Marquis de Sade - Head-Canon/Game Developments FAQ
This post is to just sort of put into line some of the things that have developed into Head-Canon for the Marquis, not because I started with all these assumptions about the character or the movie, but because playing him in one game for more than three years has led some of these things to come up in conversation, and I've been required to construct answers. I will do my best to explain them to the best of my ability.
People who find this journal may have questions about the character, or view him as different from how they expected. One must bear in mind this character has been in one game for almost three and a half years. 1 1/2 years were spent devoted to an ongoing redemption arc, as fits the premise of the game. He HAS changed in some ways. This post just sort of covers some of the whys, along with canon assumptions.
Table of Contents:
1. Was the Marquis de Sade sane at the time of his death?
2. Why does the Marquis go crazy specifically when he's alone for too long?
3. Why doesn't the Marquis talk so dirty anymore?
4. Why is the Marquis a Warden?
5. What are the Marquis' sexual preferences? What is his stance on BDSM?
1. Was the Marquis de Sade sane at the time of his death? Absolutely not. Historians have largely agreed he displayed numerous psychological issues in life, culminating in a base diagnosis of "regressive neurosis". But to lean specifically on the film: Taken both from my understanding of the film and Doug Wright (the original writer) in his DVD commentary, the Marquis was probably not even fully sane when he was first re-interred in Charenton some years before the start of the film. (I say re-interred because he spent a brief and much shorter stint there before his final incarceration, historically.) The Abbe de Coulmier presented in the film seemed unusual in that he was employing forms of actual therapy for the patients in his care, the Marquis included. He encouraged him to write as a means to purge his evil thoughts, not realizing perhaps that the Marquis is shown in the film and is known in his history to have written a great deal while imprisoned because he had nothing else to do and no one to talk to. (More on this in the next point.) He was already writing compulsively as a way of coping with stress. The Terror was noted both in history and in Doug Wright's interpretation of him as being an extremely traumatizing time in his life, because he saw literally thousands of people beheaded right outside the window of his cell. His language throughout the film is constantly peppered with references to it, but he never explicitly tells his keepers that he's still suffering and for whatever reason neither the Abbe nor Royer-Collard seem to understand it's something he actually needs to deal with (and after three years on the barge he still hasn't). Instead they try to cure symptoms rather than the actual cause. He was NOT a sane man at the time of his death -- doubly obvious because he committed suicide, and he got increasingly less sane as the movie progressed because more and more of his freedoms were taken away and he became more and more like a prisoner again.
2. Why does the Marquis go crazy specifically when he's alone for too long? I've chosen to present the Marquis as a man whose compulsions and dysfunctions are directly tied to how long and often he is secluded from other people -- not just when this is imposed by outside forces that he can't control, but also when he himself cuts himself off from other people without meaning to. This is a man who spent roughly 27 years in prisons of some shape or form, for a large chunk of them being unaware of what he was charged for (or not being charged at all, as his wife's mother had been given leave by the King to throw him in jail whenever the Hell she felt like it), and often unaware of when they would release him. Large stints were spent without visitors or proper correspondence of any kind. Before his longest stint in prison (his family was often good at getting him out and he escaped from prison and arrest on numerous occasions), his historically recognized psychological issues tended to stem from what historians inferred as the absence of attention -- more that he felt forgotten, and despite the horrible stress being hunted and reviled brought down on his family, particularly his wife and children, it's something he was addicted to. This would lead to his wilder sexual exploits in his youth -- including his most infamous, a six-week long bacchanal at his chateau in La Coste involving numerous staff members roughly 15 years of age -- which were not well hidden from prying eyes and ears even when he was a fugitive from the law. (This ultimately culminated in the father of one of his employees attempting to murder him in public view, and he would have succeeded had there not been a blank shell in his pistol. The Marquis had become so hated and so reviled even in his own domain that no lawyer would help him press charges for attempted murder, and this would have been a major turning point in his life had his mother-in-law not fucked it up by having him thrown in prison -- where he would remain for 13 years [his longest stint before then had been two or three years].) Later in life, this feeling, this compulsive dread of being "forgotten" became more closely associated with the loneliness he endured in prisons, and so he began to write obsessively instead, or when given the opportunity, incite people to anger verbally.
