‘There it is.
In front of you.
Open it.
It’s only a book, after all. It can’t hurt you.
Go on. Open it.
Do as I say.
Do you like that?
‘What are we going to read about today?
Part I: “Sensation,” and especially “Myra,” and of course long ramblings on one of Sotos’ favorite subjects, King Ian and Queen Myra. “Damien Hirst defended the work and threatened to pull his pieces from the show if the Hindley portrait wasn’t allowed in. Hirst is seen by most as the cornerstone of the ‘Young British Artist’ movement that the show trumpeted: SENSATION: YOUNG BRITISH ARTISTS FROM THE SAATCHI COLLECTION. And while many saw that the show was either an attempt for the Royal Academy to change its stodgy reputation or a chance for advertising ‘guru’ Charles Saatchi to increase the value and reputation of his collection, most of the paying punters saw an exhibition heavily
steeped in sexual violence or, at least, sexual vagaries.” (88-90)
Careful, Peter, you’re starting to sound like a mainstream art critic.
‘Part II: a logical leap into child molestation. Child murder. The murder of crack whores. All the lovely things that happen on the south side of Chicago while no one else is looking.
‘You’ve heard of the projects, right?
Do you know what they are?
Would you like me to take you there?
Do you know what a crack whore is? I can show you.
We also get to look into the mind of Peter Sotos, somewhat. Not much.
Just a little.
You like that, don’t you?
‘Part III: Another favorite topic. Would you like to go downtown? There are bookstores there. I think you might find them interesting. Especially the back rooms, where the peepshow booths are. And the Mexican hustlers who give it away for $5 a pop. And the transvestites. And the AIDS-infected young men who want nothing more than to keep having sex.
It’s all about risk.
It’s all about self-hatred.
And we get to see it.
Can you see?
Can you see this?
This is what you’ve been waiting for.
Sotos is going over the edge, slowly, and revealing more of himself as he does. He’s almost got to the point where he admits he does it because he wants to.
‘“I spend most of my time enjoying things I don’t like.” (295)
“I find men less ugly than women except when they act like them. Homosexual sex is often the quickest way there. And this is soon lapping up vagina and working on some ridiculous clit numb mistake. This turned into christmas and thanksgiving and his birthday and all the lipstick I could afford for one little suburban bar tit grope and sister blow job. I do want to see AIDS ejaculate. I want to be sure.” (313)
‘Don’t you like story time?
I know you do.
Don’t justify. You don’t need to justify to me. Just admit.
You always knew there was a seedy side to life. That’s why you love watching detective shows on TV. But they can’t show you the heavy stuff on TV. They don’t show it to you in the movies. You never knew where to see it before. And you want to see it. You know you do. In order to appreciate what you have more fully. You have to see how the other half lives. Incest. Rape. Murder. Brutality. Serial killers. Casual, anonymous, high-risk sex. Pornography. Pedophilia. Home invasion. Abduction. Assault, battery, molestation, homosexuality, HIV, the media, hatred, hatred, hatred.
‘Don’t justify.
Admit.- — Robert Beveridge
Further
Peter Sotos @ Wikipedia
Peter Sotos @ goodreads
Joel Kopplin on ‘Tool’ by Peter Sotos
INTERVIEW WITH PETER SOTOS
“HOME”: MICHAEL SALERNO & PETER SOTOS
The Putrid Voyeurisms of Peter Sotos
Show No Mercy
Download a pdf of ‘Lazy’ here
Extras
Peter Sotos speaking at the Pompidou Centre (2012)
Excerpt from “Heartbreak” by Andrea Dworkin – read by Peter Sotos
Peter Sotos – Buyer’s Market (AWB Recording, 1992)
The Putrid Voyeurisms of Peter Sotos
by Blake Butler
It’s not exactly easy to get your hands on the work of Peter Sotos. Most people probably wouldn’t even want to. His work traffics in a range of subjects that most average readers—even those who fancy themselves to have transgressive tastes—would find viscerally repellent: a meeting-ground of violence and pornography so limitless it becomes difficult to tell what we’re actually reading. The narrative voice takes on the personas of serial murderers, rapists, child molesters, hate mongers, and others who inhabit space far outside the range of what even the most edgy thinkers would consider tractable terrain, mostly rendered in a first person that strands the reader in a mindset that he probably doesn’t want to be in. That Sotos also frequently takes for his subject real-life criminals and victims—exploring, for instance, the violent murders of Lesley Ann Downey in his nonfiction work, Selfish, Little—there exists a line between the most grotesque extensions of fantasy and reality that challenges the presumptions of free speech and exploration of horror in such a way that makes it difficult, if not impossible, to name for sure the sort of ground on which Sotos forces us to walk.
