Gobbet
My child
Today, I asked my students at Wageningen University to read an extract from De Sade’s “The 120 days of Sodom”:
‘He fetched up a chair and seated himself by the bed, then returned to caressing my bum, the mere sight of which appeared to intoxicate him; he spread my buttocks for a moment and I felt his tongue sound deep into my entrails, this, said he, in order beyond any shadow of equivocation to verify whether indeed the hen were inclined to lay; I report his own expressions to you. All this while, I was not touching him, not at that stage, he was himself lightly stroking the dry little member I had just brought from its lair.
"Are you ready, my child?" he asked. "For it is high time we undertake our task; your shit seems to me as it should be, I've established that, remember to shit gradually, a little at a time, and always wait until I have consumed one morsel before pushing out the next. My operation takes quite a while, so don't be in haste. A light slap on your ass will notify you that I'm ready for more, but see to it that I get no more than a bite."
Having then adopted the most comfortable position, he glued his mouth to the object of his worship, and in less time than it takes to tell I delivered a gobbet of shit the size of a pigeon's egg. He sucked it, turned it a thousand times about in his mouth, chewed it, savored it, at the end of three or four minutes I distinctly saw him swallow it; I push again, the same ceremony is repeated, and as I had a prodigious charge to be rid of, ten times over he filled his mouth and emptied it, and even after all was done he seemed famished still.
"That is all, Monsieur," I said when I had finished, "I'm pushing in vain now."’
Most if not all of my students were shocked and appalled at De Sade.
There are reasons enough to be appalled at De Sade’s work, but eating other people’s excrements appears to me an innocent and noble pastime.
Aren’t we suffering from a manure surplus?
Manure surplus
If we are suffering from a manure surplus I am not sure eating it would be an effective solution. Although...Let's become cannibals.
Surplus
I disagee, plenty of people eat shit every day.Coprophagia
De Sade was a noble pervert. But is it possible to be an innocent pervert?Arnon
You are such a cheap provocateur.Eating excrement
What was the point of having your students read this? What kind of conversation were you hoping for?(BTW, I find many students are easily shocked. It is one of their more endearing traits. Making them read De Sade seem to almost qualify as a health risk. One student once remarked to me, outside of class, that he wished he had never read Celine at this age. He was sure that his life would have been more enjoyable.)
Carlos
I call that a child.Arnon
If a writer is a whore and his texts are his flesh and blood and excrements I would offer to send you my real valuable stool (my body's interpretation for Parmigiano Reggiano and Baklava) in exchange for your novels but I am honestly more interested in Stieg Larsson's Millennium trilogy translated to Dutch nowadays. If you don't take it personally and you're still interested in noble deeds I can still pack my excrements (though I'm running out of the Parmigiano right now) and send them to you because I really want that trilogy and bol.com don't ship to Israel. Bon Appétit!Mieke
Children don't eat shit.Carlos
What about the anal stage?Mieke
Anal stage or not, kids put a lot of things in their mouths, but not shit. Humans seem to have an instinctive aversion to faeces.Carlos
Maybe that's true, but still, children can be real , little perverts. You can't hold them accountable for it, that's why I call it innocent.Mieke
Wouldn't you agree then that eating shit is a true perversion and not a matter of "decency"? There are a few others. For example, the sexologist Kinsey used to like stiking large objects up his urethra.Arnon
Why didn't you just show your students "2 girls 1 cup" or that famous scene in John Water's "Pink Flamingos" when Divine eats dog shit?I'm not sure what your motive was for reading that particular passage. Are you determined to be banned from Dutch universities? Is it because of Wageningen's agricultural connections?
No smiles?
"That is all, Monsieur," I said when I had finished, "I'm pushing in vain now."’Didn't any of your students smile at this? I think it's pretty humoursly written.
Mieke
In matters of grave importance, style, not sincerity is the vital thing.Mieke
You're such a groupie.M. Hordijk
Apologies. My previous comment was meant for Mr Hordijk.arnon-off topic
please may I ask you what book by russian autor has touched you the most?thank you.
Carlos
De Sade is accepted in academia.I'm not at all sure that young children would never put feces in their mouth.
Michel
An exctract from De Sade was part of part 4 of my reader, a chapter titled "The Will to Power."The discussion based on this excerpt was valuable.
Oscar
You have a point.Carlos
That was a rhetorical remark, meant with irony. I'm not inclined in any way to let Arnon suck my intestines.In France 'les andouillettes' are considered a delicacy. And they really smell like shit.
Arnon
My question was not about choosing De Sade as such, but why this particular passage? I mean why such a harmless, if distasteful, one? Why not the more horrific tortures? "120 Days of Sodom" is a story about a group of psychopaths.Carlos
This was just an excerpt from my excerpt. The excerpt in the reader was much longer, and was taken from various chapters from “The 120 days from Sodom”.Ironically it was this part (i.e. eating feces) that provoked most outrage. Incest, torture, sadism, alas, but nibbling on excrements…
If a perversion could be innocent is an interesting question. I wonder what a Lacanian would answer.
I guess that a pervert cannot enjoy a perversion, which he perceives as truly innocent.
Michel
You are jumping to conclusions about clichés and people's sensitivities.Arnon
Thanks for the explanation. Now everything falls into place. I was under the impression you were deliberately trying to disgust and shock your audience. A noble endeavour perhaps, but not without danger.There seem to be very differing psychological explanations for perversion ranging from "alienation" in the Marxist sense to "phallic-narcissistic revenge upon the mother". I think you are right that the pleasure of perversion derives from the sexual abberation itself. Many fetishes (for example shoe fetishism) are probably not perversions at all but harmless hobbies.
Carlos
You seem to have underestimated me.A perversion can be a harmless hobby for others but not for the pervert.
Arnon
You would not have been in bad company. I believe that Houellebecq's success is partly due to his shocking and disgusting of his audience. The marketing strategy of the Sex Pistols was also shocking and disgusting the audience. People seem to crave shock and disgust. It probably makes them feel alive and better about the themselves.You might be right. I cannot imagine what it would be like to have a shoe fetish. I am sure it has led to the ruination of many a man.
