Drunk Book Club: Dennis Cooper's FRISK

Trash & Treasures

Special thanks to Anile for commissioning this episode! You can find out more about commissions on our Patreon. This month we stretch our muscles by getting into some ~literary fiction~! More precisely, the work of Dennis Cooper, a big name in queer outsider art who influenced previous DBC alumni Billy Martin (aka Poppy Z Brite) and Chuck Palahniuk and whose published alongside inevitable future subject Brett Easton Ellis. FRISK, the story of a dude who has a lot of sex and even more fantasies about violently murdering his partners, is considered his most intimidating work so....let's plunge right into that deep end! Pack a bag, because we did a LOT of extra reading for this one. Also, all the content warnings. My God, all of them. CONTENT WARNING: Discussion of sexual assault, pedophilia, coprophagia, water sports, snuff, necrophilia, graphic descriptions of gore/dismemberment, racism, queerphobia, transphobia, grooming, ageism, and misogyny. The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction: https://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm The JT Leroy Scam: https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2006/04/jtleroy200604 William S Burroughs' Nike Commercial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j6LjfxSBqwM Cooper's Formalism and "The Sluts": https://electronicbookreview.com/essay/is-this-for-real-is-that-a-stupid-question-a-review-of-dennis-coopers-the-sluts/ Interview w/ Cooper's Biographer: https://minorliteratures.com/2020/07/16/the-dangerous-art-of-dennis-cooper-an-interview-with-diarmuid-hester-author-of-wrong-a-critical-biography-of-dennis-cooper-by-paul-jonathan/ Article BY Cooper's Biographer: https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/books/dennis-cooper-the-last-literary-outlaw-in-mainstream-us-fiction-1.4274856 Personal Relationships in Cooper's Writing (Salon): https://www.salon.com/2000/05/04/cooper/ Cooper's Mother (LA Times): https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2007-apr-29-ca-cooper29-story.html BOMB Magazine Interview: https://bombmagazine.org/articles/dennis-cooper/ Not Like Other Gays (Honcho Magazine): https://slavamogutin.com/dennis-cooper/ 1:00 Content Warnings 4:00 Drinks 9:00 A Helpful Timeline 14:00 OH Shit, it’s the Frankfurt School 26:00 Sexual, Not Erotic 30:00 The Sad But Not Ballad of Dennis Cooper 42:00 “In Your Lane” vs “Blinkers On” 57:00 Interview Diving Say hi to Dorothy and Vrai on Twitter @writervrai and @dorothynotgale Our icon was designed by Allison Shabet. Get bonus episodes on our Patreon: patreon.com/trashandtreasures Join us every two weeks on Soundcloud, iTunes or Stitcher – and if you’d leave a rating and review, so that more people can find their way to us, we’d appreciate it!