sotos

[Dodgson]

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.

Exciting, but when the publisher themselves warn you about the price it's concerning...

[Eigen Bast]

It's looking like a collaboration with Lionel Maunz, who is a contemporary fine artist. I'm guessing there will be some mondo pricey artist edition alongside a regular? I guess we'll see on Friday !

[Dodgson]

It's looking like a collaboration with Lionel Maunz, who is a contemporary fine artist. I'm guessing there will be some mondo pricey artist edition alongside a regular? I guess we'll see on Friday !

Well, it's gonna be an art book with high-quality photos, so it seems there is only gonna be one expensive edition released. They havent announced anything else at least.

[theotherjohn]

I pestered Chip and Philip about the book and they kindly confirmed with me some details which hopefully they won't mind me sharing in advance.

It will be an 8.5x11" hardcover at 330 pages, with a full novel-length text and 160 or so colour illustrations of Lionel's artwork. Pre-orders open this Friday and then it'll take 6-8 weeks for the books to return from the printers (I think they're using one recommended by Timeless, so it definitely won't be a disappointing Creation Books effort). Both Peter and Lionel intend to meet up to sign all the copies once they're done, and then all orders will steadily begin to ship out - hopefully just in time for Christmas.

With all that said, the book itself will retail for $100. I would say that's reasonable for both a combined Sotos text and what I assume will be an artist monograph (Lionel's first, no less), executed to the highest standard at considerable production cost. Both AS and 9BB are going all out and stepping their game up with this release, so I'm definitely going to get one. Hell, if it's cost effective, I may purchase several copies again (like I've done before for Desistance and Ingratitude) for people on this forum to purchase direct from me.

It really does feel like a return to the mid-2000s again, when Void Books took a risk in producing fine quality archival publications, instead of common trade paperbacks. Paperbacks have their place certainly, but I think this one will be most deserving of this presentation.

And another thing that the mid-2000s brought was the unearthing of Sotos rarities through the dedicated Peter Sotos Yahoo Group. Well, that group is no more and I suppose this forum thread has succeeded that for sharing news and gossip, so I'll mention this rarity here: the 2001 Mark Hejnar film 'Proxy', featuring Peter Sotos. This was previously shown as part of Chicago's underground film festival 'Z Fest' and recently I discovered the festival organiser had uploaded a Best Of compilation (with little fanfare) that includes it. You can watch 'Proxy' here, at the 40 minute mark: https://vimeo.com/401685855

[Eigen Bast]

thanks for the insight, sounds fantastic.

[theotherjohn]

Pre-orders are now up on both publisher's websites - only book orders received before the official publication date in December will be signed by Lionel and Peter.

Pick your poison:

http://www.ninebandedbooks.com/bandedbooks/lionel-maunz-peter-sotos/
https://amphetaminesulphate.bigcartel.com/product/lionel-maunz-peter-sotos

AS's Bigcartel is charging $157 per copy for shipping to the UK. Not sure yet if a wholesale price is available or a shipping discount for multiple copies.

[cantle]

Are you going to be picking up multiple copies for UK distro like you did with the previous Sotos release?

[deakin]

There is a new interview with Thomas Moore by Peter Sotos on Dennis Coopers blog about his new novel Forever: https://denniscooperblog.com/please-welcome-to-the-world-forever-by-thomas-moore-amphetamine-sulphate/

[Dodgson]

I find this interview and the one he did for "Confessions of a Prison Bitch" almost comical because the people he interviews seem baffled by what he is trying to ask and he seems to adopt an almost pseudo-intellectual or absurd academic language when asking.   

[endors_toi]

I find this interview and the one he did for "Confessions of a Prison Bitch" almost comical because the people he interviews seem baffled by what he is trying to ask and he seems to adopt an almost pseudo-intellectual or absurd academic language when asking.   

I honestly can't blame them. The way he himself writes certain paragraphs/entire pages of his books (and I own the majority of them) read like "absurd academic" language to me and sometimes I don't know what to make of it.

I will still buy anything that he writes, though, which sucks for me, cause the latest is gonna cost me around $160, as I've checked.

It kinds of kills my initial joy and excitement from the book itself, not gonna lie. Although the A24 Euphoria 8-volume set cost me (ok, my boyfriend) about $250 earlier this year, so that's better, but still...

[Dodgson]

I honestly can't blame them. The way he himself writes certain paragraphs/entire pages of his books (and I own the majority of them) read like "absurd academic" language to me and sometimes I don't know what to make of it.

I will still buy anything that he writes, though, which sucks for me, cause the latest is gonna cost me around $160, as I've checked.

