Author Archives: Lee

Sunday I Ching: On Throwing Things Away and Going to China

Posted on November 21, 2017 by Lee

Where have you been? There’s no getting rid of the clutter. In this life now I am surrounded by old papers, magazines, short blunt pencils, piles of wrinkle-spined novels, a dusty-lidded and long-closed piano, and plastic containers for used up … Continue reading →

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Notes on The Soft Machine Chapter 10: “Last Hints”

Posted on November 13, 2017 by Lee

This chapter is about Carl continuing his travels through space and time by finding a new body. He’s back in the city of catwalks and ladders and cable-cars in the middle of a jungle. Presumably he’s already changed bodies at … Continue reading →

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Notes on The Soft Machine Chapter 8: “I Sekuin”

Posted on November 6, 2017 by Lee

“… the old hop smoking world I created …” Who created it? “I Sekuin …” Who are you? “I Sekuin Perfected These Arts Along The Streets Of Minraud.” Sekuin has perfected the art of image-control. Word dust blows through the … Continue reading →

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Hegel: Knowledge, Desire, and Freedom

Posted on October 25, 2017 by Lee

The first part of Hegel’s Phenomenology of Spirit, concerning “consciousness,” shows us how knowledge of objects is knowledge only of oneself. In other words, it describes how we reach the initial premise of “transcendental idealism” – a philosophy created by … Continue reading →

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William Burroughs, Truth, and Storytelling

Posted on October 10, 2017 by Lee

The young Burroughs liked to read adventure stories. The older Burroughs did too. Stories are about characters. What’s infuriating and gripping about a good character is that she’ll have blind spots, things the reader can see that she cannot. It … Continue reading →

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A Walk in the Sun

Posted on October 2, 2017 by Lee

Summer heat wrinkles the air and dries the brain. I move slowly, under pressure, as if pondering a great thought. All I’m trying to do is remember why I got out of bed this morning. The sun’s warmth swallowing me … Continue reading →

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“Try going in reverse”: Henry Miller’s advice to writers

Posted on September 1, 2017 by Lee

“For him who is obliged to dream with eyes wide open all movement is in reverse, all action broken into kaleidoscopic fragments. I believe, as I walk through the horror of the present, that only those who have the courage … Continue reading →

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Nowhere Under the Sun

Posted on August 1, 2017 by Lee

“This is the sun of the high plateau that bakes the land dry and leaves one nowhere to hide.” Ma Jian’s Red Dust is a book about escape, and discovering that there is no escape. A flight from something is … Continue reading →

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Lessons from Los Alamos

Posted on July 5, 2017 by Lee

Albert James Connell ran the Los Alamos Ranch school, which William S. Burroughs attended when he was a boy. “Many of Connell’s ideas were taken on board by Burroughs, such as that there was no such thing as an accident: … Continue reading →

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The Greatest Gift

Posted on June 12, 2017 by Lee

Father Zossima tells his followers that the greatest torment is discovering the meaning of love too late to profit by it. You’re on your deathbed, in your dying brain you seem already at the gate of Paradise itself, and soft … Continue reading →

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