Pierre Klossowski: Sade My Neighbor (1947/1991)

Enlightenment ideals of a society rooted in liberationist reason and morality were trampled in the wake of the savagery of the Second World War. That era’s union of cold technology and ancient hatreds gave rise to a dark, alternative reason–an ethic that was value-free and indifferent with regard to virtue and vice, freedom, and slavery. In a world where “”the unthinkable”” had become reality, it is small wonder that theorists would turn to the writings of a man whose eighteenth-century imagination preceded twentieth-century history in its unbridled exploration of viciousness, perversion, and monstrosity: the Marquis de Sade. Klossowski was one of the first philosophers in postwar Europe to ask whether Sade’s reason, although aberrant and perverted to evil passions, could be taken seriously. Klossowski’s seminal work inspired virtually all subsequent study of Sadean thought, including that of de Beauvoir, Deleuze, Derrida, Bataille, Blanchot, Paulhan, and Lacan.

First published in French as Sade mon prochain, Editions du Seuil, Paris, 1947
Translated and with an Introduction by Alphonso Lingis
Publisher Northwestern University Press, 1991
Northwestern University Studies in Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy series
ISBN 0810109581, 9780810109582
144 pages

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Pierre Klossowski: Living Currency (1970–) [FR, ES, EN]

“Essai littéraire et philosophique. Depuis le milieu du siècle dernier, des anathèmes ont été lancés au nom de la vie affective contre les ravages de la civilisation industrielle. Imputer aux moyens de production une action pernicieuse sur les affects, c’est, sous prétexte de dénoncer son emprise démoralisante, lui reconnaître une puissance morale considérable. D’où lui vient cette puissance ? ” Telle est la question qui traverse de part en part cet essai. L’auteur interroge d’autres écrivains en les citant, illustrant ainsi sa propre pensée. Sade, mais aussi Fourrier, Stendhal, Nietzsche s’expriment sur le processus même de l’émotion voluptueuse lorsque le corps est perçu comme monnaie vivante, objet de troc ou vecteur fantasmatique.”

“In Living Currency Klossowski draws a parallel between mass industrial production and sadism, between human bodies and currency. He analyzes the impact of industry and exchange on emotional life, and in so doing challenges several fundamental concepts of sexuality and value.”

Published in French as La Monnaie vivante, Editions Joëlle Losfield, Paris, 1970.

English edition
Translated by Jordan Levinson
Self-published, May 2012
32 pages
via translator

Commentary: Graham Joncas.
2008 Tate London exhibition inspired by the essay

La monnaie vivante (French, 1970, RTF)
La moneda viviente (Spanish, trans. Axel Gasquet, 1998)
Living Curency (English, trans. Jordan Levinson, 2012)