Wrong: A Critical Biography of Dennis Cooper

by Diarmuid Hester

Dennis Cooper is one of the most inventive and prolific artists of our time. Working in a variety of forms and media since he first exploded onto the scene in the early 1970s, he has been a punk poet, a queercore novelist, a transgressive blogger, an indie filmmaker—each successive incarnation more ingenious and surprising than the last. Cooper’s unflinching determination to probe the obscure, often violent recesses of the human psyche have seen him compared with literary outlaws like Rimbaud, Genet, and the Marquis de Sade. In this, the first book-length study of Cooper’s life and work, Diarmuid Hester shows that such comparisons hardly scratch the surface. A lively retrospective appraisal of Cooper’s fifty-year career,  Wrong tracks the emergence of Cooper’s singular style alongside his participation in a number of American subcultural movements like New York School poetry, punk rock, and radical queercore music and zines. Using extensive archival research, close readings of texts, and new interviews with Cooper and his contemporaries, Hester weaves a complex and often thrilling biographical narrative that attests to Cooper’s status as a leading figure of the American post­–War avant-garde.

Genres: Biography, Nonfiction, Queer, Gay, Criticism, LGBT, History

320 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2020

About the author

Dr Diarmuid Hester is a cultural historian, activist, and author. Originally from County Kilkenny, Ireland, he holds a PhD in English literature from the University of Sussex and has been a research fellow at New York University, the Library of Congress, the University of Oxford, the British Library, and the University of Cambridge where he was a Leverhulme Fellow until 2021. He teaches at the Faculty of English, University of Cambridge, and is a research associate of Emmanuel College.

Reviews

[Meike · Rating 5 out of 5]

Hester delivers on what he promises: This critical biography connects Cooper's life to his work, and then gives an extensive theoretical framework for interpretation, which, let's face it, is crucial to really understanding what this complex transgressive author is doing. After reading The Sluts and the first three installments of the Georgs Miles Cycle, I was captivated (and lost three nights of sleep because I was haunted by the contents of Try), but couldn't really place some aspects of what I read - and Hester came to my rescue. He starts out with Cooper's troubled childhood, his early influences (Marquis de Sade, Arthur Rimbaud, Robert Bresson), his roots in the punk and zine scene, his connections to the New York School and Beyond Baroque, and his start in poetry.

Then, Hester moves on to the prose works, naturally with a focus on the George Miles Cycle, but he also gives a lot of space to the discussion of Safe, My Loose Thread, The Sluts, and The Marbled Swarm (as Hester's book was published in 2020, we learn about the first, failed attempts to craft what would later become I Wished, but the final product was published in 2021 and is thus not included). As Cooper is not limited to the printed page, Hester also dissects his works with artist and theater director Gisèle Vienne, his blog and the scandal around it, his GIF art, plus the films he made with Franco-Canadian director Zac Farley.

I was captivated by Hester's obvious joy in researching and interpreting Cooper's works, and I applaud him for taking several deep dives into connected schools of thought and works of art - there are pages after pages in which none of Cooper's works are even mentioned, and then, ha!, Hester connects the threads and shows how the hermeneutic framework relates to what Cooper does. It's insightful and, at least for fans of literary discourse, highly entertaining when Hester ponders concepts like "transgressive" (after Michael Silverblatt) or "New French Extremity", or brings Robbe-Grillet and Deleuze into the mix. I was also in awe how many other writers he connects to Cooper, from serious collaborators and friends like Bruce Benderson and Robert Glück to frauds like J.T. LeRoy. Hester also explores major themes of Cooper, like youth, friendship, and fandom. What takes a backseat though is the most obviously extreme feature in Cooper's writing: The detailed depiction of sexualized violence. Hester does connect it to de Sade, most notably The 120 Days of Sodom and the objectification of humans it shows, but I feel like the abject in Cooper's work could have been explored more deeply.

But all in all, this is one of the most insightful and well-written interpretative works I have read in a long time, although it deals with a particularly difficult topic - kudos to Hester.

