I Was Reading a Review

I was reading a review of Dennis Cooper's The Marbled Swarm last night which appeared in a major metropolitan newspaper, and I was surprised at the level of literacy evinced by the review.

Or should I say the lack thereof.

It was a very positive review and the reviewer's heart was clearly in the right place--since she was smart enough not to take Cooper's shocking subject matter (incest, cannibalism, incestuous cannibalism--or cannibalistic incest, if you prefer) at face value and assayed it for for ulterior meanings and authorial intent. So kudos for that.

But it came across as such a clunky review.

She puzzled over the title, seeming to have no idea that there was clearly a wordplay there on Hawthorne's The Marble Faun. (I think that's one of Hawthorne's underestimated and more prescient works, since it really takes an existential swerve after the murder which is the crux of the novel takes place.)

And worse, she didn't give any warning that her review contains what appears to me to be a major spoiler. (I'll confess I haven't read this yet but it sure looks like a spoiler.)

Also, the reviewer seems never to have heard of the word "mindfuck" and twice in the review marvels at this. One of these times is the close of the review, where she just can't get over that word.

Has she read nothing else by Cooper that she didn't expect a mindfuck from his literature?

I also read a much better review of Cooper's recent collection of short fiction, Ugly Man, in which the reviewer pointed out how people often seem to miss the humor in D.C.'s serious fiction. Hard for me to miss that since I love an acidulous sense of humor. If you want to get a brief taste of what the reviewer means, watch this imaginative interpretation and reading of the title story from that collection, Ugly Man, and you'll see what I'm talking about here.

I also found this trailer for what looks like a great movie based on Cooper's writing.

It's funny and probably not an accident that the title of the film seems like a (possibly more marketable?) version of the title of his blog (and poetry collection) The Weaklings.

I don't know why they wouldn't keep the original title.

Or possibly the film was based on a translated version of Cooper's work, which then came back to English in this form?

Anyway, it looks good.

I'll have to see if Lee can order this for us.