I believe it was Rob from Rob Says, who had parried the common refrain from many others, asking: Have you read de Sade?
I had never told him that I had borrowed one of de Sade’s books from the library years ago. I understood that it was supposed to be titillating. I found that it wasn’t the “be all and end all” of literary work, but I understood how it became notable.
(People around my community had no clue who he or his work was until a movie, or some talking head on the television told them to care about him).
After I read that book, someone I was spending time with brought home a movie that featured someone playing the Marquis de Sade. I think it was Quills. The movie was shot well, actors did their job, but I wasn’t singing its praises.
I hadn’t thought much of any of these tidbits until I noticed that this date in history coincided with the Marquis de Sade’s imprisonment without charge in 1777.
(I failed to note that someone tried to shoot him around this time, but the gun misfired. This is for another day).
It was a few years after that date, after being transferred to the infamous Bastille, he wrote one of his most popular works.
I am unsure of what level of “imprisonment” it would take to create my master opus, but I hope it would not reflect his.
I make the argument that there is something better for you to read and something more entertaining around the corner. And it isn’t something that is “parroted” amongst a legion.
Mogadishu Matt 