The Pentateuch of Pederastic Snuff

Closer is the first volume of Dennis Cooper's "George Miles Cycle". We're discussing only that opener next Wednesday but for those who might be curious what it opens to, there's probably no better statement of intention than Dennis Cooper's own.

Delicious Pregnancy Quotation Undelivered

If you google "proust duel”, the top hit is Wikipedia’s List of Duels including the 25-y.o. Marcel's with Jean Lorrain on Feb. 5, 1897. "Proust and Lorrain exchanged shots at 25 paces. Proust fired first, his bullet hitting the ground by Lorrain's foot. Lorrain's shot missed, and the seconds agreed that honor had been satisfied." The footnoted authority is Douglas W. Alden's article in Modern Language Notes  February, 1938. Alden claims "Such impetuosity is not surprising in a ‘nerveux,’ nor is this dramatic gesture astonishing in a young man, who, at this time, took feudal society seriously." The occasion for the duel was Lorrain’s scathingly criticle review of Proust’s Les plaisirs et les jours, which appeared in Le Journal, Feb. 3, 1897 — unfortunately, not the source of the “delicious” pregnancy quotation in Steve's post nine days ago (v.i.).

5/2/15 update: Gottschall's book references Barbara Holland's Gentlemen's Blood  for the delicious quotation. She, however, references nothing! Under those circumstances one has to wonder what sort of scholarly pretension Gottschall was striving to maintain. (As in, "yeah, I heard some guy in a bar once say that.")

Off the Good Ship Lollipop

The perfect travel poster for Dennis Cooper's Closer, which we discuss next Wednesday! It's a short book (130 pages) and reads fast. You could wait till the night before (or the day of, depending on your work schedule). But I've found a rereading extraordinarily useful. There are seven points-of-view and and least three different narrative voices. Putting them all together can be a challenge. So I recommend cracking the book open and reading the first chapter "John: The Beginner" (16 pages) so that if you do think you might want a reread, you'll have a chance. Of course, again depending on your work schedule, if you read and like it the night before, you could reread it the day following. WARNING: some people will not want or be able to finish the book. You'll find out who you are soon enough.

Quote of the Day, Literary Smackdown Division

In his review of Jonathan Gottschall's The Professor in the Cage: Why Men Fight and Why We Like to Watch, in the April 19 Outlook section of the Washington Post, Carlos Lozada shares a delicious quote:

Gottschall recounts how Marcel Proust traded pistol shots with a book critic who had called him "a pretty little society boy who has managed to get himself pregnant with literature."

To me, the only thing more astonishing than that quote is the idea that Proust fought a duel with actual weapons! Sadly, however, Lozada doesn't give us any particulars; anyone out there happen to know?

V is for Victory!

Just in case I was not the only reader puzzled by the frequent references to "V-mail" throughout John Horne Burns' The Gallery, here is a link to a Wikipedia article that explains how the system works. (Really pretty ingenious!)


My Google search also turned up a sample V-mail created as (presumably) a teacher resource for a class studying the novel.

The Gallery … "a Naples street" [sic!]

BookMen may be interest in reading the excerpt from David Margolick's biography which appeared in the New York Times Magazine two years ago and began the renewed interest in John Horne Burns. (Additionally, the Bantam "Giant" cover above provides a lurid tease of the book we will be discussing in June, 1960s Gay Pulp Fiction. Extra points for anyone who can identify the passage in the book illustrated by this cover!)

Frankly, my dear, I do give a damn!

Most of you are probably aware that former Representative Barney Frank's latest book, Frank: A Life in Politics from the Great Society to Same-Sex Marriage, has just come out (pun intended). If you're curious about it, but not yet ready to plunk down your $28, Politico has just published a lengthy extract from it.