Listen to Diarmuid Hester talking about his book in his beautiful Irish accent on the "Bad Gays" podcast: https://badgayspod.com/episode-archiv...
(You can find the "Bad Gays" book here: Bad Gays: A Homosexual History)

[Tosh · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Wrong: A Critical Biography of Dennis Cooper is a much-needed study on this author and filmmaker's works and life. Cooper is very much a verb and still extremely active in writing in various forms and formats. Diarmuid Hester has an excellent grasp on what makes Cooper a great writer, as well as a thinker, and dwell into each part of his past novels and projects. Like Raymond Roussel, one has to take Cooper's entire works because, in a sense, it's all part of his world that he constructs very carefully and skillfully. Like Jacques Demy's filmography, one movie leads to another. There is a pathway or string that attaches the entire film works. The same goes for Dennis Cooper's writing and film projects. The beauty of Dennis's work is that it is very much part of contemporary culture. His collaborations with other artists are always of great interest, and true to the nature of his work.

Hester also writes about the culture around Cooper, and that is equally fascinating as well. The Beyond Baroque in Venice California years are explored as well as Gay/Lesbian culture of the 1980s, 90s, and beyond. My only (very) little disagreement with the author is how he sees Beyond Baroque Literary Arts Center becoming unimportant after Dennis leaving his post as Readings Director. The institution has a long history before and after Dennis. It deserves a full-length biography (or oral-history) of Beyond Baroque. Benjamin Weissman, who became the Readings Director after Dennis, did a magnificent job of organizing readings for the center and connecting to poets/writers from Europe, New York, and beyond. Without a doubt, Dennis's importance to Beyond Baroque was essential, but the organization rocks on in its manner and ways to this day.

"Wrong" is an essential read for anyone interested in Dennis Cooper's work. Still, also on a more significant landscape, it's about literature in the late 20th and 21st-century. He's one of my all-time favorite writers, as well as a person of great taste. This book opens up Dennis's world to others who are starting to get their first step into the works of this prominent figure in the arts.

[od1_40reads · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a biography of which both subject and author equally deserve their places in the queer literary canon.

Dennis Cooper – literary outlaw, one of the most important, perhaps the best, queer transgressive fiction writer alive today; and Dr Diarmuid Hester – academic, writer, activist, and radical cultural historian.

Hester worked on this biography for over a decade, and it’s taken me the whole month to read (interspersed with a few other books of course). Do not be fooled by the relatively short page extent, 269pp, as here is a stunningly vast amount of research and detail. It really is the definitive source for all Cooper fans, and indeed anyone, wanting to gain insight into this notorious author’s work.

Hester writes much about Cooper’s influences from the worlds of literature, art, film and music – my TBR has spiralled since I started reading – and it really does live up to it’s title of ‘critical biography’. Hester has analysed at great length and with master precision all of Cooper’s work from his initial teen poetry right through to his GIF/HTML novels and film collaborations with Zac Farley. It is a serious academic work that requires the reader take at least a moment to think about. (Several moments, in fact, are recommend.)

There really is far too much content in the book for me to do any justice to Hester’s work in a short GoodReads post, other than to hammer home that if you’re interested in Cooper’s work in anyway, then ‘WRONG’ is a must read.

I also want to take a moment to highlight Hester’s most recent book ‘Nothing Ever Just Disappears – Seven Hidden Histories’. I read it last year, and it was one of my favourite queer titles of the year. Again a must read, seek it out.

[Ben Robinson · Rating 5 out of 5]

With his lifelong study of youth and the abject, Dennis Cooper has achieved big things in a multitude of art forms. His complex, ever-shifting oeuvre would make major demands of any critic and Diarmuid Hester's compulsively readable overview is very highly recommended.

[Robert Vaughan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Illuminating study of one of our most innovative contemporary writers and artists.

[Matthew · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a teenager reading Cooper’s novels, I never could have imagined this book would exist. Cooper always felt like a bit of a secret between a handful of readers. This critical biography is everything!

