all I can say is "what the fuck"
It's not that I don't think that what is shocking can also be valuable, or that an early work of extreme pornography doesn't have some value in terms of tracing the history of atypical sexual behavior. Indeed I kinda get why we'd say it's an interesting document for historical sexology.
But a work of literature? With themes and depth and value beyond being pornography for those with the most extreme paraphilias and kinks? A French national treasure? The mind boggles. Colour me skeptical.
I know I'm not the only one to question the literary treatment of the book, and I'm not super interested in a comment section of people agreeing with me, so if you're also like "yeah man it's all bullshit, smut of the most irredeemable kind", maybe hold your comment.
#entertainment
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