Doug Wright takes the stance in his writing, with which I wholly agree, that the Marquis' worst writings were when he was the most bored and lonely. It is evidenced in many of the Marquis' journals that forced seclusion so strongly affected him that it actually had an adverse affect on his language, where much of his normal speech patterns were disrupted by numerical formations rather than the use of words. He became obsessed with numbers largely because he sometimes had nothing better to do but count the days he was being kept behind locked doors and was obsessed, specifically, with finding out when he would be set free. This is a compulsion seen not in Quills so much, because this was shown more in his written personal correspondences (such as diaries) than his actual fictions (though the 120 Days of Sodom, in particular, shows a lot of this in its fixation on geometry and body counts, and it is singled out among his writings at times for this reason), and it's impossible to bring into actual movie dialogue. I have tried to illustrate this to the best of my ability when he has had relapses while on the Barge.
The film displays a condensed view of the Marquis' gradual sliding into madness throughout his life. At the start of the film, he is especially eccentric already, dialogue saturated in sexual references, but he is mostly harmless, if just a bit bitchy. At this point he is not permitted to entertain guests in his room, but the Abbe does visit with him and humor him with friendly banter. Sometimes he has even been permitted to take walks on the grounds. He also directs productions in the local theatre, as drama has always been a particular hobby of his. This is the most normal existence he has had while imprisoned up until this point. The Abbe mentions that when he was first imprisoned there he was violent toward the other Inmates and had to be kept away from them for their own safety and for his. When he encouraged him to write again, this stopped. His fictions, at this point, are violent, yes, still erotic and sexual in nature (he doesn't get conjugal visits).
As more of his freedoms are taken and he must improvise ways to write, he comes decidedly more brazen in the subjects of his fictions, moving onward to necrophilia. When still more freedoms are taken, and he chooses to injure himself and write with his own blood, the story that he drafts on his own clothing is one taken directly from the original play, about a little boy who is kidnapped by a group of priests who molest him and then murder him in a grisly fashion. When finally all things are taken from him, he has spent hours being waterboarded, he and the Abbe, as friends, have completely turned on each other, and the dearest among his friends is due to be sent away forever. Here, he employs passing his words along to other Inmates to reach Madeleine who wishes to write them down. The subject matter, at this height of stressful times for him, involves a libertine mutilating a prostitute while having sex with her. His final writing, after he has been dropped into a rat-infested hole in the ground and chained, after his tongue has been cut out, is of a an indeterminate subject matter, but written in feces on the walls of his cell. His writing, the means by which he records it, and its tenor tend to set the stage for his mental state at the time. It is a condensed version of the madness he has been slipping in and out of for more than half of his life, and its severity is determined entirely by how trapped he happens to feel at the time. To quote Albert Camus in his studies of De Sade: "Long or unjust jail terms do not inspire conciliatory attitudes. Intelligence in chains loses in lucidity what it gains in intensity. In prison, dreams have no limits and reality no curb." This was made in reference to the Marquis' writing before he ever began writing pornography, decades before Charenton, and it is no less apt when compared here to the film adaptation of the figure.
3. Why doesn't the Marquis talk so dirty anymore? Simply put, he has more people to talk to and more freedom with which to pursue conversation and more intimate liasions. (To be fair, the screenplay, even letters and other historical evidence would show that he doesn't talk like that all the time anyway.) I have decided that the freedoms he has now -- freedom to take guests as he wishes, freedom to pursue sexual encounters if he so desires, and in general being in an environment where people are mostly okay with how open he is about sexuality has not necessarily tamed him so much as made him feel like it's less necessary to be vulgar. Make no mistake, he often still is, particularly when he's out to shock someone. The difference between now and when he first arrived on the Barge is that he does not so often feel the desire to shock people so much anymore. He doesn't need to try so hard to get people's attention, because he's by and large counted as a voice of reason (shocking, yes) on the Barge and a senior Warden. The amount of control this grants him balances him very well.
4. Why is the Marquis a Warden? Because he was an Inmate who completed his redemption arc and graduated, plainly put, and he's happier on the Barge than he would be anywhere else.
At his most insane, the Marquis has always had a very strong sense of integrity -- which is defined on his own terms. He may write what he wishes, he may say whatever the Hell he feels like, but there are certain things he simply won't do. He knows the difference between right and wrong, and despite his chequered history, despite claims to the contrary and the subject matter of his writing, he does have clearly defined views of what is truly good and truly evil. In his youth he had pretty dubious ideas about how contracts with prostitutes changed things, definitely, but he's much older and not in a position to solicit and less desirous to do so. He has ideas of what real harm is, beyond the perception of harm via offense, and his attitudes stem from a general pessimism toward normal, rational human beings to take in the things they view around them responsibly.
