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Flunker
When Dennis Cooper decides to publish a new collection of short stories with Amphetamine Sulphate, you just know the master will have something extra special in mind.
Yet again, this is Dennis Cooper without limits.
Poignant, uncompromising.
The original and the best.
Yet again, this is Dennis Cooper without limits.
Poignant, uncompromising.
The original and the best.
124 pages, Hardcover
First published July 1, 2024
5 people are currently reading
373 people want to read
About the author
Dennis Cooper
109 books1,791 followersDennis Cooper was born on January 10, 1953. He grew up in the Southern California cities of Covina and Arcadia.
He wrote stories and poems from early age but got serious about writing at 15 after reading Arthur Rimbaud and The Marquis de Sade. He attended LA county public schools until the 8th grade when he transferred to a private school, Flintridge Preparatory School for Boys in La Canada, California, from which he was expelled in the 11th grade.
While at Flintridge, he met his friend George Miles, who would become his muse and the subject of much of his future writing. He attended Pasadena City College for two years, attending poetry writing workshops taught by the poets Ronald Koertge and Jerene Hewitt. He then attended one year of university at Pitzer College in Claremont, California, where he studied with the poet Bert Meyers.
In 1976, he founded Little Caesar Magazine and Press, which he ran until 1982. From 1980 to 1983 he was Director of Programming for the Beyond Baroque Literary/Art Center in Venice, California. From 1983 to 1985, he lived in New York City.
In 1985, he moved to Amsterdam for two and a half years, where he began his ten year long project, The George Miles Cycle, an interconnected sequence of five novels that includes Closer, Frisk, Try, Guide, and Period.
His post-George Miles Cycle novels include My Loose Thread, The Sluts and God, Jr.
Other works include the short-story collections Wrong and Ugly Man, poetry collections The Dream Police and The Weaklings, as well as the recent Smothered in Hugs: Essays, Interviews, Feedback, and Obituaries.
Dennis Cooper currently spends his time between Los Angeles and Paris.
He wrote stories and poems from early age but got serious about writing at 15 after reading Arthur Rimbaud and The Marquis de Sade. He attended LA county public schools until the 8th grade when he transferred to a private school, Flintridge Preparatory School for Boys in La Canada, California, from which he was expelled in the 11th grade.
While at Flintridge, he met his friend George Miles, who would become his muse and the subject of much of his future writing. He attended Pasadena City College for two years, attending poetry writing workshops taught by the poets Ronald Koertge and Jerene Hewitt. He then attended one year of university at Pitzer College in Claremont, California, where he studied with the poet Bert Meyers.
In 1976, he founded Little Caesar Magazine and Press, which he ran until 1982. From 1980 to 1983 he was Director of Programming for the Beyond Baroque Literary/Art Center in Venice, California. From 1983 to 1985, he lived in New York City.
In 1985, he moved to Amsterdam for two and a half years, where he began his ten year long project, The George Miles Cycle, an interconnected sequence of five novels that includes Closer, Frisk, Try, Guide, and Period.
His post-George Miles Cycle novels include My Loose Thread, The Sluts and God, Jr.
Other works include the short-story collections Wrong and Ugly Man, poetry collections The Dream Police and The Weaklings, as well as the recent Smothered in Hugs: Essays, Interviews, Feedback, and Obituaries.
Dennis Cooper currently spends his time between Los Angeles and Paris.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 46 reviews
August 1, 2024
Cooper is a well-known proponent of and participant in zine culture and a supporter of small presses, so if you don't live in the UK or the US, you need to be really motivated to get your hands on a copy of "Flunker": I had to order it from a small press in the US which distributes in the UK over a small record label, then I had it shipped to Germany, then I had to pick it up from the customs office (thanks, Brexit), all while Cooper lives literally less than two hours away from me in France - it's nuts. Zut alors, Dennis!
Cooper himself called the anthology a collection of B-sides, which is certainly true for most of the six texts. This is not a suitable starting point for Cooper newbies, nor is it his best work, but it's interesting for people who are following the evolution of his writing. And then there is "From Here On", which is, together with My Mark, one of the best short stories the man has ever written - and with its counterpart "Gold", these two entries demonstrate the two main motors of Cooper's writing: Melancholic love and extreme transgression. Let's look at the texts individually:
Face Eraser
This text is what the internet did to the literary stream-of-consciousness: It now manifests as grammatically dubious digital ramblings that, make no mistake, develop their own zeitgeisty artsiness. This piece reads like a wicked self-presentation on a dating app, and is thus related to Cooper's most popular novel, The Sluts (which, in case you're a Cooper newbie, should be your starting point).
From Here On
An intriguing autofictional piece about the beginning of the friendship between Cooper and George Miles (who inspired the George Miles Cycle and I Wished). This text shows that Cooper, apart from all the transgressive antics and the shock value that is frequently an inherent part of his art, is a fantastic writer in the most classic sense, rendering intense scenes and psychologically deep characters in vivid vignettes.
Corpse and Hand Puppet
Early versions of this were included in a collaborative installation with Gisèle Vienne. Rendered as a discussion between the title-giving, ähem, entities, it's a meditation on control that mostly left me unaffected, tbh.
Trou Français
Apparently an outtake from The Marbled Swarm, and what can I say: French cannibals should be more fun than this. "The Marbled Swarm" certainly deserves praise for its experimental approach, but I couldn't get through it (yet), although I'm well on my way to become a Cooper completist.
