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The blog of author Dennis Cooper

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80 Fun House Facades

 

‘A fun house is an amusement facility found on amusement park and funfair midways in which patrons encounter and actively interact with various devices designed to surprise, challenge, and amuse the visitor. Unlike thrill rides, funhouses are participatory attractions, where visitors enter and move around under their own power. Incorporating aspects of a playful obstacle course, funhouses seek to distort conventional perceptions and startle people with unstable and unpredictable physical circumstances within an atmosphere of wacky whimsicality.

‘Appearing originally in the early 1900s at Coney Island, the funhouse is so called because in its initial form it was just that: a house or larger building containing a number of amusement devices. At first these were mainly mechanical devices. Some could be described as enlarged, motorized versions of what might be found on a children’s playground.

‘Some fun houses would bring new arrivals through a short series of dark corridors or a mirror maze or a door maze (many identical doors forming squares, only one of which would open outward in each square), often leading onto a small stage where they had to negotiate a series of rocking floors, airjets and other obstacles while people already inside the funhouse could watch and laugh at them. A few places even provided bench seats for the watchers. Once patrons were inside they could stay as long as they wanted, moving from one attraction to another, repeating each one as many times as they chose.

‘Through the first half of the 20th century most amusement parks had this type of fun house, but its free-form design was its undoing. It was labor-intensive, needing an attendant at almost every device, and when people spent two hours in the fun house they weren’t out on the midway buying tickets to other rides and attractions. Traditional fun houses gave way to walk-throughs, where patrons followed a set path all the way through and emerged back on the midway a few minutes later. These preserved some of the traditional fun house features, including various kinds of moving floors, sometimes a revolving barrel and a small slide. They added such things as crooked rooms, where a combination of tilt and optical illusion made it hard to know which way was up, and dark corridors with various popup and jumpout surprises, optical illusions and sound effects.

‘Many traditional fun houses were removed after parks created walk-throughs. Some became dilapidated and were torn down. A few burned down; they were nearly all wood-frame buildings with extensive electrical wiring. Those that remained were all at traditional local amusement parks and died when those parks closed due to competition from new theme parks. No theme park ever created a traditional free-form stay-all-day fun house, but theme parks sometimes developed the walk-through attraction to new, high-tech heights. A few traditional fun houses are still operating in Europe and Australia.’ — collaged

 



Lost City

 


Hell Hole

 


Temple of Mirth

 


Alpen Hotel

 


Fun House

 


Dream of Venus

 


Urgewalt der Giganten

 


Hilarious

 


Helter Skelter

 


Fun House

 


Scaredy Catcher

 


Unknown

 


The Haunted Castle

 


Crazy Theater

 


Whoops

 


Fun House

 


Trauma Towers

 


The Crazy Mirrors

 


Unknown

 


Satan’s Den

 


Juke Box Music Fun House

 


Sydney’s Famous Mirror Maze

 


House of Terror

 


Fun House

 


Magic Circus

 


Alpine Fun House

 


Ferndale House of Mirrors

 


The Laughing Dark Castle

 


Planet Rock ‘n’ Roll

 


Cake Walk

 


Who Me?

 


Canuck Fun House

 


Noah’s Ark & Slide

 


Das Omen

 


Mystery Shack

 


Krazy Cottage

 


Playland

 


New York New York

 


Fun House

 


Mystery Machine

 


Fun House

 


Ecki

 


Fire Department Crazy Garage

 


Nanny Pearl’s Crooked Cottage

 


Laffland

 


Dr. Lehmann Horror Lazarett

 


Outhouse Inn

 


Magical Mirrors

 


The Wizard Awaits You

 


Phantasmagoria

 


Scared Factory

 


Funny Mirrors

 


Haunted Castle

 


Hof Freu Haus

 


Surf Shack

 


Planet Playstation

 


Laugh Land

 


The Barl of Fun

 


Funtime

 


Zavatta

 


Nightmare Mansion

 


Bob Tracey’s Magic Walkthrough

 



Fuzzy’s Lach Saloon

 


Jantsen Fun House

 


Chinatown Oriental Mirror Maze

 


Mr. Bean 4

 


