.: 18th Century Pornography (NSFW)

Friday 24 January 2014

18th Century Pornography (NSFW)

The 17th and 18th centuries saw the rise of an artistic and philosophical movement known as libertinism. The libertine, as described by Gickapedia, is one who is devoid of moral constraints. While that makes up a large part of what a libertine actually is, it's not the entire meat and veg. It was a movement that walked hand in hand with individualism and romanticism, so therefore the real libertine is one who seeks to achieve maximum happiness, whatever it is that makes them happy. While that sounds all well and good, the movement (a relatively small one) highlighted some very uncomfortable truths about human nature and psyche; we like to fuck things we shouldn't, and we like to enact this in some of the most heinous, red-handed manners possible.

When I first read Marquis de Sade's 120 Days of Sodom, I didn't know whether it was pure genius or hastily scribbled wank material for the deeply disturbed. Taking influence from the early eroticism of Samuel Richardson, de Sade took the erotic to unthinkable levels and blurred the line between pleasure and torture. The term "sadism" comes from his name, that tells you how very sick this man's literature is. While I'd only recommend 120 Days of Sodom to those with morbid fascination and a tolerance for young men being sodomized in barrels full of liquid feces, it is definitely valuable as an insight into the dark and sexual, as well as the abuse and perversions of the aristocratic class.

So, besides literature, what exactly constituted as porn for the 18th century lady and gentlemen? What were their particulars? I believe part of the answer can be found in the illustrations of Marquis de Sade's literature. Welcome to the world of Enlightenment era porno.