Gold
The George Miles Cycle meets "A Serbian Film" and critiques the criminal antics of the Kremlin - yes, you read that right. The title-giving Gold is a Russian former popstar who got abused and becomes an abuser and killer, all staged and recorded as a NSFL multi-media spectacle with the help (?) of a KGB hitman. By far the most transgressive piece in here.
Start
Similar approach as in the first story, "Face Eraser", but add some William S. Burroughs-style cut-up and Cooper-esque ideas of death, sex and illness - voilà, here you go.
This is pushed to four stars by "From Here On", which should have been part of I Wished.
Cooper himself called the anthology a collection of B-sides, which is certainly true for most of the six texts. This is not a suitable starting point for Cooper newbies, nor is it his best work, but it's interesting for people who are following the evolution of his writing. And then there is "From Here On", which is, together with My Mark, one of the best short stories the man has ever written - and with its counterpart "Gold", these two entries demonstrate the two main motors of Cooper's writing: Melancholic love and extreme transgression. Let's look at the texts individually:
Face Eraser
This text is what the internet did to the literary stream-of-consciousness: It now manifests as grammatically dubious digital ramblings that, make no mistake, develop their own zeitgeisty artsiness. This piece reads like a wicked self-presentation on a dating app, and is thus related to Cooper's most popular novel, The Sluts (which, in case you're a Cooper newbie, should be your starting point).
From Here On
An intriguing autofictional piece about the beginning of the friendship between Cooper and George Miles (who inspired the George Miles Cycle and I Wished). This text shows that Cooper, apart from all the transgressive antics and the shock value that is frequently an inherent part of his art, is a fantastic writer in the most classic sense, rendering intense scenes and psychologically deep characters in vivid vignettes.
Corpse and Hand Puppet
Early versions of this were included in a collaborative installation with Gisèle Vienne. Rendered as a discussion between the title-giving, ähem, entities, it's a meditation on control that mostly left me unaffected, tbh.
Trou Français
Apparently an outtake from The Marbled Swarm, and what can I say: French cannibals should be more fun than this. "The Marbled Swarm" certainly deserves praise for its experimental approach, but I couldn't get through it (yet), although I'm well on my way to become a Cooper completist.
Gold
The George Miles Cycle meets "A Serbian Film" and critiques the criminal antics of the Kremlin - yes, you read that right. The title-giving Gold is a Russian former popstar who got abused and becomes an abuser and killer, all staged and recorded as a NSFL multi-media spectacle with the help (?) of a KGB hitman. By far the most transgressive piece in here.
Start
Similar approach as in the first story, "Face Eraser", but add some William S. Burroughs-style cut-up and Cooper-esque ideas of death, sex and illness - voilà, here you go.
This is pushed to four stars by "From Here On", which should have been part of I Wished.
July 3, 2024
I sat down and I read this book. And right away I want to read it again. A beautifully and highly skilled work of short fiction. The work fears no limitation of imagination and the essence of a world that is equally open and closed. I can’t think of another writer like Dennis Cooper that has such a strong presence once you enter his landscape.
October 9, 2024
okay another useless incoming review bc i am entirely incapable of being objective about dennis cooper..of whom i am a completionist + that's definitely the reason i enjoyed this so much, bc you can sort of tell which 'phase' of his catalogue each came from. also honestly i just hold a lot of affection for him as someone who's deeply obsessive and just writes about the same thing in a bunch of different ways but its always the same thing make no mistake. my favourites were from here on and corpse and hand puppet..and really the only dud for me was trou francais but i suppose that was bc it was a marbled swarm outtake and alas that book did not do much for me. whatever man honestly im just thrilled to be alive in a world where dennis cooper is still writing and i got to hold this in my hands and that's all that matters
— "Oh, one last tidbit. Should you indulge in this sculpture's fantasy of boyhood and try to quote unquote 'save him' you will locate not the frightened child it seems to think it is, or thought it was, but .. mm, a something, perhaps in plural, a thing or things, although 'thing' seems too formative, an artifact both newborn and previous, possibly a 'who', at least in retrospect, and which is rotting in the darkest reaches of a boy's imagination, or rather hidden in my intricate hotel if you prefer, decapitated head upon severed arms upon dismembered legs upon mutilated trunk like logs and branches in a fireplace."
— "Oh, one last tidbit. Should you indulge in this sculpture's fantasy of boyhood and try to quote unquote 'save him' you will locate not the frightened child it seems to think it is, or thought it was, but .. mm, a something, perhaps in plural, a thing or things, although 'thing' seems too formative, an artifact both newborn and previous, possibly a 'who', at least in retrospect, and which is rotting in the darkest reaches of a boy's imagination, or rather hidden in my intricate hotel if you prefer, decapitated head upon severed arms upon dismembered legs upon mutilated trunk like logs and branches in a fireplace."
July 15, 2024
Cooper is back! With six blistering new stories, and they are everything you’d hoped for.
I think Cooper wrote this one with his fans in mind, as there are many clear nods to his previous works (if French cannibals mean anything to you, you’ll be in the know here) and he also writes about George Miles again.
There really is no other writer like Cooper. There are no limits in his work, no boundaries he’s afraid to cross.
If you’ve not read him before, then it might be worth finding out what you’re letting yourself in for. If you have read him before, then you’re absolutely gonna love ‘Flunker’.
I think Cooper wrote this one with his fans in mind, as there are many clear nods to his previous works (if French cannibals mean anything to you, you’ll be in the know here) and he also writes about George Miles again.
There really is no other writer like Cooper. There are no limits in his work, no boundaries he’s afraid to cross.