As a Warden, formerly an Inmate, the Marquis could almost be viewed as conservative in how he cares for his Inmate. He instills a policy of brutal honesty and since Iago for the last two years had a problem with being deceptive, this policy has served him well. It was not until the last six months, at least, that he allowed Iago to speak with him behind private filters, and even still has not fully returned his right to communicate privately with people (without the Marquis seeing it). He is a stern taskmaster, and not one to be challenged when it comes to a battle of wills. He held out until death in his first life, potential Inmates, and he will outlast you now.
His libertine attitudes still shine through. He blasphemes openly, and happily, and doesn't think sexual harassment is a bad thing. He does not recognize the Wardens as a governing group and he will not be dictated to by the group or by any specific Warden. He does not acknowledge the rules they instill as being valid, and some examples of this are that he will, and has, killed people for harming his Inmate. He has openly warned people of this in the past, and to anyone that knows his history well, this should be a testament to how serious he considers attacks on his charges. In his early history, despite being regarded as a sadist, he was a non-violent one and abhorred bloodshed. He's not even known to have gone hunting. When he has been in trouble he has hesitated to involve the Wardens to settle things because he finds it hypocritical, now, to indulge in their protections when at every vote held he either refuses to vote outright or gives his opinion and then leaves. He does not acknowledge their authority; he BARELY acknowledged the authority of his own Warden when he was an Inmate and in fact only graduated when he came to a realization on his own to take responsibility for his own actions and inactions -- both in deliberately inciting behavior and behaving poorly himself.
5. What are the Marquis' sexual preferences? What is his stance on BDSM? I take my understanding of the Marquis' sexual orientation from historical evidence that is corroborated by the film. He is definitely bisexual, enjoying sex with both men and women. However, his role in the bedroom changes drastically depending upon the gender of his partner. (Cracked.com is flat wrong -- he's an ass man, but he likes girl butts way more than boy butts. Go figure.) The word sadism derives from his name, and a sadist, or one who enjoys inflicting pain, is generally seen in a dominant role. The Marquis most definitely does take an active dominant role in the bedroom -- when he's with a woman. The Marquis does not enjoy sleeping with dominant women, in most cases, because they remind him too much of his mother-in-law -- who had him jailed REPEATEDLY. Dominant women make him feel trapped and unprotected. His wife was a perfect example of what he tended to indulge in -- she was very submissive and despite his wild and abusive behavior was rather dependent upon his affections. When sleeping with men, he generally tends to take on a more passive or submissive role (but no less vocal -- he's kind of a talker). He does openly flirt with other men in the movie, propositioning the Abbe on several occasions but a more overt example of his preference for this role in the bedroom can be seen in the set design of his cell -- he has an inordinate amount of sex toys of a phallic nature, and historical accounts will confirm that he kept and used those for himself. His wife even brings him a few and makes reference to how he uses them in the movie.
The Marquis is at times a sadist and enjoys inflicting pain during sex, but not always. He is also a masochist and enjoys receiving pain as well. In fact, he has been arrested more times after being caught during or reported for acts in which someone was beating, lashing, or in some other way doing physical harm to him. This is not as overtly showcased in the movie as much as it is during the play (because less was done to him toward the end of the movie than in the play), but it's still referenced regularly -- particularly when he shudders and chuckles at the notion of Doctor Royer-Collard flaying him alive, musing that he is a man "after his own heart".
As far as strict BDSM culture is concerned, the Marquis does not fully conform and should not be expected to. He is not here to be anyone's kinky role model. He still talks rather openly about sex -- though his practices and the "advice" he gives has been tempered by a careful study and understanding of certain norms and rules within modern culture that he happens to think make sense. These rules -- particularly in a BDSM setting -- and definitions of fetishes, simply did not exist in his time. He predates these notions. He's amused to have inspired some of the terms, even some of the manners in which some ideas are defined, and seeing them organized has made him reconsider some of his own practices. He does this because, in some cases, these new rules (such as making certain to create a "safe" environment, and rules of consent and safe words) make sense to him and seem fair. In other cases, he knows there are no prostitutes on board and if he wants to get laid then he has to adapt with the times or risk scaring everyone away. He is actually equipped, despite his eccentricities, to give probably rather sound advice regarding sex and self-acceptance when it comes to one's preferences.
While we're on the subject, there are certain sexual practices he writes about that he either never took part in (like bestiality or, essentially 'snuff'), or that he might have tried when he was younger (like other squicky things that make this writer go 'WTH MARQUIS'), that he probably would not indulge in now unless a partner encouraged him to try it again.
