Look, even if you (like me) have read a lot of outsider shock novels from the 90s, it’s still a lot to read a dude’s graphic murder fantasies for 130 pages.
Special thanks to Anile for commissioning this episode! You can find out more about commissions on our Patreon.
This month we stretch our muscles by getting into some ~literary fiction~! More precisely, the work of Dennis Cooper, a big name in queer outsider art who influenced previous DBC alumni Billy Martin (aka Poppy Z Brite) and Chuck Palahniuk and whose published alongside inevitable future subject Brett Easton Ellis.
FRISK, the story of a dude who has a lot of sex and even more fantasies about violently murdering his partners, is considered his most intimidating work so….let’s plunge right into that deep end! Pack a bag, because we did a LOT of extra reading for this one. Also, all the content warnings. My God, all of them.
CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of sexual assault, pedophilia, coprophagia, water sports, snuff, necrophilia, graphic descriptions of gore/dismemberment, racism, queerphobia, transphobia, grooming, ageism, and misogyny.
The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction
William S Burroughs’ Nike Commercial
Cooper’s Formalism and The Sluts
Interview w/ Cooper’s Biographer
Article BY Cooper’s Biographer
Personal Relationships in Cooper’s Writing (Salon)
Not Like Other Gays (Honcho Magazine)
1:00 Content Warnings
4:00 Drinks
9:00 A Helpful Timeline
14:00 OH Shit, it’s the Frankfurt School
26:00 Sexual, Not Erotic
30:00 The Sad But Not Ballad of Dennis Cooper
42:00 “In Your Lane” vs “Blinkers On”
57:00 Interview Diving
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