If you’ve not read him before, then it might be worth finding out what you’re letting yourself in for. If you have read him before, then you’re absolutely gonna love ‘Flunker’.
July 9, 2024
An extraordinary showcase for Cooper’s unbelievable range as a prose stylist. Even when obsessionally fixated on the same macabre subject manner, each piece finds striking new angles into his core theme: the struggle of articulation in relation to intense experiences of love, desire, and death. Everything here is impressive and haunting in its own way—“Corpse and Hand Puppet” has given me chills for days—but I have to single out “From Here On” as the superlative entry. It’s one of the best things Cooper has ever written and moved me, appropriately, beyond words.
July 28, 2024
It's always difficult to review short story collections, especially those as confusing and muddled as this one. First off, three of these "stories" have actually been published before, so don't believe all the "six brand new stories" hype. Essentially, these are b-sides, all apart from "Gold," which is by far the standout, and is wonderfully disturbing on so many levels, and in my opinion, should have been turned into a novella and been published on its own and if that had happened it would have been the most Coopery thing ever and would have for sure elevated him back onto almost every 'most dangerous artist list' the world over lol. The second story, "From Here On" is also wonderful - touching, highly emotional, and brilliantly written. It's is a deleted scene from his last novel "I Wished", which really should have been included because it's better than that entire book (ugh that book was so bad!) There is also a deleted scene from The Marbled Swarm (which I adored as a novel) but this scene didn't work on its own and the prose, although fantastic, really jarred against the rest of the more 'coopery' prose in the book. Overall, this was a strange little object, something really only for collectors, and most certainly not worth the staggering price tag of £27. The formatting is bad, the font is awful, the paper is cheap, and the yellow end papers look like they've been glued down by a feral child. Plus you can read it in an hour. And if I'm going to pay that much money for something you can read in an hour, then I want that book to be a fucking work of art, thanks very much. This whole thing would have been been so cool if it had been released as a gritty pamphlet or a zine, but as an actual book, the overall effect, at least for me, was rather underwhelming. Do yourself a favour and just go buy his George Miles cycle because those are his true masterpieces.
July 14, 2024
A collection of b-sides that spans DC’s myriad styles. Expectedly some stories are disturbing, gross, thought provoking, and challenging. But there is also a sweetness there which I often detect underneath a lot of his writing. When you realize you’re being dragged through the deep and honest fantasies of a character/narrator/author, somehow the nature and intensity of the fantasies—even when violent/disturbing—sort of lightens up and you find yourself relating to what is being said. All of us can understand what it means to be stuck in our interior lives. All of us can understand how frightening some of our private thoughts and fantasies would be if ever exposed to the public. DC is brave and eloquent enough to dive into those ideas and lay them bare. Still it remains difficult to recommend DC to the uninitiated reader. Every time I read his stuff I find myself feeling queasy and saying that I think I’m done. But each time I go back. Honestly, his artistic integrity and community building is enough to keep dragging me back, despite all the…well, you know.
Read
July 24, 2024... this is a book you binge... I finished it in sitting. classic DC transgressive lit. beautiful prose with the most f*cked up content ever
July 13, 2024
In many ways, this reads like Dennis Cooper outtakes or a 'compilation' of his various styles - Cooper himself has describes the project as "an EP, lots of B-sides gathered together." And there's a reason for that - these pieces are leftovers from his previous projects that have been slightly modified/expanded before being compiled into this latest text. Because of this, it's difficult to recommend Flunker to someone who isn't familiar with Cooper's work or a Cooper completionist, and with this in mind, your response to these vignettes will largely depend on your relationship with his previous novels. For example, I wasn't a fan of The Marbled Swarm, so 'Trou Français' was a slog to get through; contrastingly, 'Gold' (a quintessential Cooperian narrative linking ) was undoubtedly a highlight, recalling imagery one might have found in The Cycle. And then there's 'From Here On', a devastating story which is possibly my favourite piece of writing that I've read all year and completely justified the money I spent on this thin yet expensive volume. The pain radiates off the page; it's uncomfortably emotional. .
Look, this is nothing new (literally), and Cooper has tackled all these themes and subjects before. But there's something fascinating about seeing his talents on full display. More so than his last collection, Ugly Man, you can see his scope as a writer, the ways he experiments with prose, his obsession with language, and his ability to elicit profound emotion in both mundane and horrifying situations. Character's remain adrift, obsessed with finding love, connection or something else... something ambiguous and undefined yet simultaneously profound.
It'll be interesting to see the direction of Cooper's next project and whether Flunker represents a definitive period before the start of something new. But until then, these stories represent four decades of work from one of queer and transgressive fiction's defining figures. It has a little something for everyone, and while it's far from my favourite of Cooper's books (I'll be surprised if it's anyone's), it reminded me of how much his work means to me. Out of the hundreds of books I've read, very few have contained prose that has touched me in the way his has, and it was a joy to return to the narrative landscape that has been part of my life since 2016.
Look, this is nothing new (literally), and Cooper has tackled all these themes and subjects before. But there's something fascinating about seeing his talents on full display. More so than his last collection, Ugly Man, you can see his scope as a writer, the ways he experiments with prose, his obsession with language, and his ability to elicit profound emotion in both mundane and horrifying situations. Character's remain adrift, obsessed with finding love, connection or something else... something ambiguous and undefined yet simultaneously profound.
