So, as relates to a previous project, I was poking around on the internet, looking for the full text of Justine by the Marquis De Sade. What I found was pretty disturbing: A site purporting to be about “sexual philosophy,” but is actually a front for exchanging information about finding young Asian prostitutes. It’s a bizarre document, covering themes like the best place to get plastic surgery in Bangkok and “sexual market value.” The author comes off as a Botox-addled Humbert Humbert, minus the college education.
Why post about that? Lately, I’ve been interested in the visual sensibility of the darkest corners of the web—places like 4chan’s /b/Random bulletin board, which is basically a clearing house for racist and paedophilic shouting, gross-out fetish pics, and inscrutable inside jokes. (It’s also the place where lolcats began.) Why interesting? It’s weird how something like a web browser scrubs away the tactile nastiness that you usually associate with whatever you find most disturbing. It’s that old saw about the banality of evil, and it’s interesting what evil looks like on the web. And it’s clearly titillating, even when it’s repugnant, which is why I thought the drawing above, by Clovis Trouille, was appropriate.
Done in 1959 and titled “Lust,” it shows the Marquis in the foreground and various images from his books. Trouille is an interesting character. Born in 1889, he lived until 1975. He hated the church enough that he had a sideline painting blasphemous images—though at one point Andre Breton tried to lump him in with the Surrealists. What’s more, dude was born during the twilight years of Victorian England, and lived to see the ’60’s. I doubt that those born in the 1990’s will see as much change in their lives. Here’s another image:
