The blog of author Dennis Cooper

Cal Graves presents … SMOKING: an advertisment

once.


kill me. pls.










do u fetish. will u fetish w/ me?



developing a photograph of myself in a room of blinding light
























































 

 

*

p.s. Hey. Today the writer and much more plus d.l. Cal Graves has made the blog a smokin’ hot totem pole to fireally entertain you while you’re here. Please seek entertainment therein, and thank you for the pretty gift, Cal. ** Chris Kelso, Hi, Chris. Cool about the ‘Haxan’ screening. Which soundtrack did you use, if any? It seems to have thousands. Take care. ** Ferdinand, Okay, cool, will do. ‘The Hollywood treatment’: eek. Little good ever seems to come from that transition apart from bank account input. ** David Ehrenstein, Hi, David. Glad you’re a fellow admirer. ** Misanthrope, Always a pleasure to de-defamiliarise. Maybe your basil-murdered sauce would have been a sensation and you could have been the new Paul Newman. I read a couple of things by Will Bernardara Jr. One of them was packed with all this racist and misogynistic stuff that just seemed like ‘shocking’, controversy-chasing click bait, and I found that really uninteresting and didn’t read more of his stuff after that. But RIP if he’s actually dead, and sorry for your loss. ** Sypha, Ha ha, yes, I know your ‘holding off’ thing very well, and I am totally understanding. It was your birthday? And your 40th? Big earmark there, congrats! How did you mark such an auspicious occasion, pray tell? ** KK, It’s really good, man. And since it’s Infinity Land, it’ll undoubtedly be an ultra-beautiful looking tome. Inside the Castle is such a good press. Really one my very, very favorites. Yep, about Mark Fisher. Cool, I’ll get a bunch of Ka today. I don’t know why he has slipped by me. Thanks, buddy, and hang way in there. ** NLK, Hi. Oh, then I’ll go over to her site today and hope her generous gifting to the homebound is still in play. Thanks a lot. I just don’t understand why so many Americans are so self-indulgent and stupid about the pandemic. It doesn’t seem cowboy-like, it just seems idiotic. Unfortunately, barring an actual full-blown revolution, which won’t happen given the US’s extremely entrenched system, we have hope for an aggressive, incremental shift and, as much as anything, for believers maintaining their focus and attention span on the matter at hand, which is becoming a very rare phenomenon these days, obviously. Well, I hope you get that writing gig because, I don’t know, you’ll have the option even if you decide to turn it down. When will you hear? I think the blog idea is an excellent idea, no surprise. Yeah, ‘I Wished’ is a pretty different kind of novel for me. I mean it’s very ‘me’, but it’s also kind of unlike me. I don’t know. You tell me once it’s out there. Thanks, man. A day full of much upward momentum to you. ** Steve Erickson, I understand why people are numbed by Trump and feel powerless and keep letting all his destructive shit keep happening, but it still really shocks me. I haven’t seen ‘Proud’ because I just don’t watch television. I saw a clip. It looked okay to me, maybe not a whole lot more than that, but you tell me. Everyone, Steve Erickson has reviewed the new documentary about Roy Cohn if you’re interested. I am, and, if you are too, enter. Perhaps the Spike Lee will get a theater release here. Our movie theatres reopen on the 22nd. ** Mark Gluth, Hi, Mark. In what I’ve seen of the US coverage, basically via international CNN and CNBC, etc., the Paris protests are framed briefly as one of the many examples of non-American related protests going on in the world, which is understandable, I guess. It’s not like French TV has the US protests onscreen day and night. Love, me. ** Armando, I’m good, how are you? Well, naturally your book was there since it was one of the best. My pleasure iow. I’m glad you liked the Marten book as much as thought you might. Today? Probably work with Michael on the imminent new GIF novel. Maybe have a coffee with a visitor. Skyping with a couple of friends. Sorting out a Zoom conversation with Richard Hell that the German magazine Diaphanes wants us to have for their next issue. And other stuff. You? ** chris dankland, Hi, Chris. My total pleasure, sir. Good anxiety can be such a help. It’s strange. Oh, I miss tripping, sigh. Interesting, yeah, that’s been my sort of take on the BM guys, that they’re pretty much nerds. I’ve met some through Stephen O’Malley, and they’ve all kind of like that. As is ‘scary’ Stephen himself in a great way. I’m sure there must be actual Satan worshipping BM bands out there, although I do get the feeling there are more actual Satanist BM fans than actual Satan believing BM bands. Maybe not unlike Marilyn Manson or young Trent Reznor vis-a-vis their fans or something. I don’t know. Interesting question. Dude, start a petition to change your school’s name. You could get a couple of thousand signatures easy. May your morning be your day’s pearly gates. ** Right. Please luxuriate in Cal’s stack until further notice aka tomorrow.