It'll be interesting to see the direction of Cooper's next project and whether Flunker represents a definitive period before the start of something new. But until then, these stories represent four decades of work from one of queer and transgressive fiction's defining figures. It has a little something for everyone, and while it's far from my favourite of Cooper's books (I'll be surprised if it's anyone's), it reminded me of how much his work means to me. Out of the hundreds of books I've read, very few have contained prose that has touched me in the way his has, and it was a joy to return to the narrative landscape that has been part of my life since 2016.
March 16, 2025
Probably the fastest I've ever hit "preorder" on a book in my life and it was really only by sheer dumb luck that I decided to go on the Amphetamine Sulphate website the day preorders for this opened (I only check his blog when I want to crash my computer).
Pretty much every review and even the man himself have described this book as a collection of b-sides, but as any indiehead (I hate myself more than you do) would know, sometimes the b-sides and bonus tracks are the best things that band or artist has ever done.
Is this the best work he's ever done?
Let's go through this story by story:
Face Eraser
This man is 71 years old and this is the most terminally online thing I've ever read so honestly good for him. If I ever get to this point I want you personally to take me out back and shoot me between the eyes. 7.5/10.
From Here On
You know how five seconds ago I said that the b-sides tend to be the best work that artist has ever done? From Here On is Dennis Cooper's Wallowa Lake Monster (which also means that I Wished is Dennis Cooper's Carrie and Lowell, I hope this makes sense to at least one of you). I've reread this story so many times since this book came out, like, it's really not a coincidence that literally every review has mentioned this story as a highlight because it's just that good. Of course, a lot of it is just people who like anything he writes that has George Miles in it somewhere, but at the same time, the reason why we love the George Miles stuff is because when he writes about George it feels like he allows himself to let his guard down even for a minute, and I remember what it was that made me not put down Frisk five pages in and that made me read pretty much everything he's come out with, that emotion behind it all, how it's all tinged with sadness and even desperation. Like, this is the kind of story I'd send to my friends who 100% would not be able to handle Dennis Cooper at his most Dennis Cooper-y (see: Gold) just so they can understand why I love his work so much. This is the kind of story I'd kill to be able to have my name on.
This is worth paying $30 for. 11/10.
Corpse and Hand Puppet
This is from one of his theatre productions I think. Reminds me of Jerk which was in Ugly Man and is one of his best known short stories, but also I wasn't really a huge Jerk fan anyway. The ideas were interesting, but it's a bit of a throwaway unfortunately. 5/10.
Trou Francais
Whether you like this story will entirely depend on your patience with The Marbled Swarm, a book I don't really think is anyone's favorite Dennis Cooper. I'm not a The Marbled Swarm hater, but that doesn't mean I necessarily have ever wanted to read an outtake from that book. 6/10.
Gold
Gold, going off the reviews, is the second big highlight of this book after From Here On. This surprised me a little but it also doesn't, because this is the kind of story most people who read and love him want to read. It's extremely dark, disturbing, generally discomforting, and it also reminded me of I Wished but the part at the beginning, when Cooper kills off the "George Miles" from the Cycle in order to reanimate the one who actually lived. Reading this story has reminded me that I've grown a bit soft or I just haven't touched much hardcore transgressive fiction in a bit because there were some parts that genuinely made me, I don't know, question things about either myself and why I was still reading this or about Dennis Cooper as an author or whatever. Sort of like the first time I read Try and I got to that one scene and I was like "Why am I reading this? Why don't I hate it?" Also like when I read Frisk for the first time and I was genuinely like "I don't know if I'm more scared of the book or the person who wrote the book" because I didn't know anything about him then. It also feels a bit fan-service-y in that "this is what you want from me so I'll give it to you" sense which is not a complaint it's just an observation. This story was a lot, in other words. If you like classic Sadean Dennis Cooper, which is the majority of his fanbase I think, this is going to be the highlight of this collection for you. This isn't my favorite in the collection obviously, but it does get bonus points for being the most fucked thing he's written in years, probably since The Sluts, I think, maybe even more because I didn't really find The Sluts that bad in terms of content (please note I did when I initially read it and maybe still do have brain rot). I don't want to go as far as to say it's the most fucked thing he's ever written because the ten year old in Frisk actually made me whimper audibly, but ymmv. 8/10.
Start
See my thoughts on Face Eraser. 6/10.
This should be a three stars, but you know what, From Here On bumps it to a four. My favorite collection of his is still Wrong, but Wrong is also one of my favorite short story collections of all time so that's a hard bar to cross. On a shallower note, I like how the spine fits in with my 90s Dennis Cooper books but I also hate how the cover looks because I feel like if I took it out in public I would be arrested. You should read this, but only if you already love him.
Pretty much every review and even the man himself have described this book as a collection of b-sides, but as any indiehead (I hate myself more than you do) would know, sometimes the b-sides and bonus tracks are the best things that band or artist has ever done.
Is this the best work he's ever done?
Let's go through this story by story:
Face Eraser
This man is 71 years old and this is the most terminally online thing I've ever read so honestly good for him. If I ever get to this point I want you personally to take me out back and shoot me between the eyes. 7.5/10.
