186 - Swimmer

Page One

Marked as explicit because of extensive discussion of death and suicide.

Content note: there is a lot of talk of death and suicide in this episode. If you are in the UK and would like to talk to someone in confidence, you can reach Switchboard LGBT at https://switchboard.lgbt/ or by phone on 0300 330 0630, and you can reach the Samaritans at https://www.samaritans.org/ or by phone on 116 123.

Taking a very personal look at a poem that has been stuck in his head since the previous episode of this podcast, Charles Adrian talks about the poem Swimmer by Dennis Cooper and some of the things that it brings up for him.

Clarification: In the coda to this episode, Charles Adrian talks about queer sexualities having been criminalised only a generation or two ago. He is talking, of course, very parochially, about the situation in the UK, where he lives. In many parts of the world, queer expression in all its forms remains criminalised. You can find a map of countries that criminalise LGBT people here: https://www.humandignitytrust.org/lgbt-the-law/map-of-criminalisation/ although this does not include countries in which attacks against LGBT people are either tolerated or actively encouraged by the state. You can read about the situation in Chechnya, for example, in the Guardian here: https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2020/jun/23/welcome-to-chechnya-harrowing-film-regimes-gay-purge-david-france-lgbt .

More information and a transcript of this episode is at http://www.pageonepodcast.com/.

You can find Dennis Cooper’s potentially NSFW blog here: https://denniscooperblog.com/

You can find Charles Adrian’s conversation with Uwern Jong here: http://www.pageonepodcast.com/season-1#/29-uwern-jong/ and you can follow Griffyn Gilligan on Twitter here: https://twitter.com/gillidactyl

The Dream Police by Dennis Cooper was previously discussed in Page One 111 (http://www.pageonepodcast.com/season4#/111-griffyn-gilligan/) and Page One 185 (http://www.pageonepodcast.com/season-6#/185-poir-28/).

Episode image is a detail from the cover of The Dream Police by Dennis Cooper, published by Grove Press in 1995; cover design by John Gall, cover art by Nayland Blake.

Episode recorded: 13th and 14th October, 2020.

Book listing:

Swimmer from The Dream Police by Dennis Cooper