Scan barcode
Reviews tagging 'Incest'
The Sadeian Woman: And the Ideology of Pornography by Angela Carter
4 reviews
eb00kie's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.0
I read Angela Carter as one reads Twitter, a platform where podcasters of interest still post interesting insights whilst surrounded by omnipresent piles of worthless trash.
There are three parts to the book:
1) An analysis of pornography in relation to society and women
2) A fantastic literary analysis of Sade's fiction. With summaries.
3) A sort of psychoanalysis of Sade through his work and characters
Angela Carter's work (to date: two books read, a third dnf'd) is one of the few if not the only author for which I use the word "trash" and I want to stop, ok? "Trash" is dismissive. I want to read books where every fifth page on average isn't a surprise cow pie. If I were to narrow it down, this is what's happening:
She has a worldview in her head, that is seldom explicit, and what comes out of it is at times absolutely fascinating, so that when something else comes out that is shallow, inaccurate, demonstrably incorrect, it infuriates me that the two coexist in the same book. I find it hard to read her rhetoric, so I annotate, and often go back, to put together all the bits of her argument, which often make sense retrospecively and with a healthy dose of asking "what if this proposition is false" and checking for contradictions. But I persevere.
This is probably the most annotated book I have.
It infuriates me that I have a book that pretends to do analysis, where the author calls sadism <i>an unnatural obsession with pain.</i> (there are some other bits).
- Primarily, because I find sweeping statements lazy (in a <b>book of analysis</b> I find them insulting),
- secondarily because "unnatural" is a term that has been and is being used to dehumanise or marginalise behaviours that turned out to be based in a pretty average psychology (see Freud on women's 'natural' place in society). What follows 'Unnatural' is we invalidate the data point and stop asking questions and that is lazy at best and hurting others, to say the least
- thirdly because the BDSM community, wherever they are, is large enough to be statistically relevant, so. This book is rude at a community level
I get she didn't have as much internet as we do, but this book is four parts cool and one part 'Sade is scared and angry at mommy because Freud said so'. Which. No. You can't do 60% of the book highlighting the parallelism, the fantastic themes and motifs and allegories in the Justine/Juliette books and then state this, like throwing pig shit on a Faberge egg.
Is that oversimplifying for the sake of humor? Sure, but not by much. Would recommend doing yourself a favour and stopping at 81%.
There are three parts to the book:
1) An analysis of pornography in relation to society and women
2) A fantastic literary analysis of Sade's fiction. With summaries.
3) A sort of psychoanalysis of Sade through his work and characters
Angela Carter's work (to date: two books read, a third dnf'd) is one of the few if not the only author for which I use the word "trash" and I want to stop, ok? "Trash" is dismissive. I want to read books where every fifth page on average isn't a surprise cow pie. If I were to narrow it down, this is what's happening:
She has a worldview in her head, that is seldom explicit, and what comes out of it is at times absolutely fascinating, so that when something else comes out that is shallow, inaccurate, demonstrably incorrect, it infuriates me that the two coexist in the same book. I find it hard to read her rhetoric, so I annotate, and often go back, to put together all the bits of her argument, which often make sense retrospecively and with a healthy dose of asking "what if this proposition is false" and checking for contradictions. But I persevere.
This is probably the most annotated book I have.
It infuriates me that I have a book that pretends to do analysis, where the author calls sadism <i>an unnatural obsession with pain.</i> (there are some other bits).
- Primarily, because I find sweeping statements lazy (in a <b>book of analysis</b> I find them insulting),
- secondarily because "unnatural" is a term that has been and is being used to dehumanise or marginalise behaviours that turned out to be based in a pretty average psychology (see Freud on women's 'natural' place in society). What follows 'Unnatural' is we invalidate the data point and stop asking questions and that is lazy at best and hurting others, to say the least
- thirdly because the BDSM community, wherever they are, is large enough to be statistically relevant, so. This book is rude at a community level
I get she didn't have as much internet as we do, but this book is four parts cool and one part 'Sade is scared and angry at mommy because Freud said so'. Which. No. You can't do 60% of the book highlighting the parallelism, the fantastic themes and motifs and allegories in the Justine/Juliette books and then state this, like throwing pig shit on a Faberge egg.
Is that oversimplifying for the sake of humor? Sure, but not by much. Would recommend doing yourself a favour and stopping at 81%.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Rape, Sexual violence, and Excrement
Moderate: Incest
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: Body horror, Death, Incest, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
isabellediggle's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
slow-paced
2.0
Honestly, my main take away from this book is confusion, with some introspection and interest to the side. I feel this was a dissertation for a topic that I was not well versed on with many of the themes either going over my head or being jumpy and disjointed. I adore Carter's fiction and so will do some research to see what I was missing this time. Oh well!
(Please check the content warnings before reading this book!)
(Please check the content warnings before reading this book!)
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Child death, Gore, Incest, Infertility, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Trafficking, Abortion, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail
wifescullys's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
slow-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Incest, Sexual assault, and Violence
More...