A distinctly Sadean thread, not only sadistic in the general sense but derived from the narrative tactics of the Marquis de Sade, winds through films such as Saw (2004) and Hostel (2005), for which David Edelstein coined the term “torture porn.” While film subgenres such as giallo and slasher have long used traditional narrative elements as frames for set-pieces focused on violence and murder, “torture porn” revels in episodic depravity.
I have written about “torture porn” as well as the arguably more Sadean turn in European film a decade later seen in A Serbian Film (2010), so this phenomenon has been on my mind for a long time.
“Torture porn” brought at least the idea of extreme horror into mainstream contemporary horror, as American Psycho (1991) brought it into mainstream contemporary literature a little over a decade before. People got reminded that popular artforms could cross boundaries. People got reminded that there were boundaries.
Popular artforms have undoubtedly tested boundaries since the first dirty hieroglyphic, but testing boundaries with episodic depravity, for which “torture porn” is an apt description, was pioneered in Sade’s ungodly-long novels Justine (1791), Juliette (1797), and The120 Days of Sodom (1904 [1785]).
Do not assume that, because they are more recent, films or contemporary novels called extreme horror or splatterpunk are more graphic in terms of explicit gore or sex than Sade’s work. You would be mistaken. However far there is to go, Sade has been there. An artist in the Sadean tradition can change or even add variables, such as modern technology, but that is all.
I make this point because, among others in the narrative yarn, a Sadean thread runs through my novel Alex’s Escape, not merely in Alex’s character–he is a psychological as well as a physical sadist–but in the showcasing of episodic depravity, especially in the second third of the novel (“Part Two: Alex’s Entertainment”).
Like Sade, between story-driven interludes, I descend into passages that narrate cruelty and violence that boggle the imagination. I go in different directions and create diverse images to test different limits. An unkind ARC (advance reader copy) reviewer lambasted the book for seeming to go for shock value–of course it goes for shock value! The Sadean tradition is about shocking people out of their complacency, their acceptance of oppressive normativity that finally requires revolution. Shock has value. If you don’t believe that, read other genres. My Sadean episodes bombard the limits of acceptability.
Unlike Sade, I don’t offer so many episodes that I test virtually all the limits, but I do my best while folding my episodic rebelliousness into what I hope is a richer narrative with more varied themes than Sade ever found necessary. I could never rival Sade anyway, so I might as well throw in some other artistic flair.
However, if a category exists for Sadean fiction, I humbly submit my literary offspring Alex’s Escape for inclusion.