De Sade's writing is the endless elaboration of a single principle: "Virtue is vice, and vice is virtue" -- an incitement to debauchery, depravity, and decadence, and a testament to the value of the animal passions. But de Sade didn't merely celebrate and praise acts of sexual perversion and violence

Agitated, Erotic, Excessive, Literature of transgression, Perverse, Phallic, Primal, Repetitive, Violent

Sandra Bernhard dares us to behold her in all her glory: she is a defiant, self-made beauty queen, a queen who knows that confidence is everything. In the body- and image-obsessed town of Los Angeles, Bernhard has managed to foster a steadily thriving career as an astute and wickedly funny cultural c

Agitated, Eclectic, Elegant, Grand, Sardonic, Sexy, Solo performance, Witty

In yet another insightful stab at pop culture, the television show "South Park" aired an episode that posed this truly horrifying question: what would happen if Barbra Streisand came upon some secret power source that enabled her to be a many-times-exaggerated version of herself? The show dubbed this

Agitated, Depressive, Dramatic, Melancholy, Punk, Quirky, Sardonic, Witty

Ireland. Ire. Irony. This euphonious trio of words explains the humor of Jonathan Swift; though he reportedly bore the most dour countenance in history, his wit could make readers laugh through his bile. Swift's "Modest Proposal for Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burde

18th century literature, Agitated, Augustan literature, Dystopic, Excessive, Ironic, Playful, Sardonic, Witty