More points will be added as I remember more and as it becomes necessary. Comments and questions are welcome because it will help me to add more onto this as I need to.
People who find this journal may have questions about the character, or view him as different from how they expected. One must bear in mind this character has been in one game for almost three and a half years. 1 1/2 years were spent devoted to an ongoing redemption arc, as fits the premise of the game. He HAS changed in some ways. This post just sort of covers some of the whys, along with canon assumptions.
Table of Contents:
1. Was the Marquis de Sade sane at the time of his death?
2. Why does the Marquis go crazy specifically when he's alone for too long?
3. Why doesn't the Marquis talk so dirty anymore?
4. Why is the Marquis a Warden?
5. What are the Marquis' sexual preferences? What is his stance on BDSM?
1. Was the Marquis de Sade sane at the time of his death? Absolutely not. Historians have largely agreed he displayed numerous psychological issues in life, culminating in a base diagnosis of "regressive neurosis". But to lean specifically on the film: Taken both from my understanding of the film and Doug Wright (the original writer) in his DVD commentary, the Marquis was probably not even fully sane when he was first re-interred in Charenton some years before the start of the film. (I say re-interred because he spent a brief and much shorter stint there before his final incarceration, historically.) The Abbe de Coulmier presented in the film seemed unusual in that he was employing forms of actual therapy for the patients in his care, the Marquis included. He encouraged him to write as a means to purge his evil thoughts, not realizing perhaps that the Marquis is shown in the film and is known in his history to have written a great deal while imprisoned because he had nothing else to do and no one to talk to. (More on this in the next point.) He was already writing compulsively as a way of coping with stress. The Terror was noted both in history and in Doug Wright's interpretation of him as being an extremely traumatizing time in his life, because he saw literally thousands of people beheaded right outside the window of his cell. His language throughout the film is constantly peppered with references to it, but he never explicitly tells his keepers that he's still suffering and for whatever reason neither the Abbe nor Royer-Collard seem to understand it's something he actually needs to deal with (and after three years on the barge he still hasn't). Instead they try to cure symptoms rather than the actual cause. He was NOT a sane man at the time of his death -- doubly obvious because he committed suicide, and he got increasingly less sane as the movie progressed because more and more of his freedoms were taken away and he became more and more like a prisoner again.
2. Why does the Marquis go crazy specifically when he's alone for too long? I've chosen to present the Marquis as a man whose compulsions and dysfunctions are directly tied to how long and often he is secluded from other people -- not just when this is imposed by outside forces that he can't control, but also when he himself cuts himself off from other people without meaning to. This is a man who spent roughly 27 years in prisons of some shape or form, for a large chunk of them being unaware of what he was charged for (or not being charged at all, as his wife's mother had been given leave by the King to throw him in jail whenever the Hell she felt like it), and often unaware of when they would release him. Large stints were spent without visitors or proper correspondence of any kind. Before his longest stint in prison (his family was often good at getting him out and he escaped from prison and arrest on numerous occasions), his historically recognized psychological issues tended to stem from what historians inferred as the absence of attention -- more that he felt forgotten, and despite the horrible stress being hunted and reviled brought down on his family, particularly his wife and children, it's something he was addicted to. This would lead to his wilder sexual exploits in his youth -- including his most infamous, a six-week long bacchanal at his chateau in La Coste involving numerous staff members roughly 15 years of age -- which were not well hidden from prying eyes and ears even when he was a fugitive from the law. (This ultimately culminated in the father of one of his employees attempting to murder him in public view, and he would have succeeded had there not been a blank shell in his pistol. The Marquis had become so hated and so reviled even in his own domain that no lawyer would help him press charges for attempted murder, and this would have been a major turning point in his life had his mother-in-law not fucked it up by having him thrown in prison -- where he would remain for 13 years [his longest stint before then had been two or three years].) Later in life, this feeling, this compulsive dread of being "forgotten" became more closely associated with the loneliness he endured in prisons, and so he began to write obsessively instead, or when given the opportunity, incite people to anger verbally.
Doug Wright takes the stance in his writing, with which I wholly agree, that the Marquis' worst writings were when he was the most bored and lonely. It is evidenced in many of the Marquis' journals that forced seclusion so strongly affected him that it actually had an adverse affect on his language, where much of his normal speech patterns were disrupted by numerical formations rather than the use of words. He became obsessed with numbers largely because he sometimes had nothing better to do but count the days he was being kept behind locked doors and was obsessed, specifically, with finding out when he would be set free. This is a compulsion seen not in Quills so much, because this was shown more in his written personal correspondences (such as diaries) than his actual fictions (though the 120 Days of Sodom, in particular, shows a lot of this in its fixation on geometry and body counts, and it is singled out among his writings at times for this reason), and it's impossible to bring into actual movie dialogue. I have tried to illustrate this to the best of my ability when he has had relapses while on the Barge.