Some more direct context about Sotos: He was a member of the seminal noise band, Whitehouse. He is 62 years old and lives in Chicago, where he has been arrested for possession of child porn, after publishing on the cover of his zine, Pure, a picture from a photocopy of an underage boy involved in sex. His books are printed mostly in severely limited runs, making obtaining them rather pricey. Sotos makes no bones about his infatuation with objects that push him beyond the limits of experience. He is open about his interest in snuff film and bestiality porn, and talks about them freely in a way that glorifies their ability to depict “how you look when ugly.” He is not heartless, although he does get pleasure pleasure from viewing these things, and he isn’t afraid to make himself complicit in the acts that he describes. All of this makes reading him, or even just thinking about reading him, one of those experiences that allow a window into a place much of our culture seems interested in playing footsie with—think of Dexter, or films like Seven and Silence of the Lambs but that when considered more directly take obscenity to a level of actually feeling—as a reader, you feel somehow ashamed, complicit just for holding the book. …
I feel sure that a majority of you are now asking, “Why would anybody want to hear about this stuff? How could anyone but child pornographers be interested in or even open to reading the work of someone who is OK with child porn?” I’m not the sort who rubbernecks at the scenes of accidents, but I can say that reading Peter Sotos stills my body. There are very many other people in the world. I have a mother and a father and friends and loved ones, and they exist in the same world as these things. There is something about the feeling of opening a window into a space that you would never touch with your own hands that can make you feel like you are being pressed down on by something very heavy and very black. I believe that thinking about these ideas makes one not less human, but more: careful and considered in a way that ignites awareness of something that is, if not in us all, certainly around us.
Interview
by Brandon Stosuy
FANZINE: Perhaps an odd place to begin, but how do you support yourself?
Peter Sotos: I work. Not that I think it’s such a good idea, but I always have. I don’t have a career. I do think it’s important that the books have no great commercial requirements and that my work isn’t split between lesser and greater degrees of seriousness — especially in regards as to who releases the material.
FANZINE: Any writing rituals?
PS: People sometimes ask if I write when I’m drunk. I do, sometimes, but it tends to get thrown out pretty quickly when I read it back sober.
FANZINE: Do you ever catch yourself writing for your audience?
Peter Sotos: I’ve heard how wrong I am for as long as I’ve been alive, it seems. So I have to weigh a possible audience’s possible arguments against mine all the time. But I don’t pander.
FANZINE: Where do you see yourself fitting in terms of literary tradition?
PS: I know where others say they see me fitting in. But, honestly, I don’t think in those terms at all. I don’t see anyone else doing what I do. Which sounds terrible, I know. But I don’t feel much kinship with contemporary writers, especially those who create fiction. My interest is in completely the other direction. There are writers whose work I love, of course, and it’s nice when some people make certain smallish comparisons. Sade, Dworkin… But nothing in terms of an ongoing tradition.
FANZINE: You mention Andrea Dworkin often. People might find the two of you an odd pairing, but on some level I guess you seem to share a notion of the humanity of victims.
PS: I disagree. I think Andrea Dworkin cared very deeply about her words being more than that – just words. I’m certain that I do, as well. But we don’t see the frustrating impossibilities of that action in the same context or towards the same result.
FANZINE: Have you read (Samuel Delaney’s) Hogg?
PS: I’ve read Hogg, of course. I think it’s supposed to be like a Tom Of Finland cartoon and it doesn’t do all that much for me. I like Times Square Red, Times Square Blue and The Madman much more but I’m uneasy about so fucking many of the community conclusions and connective politics. I honestly don’t think they exist. I go to the same kind of places Mr. Delany does, or did, I don’t know, and I have very different experiences.
FANZINE: When I think of contemporaries, I also pause at William Vollmann. But you’ve been critical of him and his work.
PS: I’m not convinced. He sounds untouched. A bad liar with quaint reasoning. We’re looking for different things, though. I don’t feel I have anything in common with such traditional concern.
FANZINE: People have referred to your books as formless, though there are obviously internal structures and connective patterns. How do you map the texts?
PS: I write what I like and connect the underlying themes and strains later. See what comes through, basically. Tick had a very clear numbering system running through it. Selfish, Little had a fairly rigid template. I suppose Comfort & Critique, though, has the most structure in that the news clips were very carefully selected and then placed in a very specific order. The book itself then came from that order and the general assumption that created it.
FANZINE: Proxy makes your self-sampling more explicit. Do you have an overall climax in sight?
PS: No. But Proxy was designed, in large part, to draw out specific degenerative repetitions. That’s exactly why the books aren’t in chronological order. The last three books are presented as going backwards and the first two books are, sort-of, the index. The introduction is made of excerpts from newer unpublished material constantly concerned with how most of the sex joints and expectations are gone or dying fucking badly. But it’s not a narrative, you know?
FANZINE: Was its two-column newspaper-style layout intentional?
PS: Probably not. It might be something that both Jim Goad––when he published Total Abuse––and James Williamson from Creation had in mind, though. I’m far more interested in the text being like a book than a newspaper. I’m responsible for the layouts of Pure and Parasite, but not the books. The images are mine, though. I don’t try to comment on newspaper and media hypocrisy, I’m just largely unable to get away from it.
