agmaynard's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
medium-paced
Walking me through Sadeian thought, through synopsis and analysis, mostly the narratives of Justine and Juliette. This saved me from ploughing through it all since it has seemed like a bit of gap in my lifelong learning.
"One of Sade's cruellest lessons is that tyranny is implicit in all privilege. My freedom makes you more unfree, if it does not acknowledge your freedom, also."
"One of Sade's cruellest lessons is that tyranny is implicit in all privilege. My freedom makes you more unfree, if it does not acknowledge your freedom, also."
gmbain's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
katieejayne's review against another edition
4.0
A new kind of book for me. I don 't often read non-fiction. If I do they're normally textbooks or biographies. This was partially out of the need for my dissertation and partially out of curiosity. The Sadeian Woman is an academic look at the Marquis De Sade and how he and his work is still relevant today. If not necessarily in the same way as it once was. Carter updates it and instead links it to today's symbols and views on women.
For those unaware the Marquis De Sade is worth a google (for the more mature crowd), he was a notorious 'sexual deviant' of his time and wrote works such as Juliet and Justine. Both of which are steeped in promiscuity, sexual fantasies and all manner of taboo subjects. Yet they offer an interesting commentary.
Carter has her own take on his work and reading this extended essay I can see his influence in her own stories. It was fascinating if a difficult read at some points. It's certainly not one you want people reading over your shoulder. If you have an interest in Angela Carter, the Marquis De Sade or gender studies I'd highly suggest giving this a go!
www.a-novel-idea.co.uk
For those unaware the Marquis De Sade is worth a google (for the more mature crowd), he was a notorious 'sexual deviant' of his time and wrote works such as Juliet and Justine. Both of which are steeped in promiscuity, sexual fantasies and all manner of taboo subjects. Yet they offer an interesting commentary.
Carter has her own take on his work and reading this extended essay I can see his influence in her own stories. It was fascinating if a difficult read at some points. It's certainly not one you want people reading over your shoulder. If you have an interest in Angela Carter, the Marquis De Sade or gender studies I'd highly suggest giving this a go!
www.a-novel-idea.co.uk
tailwhip's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
3.25
começa muito bem e vai desandando aos poucos... entendo o ponto mas simplesmente não faz muito sentido. pra que alguém gostaria de defender um homem tão asqueroso como sade, e não é nem por causa dos livros dele e sim seus constantes abusos. a parte sobre justine realmente é boa mas não posso dizer o mesmo sobre juliette, especialmente quando tem todo aquele papo de quebrar regras de genero quando o binario homem - mulher ainda existe só que com outro nome (opressor - oprimido), a submissão ainda é feminina mesmo sendo exercida por um homem e vice-versa. nenhum papel sexual de genero esta sendo subvertido, apenas mudando de forma e nome; mulheres ainda são descartadas por homens e abusadas, é controverso defender uma figura que endorsa as coisas que "critica" e satiriza. enfim, angela carter tem uma escrita maravilhosa mas as críticas acabam por se contradizer e sendo inconsistentes.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Death of parent, Excrement, Incest, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Blood, Body horror, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Violence
paulcowdell's review against another edition
4.0
Sade, the monstrous and irredeemable, is a major part of my life, and reading this was long overdue. Carter offers a bracing, clear-eyed embrace of Sade, a feminist critique and defence of pornography, and a defiant exploitation of the intellectual and theoretical vistas opened by Sade. I'm trying not to say it's a seminal text, but it is - if you're coming to Sade for the first time I'd recommend Annie Le Brun's Sade: A Sudden Abyss https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/497007.Sade?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=6tTPVpHJpp&rank=1, but if you already have some familiarity with him this needs to be on the shelf.
One of the problems is that people read commentators on Sade more than they read Sade himself. (My advice: read Sade ...) Carter's book usefully outlines the plots of Justine, Juliette, and Philosophy in the Boudoir, but if you've read them you may question the need for that degree of explanation.
I did find myself a little disappointed that even Angela Carter succumbed to a tendency of cultural theorists & commentators not to feel any need for accuracy. They're only little things, but giving the wrong Marx Brothers film title (a capital crime in this household) and misquoting Some Like It Hot in a really interesting discussion of Marilyn Monroe and Justine is just unforgivably sloppy.
AND: at one point, Carter mentions Sade defining art as 'the perpetual immoral subversion of the existing order'. You'll find this all over the net, usually unattributed but where it is attributed, inevitably ascribed to Carter. The quotation is accurate, but it isn't about art, it's about legislation and manners. Artists have seized on the description as a good summary of what there is in Sade to inspire, and it looks like Carter (drawing from the inspiration the Surrealists found in Sade) enthusiastically took it in this direction, but it's not /quite/ what Sade said. Which matters, because Sade is always - but /always/ - precise.
I
One of the problems is that people read commentators on Sade more than they read Sade himself. (My advice: read Sade ...) Carter's book usefully outlines the plots of Justine, Juliette, and Philosophy in the Boudoir, but if you've read them you may question the need for that degree of explanation.
I did find myself a little disappointed that even Angela Carter succumbed to a tendency of cultural theorists & commentators not to feel any need for accuracy. They're only little things, but giving the wrong Marx Brothers film title (a capital crime in this household) and misquoting Some Like It Hot in a really interesting discussion of Marilyn Monroe and Justine is just unforgivably sloppy.
AND: at one point, Carter mentions Sade defining art as 'the perpetual immoral subversion of the existing order'. You'll find this all over the net, usually unattributed but where it is attributed, inevitably ascribed to Carter. The quotation is accurate, but it isn't about art, it's about legislation and manners. Artists have seized on the description as a good summary of what there is in Sade to inspire, and it looks like Carter (drawing from the inspiration the Surrealists found in Sade) enthusiastically took it in this direction, but it's not /quite/ what Sade said. Which matters, because Sade is always - but /always/ - precise.
I
spacestationtrustfund's review
2.0
This feels like learning that Anne Rice wrote BDSM erotica under a pen name.