Jeremy Reed
Related: British literature - Creation Books
Decadent erotica
Dee shares the floor with Jeremy Reed
I visited Jeremy at his pad in Hampstead, London where we sat around discussing the work of this prize-winning poet, novelist, essayist, biographer, translator and writer of erotic film scripts. Acclaimed by Ballard, Ferlinghetti, and even Bjork as one of the most important writers of his generation and a major influence on the future of literature, art and society. Jeremy spoke about the significance of imagination, madness and sex, death and sex, De Sade, Bataille, Marc Almond and even Scott Walker. Jeremy's androgynous visions embrace a uniquely poetic universe in which he reconstructs anything from apocalyptic orgies to sexual delirium, intermingled with translations of Baudelaire and Genet, all tinged with the opulence of decadent erotica. --http://www.fringecore.com/magazine/m6-3.html [Mar 2005]
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Interviewed by Dee at Fringecore:
Jeremy: My interest in French literature comes from the depth of imagination and the fact that French writers use the image as the predominant constant in their work. Also the decadence that they use so uniquely, the sensuality of the work and the imagination of it, which I don't find a corresponding equivalent in British literature.I would call myself an aesthete - love of beauty is central to all I do, therefore opulence and the decadence of the 18th/19th century period, appeals to me, and I fuse it with a modern sensibility, so that the cyber world is fused with the decadent world of De Sade's La Coste - reaching across the centuries. --http://www.fringecore.com/magazine/m6-3.html [Nov 2006]
JR: I think he was reaping vengeance upon society for holding against him what he considered to be minor crimes. Other than having whipped a couple of women and given a prostitute a few too many aphrodisiacs, he did nothing that was really scandalous and warranted him being sent to prison. He took his vengeance for being locked in a cell in which he could hardly stand up, by writing books that literally horrified society, not only shocking the society in which he lived, but even today. And we know that if there is any problem related to sex, police and society virtually claim the Marquis de Sade of having instigated it, which would have amused De Sade considerably. In a way, his being cold is about trying to make the body more malleable. Given that it is boring that the body only has three main orifices, he demands that the body be distorted in order to arrive at something else or that you accept the need to have to go so far with that anatomy to achieve anything that is different. --http://www.fringecore.com/magazine/m6-3.html [Nov 2006]
Excerpts from a review by Cercles of Heartbreak Hotel: A Tribute to the King in Verse by Jeremy Reed, 2002.
I first stumbled across Jeremy Reed in one of the English / American bookshops of the left bank in Paris. The novel was hidden away on the bottom shelf of a dusty bookcase and its title caught my eye; it was called Diamond Nebula (1994). I quickly found this was an author after my own heart: postmodern without being hermetic, with obvious enthusiasm for David Bowie, Marilyn Monroe, Andy Warhol, and mostly J.G. Ballard. I don’t mean the regrettably mainstreamed Ballard of recent years, the Ballard of the somewhat banal Empire of the Sun (1984) or the boring Super-Cannes (2000), no, I mean the good old Ballard of such subversive jewels as The Atrocity Exhibition (1970) or Crash (1973). [...][...] After I’d read Diamond Nebula, I bought some of Reed’s previous books. He is an extraordinarily prolific author; does this man ever get any sleep?
[...] His Sadean erotic novels, such as Sister Midnight (1997) don’t impress me so much, admittedly, but they are not without merits, as such things go.
[...][Marc] Almond and Reed share many passions: David Bowie, the Marquis de Sade, Jean Genet, Oscar Wilde, Georges Bataille, J.G. Ballard, Derek Jarman, Scott Walker, Jacques Brel, Charles Baudelaire, Arthur Rimbaud, Federico Garcia Lorca, Jean Cocteau, and especially J.K. Huysmans. “What is it like to be a torch singer?”, asks Reed, “Is it so very different from being a poet?” At any rate, this particular poet and this particular torch singer often plunge their readers / listeners into the same sleazy delectable Camp. And incidentally, Almond has also published very acceptable poetry, in addition to a gripping autobiography, Tainted Life (1999). --http://www.cercles.com/review/r5/reed.html [Nov 2006]
Excerpts from Jeremy Reed: The Prizes and the Disappointments by Geoff Stevens
There appear to be some areas of confusion, fans would say mystery, about Jeremy Reed. For instance we are told that he was born in 1952 from one source, and 1954 from another, whereas Andrew Duncan asserts that the true date was 6th March 1951. He was brought up in Jersey, in the Channel Islands, where his childhood was “solitary and dark-sided”. He was to go on to Essex University and obtain a BA hons 2 or, if other sources are to be believed, a PhD in Literature.
Icelandic singer Bjork said she found his work “the most beautiful gorgeous outrageously brilliant poetry in the universe”. --http://www.argotistonline.co.uk/Stevens%20essay.htm [Nov 2006]
Kicks (1995) - Jeremy Reed
Kicks (1995) - Jeremy Reed [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Product Description:
A collection of poetry, prose-pieces, essays, translations and erotic film-scripts from award-winning writer Jeremy Reed, one of the most acclaimed poets and novelists of his generation.
Reed's androgynous visions embrace a uniquely poetic universe, presided over by icons such as Jean Genet, Warhol, Hart Crane, David Bowie, Proust, Baudeliare and Marc Almond - all of whom appear in this collection.
Kicks reveals the most outrageous, sexually outspoken side of Jeremy Reed, whilst demonstrating with consummate artistry how the spangled threads of his influences draw together to form a maverick blueprint for the future of literature and art.--via Amazon.com