Pierre, DBC
Entry updated 12 September 2022. Tagged: Author.
Pseudonym of Australian author Peter Finlay (1961- ), the initials of whose pseudonym stand for Dirty But Clean, a reference to the author's adventurous but troubled early life; these early experiences are surreally unpacked in his first novel, Vernon God Little: A 21st Century Comedy in the Presence of Death (2003), a gonzo Bildungsroman which gestures at the fantastic. Conjoined twins in an almost Near Future, culturally voided London grapple with a savagely privatized world in Ludmilla's Broken English (2006); Lights Out in Wonderland (2010), a Satire on consumer capitalism, climaxes in a nightmarish Berlin where a wine so fine it can only mature when stimulated by the pheromones of virgins draws the attention of the rich gourmands of the world.
Pierre is of more direct sf interest for Meanwhile in Dopamine City (2020), set in an edificial city Keep at the heart of a desert Near Future; though not officially named, it is known as Dopamine City, dopamine here being understood as a chemical neurotransmitter that induces either direct pleasure for its user, or a tropism to seek to submit to pleasure. Citizens trapped in the totalitarian meshes of dopamine's exploitation occupy the foreground of the book, goonishly distracted, increasingly desperate. [JC]
Peter Warren Finlay
born Old Reynella, South Australia: 1961
works (selected)
- Vernon God Little: A 21st Century Comedy in the Presence of Death (London: Faber and Faber, 2003) [hb/Pentagram]
- Ludmilla's Broken English (London: Faber and Faber, 2006) [hb/]
- Lights Out in Wonderland (London: Faber and Faber, 2010) [hb/]
- Breakfast with the Borgias (London: Arrow Books/Hammer, 2014) [hb/]
- Meanwhile in Dopamine City (London: Faber and Faber, 2020) [hb/]
links
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