FANZINE: In Comfort & Critique you write, “I’m absolutely sick of the differences between intention and interpretation. I want to create an art that is ideally shored. One that can’t be misunderstood any longer. Not by the powers that want to see me jailed or by the fucking mice that pretend I’m doing something socially significant.” How do you intend to make this happen?
PS: The work can only be done as writing. Where one sentence explains the one before it. Full length books. I’ve seen the questions I bark out used out of context and sold as something else, something less. I want to make sure the answers are rigorously considered and that can only be done by writing books, not creating advertising. I don’t have a blog or a e-commerce website.
FANZINE: What is it about the question and answer format and interrogation that lends itself to your project? And often, there’s often a noticeable disjunction between the question and the response.
PS: There’s some disjoint in the careful wording of the questions themselves. The way the questioner tells the answerer how to think isn’t subtle but still, almost always, almost naturally, accepted. Of course, there is my own internal dialogue at work, often enough, that finds focus and excitement in the way others pose and answer highly personal, as well as grossly impersonal, questions. That search for so-called brutal truth that is vain and badly done. The way cops and artists come off exactly like street corner faggots asking toothless hustlers if they’re cold without coats. The way that it can keep getting worse. The idea that others may know what’s best for you. May want to protect you and need to explain that to you. There’s quite a few reasons.
FANZINE: When did you meet Jamie Gillis?
PS: I met him in SF about six years ago, I guess. David Aaron Clark suggested it, originally. Jamie, as I see him, is exactly the rare sort-of person who understands the Q & A dynamic. He looks to me as if he genuinely wants to understand why these people, himself especially, do these things, these acts. Or want to see them. He asks legitimate questions and can’t be blamed for the bad answers of the participants. Or the low expectations of his audience. I do absolutely think he’d like to get more than type.
FANZINE: In Comfort & Critique, you write about the press defining victims, but the narrator also makes it known that he is not “blaming the parents or the other particulars or suggesting something about the nature of the press.” Still, there seems to be a hazy area where such a critique pops up.
PS: Such a critique of the press or the general media just seems obvious to me. You don’t get news reports that are devoid of spin and you don’t get news reporters who don’t wink at you because of that. So critiquing the nature of the press seems redundant and unimportant. There’s a huge market for such examinations, especially in music and film, but it doesn’t mean all that much to me. I’m far more interested in how that thinking creates the bodies and personalities it reports on. To be precise, and use the quotes you pull, Sara Payne gradually became the product that the news wanted. Or, at least, the side I’m sold. But not as a concentrated and conscious marketing ploy. Rather as someone, emotionally reduced or not, might respond to comfort and attention, sympathy and flattery, incredible existential and physical loss. It’s similar to what most people might say they want in a relationship. I’m not just saying that the press is lying.
Book
Peter Sotos Lazy
Creation Books
‘Peter Sotos, the writer who ‘rapes a blank page’, whose pen is the verbal knife of a sadist’, unleashes his latest controversial dispatch from the cutting edge of pornography, sexual abuse and degradation:
‘Drawing from his own experiences, insights and investigations, Sotos slices open the dark underbelly of the sex industry and reveals the harsh, gritty and brutal extremes that lurk within. From prostitution, pornography and drug abuse to the most notorious sex crimes, Soto’s obsession with the darkest side of humanity is relentless and uncompromising.
‘Intersected throughout with newspaper extracts reporting on and responding to sex crimes and related subjects (such as Myra, Marcus Harvey’s controversial portrait at the recent ‘Sensation’ exhibition in London), Lazy not only presents an unsanitised account of pornographic excess and extreme sex, but through its frank delivery, it questions society’s own, often hypocritical, fascination with these taboo subjects.’ — Creation Books
Excerpt
*
p.s. Hey. ** _Black_Acrylic, If I wore scents, Griff Raff’s review would have totally sold me, no surprise. Your bro’s Dubai report conforms to all of my presuppositions about the place, but yikes. ** jay, Hi, yeah, food has been happening here of late, I wonder why but shall not wonder too hard. Thanks! My apartment in Paris is logistically identical to the ones on three floors below and two above, although I think my ceilings might be a wee bit taller. My LA apartment, on the other hand, is quite eccentric, designed and built by hand by an old Sicilian man who was ‘famous’ for being the first person to bring olive oil to Los Angeles. By the time I moved there in the early 90s he was just a pile of ancient, murmuring flesh perpetually propped in a deck chair on his porch. I hope you’re enjoying your current, presumably less meaningful home. ** Dominik, Hi!!! I’m just really quiet and polite with check-out people, hand over the cash, pack my carry bag, decline the receipt and scurry away. I think my favorite thing in my apartment is this antique desk lamp in the shape of a very fem looking cavalier guy holding a fountain pen that I stole from my previous apartment, and, yes, he would taste good. Hopefully