Dennis Cooper
The American cult writer DENNIS COOPER can rightly be called an
outsider. He never joined any current trend and he went on his way as soon
as people wanted to annex him. His heroes were the poets Baudelaire,
Rimbaud, but also Marquis de Sade. With such examples, it is no surprise
that he writes about boys who indulge in violent sexual excesses. Rape,
incest, necrophilia, there is no subject he avoids. An entertaining story is
that the bass guitarist of Blur, Alex James, figured in his novel 'Guide' in
which the latter was drugged, raped and even murdered. Alex James turned
out to be a fan of Cooper's work and agreed to an interview with him. But
half an hour before it would happen Alex shied away from it and the two
never met. Despite, or perhaps thanks to, the shocking content of his work,
he has many fans among well-known artists such as Leonardo di Caprio
and U2. The latter is known to have their song Numb inspired by the
eponymous chapter from Coopers novel Frisk. But of course there is more
to it than shock value. Better than anyone he knows how to make the
craving for love tangible in a way that, despite the extreme violence in his
stories, actually moves the reader. Originating from the punk culture,
Dennis Cooper lets himself constantly be influenced by alternative art and
music movements and he also continues to renew himself. Examples are
the two novels 'Zac's haunted house,' and 'Zac's control panel,' (2015) which consist entirely of gifs. Other works are: the semi-autobiographical George Miles Cycle (Closer (1989), Frisk (1991), Try (1994), Guide (1997), Period (2000), The sluts (2005) and The Marbled Swarm (2011).