sotos

[simulacrum]

Does anybody have a scan for whatever interview Sotos gave where he discusses Pierre Guyotat and his work? I feel like he mentions the pronunciation of Guyotat's Eden Eden Eden as resembling a machine gun, if that rings any bells. Or if anyone at least knows who/what published the interview, I'd appreciate it.

I would have sworn a user sent me a scan of it on here years ago, but my inbox says otherwise (unless it was on the Stench forums...before the wipe).

[rocksoff]

Does anybody have a scan for whatever interview Sotos gave where he discusses Pierre Guyotat and his work? I feel like he mentions the pronunciation of Guyotat's Eden Eden Eden as resembling a machine gun, if that rings any bells. Or if anyone at least knows who/what published the interview, I'd appreciate it.

I would have sworn a user sent me a scan of it on here years ago, but my inbox says otherwise (unless it was on the Stench forums...before the wipe).

Hopefully this link works. It was from a German publication, I think?

https://imgur.com/a/aML6iss

[Balor/SS1535]

Does anybody have a scan for whatever interview Sotos gave where he discusses Pierre Guyotat and his work? I feel like he mentions the pronunciation of Guyotat's Eden Eden Eden as resembling a machine gun, if that rings any bells. Or if anyone at least knows who/what published the interview, I'd appreciate it.

I would have sworn a user sent me a scan of it on here years ago, but my inbox says otherwise (unless it was on the Stench forums...before the wipe).

Hopefully this link works. It was from a German publication, I think?

https://imgur.com/a/aML6iss

Thanks for sharing this, the portion at the end about the blending of subject and object was really interesting.

[simulacrum]

Does anybody have a scan for whatever interview Sotos gave where he discusses Pierre Guyotat and his work? I feel like he mentions the pronunciation of Guyotat's Eden Eden Eden as resembling a machine gun, if that rings any bells. Or if anyone at least knows who/what published the interview, I'd appreciate it.

I would have sworn a user sent me a scan of it on here years ago, but my inbox says otherwise (unless it was on the Stench forums...before the wipe).

Hopefully this link works. It was from a German publication, I think?

https://imgur.com/a/aML6iss

Yeah, that's it, thank you!

[zorrozorro]

A few years ago Tumblr was pretty open (and with a leftish bent instead of a rightish one), but once Yahoo bought them out, the party was over.

I get the impression that most of the really open discussion these days happens in private Discord and Slack. It's like the old BBS days.

[theotherjohn]

I've briefly used Discord for chatting with friends over the lockdown but haven't even considered using it to join any outside groups. I'm not really a fan of apps/websites/chatrooms where you have to be Extremely Online (Discord, 4/8chan, Telegram, even Instagram etc) for FOMO. This forum, though archaic, is more to my pace. Re: open discussion, I find that the forfeit for that is a closed identity and when that entails exaggerated avatars or roleplaying like you see on the edgier/darker sides of the internet, I just zone out. Thankfully, most of the users on this forum seem to still exist in the real world (maybe not so much some of the newer posters who have appeared on here recently...) and you can still put a name or face to them, and chat one-to-one with them like reasonable human beings.

Going back to Sotos, I dug out these links to two interviews that used to be posted on the Void Books website:

https://web.archive.org/web/20040825185425/http://www.void-books.com/peter_sotos_interview.asp
https://web.archive.org/web/20061107084311/http://void-books.com/peter_sotos_interview2.asp

I've been meaning to comb through the saved messages I have for the old Yahoo group and organise the important bits into a timelined document or a bibliography of sorts whenever I have a spare minute. There's got to be some interview links in there that are no longer online but are hopefully available on the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine?

Oh, and I'm still looking to buy/trade for the first three Collected Volumes in hardback with their Waitress supplements if anyone is willing to part with their copies... message me!

[rocksoff]

Thanks for digging up those links. I ran across this old Geocities interview awhile back, not Sotos at his most enlightening, but hey, for completionism's sake...
https://web.archive.org/web/20050114142401/http://www.geocities.com/garbagedumpit/PeterSotos_interview.htm

Quite a few French interviews floating around as well, some of which were translated and included in a few of the Waitress volumes, I think?

