sotos

Started by FreakAnimalFinland, March 04, 2010, 08:29:07 PM

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Deadpriest

My book of poetry: http://www.histergrant.com/

david lloyd jones

the link don't work, but if hipster fags, nonces and homos want to wear a buyers market t shirt then copyright law is all.
surely the rarity and 'difficulty' of Soto encourages these people?

HongKongGoolagong

"This music and imagery drags the listener down to a terrible and lightless place every time if you let it. A terrible pull of depression and abjection performed with a malevolence any black metal or power electronics musician could only dream of, all the more powerful for mischievously coming in the disguise of pop music, and all the more resonant for me because of what was happening when I got so into it. Yayo is a supergravitational despair anthem, whether you are the mortified Daddy watching through fingers or the one who pathetically wants to put on a show.

Then I thought about comparing Lana Del Rey to Peter Sotos in a book called Arthouse, because I experience similar misery when thinking about either of them. Re-reading the complete works of an infamous underground writer as preparation for a long section of critical reviews in Arthouse was profoundly unpleasant and depressing. The juvenilia which is the only material those foolish enough to have curiosity about his work have generally read is truly hateful and infantile. The '90s material which received legitimate bookshop distribution makes any reader despair of humanity and provokes a feeling of nausea and leaves mental scars. It's not until the lesser known post-2000 series that began with Selfish, Little that the tone descends even further and probes the mind of the reader with real cruelty. Some of these books were in absurdly tiny editions and are almost impossible to obtain, and vile volumes such as Show Adult and Mine - which now sell for hundreds of pounds to connoisseurs - also clearly show a world-class writer at the height of his powers who spends many dark and lonely hours creating these texts for a very small audience with no hope of making a living from this. The only person who will publish him now has a cranky company who also print the delusional ravings of Holocaust deniers, which speaks of his entirely fitting marginalisation. Would I recommend anyone read his work? No. I find the effects he can have on anyone willing to read it remarkable, and very obviously there is no comparable writer, unless we look back to Genet's prison writings or Sade. All light will be blacked out. All Rights Reversed. He is unspeakable and no one wants to say his name. I have learned techniques from these books about how to write. I also learned harsh moral lessons, very uncomfortable truths, how the notion of 'redemption' works, and more than I really wanted to know about anonymous all-male sex.

And without Andrea Dworkin, Sotos wouldn't exist. You search in vain for many mentions of food in her books. She must surely have binged and comfort eaten to terrible extremes..."

Deadpriest

Quote from: Peterson on February 02, 2017, 05:50:13 PM
I love that you and Peter are obsessed with the white elephant of Dworkin's obvious weight issue in conjunction with, well, other issues.

Anyway, Desistance on the way. If it's the follow-up to Mine that I expect, shouldn't disappoint. Either way, I like the old-man tendencies creeping up since around Selfish, Little. Anyone willing to part with a copy of Home, please get in touch.

Wanna buy a copy of Mine?
My book of poetry: http://www.histergrant.com/

Deadpriest

Quote from: Peterson on February 02, 2017, 07:57:55 PM
No, I specifically asked for Home and figured it was implied I already own a copy of Mine. Deadpriest, all due respect, you strike me as characteristically oblivious.




That's probably fair...
My book of poetry: http://www.histergrant.com/

Deadpriest

Quote from: Peterson on February 02, 2017, 07:57:55 PM
No, I specifically asked for Home and figured it was implied I already own a copy of Mine. Deadpriest, all due respect, you strike me as characteristically oblivious.




I could have replied 'I don't know what you mean' but the moment's gone.
My book of poetry: http://www.histergrant.com/

Deadpriest

My book of poetry: http://www.histergrant.com/

NIT

'Home' will be reprinted in upcoming Kiddiepunk anthology out in early march.

Peterson

#293
I'm nearly finished with Desistance, and already, it's almost necessitated that I draft questions to ask Peter about the book, which I have, but will likely never reach him. So far, I've noticed that no one has commented on the likelihood that Desistance is more or less the swan song to his major body of work, if not the entire writing career itself - not one person has mentioned that since "Mine," most of the anecdotes have been written in the extreme past-tense, in addition to the fact that he describes himself as "a dying old man." Let's hope that's not quite the case, but mentions of chemotherapy alongside weight loss and thinning hair could mean a variety of things either typical to any older man or perhaps more specific to those who share some of his health risks.

"For older and middle-aged men, the refractory period between potential for ejaculation or orgasm increases with age and often corresponds to existing health problems."  - Discovery Series Introduction to Human Sexuality

As well as his assessment of artists like Antoine D'Agata, the book also seems to be a run-through of major influences in his lifestyle, manner of thinking, self-perception, and attitudes; some of them being formative sexual experiences from his teens (I suppose every compulsive masturbator of either sex will write about this given the loneliness and time allotted), methamphetamine (which is a huge preoccupation for this book - one might safely characterize the style of language in his books as when meth and a hyperactive, hyper-perceptive intellect combine with spiraling sexual obsessions and a semantics fetish), gay porn, and the Bijou theater; all of which seem to be less present in his current day-to-day life, which if I'm reading this book correctly, is all the more desperate and devoid of proper methods to sate his urges without the latter especially. If I was an older man with dwindling access points to the staples I'd clung to as a young man, left with the task of reflecting on my life spent in such a manner, I'd most likely write this book as well - there's a distinct sense of accountability, honesty, depression and bereavement, whereas earlier works were saturated with heavy characterization and anger/hate/revulsion (alongside an observable humanity more present in these later works, that I think most readers skip over in favor of titillation and "ooh ahh" shock value). But don't worry, the pornographically-minded with eyes firmly affixed to the gutter have plenty to appreciate here.

