Perhaps it's unfair to judge from a completely different set of circumstances, but being only a little older than Sotos when he began publishing PURE, it's amazing to me that he couldn't recognize just how embarrassingly bad it was, and only slightly less amazing that people like Jim Goad thought some of the dullest literary shock rock put to paper was worth publishing years later. I can't complain too much as we wouldn't have the work he would put out later, but the most those writings should serve as now is inspiration that total hack writing can evolve into something much greater.
I'm curious as to what his literary influences even were as he began to stylistically shift into the Index type stuff. There's Dworkin's fiction, obviously, I think I recall him mentioning Selby, and Lou Reed if that counts, but has anyone more well-read sussed out some of his inspirations? edit: naturally Genet and Sade...
