Sade, Fourier, Loyola

Sade Fourier Loyola explores the works of three major innovators of language: the French philosopher, pornographer and atheist Donatien Alphonse François, Marquis de Sade (2 June 1740 – 2 December 1814); the French utopian socialist François Marie Charles Fourier (7 April 1772 – 10 October 1837); and Basque Spanish theologian and founder of the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits) Ignacio López de Loyola (Saint Ignatius of Loyola) (1491 – July 31, 1556). Barthes goes on to illustrate how each writer in this superficially blasphemous trio transformed language. How the three writers reflect off each other displays Barthes’s unique take on the subject, transcending the standard academic category of “comparative show more literature.”

Everybody has heard of DAF Sade, yet very few have read his works. In the opening sections of Sade Fourier Loyola, Barthes reflects on the contradictory accusations leveled against Sade: His works are boring and his works are shocking. How can one be both? Mythologies dissected pop cultural artifacts while Sade Fourier Loyola examined well-known works in a different way. The comparative literary criticism Barthes achieves is reminiscent of the ad slogan, “Think different.”

He examines Sade’s work, seeing it in mathematical terms, with each carnal atrocity building upon each other until they reach a séance, a kind of Enlightenment clockwork made of frenzied bodies. Sade’s writing exemplifies what Barthes terms “a contamination of discourses,” with extended speeches championing reason and rationality suddenly broken by curse-laced shouts and blasphemies involving orgies, murder, and torture. One of many things bedeviling critics is the inability to place Sade within a neat framework of periodicity. Sade is simultaneously a Gothic writer, embracing the darker strains of Romanticism, an Enlightenment philosopher, and a literary satirist. Furthermore, his work continually champions crime over law and power over morality. Those who are more powerful are thus because of Nature.

The theme of subservience is picked up in his analysis of Loyola, whose Spiritual Exercises bears resemblances to Sade’s 120 Days of Sodom. Each work appears like a glorified outline. While both writers come from completely different backgrounds, Barthes brings our attention to the meticulousness and concentration involved in writing these books. Loyola even has a section where the success or failure of the spiritual retreat’s practitioner can be measured on a graph. Loyola and Sade also have their practitioners in severe isolation and endure physical hardships.

Fourier, the utopian socialist, uses language that combines aspects of both Sade and Loyola. His utopia is spiritual in nature, but man’s perfection is attained by the release of bodily passions that have been repressed by civilization. Barthes also explores the playfulness of Fourier’s brand of utopia, especially regarding his notorious phrase about turning the sea into lemonade. The treatment of Fourier as a literary figure to be celebrated shows how Barthes has evolved from an orthodox Marxist to a non-ideological literary critic. Marxists shy away from Fourier because of his wild eccentricities and the non-scientific basis for his utopian vision. Barthes embraces him as he does Sade and Loyola.

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Sade, Fourier e Ignacio de Loyola fueron clasificadores y fundadores de lenguas: la lengua del placer erótico, la lengua del bienestar social y la lengua de la interpelación divina; cada uno puso en la construcción de esta segunda lengua toda la energía de una pasión. Sin embargo, inventar signos es entrar paradójicamente en ese terreno ya conocido por el sentido que es el significante: en una palabra, es practicar la escritura.