Super Top Dance

 


3D Fun House

 


Slice of Life

 


Unknown

 


Giant Rat

 


Big Bamboo

 


Baron Funfrite’s Castle

 


Hell Hole

 


Unknown

 


Jigg’s Bungalow

 


Butlin’s Crazy House

 


Devils Inn

 


Happy Family

 


Death Valley Funny House

 


Wacky Shack

 

 

*

p.s. Hey. ** Charalampos, Hi. Yes, well, similarly for me in Amsterdam, except I wrote a whole novel and started a second one in those confines. I don’t know if Kearny had that obsession. It doesn’t ring a bell. Each of the Cycle novels had a related scrapbook. For ‘Period’, that little house (which was hollow inside) was the scrapbook, or I mean I put all of the materials inside it loose instead of pasting them in a particular order in a book. It thought that suited the novel’s structure better. The house was gift from a sculptor/friend of mine, Torbjorn Vejvi, whose work I was studying as part of ‘Period’s’ structural research. Love from chilly, clear Paris. ** Harper, Hey, Harper. That seems like a good reason not to quit, speaking as a job-phobic and boring structure-imposed-phobic person myself. Really, if there are two encouragers, that’s pretty good. I don’t know, you sound at least a bit like me in terms of how you’re dealing with and benefiting from the school context, so I’m vibing that you’ll come away enhanced. I guess I did the scrapbooks partly because I always wanted the novels to have a unique, non-conventional form, and working that out using visual things and collaging text/images/etc. helped me free myself from the expectations that ‘the novel’ normally imposes or something? They helped a lot in a number of ways. Doing them just seemed natural at the time. Thanks for asking. What’s on your agenda this week? ** Joe, Aw, thanks a lot, Joe! You must do some kind of related extra-curricular work/art things when you devise your works, no? ** L, Hi! All of the things in that show excluding the complementary works the artist made are, yes, in my archive at Fales Library/NYU. I think you can go look at them if you tell them you’re doing research. If you want to and have any problems, let me know, and I can drop them an email telling them that I give my permission for you to look at them. Thank you! ** James Bennett, Hi, James. Thanks, man. Yeah, they’re at NYU/Fales. Right, yes, I do a lot of parenthesising when I write. They mark troubled lines or phrases as to-be-improved. I work very meticulously with the sentences’/ paragraphs’ rhythms, and a lot of the time the parentheses point out areas where the rhythm of the wordage isn’t right and where I need to go back to them and revise them specifically to correct their rhythm, if that makes sense. I find it very helpful to do that, i.e. set off imperfect details, so I do recommend it if you think it could work for you. I also use brackets ([ ]) when I think something should probably be cut but I’m not sure yet. There is that time to cease inputting fiction and outpour your own, for sure. I know that well. Great luck. I do like Amen Dunes, and thanks a lot for alerting me to his gig. I’ll try to go. Big up. ** Derek McCormack, Hi!!! Ha ha, it’s at Fales Library. You’d need to do a lot interior work because it’s just empty like a mailbox. We’re reading together in the Fall, no? Is that happening? I hope so because I’m already super excited and nervous. Love, me. ** _Black_Acrylic, Your brother is a total hero. And one fit fella to boot. ** Lauren Cook, Hi, Lauren. It’s very nice to meet you. Oh, sure, I’d love to read your book. You can write to me at denniscooper72@outlook.com. You can send me a pdf there, or I can give you my mailing address, whichever’s easiest. Thanks! ** Justin, Thank you a lot, J. My weekend was alright. I finished, I think, that short fiction collection I’ve been working on, so that kind of made the days. How was yours? ** Steve, Hi. No, I only did