The film displays a condensed view of the Marquis' gradual sliding into madness throughout his life. At the start of the film, he is especially eccentric already, dialogue saturated in sexual references, but he is mostly harmless, if just a bit bitchy. At this point he is not permitted to entertain guests in his room, but the Abbe does visit with him and humor him with friendly banter. Sometimes he has even been permitted to take walks on the grounds. He also directs productions in the local theatre, as drama has always been a particular hobby of his. This is the most normal existence he has had while imprisoned up until this point. The Abbe mentions that when he was first imprisoned there he was violent toward the other Inmates and had to be kept away from them for their own safety and for his. When he encouraged him to write again, this stopped. His fictions, at this point, are violent, yes, still erotic and sexual in nature (he doesn't get conjugal visits).
As more of his freedoms are taken and he must improvise ways to write, he comes decidedly more brazen in the subjects of his fictions, moving onward to necrophilia. When still more freedoms are taken, and he chooses to injure himself and write with his own blood, the story that he drafts on his own clothing is one taken directly from the original play, about a little boy who is kidnapped by a group of priests who molest him and then murder him in a grisly fashion. When finally all things are taken from him, he has spent hours being waterboarded, he and the Abbe, as friends, have completely turned on each other, and the dearest among his friends is due to be sent away forever. Here, he employs passing his words along to other Inmates to reach Madeleine who wishes to write them down. The subject matter, at this height of stressful times for him, involves a libertine mutilating a prostitute while having sex with her. His final writing, after he has been dropped into a rat-infested hole in the ground and chained, after his tongue has been cut out, is of a an indeterminate subject matter, but written in feces on the walls of his cell. His writing, the means by which he records it, and its tenor tend to set the stage for his mental state at the time. It is a condensed version of the madness he has been slipping in and out of for more than half of his life, and its severity is determined entirely by how trapped he happens to feel at the time. To quote Albert Camus in his studies of De Sade: "Long or unjust jail terms do not inspire conciliatory attitudes. Intelligence in chains loses in lucidity what it gains in intensity. In prison, dreams have no limits and reality no curb." This was made in reference to the Marquis' writing before he ever began writing pornography, decades before Charenton, and it is no less apt when compared here to the film adaptation of the figure.
3. Why doesn't the Marquis talk so dirty anymore? Simply put, he has more people to talk to and more freedom with which to pursue conversation and more intimate liasions. (To be fair, the screenplay, even letters and other historical evidence would show that he doesn't talk like that all the time anyway.) I have decided that the freedoms he has now -- freedom to take guests as he wishes, freedom to pursue sexual encounters if he so desires, and in general being in an environment where people are mostly okay with how open he is about sexuality has not necessarily tamed him so much as made him feel like it's less necessary to be vulgar. Make no mistake, he often still is, particularly when he's out to shock someone. The difference between now and when he first arrived on the Barge is that he does not so often feel the desire to shock people so much anymore. He doesn't need to try so hard to get people's attention, because he's by and large counted as a voice of reason (shocking, yes) on the Barge and a senior Warden. The amount of control this grants him balances him very well.
4. Why is the Marquis a Warden? Because he was an Inmate who completed his redemption arc and graduated, plainly put, and he's happier on the Barge than he would be anywhere else.
At his most insane, the Marquis has always had a very strong sense of integrity -- which is defined on his own terms. He may write what he wishes, he may say whatever the Hell he feels like, but there are certain things he simply won't do. He knows the difference between right and wrong, and despite his chequered history, despite claims to the contrary and the subject matter of his writing, he does have clearly defined views of what is truly good and truly evil. In his youth he had pretty dubious ideas about how contracts with prostitutes changed things, definitely, but he's much older and not in a position to solicit and less desirous to do so. He has ideas of what real harm is, beyond the perception of harm via offense, and his attitudes stem from a general pessimism toward normal, rational human beings to take in the things they view around them responsibly.
