Lazy

by Peter Sotos

Book by Sotos, Peter

Genres: Fiction, Dark, Sexuality, Erotica

336 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 2000

About the author

Peter Sotos (born April 17, 1960) is a Chicago-born writer who has contributed an unprecedented examination of the peculiar motivations of sadistic sexual criminals. His works are often cited as conveying an uncanny understanding of myriad aspects of pornography. Most of his writings have focused on sexually violent pornography, particularly of that involving children. His writings are also considered by many to be social criticism often commenting on the hypocritical way media handles these issues.

In 1984, while attending The Art Institute of Chicago, Sotos began producing a self-published newsletter or "fanzine" named Pure, notable as the first zine dedicated to serial killer lore. Much of the text and pictures in Pure were photocopied images from major newspapers and other print media. Sotos also used a photocopy from a magazine of child pornography as the cover of issue#2 of Pure. In 1986 this cover led to his arrest and charges of obscenity and possession of child pornography. The charges of obscenity were dropped, but Sotos eventually pled guilty to the possession charge and received a suspended sentence. Sotos was the first person in the United States ever to be charged for owning child pornography.

Sotos' writings explore sadistic and pedophilic sexual impulses in their many, often hidden, guises. Often using first person narratives, his prose takes on the point of view of the sexual predator. Despite his early legal troubles, and the seemingly fatal stigma of falsely being labeled a pedophile, Sotos continues to garner support for his ideas and literary output.

He was until 2003 a seminal member of the industrial noise band Whitehouse.

Reviews

[Aesop Dekker · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mr. Sotos, you are a tremendous writer. You wield words like Sutcliffe wielded a hammer. You are also a horrible piece of shit of a human. Great read, not for pussies.

[Robert Beveridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Peter Sotos, Lazy (Creation Books, 1999)
[originally posted 20Jan2000]

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.
**** 1/2

[kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

this is the first Sotos i acquired and read. made the entertaining mistake of reading it on the subway here in San Francisco, the city populated by too many folks who think and act as though (a) the private is necessarily public and (b) the personal is always political. some one reading over my shoulder got up in my face between Church and Van Ness, loudly stating the offense she had taken, saying, amongst other things, "you're invading my space with that book!" by reading this book in a place where she "had to see it."

she could've spared herself and me and all other passengers had she read, over my shoulder mind you, the book's back cover that reads, plainly, PETER SOTOS PORNOGRAPHY. then she might've gone on about her own business but she opted to read, over my shoulder and therefor invading, technically speaking, my space the page or pages i was reading.

it was that moment that Peter Sotos was on to something that i needed to read more of.

[Stella · Rating 1 out of 5]

I farted throughout the whole length of reading this

[reoccurrence · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is kind of a mess. There are some interesting tidbits throughout though. My favorite parts were when Sotos would talk about art and media influenced by murder/rape.

[Nekminnit4 · Rating 4 out of 5]

A gallery of abuse and how art is both informed by and informs it.

[Val Davidson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like a lot of Sotos stuff I think I understand what he’s going for generally here, and I’m a fan of his writing stylistically, but it comes off as much too frenetic, too disorganized (and not in the way that you want), too looping and recursive to the point of becoming kinda boring after a while.

The themes he reaches towards — the (perhaps inherent) perversion of our concepts of sex, love, etc. and the way they’re capitalized on by those seeking both profit *and* those seeking some sort of “reconciliation” or, even worse, crude questions cloaked in shock value via art — are deeply worthwhile and interesting. Moreover, while there are incredibly valid complaints and ethical concerns (to say the least) about the way he expresses them, I think the approach of bludgeoning the reader over the head until they croak is very effective and I kind of enjoy it.

That said, I don’t know, it’s a lot to trudge through when it’s a full book, in the sense of it being occasionally overwhelming *and* because you become sort of desensitized to it after, I dunno, 100 or so pages, and you just kinda wait for him to bring something else up. Like, I hate saying this about something as heinous as the Moors murders, but having read a lot of Sotos now his obsession with Hindley and Brady and Leslie Ann Downey gets so fucking irritating when he says the same like 5 things over and over again about the topic. Particularly because, as a writer who clearly has disdain for people who treat these subjects like mere shock jocks looking for a quick scream, he borders on doing exactly that.

I dunno. Would I recommend this? Probably not but not because of its quality, though also I think there’s other stuff, both by him and not, that is better even if you’re down with this sort of thing. I’d be lying to say this doesn’t scratch an itch that a lot of “””transgressive””” literature skirts, though.

[Jack · Rating 2 out of 5]

I should have gotten Index instead. This one mostly sucked.

During a move some years back, I think I gave this and too many other books away to a local thrift store. Damn. If I'd known this thing would sell for $200 or more...

[Kasia · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is why women choose bears.

[Yureka Eric Johnson · Rating 1 out of 5]

my cult survivor narcissist ex boyfriend stole this from me to give to his pedophile friend to jerk off to and I had stolen it from a male domestic abuse survivor

[Acacia]

It smells like a perfume -- a type of cologne. I shouldn't have read anything by Peter Sotos but I'm glad I did. All of his work smells like a certain perfume, this type of cologne: not really cheap, I don't think. But also not very expressive: it's a dampening smell, and a really very much muted itself. A muted and dampening scent.

I've read Proxy, Pure, Tool/Index/LAzy....

[Arthur · Rating 4 out of 5]

just like you