the scrapbooks for the Cycle novels. I stopped making them after that. The East Village cop was very much not gay. He had six kids, as I recall. Gay friendly, obvs. Possible to hear the new song? Assuming you’re up with your parents, I hope everything is going okay. ** Uday, I think they probably wouldn’t have you let in the door when you were 7, but it is Amsterdam, so who knows really. You had a pear! Out of season! How did you manage that trick? The chocolate was okay, looked better than it tasted. I think I’m eating Ethiopian food tonight for the time in ages, and I’m psyched! ** Sarah, Hi, Sarah! It’s so nice to see you! How have you been? Oh, I think there are some zines from my collection at a zine survey show at the Brooklyn Museum, but I don’t know what because they took them straight from my archive. How are you? What’s going on with you? ** adrian, Ciao, or, I guess, bonjour. Congrats on starting the thesis! Sure, I’d be very happy to meet up. When are you coming again? I should be in Paris for the next while. Let me know, and let’s figure it out. The weather here is warmish, which is better than warm to me. A lot of rain, though. My most violent novel? Hm, I guess probably ‘Frisk’. There’s some intense stuff in ‘The Sluts’ too. And in ‘The Marbled Swarm’ if you negotiate the obfuscating style. But maybe ‘Frisk’? I know The Knife better than I know Fever Ray. I should dive more into her own stuff. Okay, I will. Hugs from here. ** SP, Hi! I’ll find that remix, thanks. I do like Horrorcore stuff, yes. I’ve been meaning to dive in more thoroughly. Three Six Mafia, for sure, yes, like that a lot. No, I don’t like Kanye West. Usual reasons. Awesome, thank you, and excellence on the Monday front. ** Brightpath, Hi there. Thank you for coming in here and for the kind words. Oh, wow, thank you for attempting that research. That’s so cool. Yeah, I guess Marvin hasn’t published that presentation. I’m surprised there isn’t a book of his lecture/written work. The other scrapbooks are much less elaborate and user-friendly than the initial one that became ‘Gone’. They’re pretty scrappy, and I think they’re hard to negotiate unless you really know the respective novels and want to dig around inside them, and there aren’t so many people like that. So, I doubt they’ll get published. Maybe excerpts or something at some point? Thank you. How are you? What’s going on with you du jour? ** seb 🦠, Thanks for being inclusive with here in your emergence. There are less interesting things than stale pizza. Things have been okay with me. We’re right at the very end of finishing the film, so good stuff on that front. Hopefully within the next couple or so of weeks. Mm, I think the film is pretty connected with what I’m interested in re: my books. There’s no sexual violence, but, despite my rep in general quarters, that’s not the only thing I write about by any means. I guess I would say I’m accustomed to and sort of at peace with the misconception of my work as a shock fest or whatever. I dislike that a lot, but it has become very obvious that a majority of people are blinded by the difficult area of my work and can’t see deeper than their offendedness and that there is nothing that I or my work can do about that. Sounds like you know of what I speak. You’re still on the stilt bed, nice! Welcome back to the ‘real’ world. ** Bill, Hi. Uh, no plans to resurrect that show that I know of. It toured to Basel, but that was it, I think. Lucky you to have been able to see that Luther Price screening. I’ve been feeling real envy way over here. What are you allergic to that gets triggered in those contexts? You don’t have to say, obviously. ** Okay. Today the blog invites you to mind meld with yours truly i.e. someone who gets very giddy looking at the facades of carnival fun houses. Any chance you can do that? See you tomorrow, in any case.