It kinds of kills my initial joy and excitement from the book itself, not gonna lie. Although the A24 Euphoria 8-volume set cost me (ok, my boyfriend) about $250 earlier this year, so that's better, but still...

I read his work more like art or fiction that anything else - however autobiographical or not - at least in form, almost poetic with its use of syntax. Like Deleuze & Guattari I get the sense it's meant to be read feverishly, like porn, and not like theory or nonfiction.

wtf would you buy the A24 Euphoria 8-volume set?

[endors_toi]

I honestly can't blame them. The way he himself writes certain paragraphs/entire pages of his books (and I own the majority of them) read like "absurd academic" language to me and sometimes I don't know what to make of it.

I will still buy anything that he writes, though, which sucks for me, cause the latest is gonna cost me around $160, as I've checked.

It kinds of kills my initial joy and excitement from the book itself, not gonna lie. Although the A24 Euphoria 8-volume set cost me (ok, my boyfriend) about $250 earlier this year, so that's better, but still...

I read his work more like art or fiction that anything else - however autobiographical or not - at least in form, almost poetic with its use of syntax. Like Deleuze & Guattari I get the sense it's meant to be read feverishly, like porn, and not like theory or nonfiction.

wtf would you buy the A24 Euphoria 8-volume set?

Because I like it, and wanted to. I vehemently apologize for it not being worthy of syntax analysis nor an opportunity to namedrop French philosophers on an online board. ♡

[deakin]

Here is the list of reference work for the upcoming Sotos/Maunz book that was published by Philip & Chip
approved by Peter and Lionel on fb & insta, so far 18 titles :

Sabine Dardanne - I choose to live
R.D. Laing - the politics of the family
E.M. Cioran - the trouble with being born
Wensley Clarkson - Vanessa portrait of evil
Martin Duberman - Andrea Dworkin: the feminist as revolutionary
Sarah T. Roberts - behind the screen, content moderation in the context of Social media
Vanessa Place - you had to be there, Rape Jokes
Philip Larrat-Smith - Louise Bourgeois, Freud's Daughter
Bruce M. Achauer - Burn Reconstruction
Ernst Jünger - on pain
Jean Paul Sartre - Saint Genet
John Borneman - cruel attachments
Rebecca Barrett-Fox - god hates
Henry Scott Stokes - the life and death of Yukio Mishima
Mark Matthews - The Horseman
Stephen O'Shea - the perfect heresy
Paul Kaihla and Ross Lever - savage messiah
David Sylvester - interviews with Francis Bacon

Movies:
Robert Glinski - Piggie
Peter Robinson - Asylum

[endors_toi]

Here is the list of reference work for the upcoming Sotos/Maunz book that was published by Philip & Chip
approved by Peter and Lionel on fb & insta, so far 11 titles :

Sabine Dardanne - I choose to live
R.D. Laing - the politics of the family
E.M. Cioran - the trouble with being born
Wensley Clarkson - Vanessa portrait of evil
Martin Duberman - Andrea Dworkin: the feminist as revolutionary
Sarah T. Roberts - behind the screen, content moderation in the context of Social media
Vanessa Place - you had to be there, Rape Jokes
Philip Larrat-Smith - Louise Bourgeois, Freud's Daughter
Bruce M. Achauer - Burn Reconstruction
Ernst Jünger - on pain
Jean Paul Sartre - Saint Genet

Very well done. Thank you for that. I only recall seeing the Sabine Dardanne one and getting shivers down my spine.

I can hardly wait, really. Anybody knows of any source with good coverage regarding Lionel?

[deakin]

For Lionel Maunz info: https://bureau-inc.com/artists/lionel-maunz/works
I guess the Mark Matthews book should be mentioned here as it was quoted as
major influence on his work: The Horseman,Obsessions of a Zoophile, Prometheus, 1994
it's hard to find and pricy
Sotos and Maunz first met in 2009 when both participated in the Mirror Me exh. in NY put together by
Brandon Stousy. Sotos has mentioned him in several books.
His work stands out in my opinion not because he uses material like iron, concrete or steel which are handled quite originally but how he creates space. Giacometti comes to mind when looking at his work cause he did in some of his earlier work invent these cages. Maunz takes it to another level with some almost furnace look a like half closed structures with the figure inside. the figures he presents are almost always fragmented or otherwise disfigured sometimes with horse references. His sculpture work pre 2013 is different using a variety of materials including human teeth and bones.
His graphite drawings are very different to his sculptures. Though figurative but surreal and visceral themed.
The cover for the upcoming book with Sotos is a part of the work Mother My Body Disgusts Me from 2016
Here is an interview from the same year: https://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/lionel-maunz-fealty
There is a portrait triptych that he did in graphite featuring a picture of a pedophile from desistance.