sotos

[wilst-de]

To be honest I didn't want to spend $90 (+ shipping) for a paperback not talk about the prices on e-bay.

[Grimpin]

I managed to find a GENEROUS Ebayer selling a copy of the new book for a MERE $250 (inc. international postage), on the way right now apparently, after some hassle at customs. I thought if I didn't shell out now I'd have to sell my home for a copy before long. That's my financial limit.

There seemed to be quite a few copies going around this price within weeks of its release. A quick and easy way to make a hundred bucks profit I suppose. One of the more obscure cottage industries.

EDIT: The only physical Sotos book I'm really in need of now, for my collection, is the Void publication of COMFORT & CRITIQUE (one of his best books in my appraisal). There's a PDF knocking about but lacks what appears to be the addenda of newspaper clippings on the case in question, included in both that edition and the later NBB edition. Haven't seen a copy on eBay or elsewhere for well over five years now. If anyone can help me out, give me message.

[Hyena]

I still don't see the point in print runs smaller than most first issue fanzines.

[Blade2000]

I managed to find a GENEROUS Ebayer selling a copy of the new book for a MERE $250 (inc. international postage), on the way right now apparently, after some hassle at customs. I thought if I didn't shell out now I'd have to sell my home for a copy before long. That's my financial limit.

There seemed to be quite a few copies going around this price within weeks of its release. A quick and easy way to make a hundred bucks profit I suppose. One of the more obscure cottage industries.

EDIT: The only physical Sotos book I'm really in need of now, for my collection, is the Void publication of COMFORT & CRITIQUE (one of his best books in my appraisal). There's a PDF knocking about but lacks what appears to be the addenda of newspaper clippings on the case in question, included in both that edition and the later NBB edition. Haven't seen a copy on eBay or elsewhere for well over five years now. If anyone can help me out, give me message.

Comfort and Critique was the second-to-last book I picked up earlier this year to complete my Sotos collection of about 35 works. The final piece was Instead Indices, which I got directly from Nine Banned Books. It took me over a year to find a hardcover copy of Comfort and Critique. Set me back $350 but it was the last one needed to complete the collection.

[Grimpin]

I came across this (new?) website today, which as far as I can see has never been mentioned on this forum.

LINK: The Peter Sotos Files

The following is an effort to produce a comprehensive annotated database for the work of Peter Sotos. My aim is to include all works to which he has contributed (as primary author, collaborator, interview subject, etc), works about him (secondary critical texts, news articles), and those which simply make reference to him or his work. As well, eventually each book (that I've read) will contain a summary and other notes.

This is very much perpetually in-progress.

Most interesting for me is the in-depth listing of all the rare things Peter has been involved with: zine articles, collaborations, anthology pieces, interviews, even thank you credits, allusions to him, etc. Includes information I was unaware of: Sotos being commissioned by American Records circa 1994 to write lyrics for Slayer! There's also a link to a Lydia Lunch-written article from 1986 in the NME covering Sotos's Pure trial, I was unaware of. And lots of interesting archive.org links.

[theotherjohn]

Pretty solid effort. I'd wager it's assembled by Unspeakable Archives (previously mentioned here), who has also started a Peter Sotos subreddit page of all things (which might be inaccessible to some users now without a VPN). Admittedly, a lot of Sotos discussion happens elsewhere these days... and I'll leave it at that.

[Balor/SS1535]

Solid effort indeed, though I think the "allusions" and "lost media" sections alternate between being excessive and misunderstanding how artistic processes (especially for a Farberian writer like Sotos) tend to work.

[Grimpin]

Some of you may already know this (don't think I've seen it mentioned on this forum at least), but the cherry on the cake perusing this Peter Sotos Files website is becoming aware there is a full manuscript of his late-90s/early-00s unpublished book Playground Sex out there, I thought had only been released via a few excerpts before and left to languish. Apparently released online with Sotos's permission last year.

The site hosting it is currently under maintenance, but you can download the 146 page PDF via archive.org here: link. I'll give it a read soon. This era (the Lazy/Tick era) was the pinnacle of Sotos's writing for me: at his most intense, deranged/experimental. So good to see there's more to wallow in!

[theotherjohn]

It's worth noting that Playground Sex is included in the first Waitress that came with pre-order copies of Predicate, scans of which have been floating about online since it got initially shared on one of the Peter Sotos Yahoo groups (the first which has also been resurrected and shared online). Curiously though, there is more text beyond where the PDF provided ends (it continues before coming to another round of interviews), so [supposed] Sotos approval or not*, I believe that it's incomplete. It also seems very apparent that the Unspeakable Archives fella seems to be completely oblivious to this forum and its Sotos thread going by what supposed new discoveries they've made.

*Sotos actually requested the Waitress scans got removed within a day from the Yahoo group, I think largely due to this text bringing some extra law trouble to Creation Books at that point. It's more than a little curious to think Peter and/or either one of his publishers would willingly give permission for - of all the books he's written - this text to be freely shared online, and on the fan fiction website AO3 of all fucking places. See also this photo that Unspeakable Archives once posted on their [now-deleted] Instagram profile:

[Grimpin]

Really creeping Peter Sotos out is quite an achievement!