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2002 Methuen, Inc. 733 Third Avenue New York, NY 10017 |
The Soft Machine - William S. Burroughs Although nowhere near as well known as Naked Lunch this is my personal favourite Burroughs novel. Here is an interesting little known factoid: This is actually the book that spawned the term "Heavy Metal" : "URANIUM WILLY the Heavy Metal Kid [...] His plan called for total exposure - Wise up all the marks everywhere Show them the rigged wheel - Storm the Reality Studio and retake the universe -". It reads mostly like straight text, but then suddenly you are re-reading different permutations of the last several sentences. Once you are comfortable switching into cut-up mode, it seems completely plausible and ordinary that you should lapse into this dreamlike reordering of the words, as if the initial text were only tentative anyway, only a superficially obvious (and therefore dubious) way of describing something beyond the reach of conventional language. James Joyce once said that "What is clear and concise can't deal with reality, for what is real is to be surrounded by mystery." |
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Exterminator! - William S. Burroughs Burroughs worked for a brief period as an exterminator. The first chapter of this book reads like a straight autobiographical account: twisted and exagerated in the typical Burroughs fashion, but not what you might call experimental writing. After the first chapter, the novel veers into serious cut-up territory with some fantastic plot scenarios including the magical exchange of psychic identities (you know, like Disney's Freaky Friday). This was the second Burroughs novel I ever read, and maybe the first time I really started grooving on cut-up writing. From my perspective, some of the cut-up passages rival the best poetry ever written: Couldn't reach from the old cop film. Twirling his club down cobblestone streets the sky goes out against his back in a darkening park couldn't reach with the sap ... a blue smell of hope as he rounded the corner and the sea air hit his face "Leaving the fading film please" ... paper cups of coffee on the desk NARCOTICS DEPARTMENT... the door is open files and pictures scattered on the floor stained with urine and excrement One might think that this is the book which provided the insect scenarios for the plot of David Cronenberg's Naked Lunch, but nobody here gets addicted to bug powder except the bugs themselves and neither is there any suggestion of typewriters transforming into insects. Cronenberg himself explains that this liberal use of his artistic license arises from the "unfilmmable" nature of Burrough's writings: The very fact that it's unfilmmable means that I'm free to invent something new [...] Burroughs' life is a very fascinating subject for me, especially since, in a way, the theme of the film, one of the main subjects, is the writing process, the creative process and how it relates to life. This is really a meditation on Burroughs... Cronenberg quote from: http://www.davidcronenberg.de/eyelunch.html 1973 The Viking Press, Inc. 625 Madison Avenue New York, NY 10022 |
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