Hogg

Yet another book review, but this one taking me considerably longer than most of Peter Sotos' work or most literature in general... The book in question is Hogg, written by an author (Samuel R. Delany) more known for Fantasy and Science Fiction and long unpublished until now for obvious reasons. A book detailing child sexual abuse, hired rape and killing and a heavy dose of scatological humor. However this doesn't seem to be just an author slumming-around necessarily, but not necessarily high-art either...

You need to know inspite the official descriptions of this book this is not proto-Sotos, nor an attempt to rehash DAF De Sade at the time when he was becoming more popular (1969)... Again, taking me longer to go through than Sotos -- very little of the same lucid mock-objectivity and obsessive scenario -- I think if there is anything this book could be lumped in with it would be Zap Comics and S. Clay Wilson in particular, with the combination of depravity and slapstick biker/pirate tales. Sotos himself would call this book merely a Tom of Finland knockoff, and I could see some vague comparison with that kind of work as well, with the usual inflated vurility, machismo and genitalia... Maybe also some "Funk Art" mixed in -- ie the later work of Phillip Guston about the same time-frame when Hogg was written... And maybe also Harlan Ellison, which would be inevitable coming from a Science Fiction writer anyways.

This had also been lumped into typical Black Experience literature of that late 60s and early 70s vintage, but the only way it would be is that the 1st-person protagonist either is described as white or black and is theoretically a black person with white skin. Most fiction of that sort was either about civil rights or urban concerns such as addiction, crime or merely lack of self-esteem. (I.e. A Hero Ain't Nothin' But A Sandwich.)

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Just coming from the No Fun Fest -- too much to write a whole review of, but the most notoriety coming from Macronympha's unexpectedly violent but otherwise excellent set. Strong performances by SJ, Bloodyminded, Prurient, Daniel Menche and Smegma amongst others...