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Dysfunctional Language and Dennis Cooper's Satire University

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Dysfunctional Language and Dennis Cooper's Satire University “But weren’t words too complex to manipulate properly?” – Dysfunctional Language and Dennis Cooper’s Satire University of Tampere English Department Pro Gradu Thesis Spring 2006 Tommi Kakko Tampereen yliopisto Kieli- ja käännöstieteiden laitos Englantilainen filologia Tommi Kakko: “But weren't words too complex to manipulate properly?” – Dysfunctional Language and Dennis Cooper's Satire Pro Gradu-tutkielma, 101 sivua + lähdeluettelo Kevät 2006 Pro Gradu-tutkielmani käsittelee Dennis Cooperin satiiria teoksissa Frisk (1991) ja Guide (1997). Cooperin satiirin kohteena ovat poststrukturalistisen kirjallisuuskritiikin vaikeaselkoinen retoriikka ja sen usein radikaalit näkemykset kirjallisuuden funktiosta. Pyrin kuvailemaan poststrukturalistista kirjallisuuskritiikkiä Cooperin satiirin objektina ja vertaamaan hänen näkemystään sekä filosofisiin argumentteihin että aikaisempiin vastaavanlaisiin satiireihin. Olen tästä syystä jakanut esseen kahteen osaan. Ensimmäisessä osassa kuvailen poststrukturalistista teoriaa poleemisesta näkökulmasta ja vertaan Cooperin satiiria poststrukturalismia vastaan suunnatun poleemisen kritiikin antamaan kuvaan. Jälkimmäisessä osassa vertaan Cooperin proosaa aikaisempiin metafysiikan satiireihin Thomas De Quinceyn, Fitz Hugh Ludlown, William S. Burroughsin, Aldous Huxleyn ja Hunter S. Thompsonin teksteissä. Näiden tekstien valossa kuva poststrukturalismista Cooperin satiirin objektina muistuttaa teoriaa metafysiikasta, jonka terminologia on johdettu varhaisesta semiotiikasta. Tämä kuva vastaa tunnetuimman kritiikin antamaa käsitystä strukturalismista ja poststrukturalismista lingvistiikan metodeja yleistävänä filosofiana. Ferdinand de Saussuren käyttämä terminologia (joka nykyisin toimii strukturalismin ja poststrukturalismin kulmakivenä) oli alunperin tarkoitettu nimenomaan lingvistiikan käyttöön, mutta Saussuren metodien soveltaminen muille tieteenaloille (mm. Claude Lévi-Straussin toimesta) on laajentanut tämän terminologian näkyvyyttä huomattavasti ja tuonut sen myös metafysiikkaan. Saussuren termien soveltaminen metafysiikkaan on puolestaan nostattanut vastalauseita kriitikoiden ja filosofien keskuudessa ja johtanut lukuisiin filosofisiin konflikteihin joiden näkyvyys on heijastunut poikkeuksellisesti myös populaarikulttuurissa. Koska poststrukturalismi on suhteellisen uusi ilmiö, kaunokirjallisuutta joka kommentoi sen heikkouksia ja vahvuuksia filosofiana on varsin niukasti. Näin ollen olen pyrkinyt valottamaan Cooperin satiiria vertaamalla sitä kritiikkien lisäksi vanhempiin teksteihin, jotka kommentoivat metafysiikkaa. Esimerkiksi Thomas De Quinceyn kohdalla satiirin kohde on Immanuel Kantin filosofia, jonka terminologiaa vääristämällä De Quincey kykenee sekä luomaan huumoria että kommentoimaan Kantin teorioiden seuraamuksia. Vertaamalla Cooperin satiiria yllä mainittujen kirjailijoiden teoksiin pyrin myös asettamaan hänen tekstinsä historialliseen kontekstiin, jonka avulla voi selkeämmin hahmottaa ei vain Cooperin proosaa vaan myös metafysiikan satiiria historiallisesta näkökulmasta ja nähdä kuinka poststrukturalismi metafysiikkana sijoittuu tähän historiaan. Contents 1. Introduction............................................................................................................................................1 1.1 Structuralist Metaphysics and Satire ..............................................................................................1 1.2 Dennis Cooper (b. 1953) ................................................................................................................7 1.3 Methodology .................................................................................................................................11 2. Fiction and Truth in Frisk and Guide ..................................................................................................14 2.1 Bottom's Devices ..........................................................................................................................14 2.2 The Primacy of the Signifier ........................................................................................................23 2.3 Dennis ...........................................................................................................................................32 3. “Writings in Sympathetic Ink” – Hallucinatory Narratives .................................................................39 3.1 Bottom’s Dream ...........................................................................................................................39 3.2 Thomas De Quincey (1785-1859) ................................................................................................42 