As a Warden, formerly an Inmate, the Marquis could almost be viewed as conservative in how he cares for his Inmate. He instills a policy of brutal honesty and since Iago for the last two years had a problem with being deceptive, this policy has served him well. It was not until the last six months, at least, that he allowed Iago to speak with him behind private filters, and even still has not fully returned his right to communicate privately with people (without the Marquis seeing it). He is a stern taskmaster, and not one to be challenged when it comes to a battle of wills. He held out until death in his first life, potential Inmates, and he will outlast you now.
His libertine attitudes still shine through. He blasphemes openly, and happily, and doesn't think sexual harassment is a bad thing. He does not recognize the Wardens as a governing group and he will not be dictated to by the group or by any specific Warden. He does not acknowledge the rules they instill as being valid, and some examples of this are that he will, and has, killed people for harming his Inmate. He has openly warned people of this in the past, and to anyone that knows his history well, this should be a testament to how serious he considers attacks on his charges. In his early history, despite being regarded as a sadist, he was a non-violent one and abhorred bloodshed. He's not even known to have gone hunting. When he has been in trouble he has hesitated to involve the Wardens to settle things because he finds it hypocritical, now, to indulge in their protections when at every vote held he either refuses to vote outright or gives his opinion and then leaves. He does not acknowledge their authority; he BARELY acknowledged the authority of his own Warden when he was an Inmate and in fact only graduated when he came to a realization on his own to take responsibility for his own actions and inactions -- both in deliberately inciting behavior and behaving poorly himself.
5. What are the Marquis' sexual preferences? What is his stance on BDSM? I take my understanding of the Marquis' sexual orientation from historical evidence that is corroborated by the film. He is definitely bisexual, enjoying sex with both men and women. However, his role in the bedroom changes drastically depending upon the gender of his partner. (Cracked.com is flat wrong -- he's an ass man, but he likes girl butts way more than boy butts. Go figure.) The word sadism derives from his name, and a sadist, or one who enjoys inflicting pain, is generally seen in a dominant role. The Marquis most definitely does take an active dominant role in the bedroom -- when he's with a woman. The Marquis does not enjoy sleeping with dominant women, in most cases, because they remind him too much of his mother-in-law -- who had him jailed REPEATEDLY. Dominant women make him feel trapped and unprotected. His wife was a perfect example of what he tended to indulge in -- she was very submissive and despite his wild and abusive behavior was rather dependent upon his affections. When sleeping with men, he generally tends to take on a more passive or submissive role (but no less vocal -- he's kind of a talker). He does openly flirt with other men in the movie, propositioning the Abbe on several occasions but a more overt example of his preference for this role in the bedroom can be seen in the set design of his cell -- he has an inordinate amount of sex toys of a phallic nature, and historical accounts will confirm that he kept and used those for himself. His wife even brings him a few and makes reference to how he uses them in the movie.
The Marquis is at times a sadist and enjoys inflicting pain during sex, but not always. He is also a masochist and enjoys receiving pain as well. In fact, he has been arrested more times after being caught during or reported for acts in which someone was beating, lashing, or in some other way doing physical harm to him. This is not as overtly showcased in the movie as much as it is during the play (because less was done to him toward the end of the movie than in the play), but it's still referenced regularly -- particularly when he shudders and chuckles at the notion of Doctor Royer-Collard flaying him alive, musing that he is a man "after his own heart".
As far as strict BDSM culture is concerned, the Marquis does not fully conform and should not be expected to. He is not here to be anyone's kinky role model. He still talks rather openly about sex -- though his practices and the "advice" he gives has been tempered by a careful study and understanding of certain norms and rules within modern culture that he happens to think make sense. These rules -- particularly in a BDSM setting -- and definitions of fetishes, simply did not exist in his time. He predates these notions. He's amused to have inspired some of the terms, even some of the manners in which some ideas are defined, and seeing them organized has made him reconsider some of his own practices. He does this because, in some cases, these new rules (such as making certain to create a "safe" environment, and rules of consent and safe words) make sense to him and seem fair. In other cases, he knows there are no prostitutes on board and if he wants to get laid then he has to adapt with the times or risk scaring everyone away. He is actually equipped, despite his eccentricities, to give probably rather sound advice regarding sex and self-acceptance when it comes to one's preferences.
While we're on the subject, there are certain sexual practices he writes about that he either never took part in (like bestiality or, essentially 'snuff'), or that he might have tried when he was younger (like other squicky things that make this writer go 'WTH MARQUIS'), that he probably would not indulge in now unless a partner encouraged him to try it again.
More points will be added as I remember more and as it becomes necessary. Comments and questions are welcome because it will help me to add more onto this as I need to.