I have to take a break from some of the hardcore philosophical reading for a bit. The mind, if there is a mind *wink wink*, can only take so much at a time. Staying within the philosophical realm, however, with one of the earliest but often forgotten existentialist writers (forgotten for his contributions to philosophy, not his reputation for sexual depravity), I decided to crack open some works by the Marquis de Sade. Justine to be specific, and I will follow that up with Juliette. Lately I'm seeing and hearing that people are reading 50 Shades of Grey (I haven't read it, nor will I read it) like its some masterpiece just because it has some bondage and s&m in it. Thats not a masterpiece, thats a good Friday night. If you want well written sexual depravity please read the author mentioned above. I am finding that the same idiots reading Grey are the same ones that read Twilight and thought it was fantastic, even though Anne Rice wrote more erotic and intriguing vampire novels years ago. I bitch about this, as I often bitch about things, and the response I often get is "well at least people are reading." Are you fucking kidding me? The most popular books of the last stretch of years, as far as I have seen, are as follows and are in no specific order: Harry Potter, Twilight, The Hunger Games, and recently 50 Shades of Grey. Not one book in all of those series is written above a high school reading level, and many are even below that. And people are proud that they actually have the intellectual fortitude to make it through these often barely 300 page books? And every one is a New York Times Bestseller? Those are books written for adolescents, with the exception of Grey, and people feel accomplished? I'll be honest, I read the Hunger Games. It was even mildly entertaining. Except that its a total rip off. If the Lottery by Shirley Jackson had a threeway with Running Man (starring Arnold Schwarzenegger) and The Condemned (starring Steve Austin),...

I have to take a break from some of the hardcore philosophical reading for a bit. The mind, if there is a mind *wink wink*, can only take so much at a time. Staying within the philosophical realm, however, with one of the earliest but often forgotten existentialist writers (forgotten for his contributions to philosophy, not his reputation for sexual depravity), I decided to crack open some works by the Marquis de Sade. Justine to be specific, and I will follow that up with Juliette. Lately I'm seeing and hearing that people are reading 50 Shades of Grey (I haven't read it, nor will I read it) like its some masterpiece just because it has some bondage and s&m in it. Thats not a masterpiece, thats a good Friday night. If you want well written sexual depravity please read the author mentioned above. I am finding that the same idiots reading Grey are the same ones that read Twilight and thought it was fantastic, even though Anne Rice wrote more erotic and intriguing vampire novels years ago. I bitch about this, as I often bitch about things, and the response I often get is "well at least people are reading." Are you fucking kidding me? The most popular books of the last stretch of years, as far as I have seen, are as follows and are in no specific order: Harry Potter, Twilight, The Hunger Games, and recently 50 Shades of Grey. Not one book in all of those series is written above a high school reading level, and many are even below that. And people are proud that they actually have the intellectual fortitude to make it through these often barely 300 page books? And every one is a New York Times Bestseller? Those are books written for adolescents, with the exception of Grey, and people feel accomplished? I'll be honest, I read the Hunger Games. It was even mildly entertaining. Except that its a total rip off. If the Lottery by Shirley Jackson had a threeway with Running Man (starring Arnold Schwarzenegger) and The Condemned (starring Steve Austin), the mutated fetus that would spew forth from its loins would be The Hunger Games. But I digress. From what I've been told of the plot of 50 Shades of Grey it is just another bull shit story thats been done 1,000 times. Handsome bachelor falls for young, innocent beauty. Its only popular because of the "shock value" of the sexual exploits it contains. I honestly grabbed a friends book, after she told me about it, to check if Harlequin was the publisher. It is truly sad how far literature has fallen in the modern age. When the books listed above are the books most read by the masses it is a good indication where education stands in this country: in the back of the room, behind television, movies, budget cuts, prisons, fast food, online shopping, and a host of other things found more worthy to spend our time and money on. What the fuck...

The following is an excerpt from "Justine" by the Marquis de Sade:

If, though full of respect for social conventions and never overstepping the bounds they draw round us, if, nonetheless, it should come to pass that we met with nothing but brambles and briars, while the wicked tread upon flowers, will it not be reckoned, save by those in whom a fund of incoercible virtues renders deaf to these remarks, will it not be decided that it is preferable to abandon oneself to the tide rather than to resist it? Will it not be felt that Virtue, however beautiful, becomes the worst of all attitudes when it is found too feeble to contend with Vice, and that, in an entirely corrupted age, the safest course is to follow along after the others? Somewhat better informed, if one wishes, and abusing the knowledge they have acquired, will they not say, as did the angel Jesrad in "Zadig", that there is no evil whereof some good is not born? And will they not declare, that this being the case, they can give themselves over to evil since, indeed, it is but one of the fashions of producing good? Will they not add, that it makes no difference to the general plan whether such-and-such a one is by preference good or bad, that if misery persecutes virtue and prosperity accompanies crime, those things being as one in Nature's view, far better to join company with the wicked who flourish, than to be counted amongst the virtuous who founder?



That, my friends, is literature that stirred a nation in the late 1700s and still lives on today.