Slideshow: Closer: The Dennis Cooper Papers @ Kunstverein Amsterdam (March 23 – June 23, 2012) *

* (restored)
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Closer – The Dennis Cooper Papers
23 March – 23 June 2012

‘In collaboration with the Fales Library & Special Collections of New York University, Kunstverein Amsterdam presents the archive of the George Miles Cycle, comprised of manuscripts, journals, posters, correspondence, scrapbooks and videocassettes. In addition, works by artists Vincent Fecteau and Falke Pisano are shown alongside the archive material. Artist Trisha Donnelly has been commissioned to produce new work based on the five novels.’ — KA


DC circa 1988

 

Closer

 

Frisk

 

Try

 

Guide

 

Period

 

Video

John Waters reads from ‘Try’

Bret Easton Ellis reads ‘Wrong’

Stephen Malkmus reads from ‘The Dream Police’

Robert Gober reads ‘Dinner’

Lynne Tillman reads from ‘Period’

Thurston Moore reads ‘Introducing Horror Hospital’, ‘Phoner’, and from ‘Them’

 

Falke Pisano ‘Cycle’

 

Geometries of Desire Slideshow (sample projections)

 

Catalog (sample pages)

 

Zines (from my collection)


—-

 

*

p.s. Hey. A couple of people asked me if I would restore this post. Seeing as how some technical glitch had caused almost all of the images in the original version to be deleted, I decided to go ahead and do that even though I don’t think of the blog as a place to focus on my own work. The post isn’t very explanatory, but, if you have any questions about it or the stuff in it, I’m happy to answer them. ** Harper, Hey, Harper. I’m shocked, although, at the same time, sadly not surprised, about those pessimistic lecturers. That’s really disgusting. I’m guessing they’re writers who haven’t achieved whatever success they imagined for themselves and are taking it out on you guys? Well, you don’t seem to be in danger of being mis-influenced by them at least. Interesting that you studied filmmaking. Even though I decided to be a writer when super young, I took filmmaking classes in college but quickly realised my talent wasn’t visualising, and I gave up on that other dream until I met Zac who can visualise. Yeah, I mean the boon of being in a program is obviously having the time to write and have other peers around with the same drive/goal. That’s no small thing. If you mean getting by as writer financially day to day, I was lucky to be a young writer at a time when journalism paid quite well. I was writing music and book and film reviews and articles since I was in high school. And I ended up being a Contributor Editor at Spin Magazine and Artforum and other venues for a while. That was my main income, and it wasn’t enough, but it kept me from having to have a 9-5 job. Also my parents were well off, and they had been so awful to me and my siblings when we were kiddos that I could get money from them when I was desperate. So, I was lucky. The writer Todd Grimson also responded to your question if you didn’t see it. ** Todd Grimson, Thanks, Todd, good to see you! ** _Black_Acrylic, I’ve seen a little Tommy Cooper, so, yeah, I getcha. Thanks, and have a swell weekend. ** Misanthrope, When I was living in the East Village in the early 80s, there was this beat cop who was really cool and nice. I had dinner with him a couple of times. And I was usually high on something when I did. Strange. It’s nice when you get a title early. It helps or something. Make sure the weekend is a big shebang then. ** Allegra, Hi. Ah, I see, about Brown. You probably got good stuff from it anyway. Just a context can make a difference. I lived in Amsterdam for a couple of years, and I was totally miserable and fucked up there, but I wrote my first novel during that time, so it seems all positive to me now. No, I don’t know ‘Jawline’. It seems like something I can find without too much hassle. I’ll try and watch it this weekend if I can. Sounds super interesting. Thank you. You have a top weekend too. Did anything extraordinary happen? ** Nika Mavrody, Response. ** Kyler, You were cruising for a bruising there, buddy. Nice to see you. ** Justin, Hi. Maybe I’m very subtly surprising in some way I don’t know since I still have most of my friends around. Oh, yeah, ‘The Lobster’, I liked that too. I just looked at art yesterday, so-so stuff, and ate too much of an awful plate of spaghetti, so we’re even-steven on the yesterday front, it seems. But now there’s a weekend afoot! ** Bill, Cool, happy you dug it. Please do try to squeeze in some of your own projects, man. I’ve heard of Aina Hunter, but I haven’t read them. Does sounds curious. My pile will grow. Enjoy the free time. How did it start? ** Darb👨‍🚀, What a friendly little person there. Oh, you’re so nice. I’m the same about you. *Knuckle bump* Did M get their meds, and did M subsequently become far more tolerable if not even, dare I ask, nice? The police in France are called ‘gendarmes’, and their nickname (‘cops’ equivalent) is ‘flics’. If you want to refer to them in a more derogatory way, the nickname is ‘keufs’. You drove! Where did you drive? What did you drive? ** Uday, Hi. A good impersonation of Zizek would be hilarious, I can imagine. Much less whilst mewing. My favorite fruit is pears, and I have not eaten a pear in ages, and I wonder if I can. Are they seasonal, I don’t even know? How about you? My mouth’s goal today is chocolate. In fancy form. Maybe yours should be too? I don’t know. Big weekend! ** Okay. You know what the weekend is doing around here, and I will see you again once it’s over.

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