Equal parts homicidal fanatic, independent music hipster, and calculating practitioner of the word Dennis Cooper is unique among authors in his ability to fill books with specific, contentious energy. His novels explore the pithy underground world of pornography, delve into kiddie porn and snuff film taboos, catapulting from there to more conventional mano a mano love relationships. I suppose he’s become a cult figure (see book jacket quotes by Irvine Welsh, Kathy Acker and William S. Burroughs who said ‘Dennis Cooper, God help him, is a born writer’) though I suspect he’d rather stay out of the spotlight and let the writing speak for itself. He’s the author of several one-word title fictions: Frisk, Closer, Safe, Wrong, Try, Guide, several books of poetry, a graphic novel and the forthcoming essay collection All Ears. His novel Frisk was made into a feature film in 1995 and is currently available on video.

Jazz: This Scottish writer I know, Barry Graham, told me once that you refused to speak at a Gay Pride event because you didn’t like the music. I was hoping you could comment on the role that music plays in your novels ? for example Hüsker Dü in Try.

Dennis Cooper: Music's really important to and in my work. The Husker Du stuff in Try was a tribute to Bob Mould, who's a hero of mine. But in that case, and in pretty much every case in which I mention bands or songs, it's because I've learned something from that particular music in regards to that novel. I think popular music is the most advanced art form, in the sense that it turns over ideas really quickly, and is being reinvented formally all the time, and I often study the techniques of bands I like and try to transfer their style and methods into writing. There are special cases too, like with the Blur and Silverchair stuff in Guide, where it was more about a fixation on the members, and trying to read them through the filter of their music and image, than about having learned anything from their CDs, though I do like them both.

Jazz: So what did you learn from Jawbreaker and Guided by Voices that went into your novel Guide?

Dennis Cooper: Guided by Voices' influence has to do with the way their songs are fragmented but beautifully and weirdly structured, and the way their lyrics are simultaneously trippy, ironic, sincere, and poetic. I studied the way their songs are made, and tried to use their ideas in the writing and structure of Guide. In terms of Jawbreaker, the section of the novel where they're mentioned is a fictionalized version of an article I wrote for Spin (which appears in All Ears), and the character who mentions them was a real guy, and those are his actual words. I guess I included the reference because it showed he had good taste.

Jazz: In the collection of essays and interviews that Soft Skull Press is putting out you interview famous people like Keanu Reeves and Courtney Love. I thought it was interesting the way you size them up for your readers. You wrote “to me he seems like a sweet, canny, clear-headed, sane, young heterosexual guy? fun-loving but a little sad and anxious, intelligent and highly insecure about his intelligence? who likes going to art museums, loves his family…” about Leonardo DiCaprio. When you’re setting up to interview someone, do you have a certain strategy to capture his/her real self? Also is there someone out there that you’d like to interview in the future?

Dennis Cooper: When I do interviews, the characterization is usually me specifying my gut reaction to the person, usually in contrast to the way he or she or they are usually portrayed. With Leonardo, it was an odd case. He was a neighbor of mine at the time, and we'd chatted on occasion, and he liked my novels, and almost starred in the film of my book Frisk at one point, so I went into that interview with a bit of foreknowledge. I did feel that he was being portrayed by the media as someone he wasn't, and I wanted to counter that. As far as who I'd like to interview, I mean there are hundreds, really. Off the top of my head, I'd love to interview Robert Bresson, Vincent Kartheiser, Errol Morris, and Guided by Voices, since they're my favorite band.

Jazz: I was sipping cappuccino down in Hillcrest and I overheard two men talking about you: there’s a rumor going around that you’re straight, and closeted.

Dennis Cooper: I wish. No, hardly. I do think 'gay identity' is a simplistic, reductive idea, and it doesn't interest me at all, and my life has little to nothing to do with the so-called 'gay community,' and I never feel more alienated than when I'm in West Hollywood, but if anyone's gay, I am.

Jazz: I read somewhere that you’re writing your final “horror” novel for Grove Press. The funny thing is that I never thought of Frisk, Try or Guide as part of the “horror genre” just because the characters do horrible things.

Dennis Cooper: I don't know who called my novels ‘horror’ novels. It wasn't me, because I don't think of them that way. Closer, Frisk, Try, Guide, and new novel, Period, are a cycle, and I think of them as one work in five parts, so Period is the end of that cycle, and I'm going to think about changing my work radically now. My work might become less 'horrifying' in the future, I don't know yet, but they weren't 'horror' novels, I don't think.

Jazz: Is there any kind of literary symbolism in having one character reach his knuckles into another character’s ass and pull out an ancient dried up turd?

Dennis Cooper: That requires a complicated answer, but here's the short version. Guide is structured like an acid trip, and the way I make that happen is I set up all these parallels, one of which is fairy tales and kiddie porn, then have them slowly mix together, merge in the middle of the novel, then slowly separate out again. The scene I think you mean, where the dwarf pulls the petrified turd out of the junkie character's ass, is part of that particular blur. A child-sized man fucking a man-sized boy, both of whom appeared inkiddie porn, and are now sort of in a fairy tale, where a piece of shit becomes something magical, which is kind of insane, but I think in the context of the novel, it works, and makes the reader question the novel's reality. I'm not sure if that makes sense, but that's only answer I can give you on that one.

Jazz: The writing in “All Ears” was produced for national magazines like Spin, Detour, Interview & George rather than say local niche publications. I was wondering how you broke out onto that level? And does that put pressure on you to be some kind of ‘cause célebre’ for the gay community?

Dennis Cooper: I started out writing for local publications, like the LA Weekly, the New York Native, the Village Voice, and other places, some of which I still write for once in a while. Writing for national magazines came about because of my novels, really. Or at least I was invited because my reputation, based on the novels. I'm not a great journalist, by any means. As far as pressure to be a cause célebre for the 'gay community,' no. My impression is that the bulk of the 'gay community' either doesn't know who I am, or wishes I'd go away. My books still get trashed in most gay magazines and papers, and I don't get nominated for Lammys or anything like that, so I don't really think I'm any kind of gay figurehead. If an article or essay calls for me to talk about my being gay, I do, but I basically just say what's on my mind, and don't think
about party lines, which may be one of the main reasons I've crossed over.

Jazz: What’s it like seeing your work transformed into something like the graphic novel version of Horror Hospital or the film of Frisk?

Dennis Cooper: Horror Hospital Unplugged was a complete collaboration [with artist Keith Mayerson] in every respect,and I'm really happy with that book. The Frisk film is stupid garbage, as far as I'm concerned. That's a really long story, but suffice to say that I was the film was going to be, and when I finally saw it, I was kind of horrified. As far as I'm concerned, the film has little to do with what my novel is about, and while I don't wish it or the people involved any ill, I think the film is crap. There's a film being made of Horror Hospital in Australia right now, and I have hopes for that, and there's a film based on Wrong in development in Canada, and that might be okay. We'll see.

Jazz: In the film Frisk, as in your books a character, also called Dennis, fantasizes about killing young boys. I imagine readers have trouble separating you from the murderous persona. Have you ever been the suspect in a real murder investigation?

Dennis Cooper: No, I haven't. Luckily I'm such a cult figure that I don't think the authorities know about my work. The worst thing that happens is some of my younger friends' and/or boyfriends' acquaintances and friends will sometimes think that I'm going to do something horrible, and I seem to be the subject of a lot of bizarre gossip among people I don't know, but that's basically it, I think. There could be an FBI file on me or something, who knows?