Month: September 2024

Honestly, this text is very one-dimensional to me. It just talks about the same thing over and over. It also reads like a bad manifesto, kind of like a little kid trying to play king and listing all the rules of what you can’t do to their younger sibling. However, they did succeed in making it seem like boring meeting notes of a school club that doesn’t have a good turn out for their scheduling so they have to have the same meeting three times in a row for everybody to get the memo.

It begins by explaining that freedom is a failure on the part of the government, as giving the populace freedom is planting the seeds of rebellion. It also goes on to reason that every state has two enemies; one external, and the other internal, and questions why it is seen as bad to use different forces against internal enemies, especially because of the two they’re the more dangerous.

It goes on to explain all the different ways they will control the populace while listing some of the things they’ve orchestrated in the past, like the various political assassinations they conveniently do not name. One such way is how they will control all forms of the press, official, semi-official, and unofficial.

They list so many they start to meld together and become monotonous. Without refrence nothing jumps out at me of being oh, so original, never been done before.

Alot of it has already been done, and alot of it by the axis powers.

Context is important for a deeper understanding of any text, and this one is no different.

The most obvious point, de Sade is in prison. Again. For kidnapping and sex crimes. Unsurprisingly.

While in Bastille, he was far from the opulence that he preferred, though he still managed to be a pompous brat, sending his wife around to get various things for him while he was imprisoned, the worst, yet most unsurprising, of which were anal dildos. Which he wanted customized. (I feel so bad for her.)

I think the extravagant feasts were part of this too. He was eating prison food and wanted the fancy dinners of his youth, or however you want to phrase that.

While in prison, he was kind of left to his mind to think. He then created a piece that showcased both is fantasies, wants, and desires, as well as his political commentary on the current situation France was in.

The main setting, I feel, comes from de Sade wanting to “fix” his “mistakes”. He has this whole… thing… take place in a castle that has been sealed shut, is in the middle of nowhere, that is in the middle of nowhere, and the one village that’s on the very outskirts have been instructed not to let anybody through. This might come from de Sade’s personal failure in that a girl he sodomized escaping and running to authorities, as well as his little experiment with a similar tactic in his own life where he had a few young servants all alone in a manor of sorts which he locked at night. He apparently saw succsess in this and perhaps, longed to go back to this time in his life.

(The four main libertines also never really face any punishment for all of the shit they do, literally and figuratively, so that might be saying something about his own life aswell, though it could also be political commentary. Though, I don’t see why it can’t be both.

Throughout the story, de Sade constantly tries to “excuse” the characters’ actions, for lack of a better word.

He tells the reader that virtue and vice are social constructs and that Nature made the libertines the way that they are, and if she thought it wrong then why would they be like that?

He also tells the reader that what they are about to read may be the most vile thing they will ever read and that they might be disgusted, but to keep in mind that to others it would… basically turn them on, there’s no good way to say this.

As a side note de Sade also avoids writing out saying some of the punishments the four main characters perform, saying that nothing he would say would satisfy the reader (presumably because he thinks what he has in store for later will). He does something similar to this later on, saying that he could not possibly describe the “obscenities and abominations” of Durcet’s post-dinner activities.

At a different point, Durcet (oh look it’s him again) puts down Zelmire’s name for punishment, as the four protagonists wanted to put all eight girls down for punishment, and at this point, it was only six. Now, de Sade says, whether or not she actually did anything wrong, whether she deserved it, is for Durcet to know, and the reader must not question, and to just be content with the story being told.

In all honesty, I could’ve based my reflection around other aspects of the story, like how in the first bit he refers to the four protagonists both as heroes and villains and how he carries that paradoxical narrative throughout, but I didn’t actually want to think about the worse parts of the book for too long, so I went for this instead.

To preface this, let us begin by rephrasing a paragraph from the passage. “Another great advantage to my scheme is that it will prevent voluntary abortions and the horrid practice of women killing their children. It happens much too often. It is done to avoid the expense of raising them, a reason which would put tears in the eyes of even the most savage and inhuman among us.”

Now this is his plan: To raise children to be slaughtered and eaten. He even says that he doubts anyone will have any objection to this whatsoever.