[Matt T · Rating 5 out of 5]

A strangely brilliant scholarly reckoning with Dennis Cooper's works. Initially, I was a bit puzzled by all the digressions into the cultural history of the artforms Cooper's works are contiguous with, and then the scope of Hester's project struck home: aside from being a groundbreaking novelist, (and to my mind, no one has shown better the perplexing LIMITS of sex as the most intimate expression of romantic desire since Proust's estrangement of the kiss), Dennis Cooper has been éminence grise to the developments of the novel form in and through a post-internet world. Consequently, reading Hester's WRONG will show you one pathway to the crux of literary art today. So why explain the genius of Cooper through hoary old notions of genes and daimons, when we can see how circuits of ideas and affections beyond the nuclear family play a more pivotal role and produce something which we might call a 'community', or, what was once known as 'the society of the friends of crime'?

[Micaela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Life & Times of Clifford Dennis Cooper. While the notion of a “critical biography” is incredibly intriguing to me, I felt the critical aspects of this biography were too English Literature-y for me to get into at times. I found myself thinking of Maggie Nelson’s critical works, and not surprisingly, her dissertation (“Women, the New York School, and Other True Abstractions”) was listed in the bibliography. It’s not a bad work to reference (a good one, in fact!), but the author really went into the weeds with some of his criticisms… a lot of identifying and analyzing of symbolism in Cooper’s work. All this to say, Hester’s deep appreciation and fondness of Cooper’s work is apparent. It’s delightful to read when he hits his stride. He’s incredibly knowledgable of Cooper’s life and work, and referenced a great number of books, magazines, and interviews regarding his career. This book is a true accomplishment and it’s lovely that Cooper supported Hester’s project.

[joe]

a fabulous deep-dive into the world of Dennis Cooper. much to make note of when looking for analysis of cooper’s catalogue. to the unfamiliar readers, books like closer, frisk, the sluts, etc. can come off as one-dimensional and only out to shock and surprise, but holding knowledge of the author locked away in your neocortex can add such vastness to his work that it opens up a whole new arena of exploration.

this isn’t a biography per se. it’s angled more towards critique and analysis, with cooper’s backstory being used as the structure upon which to tackle different aspects of his work. i know dennis cooper himself took light issue with certain “factual” information in the book, so take the bio elements with a pinch of salt and find the exceptional worth in the analytical voice that hester provides.

a fantastic torch to carry into the dark and dingy tunnels of dennis cooper.

[babadyke · Rating 3 out of 5]

like this was good and obviously incredibly well researched but sometimes it went on tangents that werent all that relevant. and while i know sometimes complex jargon is necessary to communicate complex ideas sometimes you also need to touch grass

[Neta Asher Goshen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Best summer book ever
Amsterdam
Mallorca
Israel
Berlin
Asperen
London
Vienna
Endless dreams endless heartaches

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book reminded me why I took the history major MLIS route and not English lit. I have a decently high tolerance for literary analysis but some of the claims English lit people make about books are absolutely fucking wild, like tying in the language of The Marbled Swarm with the slang spoken by queer people in the early-mid 20th century is insane.

I also thought it was funny that God, Jr. got, like, a half-page mention which is exactly what it deserved but also poor God, Jr. I liked that book. It made me cry which is I think the only one of his books to do that to me, even if I did audibly whimper at some of them, even if I Wished is one of the books I reread passages from when I'm depressed.

Still, this book was worth it solely to learn that Dennis Cooper's real name is actually Clifford. Clifford. Clifford Cooper. This is earth-shattering knowledge to me.

Imagine some guy named Clifford writing the George Miles Cycle. I mean he did, but you know what I mean.

I feel like in an alternate universe, Dennis Cooper goes by the name Cliff Cooper and writes cowboy novels.

This also makes the Cliff character in Closer interesting to me in ways that I'm surprised weren't mentioned here.

Anyway. I feel like I did learn more about Dennis Cooper than I did before but also he's gone on record to say this book isn't entirely accurate but also he's a pretty contradictory guy in general so who knows. I mean this with love, but in all the interviews and whatever I've read from him getting a consistent opinion from him about anything seems to be a difficult cause. I also feel like it didn't do as great of a job as being a biography because there's a lot of holes in the timeline and in general it just seemed like Hester didn't want to dive deeper into some parts. Then again, it's difficult when the guy is still alive and also as guarded as he is which is why I'm sort of anti-living person biographies in general. You can't really get into the really interesting parts of a person's life until after they die.

On that note, goodbye.

[Nie Toll · Rating 2 out of 5]

neither fish nor fowl