hot apple pie with a massive scoop of vanilla ice cream. Love beating around the bush whatever that old American homily even means, G. ** Dev, No shame and even kind of fun sometimes. The lost novel really was probably terrible. I was still a mere aspiring novelist at the time. Interesting about the ugh re: food based art. Hm, I can see that. ** l@rst, Another person revolted by the artistic use of food. How interesting. Your status quo makes other people’s status quo seem like naps. Oh, yeah, when I swore off drugs and basically swore off alcohol, which I never liked anyway, back when and realised my unaltered brain, unless coffee counts, was the trippiest drug ever, it was so nice! Take care, you too. ** DonW, Whoa, you made it inside! I think, or hope, that the captcha problem might finally be dead. It took ages, if so. I did see ‘Pavements’. I had some issues with it, but I love Pavement so much that I was just thrilled to have the access. Nothing like them. Top tier forever band. So, dude, how have you been and how are you? ** julian, As a vegetarian, I must say that is quite the transgressive performance. I know Peter, although I haven’t talked to him in a while, but your sense of him is very true. He’s very aware that broader fame, especially in this time of the hair trigger offendables, would only lead to personal hell for him. And there he is (look up). ** Good Old Gee, Well, hi there, pal! I’ve been good, very busy. Three books! Never mind, I haven’t been that busy. I’m sorry about your partner separation, but you sound pretty okay with that. This month might be hard. I’ll be in the US and Canada for the second half showing the film. Love you back! ** Jeff J, Hi, Jeff. Yeah, great getting to talk with you and look at you on Monday. Yes, we’d love to show the film where you are if there’s any interest. Thank you! And thanks for the JC links. I was going to go hunt them. Everyone, The superb author Jeff Jackson additionally has a fine band called Julien Calendar, if you don’t already know that. And … well, I’ll let him guide you. Jeff: ‘Here are links to recent short Julian Calendar EPs we released: SOFTER THAN BOMBS (minimalist electronic tunes w/ cover of “Pump Up the Jam”): link #1, and MORE SONGS ABOUT ABOUT CLASS RESENTMENT AND SURVEILLANCE CAPITALISM (New Wave + No Wave samples): link #2. I look forward to digging in. xo. ** Carsten, Hey. Thanks about the French release. Yeah, we’re very psyched. I can feel that ‘finally’. I’ve never really ‘gotten’ Germany, as an immediate surrounding, I mean. Thanks for the invite. I would definitely wait until you guys have as close to a normal fall or winter or maybe spring as your country can geographically provide. ** HaRpEr //, Substack is clearly the happening locale. People often ask me why I don’t do the blog there. And I guess the answer is because I hate moving homes? I only follow maybe 4 or 5 things there so far. Speaking for myself, I suspect that less of a mess is probably the best you can hope for when you’re an artist with ambitions who gives a shit. ** Steeqhen, Congrats on the bag reunification. Okay, yeah, your food thing would definitely complicate having a particularised diet on top of that. Having a routine can be peacemaking, for sure, says the guy who does a blog six days a week. Yes, write it and the dedication plus your interest level will determine where it goes. ** Darby🐋, Have so much fun in LV. There’s that Area 51 place that newly has that year-round Halloween Horror Nights haunted house-based theme park place, but it might be expensive, I don’t know. Sure, I’d like to see the photo, and looking at you is the opposite of a drawback. I would say yes, further befriend that person of whom you spoke. You were def a good person to help that girl. Def. Yeah, I’ll be going to Chicago and then Toronto to show the film in about a week and a half or something like that. ‘Pops’ cereals .. you mean like Coco Pops and that short of thing? I’m all for them. Probably the less pre-sweetened ones the most. You? Tell me how everything was. Have a blast. Accept my envy. ** Uday, Thanks, pal. Yeah, my boxes are essentially furniture. I guess having a lot of blood in your body is very important, or so they say. But wooziness can be ok. I might write more poems, never say never. No, I don’t think poetry is too easy. If anything it seems too hard or I mean whatever talent I have doesn’t seem capable of conquering that form to my satisfaction. That’s more the problem. ** Bill, Your tastes are understandable. I just saw something about that Karl Lemieux/Daniel Menche performance, I can’t remember what. Oh, to have Crossroads in my hood, even if it were hot. We’re still slowly rising out of the annual August Paris dead zone over here. ** Right. Today you have Peter Sotos to think about and read. See you tomorrow.
Now available in North America 
Hey Dennis! Never read any Sotos before, outside of a flip through of a copy on the shelf of one of my friends. It’s certainly challenging, haha, although more empathetic than people make it out to be. Super intense extract, the “This is what you look like. In pornography” stretch definitely made me wince. I would also say… much better written than any of the people he cites as an influence. He seems like someone who’s unwilling to compromise – I’m sure he’d be much less notorious if he fudged about a few of his stances in interviews – but that’s definitely admirable.
Anyway, that photo of him you ended up using is kind of funny, it’s legitimately uncanny how much he looks like my boyfriend there. It means that whenever my boyfriend wins a game of something against his friends, I get a little flash of Peter Sotos, which can certainly make 3 hour Warhammer tournaments more amusing.
