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Tag Archives: William S Burroughs
Notes on David S. Wills: Burroughs on Civilisation, Hallucination, and Telepathy
For William Burroughs, the nuclear attack on Hiroshima and Nagasaki is a dividing point in history, marking the moment that Western civilisation finally ended. Could you really call a people capable of such an atrocity “civilised”? And so without civilisation, … Continue reading
Beats and Hippos
And the Hippos were Boiled in their Tanks is an early work of the Beat Generation, written in the winter of 1944-45 by William Burroughs and Jack Kerouac together, or separately in that they take it in turns throughout the … Continue reading
See What I’m Saying
First sentence of William Burroughs’ The Wild Boys: “The camera is the eye of a cruising vulture flying over an area of scrub, rubble and unfinished buildings on the outskirts of Mexico City.” Burroughs thinks in pictures and his books … Continue reading
Posted in Beat Generation, books, Literature, Writing
Tagged books, film, literature, The Wild Boys, William Burroughs, William S Burroughs, writing
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William Burroughs and Facts
William Burroughs tells Allen Ginsberg: “I am about to annunciate a philosophy called ‘factualism.’ All arguments, all nonsensical considerations as to what people ‘should do,’ are irrelevant. Ultimately there is only facts on all levels, and the more one argues, … Continue reading
Posted in Beat Generation, books, Literature
Tagged Allen Ginsberg, books, literature, reading, William Burroughs, William S Burroughs
4 Comments
Notes on William Burroughs to Allen Ginsberg May 5th, 1951
In a letter to Allen Ginsberg, William Burroughs seems to be saying that he’s incapable of envy. Envy arises from a particular kind of ignorance, of which Burroughs has cured himself: “Envy and resentment is only possible when you can … Continue reading
Posted in Beat Generation, Literature
Tagged literature, William Burroughs, William S Burroughs
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Identifying Things
Identification, says Korzybski, is a blunt tool. Language is a box full of tools, all imperfect, none quite fit for purpose, their functioning performative and never exactly descriptive. Meaning: anything we can say about the world is never quite how … Continue reading
Posted in Philosophy
Tagged General Semantics, Korzybski, language, philosophy, William S Burroughs
2 Comments
Notes on The Soft Machine Chapter 10: “Last Hints”
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
Posted in Beat Generation
Tagged books, creativity, cut-up, literature, The Soft Machine, William Burroughs, William S Burroughs, writing
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Lessons from Los Alamos
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
Burroughs and the Bad Cop
Recently I read The Manhunter by John Pascucci. I bought a copy because it’s one of the last books William Burroughs read before he died. Burroughs notes in Last Words that he liked a phrase of Pascucci’s: “the plot sickened.” … Continue reading
William S. Burroughs: Vision and Intuition
Reading Queer by William S. Burroughs, I’m struck not just by the sharp clear quality of the prose, but also by the insights themselves, the things Burroughs can see and points out to us. If he had been a worse … Continue reading