The Fan-Maker's Inquisition
by Rikki Ducornet
List Price: $14.00
Pages: 212
Format: Paperback
ISBN: 0345441044
Publisher: Ballantine
"A fan is like the thighs of a woman: it opens and closes." And so begins
this lush, historical novel --- a mixture of imagination and conceit, passion
and suspense. In a tense courtroom during the French Revolution, a young
fan-maker, renowned all over Paris for her sensual and graphic objets
d'art, is on trial because of her collaboration with the Marquis de Sade.
Heads will roll unless the independent fan-maker, erotically cast in the
shadow of Sade, can justify her art and friendships to a court known for
its rigid and prudish proprieties.
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1. A central them
in The Fan-Maker's Inquisition is the ability of imagination to bring
a world into existence. What role does imagination play in the worlds
created by Sade, Gabrielle, and Bishop Landa?
2. Parodying Descartes'
intellectual starting point, "I think therefore I am," Gabrielle and Sade
have their fictional laborers assert "I stink therefore I am." According
to the novel, can the world sometimes be best known through the body?
When?
3. Lists of exotic
kitchens, fantastic meals, bizarre machines and other inventions appear
throughout The Fan-Maker's Inquisition. Discuss how these lists serve
as "miniatures" within the novel. How do they help tell the story?
4. According to the
novel, does unlimited personal freedom always lead to murder and perversion?
Does unlimited institutional freedom?
5. Class differences
were central to the French Revolution. Do you think Sade's opinions would
differ if he, like Gabrielle, had been a member of the artisan/worker
class instead of a member of the aristocracy? Would Gabrielle's values
differ is she was a member of the aristocracy? Do class differences play
a role in this novel?
6. At the beginning
of the novel, Gabrielle states that a fan opens like the "thighs of a
woman" and "produces its own weather." Later we are told that a "book
will open like a fan." Discuss how this novel is like one of Gabrielle's
fans. What is the nature of the "weather" it produces? What is its desired
effect on the world?
7. According to Gabrielle,
is brutality, like beauty, always in the eye of the beholder? Is all truth
subjective?
8. Rather than trying
to explain the world, The Fan-Maker's Inquisition often tries to show
how mysterious it can be. Is this a worthwhile goal? Explain.
9. Do you agree with
Sade's statement that "The best books cause us to dream; the rest are
not worth reading?" Explain how Ducornet's lyrical prose style reinforces
this world view.
10. According to the
novel, are "idealism" and "reigns of terror" two sides of the same coin?
Do Sade's crimes differ from those he accuses governments and religions
of committing? Do intentions matter?
11. How would you
describe the relationship between Gabrielle and Sade?
12. Gabrielle tells
the court that "Sade offers [us] a mirror." Does he? What do we see reflected
in him? How does reading about Sade and Gabrielle make you feel about
your own life? Your own country? Your own moment in history?
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"Startling and evocative… A novelist whose vocabulary sweats with a kind of lyrical heat."
—The New York Times
"A GLORIOUSLY PERFUMED NOVEL… SEXY, SMART, AND NARCOTIC… One of the most vigorous celebrations of the imagination, written by an artisan of uncommon talent."
—Los Angeles Times
"A LUSCIOUS AND FIERY REVERIE ON SEX, ART, AND THE MARQUIS DE SADE… Through her wit and magical language, Ducornet turns the chronicle of an inquisition into irresistible reading."
—Entertainment Weekly