Wow, your flat’s history is awesome. It’s rare for flats to have the capacity for being… haunted or peculiar, so good on you for picking that. Logistically identical to the two floors below and above is awesome too, although more common. Growing up I always wanted to do composite photography in my apartment complex, with a camera in the same position in every room, so the basis structure of the shot stays the same. I think I also wanted something really awful to be going on in one photo, but for it to be kind of hard to spot. Anyway, thanks for today, to you and whoever suggested it. Hope your day is tip top, see you!
I actually have this book here on my shelf as part of Proxy. My burgeoning Sotos collection must be rare as hen’s teeth these days, not that I’m in the market to sell any of it. Maybe when the coming global financial apocalypse hits?
Last night I saw Dangerous Animals, an Australian shark horror that I really enjoyed a whole lot. Discovered this via the Instagram recommendation of William Bennett, like Sotos a former Whitehouse reprobate.
Hey there Dennis, hope things have been well for you! I haven’t commented on here for a bit as things have been quite challenging for me. Lately I’ve been reflecting on the notion of translation, or specifically how individuals operate sincerity to communicate what they feel inside of them. As someone with Autism, I’ve been drawn to the power of this dilemma for a long time given that I can struggle to use the words I know to best represent my intentions. It’s interesting that I’ve been thinking of this and that the post today explores Peter Sotos. My fascination with him lies in the representation of the body where narratives begin and end under an exploration of transgression. I’ve hardly directly engaged with his work, but he of course gets mentions frequently in the circles I’m in. Still, I think there’s something to be said about the confines of binary labels and how an artist like Sotos presents potential in how forms can exist beyond conclusive statements. I wonder how he may reflect on that notion in relation to the identities he explores.
Yesterday I had quite an interesting call with some friends. Our conversations always shift, but one aspect that drew me in was when we were discussing Ralph Bakshi. There’s this interview that Hugo found where he directly addresses the existence of queerness within his work. For me, I’m particularly drawn to how labels co-exist with the disillusionment of social movements in a film like Fritz the Cat. Thus, when overt queer identities exist in his work, I see an interest in the potential of characters who live past the dissolving of these collective movements. Do you have a favorite film from him?
I’m going to be starting my masters degree soon. It’s on creative writing, and I’m optimistic about using it for a space to experiment with what I’ve been exploring. Lately things have been taking shape with the novel I’ve been developing. Two characters in particular have been swirling in my mind and I’m eager to see where they’ll end up going.
Wish you well!
Nice to see you back here 🙂
Hi!!
I tend to seek out and most enjoy art that challenges me in one way or another, and Peter Sotos’ work definitely meets that criterion. His use of language is masterful. My copy of “Lazy” is a prized possession.
Your antique desk lamp wins, hands down.
Idioms are funny that way. The Hungarian version of “beating around the bush” is “kerülgeti, mint macska a forró kását,” which roughly translates to “s/he circles around it like a cat around hot porridge.” 😀
Love reading Troy Ford’s “Lamb” and going hmmm, Od.
The first Sotos book I ever got was INDEX, the Creation Books 1998 reissue, which I found in a Borders bookstore of all places (back when Borders was still open . . . incidentally, Dennis, this same Borders is also where I came across my first copy purchased of any of your books, CLOSER). LAZY I recall not being too wild about, perhaps because that’s one of the books he did that has a cat killing scene. I will admit that the Creation Books trilogy of INDEX/LAZY/TICK were visually very striking, and kind of companion pieces to the Whitehouse albums that were coming out at that time (if memory serves William Bennett would cherry-pick through them for the occasional lyric).
As you know from the years 2002-2010 or so I had a pretty substantial library of Sotos books, even the rarities like the WAITRESS supplements (I think during that span of time the only one I did not own was LORDOTICS). Though tbh I had started to lose interest in his work around the time of SHOW ADULT. Post-2010 the only new one I ever bothered with was the one he did with Kiddiepunk.
About 12 or 13 years ago I gave my entire Sotos library to Jesse Hudson for free, and almost immediately wished I hadn’t. Mainly because (and this will sound pretty petty but) he gave me some pictures of books he was himself giving away and asked me if there was anything I wanted off it. I noticed he was getting rid of an old GARFIELD comic strip collection, the kind of thing you normally find at a yard sale for $1 or whatever, so I asked him if I could have that. But he never actually sent it to me! So I was very peeved about that ha ha. But I really don’t rate Sotos much anymore, which is perhaps not surprising in that I dislike much of what constitutes ‘transgressive/pornographic writing’ in general (with some exceptions, of course).
Given Sotos’ view of Andrea Dworkin as a kindred spirit, akin to Catherine Breillat, have you read any of her fiction? The Youtube channel Plagued By Visions made a video analyzing the two. I get the impression that as a novelist, she was writing her own version of extreme, transgressive fiction about sexual violence, despite her pro-censorship stance.
In The Arts Fuse’s September “Short Fuses” column, I reviewed the latest albums by the Beths and Marissa Nadler: https://artsfuse.org/315798/september-short-fuses-materia-critica-5/. (Scroll down to “popular music.”)