He elaborates that children could be eaten as early as one year old and that they could be prepared in any number of ways. They would be in season all year, but will be the most plentiful in March. The more frugal could even turn skin into leather goods. He even says that children 12-14 would be a good replacement for venison, which would help the dwindling deer population.

The six main advantages to his proposal, as said by him, are thus.

1. This would greatly reduce the number of Roman Catholics.
2. As poor people would now own somehthing of value, they would be able to pay rent.
3. This would be a very profitable business, with the money being shared amongst the wealthy, as the goods would belong entirely to them.
4. The “breeders” would no longer be in debt, as they would make more money than what it took to raise a child after their first year.
5. The food will become a delicacy, therefore those who prepare it well and serve it to guests will become popular among those interested in fine dining, and any skillful cook could sell it for as much as he pleased.
6. There will be more reason for people to get married. In addition, mothers would care better for their children, as to have the “fattest child on the market,” and men would love their wives more, as they would now be bringing in money. And, as an added bonus, men would be less likely to beat their wives in fear of a miscarriage.

Now, for another quote, directly from the text, “And besides, it is not improbable that some scrupulous People might be apt to Censure such a Practice, (although indeed very unjustly) as a little bordering upon Cruelty, which, I confess, hath always been with me the strongest objection against any Project, however so well intended.”

Again, he says that he isn’t doing this to be cruel, but out of the kindness of his heart, with only the interests of his country in mind.

The gospel of Judas Iscariot is filled with gnostic thinking. Gnosticism can be simply explained that the people on top believe that they have special knowledge that they know and you don’t, it’s something holier than you, something that you will never attain.

Gnosticism is very off-message for what Jesus usually stands for, “Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand.”

Examples of this can be found throughout the text. Jesus repeatedly tells the disciples that nobody from their generation is strong and holy and that no angels will watch over them. Jesus also talks of predestination, that it is no use for them to sacrifice upon the altar, for their stars and angels have already decided.

Jesus also seems kind of condescending in this text, something the exact opposite of the kind man he is usually portrayed as. He shuts down the disciples questions, telling them to stop struggling with him, for everything has already been decided. In addition, when Judas approaches him once more, he laughs and asks, “You thirteenth spirit, why do you try so hard? But speak up, and I shall bear with you.”

Basically, the general feel of the text is to give Judas a reason to betray Jesus, instead of it simply being out of his greed, or being possessed by Satan.

An example of this can be found in the same passage as the previous. After Jesus said that he will bear with him, Judas confides in him that he had a vision where the other twelve disciples were persecuting him, but that he followed Jesus to a great house, beyond his comprehension, with great people surrounding it, and and he asked Jesus if he could take him (Judas) in with him.

Jesus said that his stars have led him astray (meaning, that’s silly of you to even think), and that no mortal person was worthy enough to enter the house, as they would never be holy enough.

The original text of Mary Magdala was said to have been found in a literal hole in the wall, then sold in an antique shop in Cairo. This version was written in Coptic around the 5th century, however, it is currently missing 10 pages out of 19. Just over half the text is lost. Two other partial texts have been found, both written in Greek in the 3rd century. Unfortunately, they do not shed light on the missing parts.

The gospel describes how the disciples are confused about a teaching that Jesus has just told them. Mary tries to comfort them by telling them of knowledge that Jesus has told her, however, they accuse her of making it up. They jeer at her until she cries and then go off to preach their not-quite-on-message message to the masses.

The contents have been questioned, due to them being written well after the living memory of Jesus. However, some of the texts were still written before the compilation of the Bible in the 4th century. This means that this gospel could have been in the Bible, but wasn’t.

There are a few reasons why this gospel might have been lost to time. One is that Mary Magdala is said to have been a prostitute. But nowhere in the Bible says this. That is because it was made up by one of the catholic popes, who combined three different women mentioned under one name.

Another argument to be made is that Mary was possessed by seven sins. However, that was added on to the text later, based off of a story from Luke.

Time and time again, Mary is brushed off and away from the story. Maybe because of patriarchal thinking, that no woman should have ever been closest to the Savior than any of his apostles. Perhaps people just perpetuated the story that they had been taught. Or perhaps, a refusal to see her in a different light.

This is the first post on this website.