If this man didn't exist, the marquis de sade would have had to invent him
Maid & Lion
I've wanted to write this essay for a long time: the obscure 18th Century anti-Enlightenment philosopher Joseph de Maistre is, in many ways, the great-grandfather of 4chan.
He was reaction personified, but also very much a product of the modernity he railed against--and unintelligible without it.
In the writings of 18th-century monarchist Joseph de Maistre, we see the ur-shape of reaction: violent, irrational, modernity against itself.