I have a friend in Quebec, with whom I usually talk on the phone every few months. We haven’t spoken since February, but I’ve E-mailed him several times in the spring and summer, mentioning the deaths of my parents. He hasn’t responded. I wonder if something has happened to him – sometimes, it took him a long time to write back, but he always did. (He lost his job at the end of last year.) I have his phone number, but I don’t think it would be wise to call him out of the blue.
Peter Sotos is such a fascinating artist. I think the fact that I still don’t entirely get where he’s coming from is what keeps me coming back to his work. It seems like no two people have the same interpretation of him. I discovered him, like most people, through Whitehouse, who are one of my all-time favorite bands. I recently read an interview with William Bennett and Philip Best from right after Sotos left the band where Best describes him as a “genuinely funny and caring guy”. I remember reading a quote from you that said something similar. I guess that seems to be a trend with people who make really dark work. Have you seen that comment that William Bennett posted on his blog about his relationship with Sotos? It was sort of cryptic, but it seems like his opinion differs from Best’s quite a bit. When we did the performance there were people who were very offended by us “wasting food”, which I thought was ridiculous.
Hey Dennis
Glad to see Alice back here.
It’s spitting rain and electricity up here as I type, very dark, very foreboding!!! What a wonderful time to read about Peter Sotos!
I think the first thing I ever read from Sotos was “Pure” on the Internet Archive back in high school, back when I was really into power electronics and Throbbing Gristle. I remember not thinking much of it at the time; it seemed a little shock jock like for my taste. But I read “Tool” a couple of months back and found it weirdly engrossing. I guess I’m mixed on him, but I remain fascinated by his work. Does Peter have any thoughts on the Pure zine? Outside of it getting him into trouble, of course, I dunno, it seems kinda juvenile compared to his later works. I assume he has different opinions on it now, is all. I never really figured out what to make of him, which I can tell is by design. Though the Andrea Dworkin connection interests me a good deal. It’s funny how she keeps popping up in my and Alice’s lives. I notice that Dworkin acolytes and serial killers pop up more in England than they do in America, which may explain why Sotos seems so “British” to me (?) (I think it’s mostly the Moors murders stuff, and how seedy a lot of British tabloids are. I admit to knowing little about American tabloids, but then again, what would I want to know?)
All this just to say that I would probably have an interesting conversation if I met him.
I’m in a down mood, didn’t get the grant I wanted, and I’ll be looking for more jobs. I’ll be better soonish, but in the meantime, I will occupy myself with things. Did you get my email btw? I realise I forgot to mention it earlier. I worry about taking advantage of your generosity and attention sometimes, but it’s likely a non-problem. You are a great guy, and I hope you don’t ever forget that. Have a great one, give hugs to Zac and whoever.
WordPress, I swear to god you better let me comment!!!
Peace.
Well one of my favorite things about this part of Andalusia is that it rarely goes below 15 degrees Celsius. I’d say the temperature range from November to February is between 14/15 to 22. Plus this is the Costa del Sol, with more sunshine hours than almost any place else in Europe.
Today was spent catching up on work that had backed up over the course of my journey, & settling in some more (unpacking, groceries etc.) Managed to fit in a couple of laps in the pool, & lunch at a chiringuito, which is basically a beachside tavern serving cheap, unfussy but delicious Spanish fare. They always have an open fire going over which they cook these sardines on a skewer. Squeeze of lemon, bit of coarse salt, nothing else. With food I find that the simplest things are often the most delicious.
I expect things to be smooth by the weekend, & once I got some kind of a routine back I’ll have more time again for my writing as well as things like the Duende Day.
Hello!
I really enjoyed yesterday’s post! Even when I don’t comment I like to read the posts, they’re like my morning paper. I must be honest … Peter Sotos is interesting, but I don’t know if I want to read his stuff.
Yesterday (the start of my week because Monday was Labor Day) was … it was something. After being jealous of your amazing weather, I was blessed with a thunderstorm. Unfortunately it was also 100 degrees the whole day so it was just overall gross and hot. And then while driving to school the biggest, fattest possible pebble hit my windshield and now I have to deal with that crack. I also got lost in the backroads because the main road was closed and my gps wasn’t working so I spent 30 mins driving some sketchy roads. However, the whole time I just kept laughing it all felt so … absurd. Well anyway at least today was much better. You said you like the name of my math class (Stats and Probability), but I’m more of a fan of my CompSci class Discrete Math. It sounds so mysterious and my professor speaks with a Russian accent so it makes it all that more fun.
In great news, the yarn I ordered for your socks has shipped so hopefully this weekend I can work on that, yippee! I also have a coconut redbull waiting at home so praying I don’t die on the way back. Maybe I’ll get into a very minor fender bender with an extremely rich individual who will fall in love with me at first sight and I can have them pay for my windshield repair! Let’s all cross our fingers!