[theotherjohn]

Another archived Sotos interview, this time from the Mr Skin website (of all places) to promote Pure Filth: https://web.archive.org/web/20120701095259/http://blog.mrskin.com/peter-sotos-the-mr-skin-skinterview-pics---14593

There's an article/interview by Andreas Falkenberg in the magazine Natt & Dag, but unfortunately it's all in Norwegian: https://issuu.com/nattogdag/docs/2011-mai-oslo.pdf (would love to read an English translation). An earlier issue had Dennis Cooper interviewed by the same author, and Sotos gets namechecked a few times. Unfortunately, a mugshot of Levi Bellfield is used in place of a photo of Sotos (I never could quite figure out why his photo was prominent on the front page of the Peter Sotos Moderated yahoo group).

Someone on Steve Albini's Electrical Audio forum interviewed PS for a college class on censorship, but as I'm not a member there I've not got a copy of it (I believe some of the questions and answers make up part of the text of Mine, if the cover of the 9BB edition is to be trusted). Another interview I'd like to read in full...

On an unrelated note, some time ago I reread some bits of Selfish, Little and the P. Sex text in the first Waitress regarding how Peter first got hold of *that* magazine that ultimately got him charged with possession following his arrest, and whilst he doesn't outright mention the name of who it was that sent him it, he offers enough generous clues to suggest who it could have been... send your answers on a postcard/private message!

[deakin]

John, the Natt & Dag interview in English is Part of the Last waitress supplement which was 60 Extra pages of the Mine hardcover edition from 2011, so is the censorship interview.If anybody need that I can provide copies. Also nice to see that someone was willing to shell out 199 pounds for a zerox copy of a waitress supplement recently.
Finally I reread the bodyguard text as well as the foreword to the Frank Bauer exhibition catalogue which were both kind of neglected texts cause hard to get a hold of.
Funny that you mentioned the magazine story if my memory serves me right the guy you mean got bad karma since he was arrested in return for a copy a Pure II after the whole thing blew up.

[Grimpin]

Does anyone have and can share the video of Sotos reading from Selfish, Little - at the subTonic Lounge in NYC, 2004 - which was uploaded on the (now defunct) Void Books website?

Archive of that site around that time: http://web.archive.org/web/20041216162854/http://www.void-books.com/
And for what it's worth here's the defunct link straight to the video file: http://void-books.com/img/psv1.mp4

Thanks.

[Grimpin]

I remember a long time ago seeing a video online of him doing a reading, which involved him showing a clip from a porn series - of some fella who'd made a hobby out of sucking off "straight" military types for money, I think? I can't remember was it the same reading as the 2012 Pompidou reading, available on their site and youtube, or another reading entirely. But I take it that's the one you mean.

Either way, if you could share that, that would be great. Would like to see it again.

I'm crippling my bank balance on a huge Sotos reading binge at the moment, and I'm not very well.. I've just finished reading MINE, which along with TICK I'd say is him at his best. I doubt he's ever been compared to Samuel Beckett before.. but I see a lot of affinity between these two books in particular (more so MINE) and The Unnameable / How It Is-era Beckett than any other writer brought up in relation to his work.

[deakin]

Funny That you mentioned Beckett, Jamie Gillis got Peter into Beckett. I think it is obvious when you Look at Mine or Ingratitude.

[Lily The Flesh]

For those curious, Pete is seemingly alive and well, as his latest literary output comes in the form of a quick Q&A he conducts with Ms. Mikita Brottman in the afterword of 82189: Confessions Of A Prison Bitch. She serves as the editor and commentator for the posthumous memoir from an inmate going by the pen name Henry Bellows. In typical Sotos fashion, we find our Chicago native poking and prodding the mind of the editor for answers that he selfishly wants to revel in more than actually discussing the topic at hand. Gotta love his commitment. I believe this piece of work is still available from Nine Banded Books, but I am having trouble accessing their site right now from my phone for whatever reason to confirm this.

[theotherjohn]

Still need to order that myself, along with the two Isabelle Nicou books released by Amphetamine Sulphate that Sotos had a small part in. I suspect he lays low these days given his online notoriety in recent years, or perhaps for other reasons.

I actually recently did a trade with someone for some very interesting Sotos rarities, though I'm hesitant to spill the beans publically as to what specifically these things are. And prior to his passing, Simon also traded with me a rarity of a similar nature. Legal material, obviously. Interested parties who I trust from past interactions can inquire further if curious.

[theotherjohn]

Oh shit, new Sotos! Instagram post from Philip Best: https://www.instagram.com/p/CTLE2xJpKZT/

And Nine Banded Books: https://twitter.com/NineBandedBooks/status/1432085588400766980

This will be a good week for fans of Sotos.