From Here On
You know how five seconds ago I said that the b-sides tend to be the best work that artist has ever done? From Here On is Dennis Cooper's Wallowa Lake Monster (which also means that I Wished is Dennis Cooper's Carrie and Lowell, I hope this makes sense to at least one of you). I've reread this story so many times since this book came out, like, it's really not a coincidence that literally every review has mentioned this story as a highlight because it's just that good. Of course, a lot of it is just people who like anything he writes that has George Miles in it somewhere, but at the same time, the reason why we love the George Miles stuff is because when he writes about George it feels like he allows himself to let his guard down even for a minute, and I remember what it was that made me not put down Frisk five pages in and that made me read pretty much everything he's come out with, that emotion behind it all, how it's all tinged with sadness and even desperation. Like, this is the kind of story I'd send to my friends who 100% would not be able to handle Dennis Cooper at his most Dennis Cooper-y (see: Gold) just so they can understand why I love his work so much. This is the kind of story I'd kill to be able to have my name on.
This is worth paying $30 for. 11/10.
Corpse and Hand Puppet
This is from one of his theatre productions I think. Reminds me of Jerk which was in Ugly Man and is one of his best known short stories, but also I wasn't really a huge Jerk fan anyway. The ideas were interesting, but it's a bit of a throwaway unfortunately. 5/10.
Trou Francais
Whether you like this story will entirely depend on your patience with The Marbled Swarm, a book I don't really think is anyone's favorite Dennis Cooper. I'm not a The Marbled Swarm hater, but that doesn't mean I necessarily have ever wanted to read an outtake from that book. 6/10.
Gold
Gold, going off the reviews, is the second big highlight of this book after From Here On. This surprised me a little but it also doesn't, because this is the kind of story most people who read and love him want to read. It's extremely dark, disturbing, generally discomforting, and it also reminded me of I Wished but the part at the beginning, when Cooper kills off the "George Miles" from the Cycle in order to reanimate the one who actually lived. Reading this story has reminded me that I've grown a bit soft or I just haven't touched much hardcore transgressive fiction in a bit because there were some parts that genuinely made me, I don't know, question things about either myself and why I was still reading this or about Dennis Cooper as an author or whatever. Sort of like the first time I read Try and I got to that one scene and I was like "Why am I reading this? Why don't I hate it?" Also like when I read Frisk for the first time and I was genuinely like "I don't know if I'm more scared of the book or the person who wrote the book" because I didn't know anything about him then. It also feels a bit fan-service-y in that "this is what you want from me so I'll give it to you" sense which is not a complaint it's just an observation. This story was a lot, in other words. If you like classic Sadean Dennis Cooper, which is the majority of his fanbase I think, this is going to be the highlight of this collection for you. This isn't my favorite in the collection obviously, but it does get bonus points for being the most fucked thing he's written in years, probably since The Sluts, I think, maybe even more because I didn't really find The Sluts that bad in terms of content (please note I did when I initially read it and maybe still do have brain rot). I don't want to go as far as to say it's the most fucked thing he's ever written because the ten year old in Frisk actually made me whimper audibly, but ymmv. 8/10.
Start
See my thoughts on Face Eraser. 6/10.
This should be a three stars, but you know what, From Here On bumps it to a four. My favorite collection of his is still Wrong, but Wrong is also one of my favorite short story collections of all time so that's a hard bar to cross. On a shallower note, I like how the spine fits in with my 90s Dennis Cooper books but I also hate how the cover looks because I feel like if I took it out in public I would be arrested. You should read this, but only if you already love him.
July 31, 2024
King DC blessing us again
My favorite stories were “corpse and hand puppet” and “gold”.
Super brutal content of course if I spied on someone’s book like on the train or wherever and I peeked upon some of the lines here I would be extremely shook lol.
a collection of varying formal agendas. The voice switches between emos and ESLs and French cannibals and a Russian and a puppet show.
The book reads way quick overall but the kinetic sense of reading is super different between each story, I was so belabored by the narrator(s?) in “trou francais” and then I speedread “face eraser” I have read all Sorts of stuff like that.
*the sluts* is his popular book but I still think DC isn’t represented enough as like a dm poet, of which some of these pieces are totally brilliant examples. He’s ultimately a *poet* that writes stories and novels
My favorite stories were “corpse and hand puppet” and “gold”.
Super brutal content of course if I spied on someone’s book like on the train or wherever and I peeked upon some of the lines here I would be extremely shook lol.
a collection of varying formal agendas. The voice switches between emos and ESLs and French cannibals and a Russian and a puppet show.
The book reads way quick overall but the kinetic sense of reading is super different between each story, I was so belabored by the narrator(s?) in “trou francais” and then I speedread “face eraser” I have read all Sorts of stuff like that.
*the sluts* is his popular book but I still think DC isn’t represented enough as like a dm poet, of which some of these pieces are totally brilliant examples. He’s ultimately a *poet* that writes stories and novels
February 3, 2025
"Things have changed and so have I, maybe for the better, maybe not; I'm still trying to figure myself out all over again. I just wish things were different, I wish things could be definite..."
Flunker, is, as described by Dennis Cooper himself, a collection of B-Sides, and, it certainly does feel that way. That's not to say that this book is any less brilliant than his other work, or that it lacks the impact of Cooper's other stories, it just means that, this is perhaps the worst starting place for those who are just discovering this author. This is, much more, a release for Cooper's ardent fans. Flunker is highly experimental and insanely transgressive, perhaps even more-so than Cooper's usual offerings. Maybe Flunker isn't the best Dennis Cooper novel, perhaps it's not the most enticing, but good God, it might just be the single most interesting, strangest, and weirdest thing the man has ever penned. Flunker is a limitless, explosive piece of fiction, it is a text that deserves studying.
