The Marquis de Sade, Criminal or Visionary?

Date/Time
Date(s) - 30th Apr 2024
7:30 pm - 9:30 pm

Location
TOM House

Categories

• Supporter - LA

 

The French Revolutionary Marquis de Sade’s groundbreaking act was to link sexual liberation with all other kinds of liberation—freedom from the state, the church, the family and all the moral codes of his day. His provocative, radical work is filled not just with sex but with violence and cruelty, intended especially to outrage the middle and upper class, and really almost all readers.

It fits uncomfortably with our ideas of progressive or reactionary thought. So what can we do with him? Is he useful for gaining insight into the abuses of the US government today, controlling body autonomy? How do his ideas of gender identities comport with our own? Can we identify some roots of contemporary BDSM practices where participants “consent to play in negotiated scenes”?

The presenters will also reference George Bataille, one of the most influential thinkers to have seriously considered the Marquis’s work, “ … if [Sade] had not existed he would have had to be invented…”

Program coordinated by Jerri Allyn.

Please join us for an evening roundtable and facilitated discussion with: 

 

Matias Viegener is a CalArts professor and scholar whose research focuses on queer theory, pornography, and sex writing. 

 

 

 

 

 

Anuradha Vikram is a curator, educator, and writer in Los Angeles. Their latest book is Use Me At Your Own Risk: Visions from the Darkest Timeline (X Artists’ Books, 2023).

 

 

 

 

 

Badly Licked Bear is an educator, artist, and writer. Recent projects include an update of PBS’ World Gender Map and the commissioned essay, “I identify as a threat (It’s not just a meme).“

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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