14 Comments

  1. David Ehrenstein

    Today (which is terrific) evokes this song

    The protest in France and any number of other countries shows not only that George Floyd did not die in vain but tat white racism is on life-supports.

    At this moment Joe Biden is 13 points ahead of Agent Orange (Spike Lee’s useful term for the monster) and his election defeat seems assured (if he doesn’t die from COVID -19 before November, which is highly possible) Hopefully th rest of the Republican party will sink with him — which seems likely.

    Please write me at cllrdr@ehrensteinland .com about my items for sale.

  2. Sypha

    I’ve never smoked a single cigarette in my life. I worry, what with my weak-willed nature, that I would get hooked, ha ha.

    The birthday was kind of low-key. I wasn’t scheduled for work so I had a lot of time on my hands. I actually started a new novel! The working title is HOLLOW HILLS and it’s gonna be like Arthur Machen meets Denis Johnson. I’m trying to see if I can do something interesting with the hackneyed “fairy abduction” gothic genre.

  3. Damien Ark

    Hi Dennis. Have to come out of my lurk mode and do a post today. Not sure if you read him or not, or knew of him at all, but there’s a writer that I talked to a lot, someone that many people spoke to, Will Bernardara Jr passed away recently, who wrote America on Void Front Press. It’s a very short, violent novel. I read it in about three hours in one sitting. He was working on many other novels, including collab projects. It’s just very depressing. On top of like, a lot of people have been trying to cancel my publisher and other literature magazines for being too edgy or whatever, I don’t know. It’s like some zoomer PC circle found some marginalized weirdos like me and were just absolutely disgusted… I almost killed myself in May, almost did it again on Sunday, and with what happened now, I wonder if suicide is contagious. He was extreme and so intense which made him so awesome to many people… And I honestly wonder if my novel that’s so damn long and explicitly gay will also just make me feel more put into a niche circle of nothingness. I don’t know. It’s very depressing and makes me want to stop writing. Not sure if I just need to leave Twitter and those literature communities for a while or what in order to get back to the pen and paper.
    Your list of favorites is crazy awesome and I’ve read a bunch of them already too. There are a lot of books I want to buy right now but I’m so poor. The new Kiddiepunk books, Thomas Moore’s Alone (i have his others too, and if he see’s this, know that i really really love your writing). Some other shit. It’s like… food or books.
    One of my favorite electroacoustic musicians and my all time favorite book cover artist is gonna do the art for Fucked Up. That’s exciting. Just wonder if it will really sell. It’s so fucking gay and long. I just don’t know. 🙁 And without Jon, I feel like it’s lost its power of importance to me. I wanted him to have the first copy, me or my publisher getting that second or third copy, idk. If it weren’t for his love and support I’m not sure I could have ever completed it. I started this stupidly bizarre cyberpunk gore fuck novel in November but abandoned it when I realized that Jon was going to die, and now I want to write a novel for him, about him, about us, but I’m scared and don’t know how. At times I wonder if you felt any way like this for George Miles Cycle. All that grief and catharsis.
    Sorry for such a long message. Drug binge for Zach seems right for the times, and then we’re glowing and dying and succumbing to the gif(s).

    Sending love. Take care. Hope you’re doing well as always. You’re my hero. Love you for always being willing to speak to me, for that advice you gave me while I was writing this novel, and for also talking to Jon when I got him into your blog.

    <3

    • Enzokuhle Nkosi

      Thanks, Damien. Will said he’s sorry for what his wife did while he was in the asylum. He didn’t know how out-of-control it would all get and by the time he had a chance to address anything, the damage was done. You’re a very talented writer, Damien. However, if Cooper is your hero, you should pick better heroes; dude is dull, tired, and dense. He doesn’t understand intensity or passion; he sees those things as “edgy posturing”. Because he is blind. Don’t follow the blind, Mr. Ark; lead. And kill your idols (but not literally — that would be a crime).

  4. _Black_Acrylic

    @ Cal, thank you for a very pleasurable post! I’ve not smoked in many years but this did make feel the urge to restart, just a little bit.

    Today I took part in a long Zoom chat about this project for Scottish artists called Not Going Back to Normal about the art world and disability. It will take the form of “a radical manifesto for and by disabled artists”, and the deadline is 29th June with a broad remit. I’d very much like to contribute to this somehow.

    Yesterday was a big day for England in that football is back, yay! Last night I watched two games back to back. It’s a weird experience because now there’s no supporters, and all the crowd noise is grafted on by the broadcasters from FIFA video games in a simulation of sporting atmosphere. Nice to be back into some semblance of routine, though. Leeds kick off on Sunday, and I have a feeling that our genius manager Marcelo Bielsa has all the players finely tuned and ready to get us the promotion we so desperately want.

  5. Chris Kelso

    Hi Dennis,

    It’ll be the shortened version with the Burroughs narration and the cool frĂše-jazz soundtrack. I do really like the original 3-hour cut but it’s probably the least accessible.

