Pornography: Men Possessing Women, by: Andrea ... - Feminish

those committed in life as well as on paper. Sade is precursor toA rtaud’s theater of cruelty, Nietzsche’s will to power, and therapist frenzy of William Burroughs. In England in 1966, a twelveyear-oldboy and a ten-year-old girl were tortured and murdered bya self-proclaimed disciple of Sade. T he crimes were photographedand tape-recorded by the m urderer, who played them back forpleasure. In 1975 in the United States, organized crime reportedlysold “sn u ff’ films to private collectors of pornography. In thesefilms, women actually were maimed, sliced into pieces, fucked, andkilled— the perfect Sadean synthesis. Magazines and films depictingthe mutilation of women for the sake of sexual pleasure nowabound. A major translator into English of Sade’s thousands ofpages of butchery and the one primarily responsible for thepublication of Sade’s work in accessible mass-market editions in theUnited States is Richard Seaver, a respected figure in e^ablishm entpublishing. Seaver, instrumental in the propagation of Sade’s workand legend, has reportedly written a film of Sade’s life that will bemade by Alain Resnais. Sade’s cultural influence on all levels ispervasive. His ethic— the absolute right of men to rape andbrutalize any “object of desire” at will— resonates in every sphere.Sade was born into a noble French family closely related to thereigning monarch. Sade was raised with the prince, four years hissenior, during his earliest years. When Sade was four, his m otherleft the C ourt and he was sent to live with his grandmother. At theage of five, he was sent to live with his uncle, the Abbe de Sade, aclergyman known for his sensual indulgences. Sade’s father, adiplomat and soldier, was absent during Sade’s formative years.Inevitably, biographers trace Sade’s character to his m other’spersonality, behavior, and alleged sexual repression, despite the factthat very little is known about her. W hat is known, but notsufficiently noted, is that Sade was raised among the male mighty.H e wrote in later years of having been humiliated and controlled bythem.At the age of fifteen, Sade entered the military as an officer. Atthis age, he apparently began gambling and frequenting brothels.Purchasing women was one of the great passions of his life, and