What I love the very most about Flunker, is that you can actually track the evolution of Cooper's work, each story feels so very rooted in a specific era of his writing career. Flunker is absolutely beautiful and devastating, it's a complete sucker punch to the gut, it's one of those books that, in all its ruinous glory, sticks with you long after it's over. It's a truly fearless text, an imaginative, propulsive wild-ride that is unlike anything else you've ever experienced. This novel is proof that Dennis Cooper is one of the most important authors of our time. The sheer range of this novel, the intense, feverish differences in writing styles across the stories, God, it's extraordinary. As a side note - "From Here On" is the best story in this entire collection and ranks amongst the best of Cooper's stories ever.
The writing feels so damn obsessive, and this is absolutely not a complaint - it is, in fact, the highest praise I can muster. If you're obsessed by nothing, then what are you but mediocre and boring, right? Here, Cooper writes about everything he usually writes about, it's just, he tackles it all in such a staggeringly different way. It's all so typical of his work, haunting and drenched in sadness, a maddening circus show doused in gasoline, set ablaze before our eyes - it's nothing but pained screams, yet, it feels so very different from his other work. The stories are more jagged, more raw. Flunker is moving, an incredible achievement. As violent and as disturbing as the greatest horror novels, a masterpiece, providing you already love the author.
"One day a neighbor saw Dimitry walking down the hall without his shirt and asked if he'd pose naked for some pictures. Dimitry said no, so he said, fine, then I'll just kill you and take the pictures afterwards. So Dimitry posed. This was the child's story, anyway."
Flunker, is, as described by Dennis Cooper himself, a collection of B-Sides, and, it certainly does feel that way. That's not to say that this book is any less brilliant than his other work, or that it lacks the impact of Cooper's other stories, it just means that, this is perhaps the worst starting place for those who are just discovering this author. This is, much more, a release for Cooper's ardent fans. Flunker is highly experimental and insanely transgressive, perhaps even more-so than Cooper's usual offerings. Maybe Flunker isn't the best Dennis Cooper novel, perhaps it's not the most enticing, but good God, it might just be the single most interesting, strangest, and weirdest thing the man has ever penned. Flunker is a limitless, explosive piece of fiction, it is a text that deserves studying.
What I love the very most about Flunker, is that you can actually track the evolution of Cooper's work, each story feels so very rooted in a specific era of his writing career. Flunker is absolutely beautiful and devastating, it's a complete sucker punch to the gut, it's one of those books that, in all its ruinous glory, sticks with you long after it's over. It's a truly fearless text, an imaginative, propulsive wild-ride that is unlike anything else you've ever experienced. This novel is proof that Dennis Cooper is one of the most important authors of our time. The sheer range of this novel, the intense, feverish differences in writing styles across the stories, God, it's extraordinary. As a side note - "From Here On" is the best story in this entire collection and ranks amongst the best of Cooper's stories ever.
"Perhaps you will join me in thinking yourself no longer in the presence of a corpse named Charles, but comporting briefly with some horrid mutant, perhaps some fluke of a creature whose lack of specificity is nauseating to contemplate -- the abhorrent spawn of some countryside pervert and a deer -- one of those stumbling fawns one spots sometimes in nature -- helpless wisps of deer-like matter found wanting by their mothers for reasons only animals can grasp then all but coaxed towards the nearest hungry lion."
The writing feels so damn obsessive, and this is absolutely not a complaint - it is, in fact, the highest praise I can muster. If you're obsessed by nothing, then what are you but mediocre and boring, right? Here, Cooper writes about everything he usually writes about, it's just, he tackles it all in such a staggeringly different way. It's all so typical of his work, haunting and drenched in sadness, a maddening circus show doused in gasoline, set ablaze before our eyes - it's nothing but pained screams, yet, it feels so very different from his other work. The stories are more jagged, more raw. Flunker is moving, an incredible achievement. As violent and as disturbing as the greatest horror novels, a masterpiece, providing you already love the author.
"One day a neighbor saw Dimitry walking down the hall without his shirt and asked if he'd pose naked for some pictures. Dimitry said no, so he said, fine, then I'll just kill you and take the pictures afterwards. So Dimitry posed. This was the child's story, anyway."
December 29, 2024
Compila uma série de encontros em seis contos: Face eraser, From here on, Corpse and hand puppet, Trou Français, Gold e Start. Cooper escreve sobre os outcasts: frequentemente doentes, deficientes, queer (não como identidade mas como rejeição de uma), desajustados de uma ou doutra forma. Encontros no limiar entre um interface digital e o cara-a-cara. Ou um afeto cara-a-cara altamente estéril, resquício do digital, fórum snuff tornado palpável (Gold, From here on).
Uma escrita experimental em registos formais que variam entre o post de um fórum, conversa online numa sala do omegle ou chatroulette, uma peça de teatro e prosa de ficção, bebendo sobretudo da “linguagem online” empregue em plataformas que apontam para uma interação intimista, talvez datada por isso mesmo (?).
O que resta destes encontros, por mais distantes ou analíticas nos pareçam as personagens, é a torrente de sentimento nelas contida, cujo epítome, nunca chorado, é invariavelmente textual: “ ♥♥ im cryz … very cryz… dark… drops … “waw”…”
Uma escrita experimental em registos formais que variam entre o post de um fórum, conversa online numa sala do omegle ou chatroulette, uma peça de teatro e prosa de ficção, bebendo sobretudo da “linguagem online” empregue em plataformas que apontam para uma interação intimista, talvez datada por isso mesmo (?).
