1. Power and Pain I from Marriage á la Mode from Myra Breckinridge from Justine, or Philosophy in the Bedroom

2. John Dryden 1631-1700 from Marriage á la Mode

3. Marriage á la Mode a Restoration comedy written during the Restoration of the king after Puritan rule in mid-17 th Century light-hearted, mistaken identity-based plays often full of sexual innuendo, partner swapping, etc. sex and sexual tension are the basics mostly among the upper class

4. Marriage á la Mode this bit is a song, one of two in the play

5. Marriage á la Mode the fact that it’s sung – does that matter? what are the formal elements? – word choice alliteration, sibilance, assonance – rhyme – stanza length and arrangement – punctuation – tone, diction, voice, point of view – Group Up and take ten to parse this

6. from Myra Breckinridge by Gore Vidal (1925- 2012) famously riled up Conservative critics by claiming that “homosexual” and “heterosexual” were inherently false terms – we are all PANSEXUAL

7. from Myra Breckinridge Myra Breckinridge published in 1968; set in Hollywood late 1960s mores diary-style, focus on transgression, breaking down sexual and gender norms film version 1970

8. from Myra Breckinridge eroticism here depends on role reversal age, generational, inappropriate but mostly gender and gender as related to violence, autonomy, sovereignty, control, passion, pain, mastery maleness, masculinity, prosthesis spirituality, religion, sacrifice – but PAGAN – Priapus, Attis, Cybele, Siva (creator and destroyer) medicality, examination, scrutiny, control identity, selfhood, subject-object, narcissism

9. Marquis de Sade Donatien Alphonse François de Sade spent 32 years of his life incarcerated for the moral threats he posed in his works had an affair with his wife’s sister regularly procured young prostitutes of both sexes for fun charged with blasphemy (kind of a big deal) involved in the French Revolution numerous scandals involving servants drugging them, abusing them, etc. finally declared insane (to save his life) and imprisoned in an asylum continued to write, sometimes in faeces on his cell walls 1740-1814 This *might* be de Sade

10. Marquis de Sade his works emphasize power, pain, suffering, eroticism of the extreme Justine, Juliette, 120 Days of Sodom his name gives us sadism and sadist/sadistic believed in total freedom, lack of restraint the human knows no limits and the erotic should not be confined or separated from other sensations – all extreme sensations are contiguous (pain, pleasure, etc.) there is pleasure in coercion, outrage, defilement 1740-1814 This is de Sade

11. BDSM Bondage, Domination/Discipline, Sadism, Masochism power relations, control at the heart of the practices also trust, informed consent (today, at least!) when consent is NOT present, you have sexual assault this is where things get tricky – FANTASY, ROLE-PLAY, CONSENSUAL NON-CONSENT participants derive pleasure from practices that would in other circumstances be unpleasant – such as…

12. BDSM Practices you guys tell me

13. Marquis de Sade Justine, or Philosophy in the Bedroom (1795) we have two excerpts from the much longer work in Justine, Sade works out the interplay between his philosophy and erotic the philosophical context comes from the Enlightenment – reason, rationality, human capacity, humanism – the Age of Reason – sometimes aligned with Christianity, sometimes not – do away with superstition – empiricism and experimentation are hip – get rid of myth, restraint, custom, tradition – celebrate the full range of human possibility – (not usually including sexually deviant practice) – the giant here is Immanuel Kant – the categorical imperative, the transcendental subject 1740-1814

14. Marquis de Sade the flipside to the Kantian celebration of the transcendental, noumenal, universal is the Marquis de Sade the philosophical turn depends upon taking things to their logical extremes if le petit mort is exciting, how much moreso death itself? the realm of fantasy, but also the full realm of human desire link between sex and violence, erotic and death is time- honoured this is in part why so many love stories end in death – the tragedy of Romeo and Juliet, for example, highlights the eroticism Also… 1740-1814

15. Vampires

16. The Occult

17. Goth (zombie?)

18. So: Justine first sexcerpt (see what I did there?) – what happens? – what is the salient imagery or framework? – how metaphorical is the “death” promised here? – what about YOU? What’s your role in this?

19. So: Justine second sexcerpt (oops, I did it again) – what happens? – what is the salient imagery or framework? – what happens when we find out the actions are approved? – what about YOU? What’s your role in this?

20. Next Week: Power and Pain II from The Story of O from Lesbia Brandon “Grand Testament” from Last Exit to Brooklyn from Venus and Adonis i.e., we are all over the place