3.3 Fitz Hugh Ludlow (1836-1870) ....................................................................................................48 3.4 William S. Burroughs (1914-1997) ..............................................................................................52 3.4.1 Junky .....................................................................................................................................52 3.4.2 The Talking Asshole .............................................................................................................54 3.4.3 Burroughs as Prophet ............................................................................................................56 3.5 Aldous Huxley (1894-1963) .........................................................................................................63 3.6 Hunter S. Thompson (1937-2005) ................................................................................................71 3.7 Dennis Cooper’s Guide ................................................................................................................76 3.7.1 Political Idealism .................................................................................................................76 3.7.2 “A Weird Aspiration” ...........................................................................................................79 3.7.3 Reciprocal Signs and Referents ............................................................................................83 3.7.4 Marks and Symbols .............................................................................................................88 3.7.5 Benevolent Satire ..................................................................................................................95 4. Conclusion ..........................................................................................................................................98 Works Cited ..........................................................................................................................................102 1 1. Introduction 1.1 Structuralist Metaphysics and Satire The aim of this essay is twofold: to critique what I will call the “structuralist metaphysical stance” in literary criticism and, secondly, to present a study of the literary satire of the contemporary American author Dennis Cooper. The essay is divided into two parts. In the first part, I wish to provide a snapshot of the current climate of criticism as it relates to Cooper's satire of poststructuralist thought. Satire is a derivative form of art and thus it is necessary to provide a description of the object of satire in order to grasp the tone and significance of Cooper's prose. In Cooper's case, the object is to be found in poststructuralist literary criticism that problematizes the role of the author and, consequently, claims made by the author. In order to compose this snapshot, I will review a number of contemporary critical texts that concern simple claims to truthfulness and claims of falsity in texts by Shakespeare, Daniel Defoe, Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut, Asa Earl “Forrest” Carter, Lois-Ann Yamanaka, and Cooper himself.1 In the second part of the essay, I will first discuss earlier satire of metaphysics in the writings of (again) Shakespeare, Thomas De Quincey, Fitz Hugh Ludlow, William S. 1 In discussing plays about plays and truth-claims made by fictional authors, I will make a point of avoiding the characteristically structuralist notion of a “metalanguage.” By doing so, I hope to bypass questions such as: To what extent is language about language, signifying about signification? For the purposes of this essay, such theoretical convolutions are not practical. 2 Burroughs, Aldous Huxley, and Hunter S. Thompson.2 These authors and their work represent the genre in which Cooper's satire is situated. Namely, prose that centers around the topic of hallucinations and hallucinogens and presents descriptions of hallucinatory episodes in terms of philosophy and metaphysics. The authors were selected because (as in Cooper's case) their use of satire can be read as an attempt to find metaphysical positions that would explain hallucinatory experiences that are incompatible with what are presented as conventional metaphysical views. Given that metaphysics has emerged in the field of literary criticism (see below) and thus lent itself to satire, this selection of hallucinatory narratives will serve to demonstrate a number of possibilities different metaphysical theories present satirists and act as a selective literary history. Armed with a better grasp of the issues involved in the satire of metaphysics in hallucinatory narratives, I will revisit Cooper's prose in the final sections and examine it in more detail. Cooper's object of satire, I will argue, is a line
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