O que resta destes encontros, por mais distantes ou analíticas nos pareçam as personagens, é a torrente de sentimento nelas contida, cujo epítome, nunca chorado, é invariavelmente textual: “ ♥♥ im cryz … very cryz… dark… drops … “waw”…”
December 14, 2024
Dennis Cooper and I have an artistic/personal camaraderie four decades long. I worked at Beyond Baroque Literary/Arts Center in Venice, California when Dennis began programming events there. That’s when Dennis formed the “Gang” of writers and artists who, from there, launched long and significant careers. Dennis & I QA'd each other recently in Write or Die magazine. It starts like this: "Flunker offers a rich range of prose styles and subjects. Yet I detected a through-line in your distinct approach toward 'voice' and vocabulary. Some are classic Cooper in almost dead-pan cold depictions of extreme mental or physical violence. Others are modulated with warmth, emotion and tenderness." Here is the rest of that article: https://writeordiemag.com/author-inte...
July 18, 2024
Six short stories, many of which feel like extensions of, or offcuts from, previous works. 'Face Eraser' and 'Start' are stream-of-consciousness frenzies that bookend the collection, drawn from Cooper's remixes and pastiches of desperate hook-up personals, which ramble frenetically from confessional to posturing to desperate yearning. 'From Here On' is a deeply touching George Miles episode. 'Corpse and Hand Puppet', adapted from a performance art piece, is an uncomfortable script about control and coercion. 'Trou Français' feels like a chapter cut out of 'The Marbled Swarm', with incessantly verbose French cannibal-artists that got a little tiresome (as did the novel, if I recall). The longest story in the book, 'Gold', is some of Cooper's most horrendous and disgusting works: its layers of utter depraved evil have echoes of A Serbian Film but manage to actually stick the landing. If you're a DC fan you know what to expect, but even then there are some moments that genuinely disgusted me.
July 18, 2024
There was a time one could go to a record store and listen to clips from new albums. There were these little booths or displays with the CD cases on display and headphones for you to hear 30 second clips (sometimes a whole track). This collection feels like those song clips. Most of these stories feel incomplete. Just a taste for Cooper without the connections made working through a larger piece. Now, one (almost two) of these stories really worked for me. Felt complete enough, but also too familiar.
March 9, 2025
A brilliant collection that showcases Cooper's talents. All the stories were amazing and intense. While not a fan of "Trou Francais" (the writing style was very reminiscent, and apparently it's an excerpt? Of "The Marbled Swarm" which is my least favorite of his works) the ending was fun so I was a little more forgiving. I would like to pick a favorite but I only have ones I don't like as much.
July 26, 2024
Loved it! "From Here On" and "Gold" in particular are knockouts.
August 29, 2024
amphetamine sulphate x dennis cooper is a match made in actual heaven
October 13, 2024
So happy I finally got my hands on this, anything Dennis Cooper writes is invaluable in my eyes. A beautiful little collection of stories, some stronger than others, all of them showing off different skills and quirks of Dennis’ writing style. I’ll give some quick thoughts on each story:
Face Eraser: 8/10
A beautiful and very realistic digital outburst of emotions. I don’t know how Dennis manages to capture these voices of the internet without it feeling forced or unrealistic in the slightest, it’s truly remarkable.
From Here On: 10/10
A beautiful deleted fragment Cooper’s ‘I Wished’ and an insight on Dennis’ and his future muse George’s first interactions and relationship. Every word is filled with such emotion and sadness that I can’t help but tear up. Beautiful and honest stuff.
Corpse and Hand Puppet: 6/10
Well written, but I prefer Cooper’s other literary voices. Not much to say, it’s good, but it isn’t a standout.
Trou Francais: 5/10
The only one I didn’t really like. I love ‘The Marbled Swarm’, but it’s not by any means my favorite work by Cooper, and this kind of felt like the parts of that work that I had most trouble with. Again, well written, but it doesn’t really interest me.
Gold: 10/10
A cold and disgusting tale from Cooper. A fucking tragedy, heartbreaking and vile in so many ways. Every word feels so direct and calculated, yet confusing and uncertain. Masterful.
Start: 9/10
Another beautiful digital outburst of emotion, and maybe an even greater one. So realistic and alive, Dennis becomes one with the character he’s writing about, it is a small and genuine spectacle.
Face Eraser: 8/10
A beautiful and very realistic digital outburst of emotions. I don’t know how Dennis manages to capture these voices of the internet without it feeling forced or unrealistic in the slightest, it’s truly remarkable.
From Here On: 10/10
A beautiful deleted fragment Cooper’s ‘I Wished’ and an insight on Dennis’ and his future muse George’s first interactions and relationship. Every word is filled with such emotion and sadness that I can’t help but tear up. Beautiful and honest stuff.
Corpse and Hand Puppet: 6/10
Well written, but I prefer Cooper’s other literary voices. Not much to say, it’s good, but it isn’t a standout.
Trou Francais: 5/10
The only one I didn’t really like. I love ‘The Marbled Swarm’, but it’s not by any means my favorite work by Cooper, and this kind of felt like the parts of that work that I had most trouble with. Again, well written, but it doesn’t really interest me.
Gold: 10/10
A cold and disgusting tale from Cooper. A fucking tragedy, heartbreaking and vile in so many ways. Every word feels so direct and calculated, yet confusing and uncertain. Masterful.
Start: 9/10
Another beautiful digital outburst of emotion, and maybe an even greater one. So realistic and alive, Dennis becomes one with the character he’s writing about, it is a small and genuine spectacle.