Sorry my comment today was all about me. How is your week fairing so far? When you travel for your film showings how long do you tend to stay in every city? Are you someone who packs at the last possible minute?
If I never comment again please assume I have married into a lot of money and am thus spending my time in fancy yarn stores 24/7. Wishing you great rest of the week, Dennis! ฅ^._.^ฅ₊˚⊹♡
Hey Dennis – Nice Peter Sotos day. Great interview with him, too. I didn’t know about his feelings of kinship with Andrea Dworkin’s work. Have you featured any of her fiction here?
Thanks for sharing the links of the new JC eps. Hope a few of the tunes hit you.
Leave tomorrow to see Sparks and a bunch of other interesting acts. Really looking forward to it. Hope you have a great rest of the week and -end.
Happy to have inspired this post! Haha. I haven’t read a ton of Sotos but I read Comfort and Critique last year and have listened to some of those audio recordings floating around YouTube of him reading some earlier work (I forget exactly which titles), and it keeps drawing me in despite me, like many other commenters, not quite knowing what to make of it. I do think the style and structure of his work is fascinating and unique, and it’s clearly not just jerk off material for pedophiles as his detractors tend to assume.
This comment section is the first I’m hearing of Dworkin’s fiction. I’ve read some of her nonfiction and enjoyed it. She may have been a polemicist but she was a much more interesting writer and thinker than most of the radfems of that era imo. I’ll have to seek out her fiction eventually.
Have you read any Geoffrey Hill? I got a compilation of a bunch of his books from the local library and have read through Tenebrae and most of Canaan, and he’s completely mindblowing to me. One of those poets who’s so good it’s almost discouraging, lol.
I remember downloading Sotos pdfs and feeling like a criminal haha. Yeah, I think he’s smart doing those kinds of limited editions, especially considering the Howard Stern debacle and what brief exposure into notoriety has done for him. I love the Blake Butler piece by the way.
I think you having your own site for the blog is what makes it special. The fact that you don’t have anything from the outside world imposing on it makes it feel like it’s separate from everything else on the planet and like some mysterious thing that people can stumble across. Also, you’d probably have some issues with age verification and stuff if you’d move it to substack now that I think about it, especially in the UK.
I’m honestly not much of a mess at the moment, just tense. Like when a car backfires and you think someone shot someone. I’m hoping that one day I’ll be less like this after seeing how cyclical everything is and that it’s best not to get wrapped up in certain patterns of thinking that always end up in the same place. That’s what’s crazy about everything, it always repeats itself, and hopefully one day I’ll remember that for long enough to not give into it.
I can’t say I’m about to run out and snag a copy of a Sotos book, but I do enjoy reading about him now and then.
By the way, the Crossroads opening party was at the Kadist gallery outpost in SF. Just heard it’s closing in days for good. Ah well, I don’t recall seeing anything memorable there. How’s the one in Paris?
It’s hard for me to imagine a dead zone in Paris. But I guess I usually avoid Europe in August. There are a few audiovisual events here in the next few days that I might try to see. And tonight is an open rehearsal thing for Kronos Quartet and the outrageous sound artist Victoria Shen! I suppose I should also do some practicing and hacking before my little gig on Sunday.
Bill
Hi Dennis! Sotos is one of those artists that fascinates me on a clinical level. His obsession with violence, sexual abuse, degradation, etc mirror the subject of my OCD themes. Often, when I engage with transgressive work, there’s are compulsive elements at play… I am trying to figure out if there’s something wrong with me, I am trying to “check” that I have no desire to harm others, I am trying to assess the “correct” way to address sensitive subjects… to obtain a consistent ethical framework, to understand abuse and how to end it. The way Peter Sotos writes makes my neuroses go meta, it tells me these compulsions I engage in to soothe my ruminations are their own kind of sadism- something Sotos doesn’t seem to condemn in his work, but for myself is conceptually ego-dystonic. “Your thoughts are ramshackle and frantic and, out loud you admit, keenly violent. You flit from charge to charge and the only way to calm yourself down… is to deconstruct. Your obvious excitement. And call it repulsion”. Steve mentioned the Plagued By Visions video, alongside Dworkin PBV also brings Susan Sontag’s “Regarding The Pain of Others” into his analysis. I like the quote “There is the satisfaction of being able to look at the image without flinching. There is the pleasure of flinching”.
The Blake Butler segment is the first I’ve heard of him discussing animal sexual abuse though. There’s a really odd subculture of people who call themselves “zoophile activists”, and their internal politics are crazy. A lot of them try to distinguish themselves from “zoosadists”, those who get off on hurting animals beyond standard sexual abuse. I wonder if this subject would be of any further interest to Sotos, considering the wide range of documentation on these individuals & the greater normalization of animal abuse world wide.
From other comments it seems that he still has a good relationship with former Whitehouse members, I was wondering about that since there were 2 craaazy dis-tracks about him off of Asceticists 2006. Sometimes friends roast each other of course but man, these tracks are brutal. Have you ever listened to them? Ruthless Babysitting is probably my favorite of the two but Language Recovery is also good. It’s interesting to hear the vitriolic lyrics Whitehouse typically reserves for really vulnerable characters oriented towards someone like Sotos.
