Sunny California has a heart of darkness

Instead of hammering the contents of his life into a plot for a gay-coming-of-age narrative, [Dennis] Cooper's work constructs an autobiography of his imagination. A fascination with certain themes is evident in the work he's been doing since he was sixteen. The lure of pornography, the miasma of drugs, and the inevitable moment of sadistic murder turn up frequently in his poetry and prose.

He returns to them just as he does his favored sexual type, slightly screwy teenagers "with nice faces," he might say, echoing Wittgenstein. Those teenagers are promiscuous, willing to try fistfucking or coprophilia in pursuit of some vague truth they believe accessible through sex. For all their efforts, Cooper admits, rewards are scanty. "They want to connect, but find it impossible to really deeply connect. Sex is supposed to be the ultimate, but there's a sense that the body can't be penetrated, that putting your dick in someone isn't really penetrating."

source: Article 'Sunny California Has a Heart of Darkness' by Chris Farrell; NAMBLA Bulletin, vol. 10, n. 5; June 1989