Glenn W. Turner wrote:

Steve V. wrote:Imagine a literary assault that TESTS the reader, but not in a confusion/not confusion-type of way. It grinds gears next to the eardrum, pinches the nerves so you can barely turn the pages. Sex depicted with such a lack of any emotion aside from hatred, the reluctance to show anything except for rage.

That's how I felt reading "Total Abuse" by Peter Sotos. "The Room" by Hubert Selby Jr. had a similar effect and challenge to reading it.

Is anything of Sotos's still in print?

Steve V. wrote:

Glenn W. Turner wrote:

Steve V. wrote:Imagine a literary assault that TESTS the reader, but not in a confusion/not confusion-type of way. It grinds gears next to the eardrum, pinches the nerves so you can barely turn the pages. Sex depicted with such a lack of any emotion aside from hatred, the reluctance to show anything except for rage.

That's how I felt reading "Total Abuse" by Peter Sotos. "The Room" by Hubert Selby Jr. had a similar effect and challenge to reading it.

Is anything of Sotos's still in print?

I know that "Total Abuse" is out of print. I think that everything published by Creation Books is still available (check the Cult section on their webpage.) If you haven't read it, and can find a copy, "Total Abuse" is worth checking out. Thanks for the review of "Hogg", by the way. I'm going to try to find a copy.

Glenn W. Turner wrote:

Steve V. wrote:

Glenn W. Turner wrote:

Steve V. wrote:Imagine a literary assault that TESTS the reader, but not in a confusion/not confusion-type of way. It grinds gears next to the eardrum, pinches the nerves so you can barely turn the pages. Sex depicted with such a lack of any emotion aside from hatred, the reluctance to show anything except for rage.

That's how I felt reading "Total Abuse" by Peter Sotos. "The Room" by Hubert Selby Jr. had a similar effect and challenge to reading it.

Is anything of Sotos's still in print?

I know that "Total Abuse" is out of print. I think that everything published by Creation Books is still available (check the Cult section on their webpage.) If you haven't read it, and can find a copy, "Total Abuse" is worth checking out. Thanks for the review of "Hogg", by the way. I'm going to try to find a copy.

I read an interview of Sotos basically saying "Hogg" doesn't do much for him. Quite interesting...

I'm looking at this Proxy set, may pick that up. Looks interesting. Also found the first 2 issues of Pure. in Pdf. Kind of odd.

John Perkins-Confessions of an Economic Hitman
Not sure if it counts since I've been listening to the audio book I checked out from the CPL. But a good listen anyway. After a while of listening you step back and say "ohhh, so that's how all these fuckers get rich".
A good conspirisy theory read.

Showa50 wrote:John Perkins-Confessions of an Economic Hitman
Not sure if it counts since I've been listening to the audio book I checked out from the CPL. But a good listen anyway. After a while of listening you step back and say "ohhh, so that's how all these fuckers get rich".
A good conspirisy theory read.

Definitely a good one. Used it liberally on an essay I wrote against capitalism back when I did things like that.

Anyways, I bought Two Novels (Jealousy and In the Labyrinth) by Alain Robbe-Grillet today. Anyone ever read this guy before? I've been flipping through the pages and I keep getting sucked in by little sentences of really well-constructed phrases. Looks pretty fascinating.

Also bought:

The Devil's Stocking by Nelson Algren

Rusty String Quartet by Raegan Butcher

Dream of Fair to Middling Women by Samuel Beckett (I'm incredibly stoked on this one in particular, the only Beckett novel I've yet to read)

Steve V. wrote:Nelson Algren

i read a couple of his books back to back years ago. i remember them being quite good even if i cannot recall the particulars of each. i should grab another...

picked up The Castle and The Essential James Joyce (for The Dubliners) today both used and crazy cheap. because i'm used and crazy cheap.

LBx wrote:

Steve V. wrote:Nelson Algren

i read a couple of his books back to back years ago. i remember them being quite good even if i cannot recall the particulars of each. i should grab another...

Never Come Morning is absolutely essential.

At the moment, I'm reading a fantastic collection of short stories called The Paper Door by one Shiga Naoya. Never heard of this fella till one of the guys who runs the local record shop recommended him to me. Shiga is apparently heralded as "the god of the Japanese short story." At this point I don't know if that's an accurate statement or not, but it's obvious that this mofo sure as hell knew how to write. Very concise yet elaborate. The stories I've read so far have been about..a meticulous barber who, after years of never so much as knicking a customer while shaving him, snaps and slits one of his clients throats with a straight razor; a traveling knife thrower who hates his wife, his assitant, and possibly accidently possibly deliberately kills her during his act; a little kid who almost gets squashed by a trolley and the commotion that ensues. These are pretty intense, morally ambiguous stories. Lovin' every one of 'em. Not very skilled at describing books, but I wholeheartedly recommend this one. It's a winner.

Ekkssvvppllott wrote:The stories I've read so far have been about..a meticulous barber who, after years of never so much as knicking a customer while shaving him, snaps and slits one of his clients throats with a straight razor

No shit, I had an idea about this awhile ago. I just went to my little pocket Moleskine and searched, to find this

"barber, old man, never had an accident; slits man's throat while talking about the war."

Weird. Best kind of thievery is the one you don't accidentally commit.

I bought Proxy by Peter Sotos. Made it through Tick. Can't say I've been too quick to proceed deeper into the book. The man can write, the man can sicken, and the man can frighten. Perhaps reading Hogg was a good warm-up...or perhaps it is just pale in comparison. With Sotos's kind of writing, there is a tendency to start feeling a bit redundant, but there are serious single-line gems on nearly every page. Haunting stuff.

Got Answer ME! The First Three from Reptilian. Pretty fucking cool. Goad is a hater that can write, which is excellent. I find it very interesting. Need to find the Rape issue. Complete the set. Not a bad deal for $21.95; the fucking thing looks gorgeous.

Got a cool book on fornesic science from Barnes & Noble for $10 by Neil Innes called Body in Question.

Also traded a couple books with a friend. No Exit and Three Other Plays by Jean-Paul Sartre, Uncollected Stories of William Faulkner, Napoleon Symphony and A Clockwork Orange by Anthony Burgess, A Death in the Family by James Agee, and House Made of Dawn.

I've just begun 'Sanctuary' by William Faulkner. The previous owner of this book annotated it in the margins, which is distracting at the best of times - I always end up trying to work out what their notes are referring to. In this instance it is compounded by the notes being in both English and French.

I recently finished 'Taras Bulba' by Gogol. Um, ol' Gogol seems to have a bit of a downer on our Jewish friends, doesn't he? The scene when the Cossacks were about to set out to war and suddenly a load of Jews appear to sell them supplies - I could only laugh.