Moral, Moral on the Wall

Reviewer: Jeremy (New York)

"I'd never heard of [this author] so I didn't know what to expect. I was going to give it three stars but then I realized that was only because it was so upsetting. Along with how well written and engrossing it is, that's actually a reason to rate it higher, so I did. It was my own fear getting in the way. The real frustration was the absence of a moral stance. It's like Bret Easton Ellis that way - you have to make up your own mind about what's going on. You realize you're just getting angry because there's no re-assurance provided, you're totally immersed in a world with no ethical designations. This book is one of the more powerful I've read for that. I'd say this is about as transgressive and gutsy as writing gets. Glad I found it."

Got to get this gloat written quickly before it goes out of date on me - I am currently outselling 12 out of 14 of Dennis Cooper's titles on Amazon.co.uk. (My sales rank 71,300, most of Dennis 122,000 - 446,000). What's more, if I was listed in the US   I would be outselling him there too. And I've been outselling him for the past three weeks, if not longer.

Hell, I know he's no Catherine Cookson (in sales terms) but, fuck it, they write critical works about him, he's internationally published, is considered a very 'out there' novelist and I am outselling the little fucker, by a streak.

Of course, I'm not outselling The Sluts or God Jr but, hey, I'm sneaking up on them. Some day soon...

I'd have been none the wiser about this if I hadn't kept coming across his name in various insults recently (people really do love to insult me by comparing me to other 'outrageous' novelists - they don't seem to have twigged yet that that's really a backhanded compliment).

I work on a strict principle of if one person compares you it's something you bear in mind, if two people compare you, take note, and if three or more compare you - check it out. He hit the three spot and I didn't know his work so I looked him up last night. Prolific, but all his works are very short. He writes about gay sex, paedophilia and killing teenagers, apparently over and over again.

I assumed it was simply that, the easy, no-effort comparison - homosexuality, paedophilia, 'shocking' content. But then I read the review you see at the top of this page.

Aha, see? You thought that was for DANNY, didn't you?

No, it's a review for Dennis Cooper's 'Guide' taken from Amazon.com and for the very first time I can finally see the Bret Easton Ellis connection. It's right in here:

" The real frustration was the absence of a moral stance. It's like Bret Easton Ellis that way - you have to make up your own mind about what's going on. You realize you're just getting angry because there's no re-assurance provided, you're totally immersed in a world with no ethical designations."

I couldn't believe I'd missed that. The 'fans' that complained about DANNY's relentlessness, the unanswered questions, the "lack of proper motivations", the three reviews (more?) comparing it to American Psycho/Bret Easton Ellis, the comparisons to Dennis Cooper, Chuck Palahniuk et al. All those hints and clues, and I'd missed it. I'm looking at their characters, plots, themes, thinking, "Well, it's very nice that they think I'm like X, but I can't see it."

This is what I mean about being too close to your work. Also, I hate being told what to do or think (bet that surprises you) so it just never occurred to me that other people were seeing that quality and valuing it (or hating it) in my work.

What makes it doubly ironic is I did realise that some readers disliked this facet of DANNY, but I'd forged a false path between 'the unanswered questions' (this has become an extra character in DANNY, like one of Charles Dickens's 'aged relatives') and their need to know what to think. In short, I thought they disliked unanswered plot questions, not my absence as the finger-waving moralist. It never occurred to me that someone might actually be uncomfortable with my lack of moral stance. So I should warn you now, DANNY doesn't adopt one in the future, so for anyone thinking twice about reading any further volumes, I wouldn't if I were you. Give 'em a miss and go treat yourself to something more predictable.

Anyway, I can't imagine Jeremy is reading this, but thank you, whoever you are. You have helped me on the path to enlightenment. And this is A Good Thing.

So, that's my gloat over for another six months. Oh, hell, no it isn't. Nearly forgot, we're also getting a weird rash of sales from Waterstones in Oxford Street. Now that one came right out of left field.

And while we're in the left field, just where are these (Dennis Cooper ass-whuppin') Amazon sales coming from? We're a dead zone at the moment, promoting nowhere until we get the new website done.

Fess up, is this delayed Fandom Wank fall-out or something? Is there a second-wave who waited till the fuss had died down and then sneaked off and ordered it?

Well, whatever it is, and whoever you are, keep doing it. I've got to outsell all of Dennis Cooper's titles, even if it is only for three days.

Ah, ego is a terrible thing......