I’m reading one of the books that was listed as one of his inspirations on one of your older posts, actually- “The Darkest Web” by Eileen Ormsby, it’s pretty good so far. Apologies if this is a lot for one comment haha. One of the characters I’m creating for a screenplay is somewhat inspired by him, so I’ve been trying to learn as much as I can & take notes in my art book I told you about. The comments about him being a nice/sensitive guy are not inconsistent with what I’ve read from Forced Exposure, where Steve Albini makes a point to describe him as “quiet” quite a few times. The other day I listened to a Boyd Rice (though it seems he & Sotos have beef… I mean who wouldn’t with Boyd Rice though) interview where he described Sotos as a “panda bear”.
Thanks for the insightful post on the subject, hope your day is splendid!
To be fair re: Whitehouse Sotos was talking shit about them in his own books at the time, so I’m not shocked they decided to retaliate. I go into this issue a bit in the Whitehouse Day I did for the blog years ago:
https://denniscooperblog.com/sypha-presents-the-ultimate-whitehouse-day/
Woah!! I was wondering why they went off like that, that would explain so much. Thank you so much for the info & link, I can’t wait to dig through your whitehouse day post :^)
*Poof* I was on bed rest cause I was so sore but yes haha It was an amazing trip 10/10 would do again I just had to escape before everyone caught on to what a jewel I was it was starting to heat up and I was getting cranky haha. What did I miss? Oh my art has been really clean and sleek and Im truly locked in to some higher functioning and planning or like some secret agenda has kicked in all of a sudden thats the feeling it’s great and productive! Radical new body shift as well thats all the soreness for my second time at the beach ever I real threw myself and dug into the sand pretty deep for awhile haha its the best work out ever and the ocean does it’s magic with a full submerge. White Hot Room is in full effect JoyBoy too aren’t I clever chess is sooooooo sexy how do you feel about it? TTYLXOXOBRB!
Considering I am currently in Las Vegas there is a chance I might miss this post since the time schedule is weirdly less behind yourself.
First day in Vegas and I say fun fun fun fun!!
Omg! Wow!! Great things.ill tell you more tho next week ok?
A guy threw a glass bottle near us which shattered before our feets, but other than that, so much fun here!
We went down the strip, I saw Caesar palace so beautiful oh and you’d never believe it but I made it to France…kidding obviously but the Mini Paris was so cute.
Burlesque woman so beautiful!
I bought a lighter that looks like a poker chip and you slide a notch to light the fire. It’s so cool. I also went inside the forum and there was a hello Kitty store and I bought a cute little collectibles piggie and this one I took out the box and it was the piggy stuffed into a squid.
I eavesdrop the comment and realize that the author Jeff Johnson has a band so thanks for the announcement! I wish he had more written work but music is so cool, Julian calendar? I read a bit in a interview but forgot to give the band a listen as my memory tends to do. I will have to now since I can’t forgot!!! Apologies if I’m not so intelligible I am very tired but I wanted to share this excitement.
Ok I sent the photo of my hand sewn eraserhead baby to ur email. Mind the inconsistency as I am very picky about angles despite my pictures always being disjointed haha. Oh and I need to put more red dye in my super fried hair atm.
It’s an ugly thing but I’m proud of it. I’m giving it to my sister but I feel like I still have to add a few things.
Ok I will talk to you more next week
Oh wait!
What is the name of that area 51 aunt attraction? I was reading about the saw escape room aswell as hoping to see a Cirque Du Soleil show but unfortunately I didn’t plan any of this in hindsight. But who knows!
I don’t know what it is, but I can’t bring myself to pick up Sotos. It might be puerile, lazy or simplistic but something always stays my hand. It used to bother me until I accepted that I can never read everything and sometimes it’s ok not to work on being able to. Oh that’s interesting, about your poetry. Looking back, your ‘After School, Street Football, Eighth Grade’ might well’ve been my first exposure, anthologised somewhere before I knew who DC was. But yes, I do have to admit to preferring your prose. I can’t cry in America, but if I could, it would be because of Try.
Hey, Dennis, I’m in! Glad I don’t have to jump through the captcha hoop. All’s well here and with me, and I hope the same for you. Still working on that project I mentioned to you and, well, just enjoyed summer in the PNW. (The sun! Outdoors!) Last May, I was in SF and walked past the Roxy in the Mission and saw your film was going to be playing. I got excited and was about to buy a ticket but then saw it was playing a month from then, and not that week. Damn! Been watching as many (good) films as I can find. That’s hard. I’m picky. Really liked ‘Do Not Expect Much from the End of the World.’ I want to see Radu Jude’s latest but don’t know what platform that might be on. Also liked, ‘Memories of Murder.’ That’s good. I’ll keep an eye out here for any interesting novel suggestions, as always. Take care, Don
Love Peter, please say hi from me when you see him next!