December 30, 2024
Enjoyed it mostly
Face Eraser: 4/5 - Reminded me of The Sluts, thought the online writing didn't really match the pandemic period in which it's set though.
From Here On: 5/5 - He's always so good when he's writing about George
Corpse and Hand Puppet: 3/5 - Kinda funny but got old quick
Trou Français: 2/5 - I didn't read The Marbled Swarm so I had no idea what was going on here but I wasn't particularly entertained
Gold: 5/5 - I think this is the defining story of the collection to me, it's so good and felt so shocking, disgusting, and memorable in all the ways a good Dennis Cooper story is.
Start: 2/5 - Reminded me of the first story but felt kinda weak after Gold
Face Eraser: 4/5 - Reminded me of The Sluts, thought the online writing didn't really match the pandemic period in which it's set though.
From Here On: 5/5 - He's always so good when he's writing about George
Corpse and Hand Puppet: 3/5 - Kinda funny but got old quick
Trou Français: 2/5 - I didn't read The Marbled Swarm so I had no idea what was going on here but I wasn't particularly entertained
Gold: 5/5 - I think this is the defining story of the collection to me, it's so good and felt so shocking, disgusting, and memorable in all the ways a good Dennis Cooper story is.
Start: 2/5 - Reminded me of the first story but felt kinda weak after Gold
July 19, 2024
Wretched foul vomitous transcendent unconscionable stomach churning sexy (dear god why)
An impressive range of styles across the stories. Singularly horrifying. Dennis Cooper should be locked up.
An impressive range of styles across the stories. Singularly horrifying. Dennis Cooper should be locked up.
July 21, 2024
In every Dennis Cooper book, there is a passage that makes me sob and a passage that makes me want to give up writing.
February 27, 2025
Binged in one day (not too hard, it's a pretty thin book). Some parts were harder to stomach, as is the case with most of Dennis Cooper's works, so I'll be saving those to re-read at a later date once I've had more time to prepare myself.
Out of the ones I was able to fully digest, my favorite was probably "From Here On," since it highlights my favorite thing about DC's writing, which is the way he describes overwhelming emotion. "Face Eraser" and "Start" were written in an interesting style too. I was a cringe emo kid, so it's kind of funny to be reminded of the way I used to type.
Overall, I'm rating this three stars, but it's an incomplete rating for now. I'll come back to change it after I've revisited the stories.
Out of the ones I was able to fully digest, my favorite was probably "From Here On," since it highlights my favorite thing about DC's writing, which is the way he describes overwhelming emotion. "Face Eraser" and "Start" were written in an interesting style too. I was a cringe emo kid, so it's kind of funny to be reminded of the way I used to type.
Overall, I'm rating this three stars, but it's an incomplete rating for now. I'll come back to change it after I've revisited the stories.
July 13, 2024
Read this in an afternoon. Pretty sure the first and last stories are works of appropriated text from the Internet based on what I know about Cooper's blog posting tendencies. "Trou Francais" is the only one that didn't do much for me except for the dad mosquito part. "From here on" is pretty moving and relatable to anyone who's ever been in love with someone suffering from mental illness. I guess I haven't read Really Dark Cooper fiction in a long time but fuuuccckk was "Gold" a truly evil story I had to take breaks from (and it's not that long) cause it was making me ill.
March 21, 2025
As usual with short story collections with me some of the stories really stand out and others fall behind. My absolute favorite from this collection is Gold which luckily is the longest. A must read. I also really liked the 2nd story From Here On. It felt very personal and thoughtful. Some of the more experimental stories like Face Eraser and Start I cared for less but still appreciated their style. Trou Francais was quite good and enjoyable and Corpse and Hand Puppet felt a bit too out there for me and ended as it was just getting going. Overall it’s definitely a book to check out, if you prefer more experimental styles of writing there’s a lot of it here, (I usually like this stuff but I’d don’t grab me as much here). But yeah there is a lot of good and nothing really bad here, a strange first book for me to read from Dennis Cooper.
November 3, 2024
incredible. copper remains the best artist at recognizing the poetry of the internet. from here on, the second story, is easily one of the best things he’s written; cooper retelling the story he’s been stuck on for his entire career infused with the tragedy of aging while the people in your memories do not. also interesting that trou françois is set in france, translating his usual subject matter to his new home. cried and felt sick at nearly every story and reminded me of the power of language; loved loved loved.
August 8, 2024
Always a beautiful writer, re-readable sentences good god, always with brutal/fucked content. Not sure I'd recommend to anybody really because of what he writes, but Flunker is smart and contravening/transgressive as Cooper tends to be. Not my favorite DC, some of his difficult-to-read shit ofc, but if you like how he writes and how he pushes his awful fingers up into brains, Flunker hits the mark.
July 19, 2025
Dennis Cooper’s writing has yet again turned my stomach and made me wonder why I keep seeking out his work. The way he writes is *so* disorienting and nauseating and foul and confusing that I literally cannot help but continue participating. I stay chasing the icky feeling he gives me when I read his books.
Anyway! With that all being said, “Gold” is one of the most INSANE stories I’ve ever read. I literally could not believe my eyes. What a fucking mess.
Anyway! With that all being said, “Gold” is one of the most INSANE stories I’ve ever read. I literally could not believe my eyes. What a fucking mess.
August 24, 2024
I picked this book up at my bookstore not having read any of Dennis Cooper’s work before. Not really knowing what I was getting into. I felt perturbed, nauseated and unwell after some of the stories. What it made me realize is that these are actual thoughts and fantasies that people have, leaning on the dark web side of things.
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