"Feeble, enfettered creatures destined solely for our pleasures, I trust you have not deluded yourselves into supposing that the equally absolute and ridiculous ascendancy given you in the outside world would be accorded you in this place; a thousand times more subjugated than would be slaves, you must expect naught but humiliation, and obedience is that one virtue whose use I recommend you: it and no other befits your present state.
"You are enclosed in an impregnable citadel; no one on earth knows you are here; you are beyond the reach of your friends, of your kin: insofar as the world is concerned, you are already dead, and if you yet breathe, 'tis by our pleasure, and for it only.
"Our ordinances have been read to you: they are very wise and well-designed for your safety and our pleasures; obey them blindly, and expect the worst from us should we be irritated by your misbehavior. Several among you have ties to us, I know, and perhaps they embolden you, and perhaps you hope for indulgence on this account: you would be gravely mistaken were you to put much store by them: no blood attachment is sacred in the view of people like ourselves, and the more they seem so to you, the more their rupture will stimulate perversity in our spirits."
Marquis de Sade, 120 Days of Sodom (1785)
Post a Comment