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<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\nAnother time there was a psychology book with the dramatic title “Perversion.”<\/em> I furtively glanced around to make sure no one else was down there and then started flipping through it. I could tell it was a difficult read, clinical and Freudian, with very few pictures. But there was this one image below and I was immediately turned on the moment I saw it. I couldn’t believe this was reprinted in this kind of book! I remember the text said the average person wouldn’t be turned on by the drawing \u2014 but I sure was! A few days later I checked out the book, working up my nerve as I went to the check-out counter upstairs. I’m sure the lady there noticed the title but sometimes you just have to do what you have to do. There wasn’t much I remember from the text itself…but that picture! (By the way, you can see a watermark at the bottom of the picture that may be the website where I found this same image years ago. But obviously that’s not where the drawing originally came from. I recognize the style of the artist, probably from the ’60s or ’70s, but I can’t remember their name.)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n I also quickly realized that the library had several English translations of books by the Marquis de Sade. I recall they got checked out pretty regularly, so again I worked up my courage and checked out a copy of “Justine, or the Misfortunes of Virtue.”<\/em> The thing about de Sade is that you think you’re getting your hands on something really racy, but I really just found his stories tedious and endlessly repetitive, all that verbose philosophy talk punctuated by acts of depravity that I didn’t even find particularly sexy. The worst of it was forcing myself to plow through the four hundred-plus pages of “The 120 Days of Sodom.”<\/em> In retrospect I don’t know why I forced myself to endure that thing (well, I was young and able to read long and challenging books then; I certainly couldn’t do it now.) The violence in the book just becomes and more and more extreme as it continues but the whole thing for me was just an exercise in tedium. I’m amazed I even finished it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n On the other hand, there is the notorious 1977 Italian film version by Pier Paolo Pasolini \u2014 Sal\u00f2, or the 120 Days of Sodom<\/em> \u2014 reimagining the de Sade story in fascist Italy with four wealthy and powerful creeps rounding up a bunch of young people with whom they do unspeakable things. The movie is indeed shocking and leaves you with a feeling of hopelessness, but it’s also an art film with a capital A. It’s kind of amazing that such a thing even got made. I couldn’t find it available for streaming, but I got the DVD through the Criterion Collection<\/a> a couple years ago and fortified myself with a couple glasses of wine when I watched it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I only watched it once, but I’d watch it again if a friend wanted to. But it does have some really gross scenes, especially involving feces. What’s most shocking is the impression it gives that some of the victims in the film are underage. But they really aren’t. I read later that Pasolini shot the torture scenes with actors in their 20s or 30s, and that the editing and juxtaposition of shots give the impression that it’s much worse than what you’re really seeing. I recall an article interviewing some of the young actors who said that the mood on the set was light and playful and that everyone had a fun time, only realizing how relentlessly dark the movie was once they actually saw it all put together. I recall one of them saying that Pasolini was kind and considerate, and no one felt abused in its making, which is at least reassuring if that’s the case. In any event, with the current state of the world the movie is probably more relevant than ever. The trailer is excellent in that it captures some of the mood but really gives nothing away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n