As such, this book also seems to provide some insight into the literary formula Sotos uses, and might provide some really specific information to those who have access to his entire body published work - with enough familiarity, you begin to see the patterns of influence that converged in his mind to result in his peculiar style of writing: there's song lyrics (he likes the Rolling Stones and Lou Reed as much as I do, seemingly), "found" text from media sources, pornography, and some deeply-buried references to various philosophy, linguistics, and political texts most people would never read unless prompted in an academic context. He also seems to poke fun at a handful of well-known novels (which he's done since the beginning), and if I'm not mistaken, there's a passage wherein he mocks a certain famous Nabokov novel, placing himself as a Humbert of sorts.

In addition, the autobiographical elements continue to creep in at both inappropriate and opportune junctures within the text, providing some very nice contrast between the various incarnations of Sotos and his mindset; as a younger boy, as a growing young adult, a confused middle-aged man, and now, a "dying old man." I really enjoy that we're provided some background here, and see shards of normal development in the life of a man who many consider to be a walking example of abnormality and potentially less kind adjectives. In doing this, Sotos seems to establish that there is an everyday, "normal" Peter that is not particularly present in these books, and lives/exists in a different headspace (there are even some not-so-vague references to estranged children, and not in the context we'd typically associate with Sotos - have you ever had a friend who you didn't know was a parent until you saw them mail the child support check?). Logically, there would have to be, if you're to maintain a job and keep up with the bills. More than what's claimed in his work and what he's accused of by the ignorant, Sotos is a writer, and a really talented one. It's never been a joke when I've suggested that other subject matter would be just as compelling in his hands.

Which begs the question, and again brings up Sotos' formula: when anecdotes use the first-person voice and describe a "character" who is ostensibly Sotos himself, how are we to discern which of these is a fictionalization, which is an outright fabrication, and which is pure, unbleached honesty? Are all of them a combination of the three variants? There's enough contradiction to give weight to the theory that there is an actual Sotos autobiographical voice in contrast to a heavily-embellished Sotos "character." Beyond that, it feels as if there is also an external, social Sotos voice in addition to the internal, stream-of-consciousness exploration of his psychology, without a filter, and organized on it's own terms/logic. Oh, and it might help if you're familiar with Chomsky's Syntactic Structures, alongside which methamphetamine, Lou Reed albums, and selective memory recall may be the "key" to Sotos' work from an analytical standpoint.

If you're looking for some kind of cracking point in Sotos' work, where a kind of guide or legend exposes itself, you won't find that here, but if you've been trying to keep up and doing the work all along, there is really no need for Sotos to explain everything to you in plain terms (as if you were owed that in the first place). It's my conclusion that he's not attempting to define or lay out terms for anything, but more just explaining his own perspective through multiple voices and methodologies; all aspects of the writing fall under that umbrella, and the arrangement of purpose and intent is probably best left for the reader to discern. A friend of mine observed that to fully understand what you can glean from Sotos' work, is that having read the entirety of it is totally necessary. She's probably right.

RyanWreck

Quote from: Peterson on February 02, 2017, 05:50:13 PM

Anyway, Desistance on the way. If it's the follow-up to Mine that I expect, shouldn't disappoint. Either way, I like the old-man tendencies creeping up since around Selfish, Little. Anyone willing to part with a copy of Home, please get in touch.

I had "Home" until just a month ago when i traded it. Any other Sotos you're looking fot? Would be quite easy to trade or borrow shit since we live in the same town.


simulacrum

#295
Anyone with a Rude Shape edition of Special? Is the lower black part of the book supposed to look distressed, or is the copy I'm looking at just beat to shit? Any input is appreciated.

P.S. In case I'm fucking up the edition, the one I'm asking about is the one that says Adults Only in the black oval on the back.

Smegma

#296
Quote from: simulacrum on June 25, 2017, 07:16:49 AM
Anyone with a Rude Shape edition of Special? Is the lower black part of the book supposed to look distressed, or is the copy I'm looking at just beat to shit? Any input is appreciated.

P.S. In case I'm fucking up the edition, the one I'm asking about is the one that says Adults Only in the black oval on the back.

It looks like 'marble' down there.


Deadpriest

Without wanting to be completely redundant: that's meant to look like leather (which might make more sense).
My book of poetry: http://www.histergrant.com/

Smegma

Quote from: Deadpriest on June 29, 2017, 03:44:21 PM
Without wanting to be completely redundant: that's meant to look like leather (which might make more sense).


Thanks for your wonderfully insightful contribution on the book cover's texture pattern. You may now return to writing poetry.

Deadpriest

Quote from: Smegma on June 29, 2017, 05:16:08 PM
Quote from: Deadpriest on June 29, 2017, 03:44:21 PM
Without wanting to be completely redundant: that's meant to look like leather (which might make more sense).


Thanks for your wonderfully insightful contribution on the book cover's texture pattern. You may now return to writing poetry.

I didn't realise how cunty I sounded there, lol, I'm sorry, what an ass.
My book of poetry: http://www.histergrant.com/