    Oh, and the Sick n’ Wrong festival is coming up soon. Strange Bird is screening live online in July 15th – if you’re free I can score you tickets to watch the festival.

    I also have a piece in Jared Pappas-Kelley’s Invert/Extant soon and I say loads of nice stuff about your GIF novels. I’ll send you a link when it lands 😊

    Stay safe,

    Chris

  6. Misanthrope

    Cal, Very entertaining. There’s a lot of smoking, but I also notice a lot of cum. Hmm.

    Dennis, Paul Newman, hahaha. I’ll take his money, though. Really, every Newman’s Own product I’ve tried I’ve hated. Horrible stuff.

    Oh, I didn’t know Will very well at all. He friended me on FB a couple years ago. I read one piece of his, and it was a little too experimental for me. I got what he was doing, and he did it well. There were some flashes of brilliance in it, actually, But it was way modernist and just…too too experimental for my tastes. I did appreciate it, though. There was nothing of what you just related in there at all. I know Will could be a bit edgelord-y, and I know some people who knew him and really liked him. He was pretty equal opportunity with his humor and relentless, and I think he did like to shock, from what I could tell. I never said anything, but nothing he ever said on FB shocked me, though he did get banned quite a lot. I looked at his Twitter yesterday -it was linked by a friend of his mourning his death- and it was suspended due to violation of terms. If I remember correctly, I’m pretty sure he was a fan of yours. I know he liked Burroughs too. Obviously an influence on his stuff, or at least the piece I read.

    Oh! Gym opens back up tomorrow. I’m going Saturday morning. Gotta get some cardio in. 😀

    • Enzokuhle Nkosi

      Will was not a fan of Cooper’s. He hated work like that and read primarily cheap ’80s fantasy paperbacks. Despite Will’s experimentalism, Will did not like experimental writing. I know; I lived with the guy from 2017 up until his death.

  7. cal

    hey Dennis! thanks for hosting my post, hope people got a kick out of it!
    sorry to hear about Luther Price, wish I could have seen him perform live. Spent most of my insomnia riddled night jumping between his stuff and Dulac’s which was fun. i think i might start doing a lot more of these on my blog, they’re so much fun. How are things going for you?

    to anyone who may have commented about my post, thanks! my comp has trouble with the site so i cant see them right now. And if you didnt I hope you still enjoyed it~~~

  8. Steve Erickson

    I don’t even think many “real Satanists” exist, in the sense of worshipping Satan as the god of evil. Both the Church of Satan and the Satanic Temple are atheists who are using the name Satan for shock value. (I was amused to see a comment underneath a Vice video about the Satanic Temple, basically saying “I expected to see something really dark, but this is just nerds doing cosplay.”) You can find a variety of Satanists online, but the people who believe in a real Satan and cast magick spells towards him seem to be more akin to wiccans or pagans, and generally think that the Bible misrepresents a neutral or benevolent Satan.

    @Cal–the connection between porn and cigarette ads, and the visual link between semen and cigarette smoke, is brilliant.

  9. Bill

    Haha, this is a persuasive ad alright.

    Finally saw this! And just after I read the queercore chapter in Wrong.
    https://letterboxd.com/film/shes-real-worse-than-queer/

    Bill

  10. Corey Heiferman

    Cal, this is absolutely fantastic. It’s like early gay Tumblr only perfect. Where can we see more of your work?

    I thought you’d be amused by South Korean sports teams using either stuffed animals or fully clothed sex dolls as stand-ins for fans.

    https://twitter.com/eshynes/status/1269651896572284928?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1269651896572284928&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.bardown.com%2Fkorean-baseball-being-played-in-front-of-stuffed-animals-is-a-childhood-dream-come-true-1.1483924

    All the best for your weekend.

  11. cal

    Man I miss those tumblr days for sure!
    I did not know about the baseball fans I’m def gonna show my bf that he’ll love it
    You can find some other stuff by me at
    http://theuvulartrill.blogspot.com/?m=1

  12. Enzokuhle Nkosi

    ” ‘shocking’, controversy-chasing click bait…” —

    That’s pretty rich coming from a guy who writes books about pedo old dudes obsessed with eating boyshit. I mean, maybe you don’t have a clue?

    And for anyone reading, I think old Dennis here is referring to a story called “Spit Mask” that Will wrote for Terror House. In “Spit Mask”, Will was satirizing all the “shock” zines of the ’90s and all the content they included (racism, incest, rape, necrophilia, etc.). It was a veritable checklist of the kind of stuff those mags covered (Satanism, child predation, drug addiction, etc.). Surprised Cooper didn’t pick up on this as it wasn’t at all subtle. And the other layer was the editor of Terror House was some alt-right weirdo some years back, and Will thought it would be funny to trot out some of the ideas that he inevitably ascribed to. Dennis needs CliffsNotes for Will’s stuff evidently. What a boomer, dude.

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