Cock and Bull is two independent stories back to back; connected through their core theme of an person who develops secondary genitalia, of the opposite gender. I didn't read them back to back – instead I read the first story, Cock, during a slow period in a non-fiction book on English grammar and then picked up the second story, Bull, a week (and two further books) after that. Both are typically Selfian; brutal tales of abuse, gender stereotype and role reversal. Both are set against tales of depressing characters and backgrounds where the change is a catalyst to allow the protagonist to break free from that world to either damage, or be damaged by, those around them.The first, Cock: A Novella, is the story of an unhappy relationship – a drunken meeting at university leads to an increasingly alcoholic marriage – and the effect that relationship has on both Carol and Dan. Carol is a put-upon wife who settled for Dan because she assumed she couldn't do any better. He was the first (and only) man to every make her cum so she married him, but it never happened again. Dan is a dick. A figurative dick rather than a physical one. As they shamble through their marriage Carol slowly develops her secondary genitalia: a penis. Obviously this starts to change the dynamic of their relationship as Carol discovers a new, and totally different, personality as well.The second, Bull: A Farce, is the story of John Bull, a man's man, a sports writer forced to write the cabaret column in a local rag. Unlike Carol's, Bull's secondary genitalia appears overnight; a fully-formed vagina on the back of his left knee. Also, unlike Carol, he takes the sensible decision to actually see a doctor about it (although he believes it to be a cut and/or burn sustained while drunk). The story follows the paths of John Bull and Alan Margoulies (yes, try saying that name out loud), his doctor, as well as a small supporting cast (including the awful comedian, Razza Rob, who we are led to believe is the cause of Bull's condition).The narration style is unusual in the first story, but seems to work quite well: the unnamed narrator is a (presumably) Jewish guy on a train who is being told the story by a university don he met in the carriage. The don is relating the events as if a story he heard or an investigation he was involved in. At times the story jumps from the lives of Carol and Dan to the events in the carriage and then back again. Towards the end the don falls into some awkwardly anti-Semitic rants against the narrator (who I assume represents Self) which felt very out of place in the novella – and was what lost it the one star.
For those seeking a pass into the perverse otherworld of Britain’s one-man imaginarium Will Self, these polymorphous novellas are a fine beginning. In ‘Cock’ a provincial wifey sprouts a string-bean male appendage that envelops her femininity, turning her into a masculine beast seeking to part the bald hillocks of her hubbie’s buttocks for some anal adventure. In ‘Bull,’ sports hack John Bull acquires a set of fleshy she-lips on his backleg and starts a strange affair with a vaginally fixated, philandering GP. If these summaries don’t naphthalene your imagination then there really is no reason for you to read books. (Reading Self makes one inclined to use naphthalene as a verb—pardon me). Cock & Bull is a modern horror story—the horror of warped selfhood, how genital-gendering can lead to a strange transvestism of the self, can scramble our notions of wo/manliness so badly we don’t know whether to give or receive anymore. As usual, Self dazzles with his linguistic foreplay, taking us to a dreamy little climax with his powerful intellect and grotesque imagery. A sick treasure and one of my personal favourites, along with How the Dead Live. Bookspotters’ Note: This hardback edition from Atlantic Monthly Press circa 1993 has the best cover art. This is a re-read from a few years ago.
What do You think about Cock & Bull (2005)?
Tendo em vista as influências de Self como Ballard e Burroughs e a premissa das novelas, eu esperava bem mais. A primeira novela é absolutamente intolerável de chata, embora existam algumas frases esparsas beirando a genialidade, a segunda é bem melhor, mas Self comete o erro de utilizar o sexismo clássico e rasteiro para delinear as bases do seu estilo. O que não quer dizer que eu vá desistir do autor, quem sabe em obras de sua maturidade ele não tenha aprendido a refinar melhor a sua ironia.P.S. Devido ao alto grau de reviews com conteúdo moralista que encontramos em Burroughs e Ballard no Goodreads com notas baixíssimas, achei que Cock and Bull fosse vítima do mesmo tipo de suscetibilidade, mas não é bem o caso.
—Adriana Scarpin
Non è cattivo, non è malsano, non è volgare e, soprattutto, non è comico.Il narratore onnisciente tratta con disprezzo le sue ibride creature, come se la loro insignificanza e la loro labilità emotiva e mentale fossero autonome e non sue precise scelta, prodotto e portato.In più ritiene deficiente il lettore, che gratifica con un linguaggio sciatto, in cui le parole pene e vagina, declinate altresì in sinonimi che vanno dall'alto all'imo, ricorrono con frequenza maggiore della punteggiatura.Fritto misto di genitali democraticamente spalmati in corpo maschile e femminile, si vorrebbe, partendo da un organico basso, disquisire di politica, cultura e società, restando, invece, un libro realmente del cazzo.
—charta
Two stories, the first in which a woman grows a penis the second a man grows a vagina. Just graphic, lot of talk of womans genitalia and a whole lot of violation.
—Jessi
