Arie Wilhelmus Pieter Moonen

Arie Wilhelmus Pieter Moonen, Nederlands prozaschrijver en dichter (Rotterdam 28.8.1937 – Rotterdam 24.1.2007). Na een periode van allerlei baantjes leefde Moonen van een uitkering als kamerbewoner in de warme buurt van Den Haag en later in Amsterdam. Moonen schreef voor het studentenweekblad Propria Cures. In 1978 debuteerde hij met Stadsgerechten, een autobiografisch en psychotisch verslag van zijn wijze van leven in dagboekvorm. Daarin spelen zijn seksuele voorkeuren (jongens, massage-instituten e.d.) een opvallende rol. Niet zozeer de onderwerpen, als wel de gedragen en archaïserende stijl maakt deze erotische en scatologische literatuur belangwekkend en wat dat betreft is Moonen duidelijk schatplichtig aan Gerard Reve, hoewel hij zelf J. van Oudshoorn als zijn voorbeeld beschouwde. In zijn tweede boek, Openbaar leven (1979), zet deze lijn zich voort. Zalf voor de dood was eigenlijk Moonens echte debuut, maar hij vond pas in 1980 een uitgever bereid om het uit te geven. Na zijn terugkeer in Rotterdam verscheen zijn dichtbundel Gezagsvoerdersverzen (1988). Tussen 1989 en 1992 had Moonen een schrijversblok, maar daarna verschenen opnieuw verhalen in Naar Portugal (1994), Koud buffet (1996) en Verbanning (2000).

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https://www.dbnl.org/tekst/_pas002200101_01/_pas002200101_01_0051.php Moonen was 23 years old when he left Rotterdam. He had always felt an outsider in the hard and uniform city in which he grew up. He flourished in Amsterdam. There was room for artists and deviant behavior was tolerated. Moonen discovered the men's love and enjoyed it to the fullest, although he never chose it exclusively. He went to live with an older man who was well acquainted with Gerard Reve, a young Amsterdam writer at the time who did not know what to do with his rising fame. Moonen let Reve read the "pieces" he wrote during that period. Later, Reve said to Moonen's partner, "That boy can write, but he's going to have a lot to go through."

Moonen did that in the years that followed, and he reported on it in his pieces, which over the years grew into complete manuscripts. He sent Ointment to publishers for death, but it was refused on "choice grounds." He finally made his official debut in 1978 at De Bezige Bij with Stads dishes. It is the first in a series of autobiographical novels and short stories, full of descriptions of fleeting sex with whores and casual passers-by, fantasies about boy's butt, a life of solitude in cheap hotels and slums. Prominent critics such as Carel Peeters were enthusiastic, Hans Warren and Maarten 't Hart became admirers. Jeroen Brouwers, on the other hand, expressed his horror, and Aad Nuis called Moonen a brainless guinea pig of his own and other people's urges.

Moonen: "I don't know what they mean when they call my work dirty. "Dirty" is a matter of personal opinion. I don't have to answer for what I write. I also think people react to my work that way because the "dirty" in it is so mundane, it is not described as something exceptional. They don't have to be with me for romance, romance is swooning and swollen. I also fell for it sometimes, but that was a long time ago. It's a cliché, but I think it's true: life is a pipe cinnamon, everyone sucks on it and gets their share. ”Moonen stands up and imitates with a raised arm a man he once saw jumping on the Damrak while shopping shoppers sang, "Life is from hopsasa!"

He sinks back into his chair. "Many people find my work caricatured, but I strive for realism. It is essentially one continuous journal. What I describe may seem absurd, but that's because life is like that. "I sometimes call it deaf-and-dumb prose. A person's behavior shows how he thinks. Otherwise you better write a play. In addition, the sparse dialogues get a stronger charge. I don't explain what happens, I don't reason, I just show. People ruin a lot with their balls, they are too easily distracted. "There are few bright spots in a human life," said Jean Genet. You should not let those moments be ruined by all kinds of side issues. I strive for the intense experience of the moment.

"That's why there is a lot of sex in my books. I think nothing is more important. Often the sex in my books is shocking, and not very romantic, but when done right it is great. Others choose the spiritual, but I consider it slavish. Obedience to the masses. " "I am not a moralist, nor an anti-moralist. I have nothing to do with morality, because it is dedicated. It only leads to hypocrisy. Although I will not go as far as De Sade, who says: the worse you are, the better you fare. If I already have a moral, it is a very simple one: no one should become less of me, but neither of me of anyone else.

"When people get confused by my books, it means they become aware of their own lies. They are all busy with what I write about, but they keep a clean appearance. Anything can be said about my work, but I say what it says. I can't lie, I've always disliked that. People don't want to read books that confront them with their own fake world. There is a blanket of lies and deception all over the world. "