Tag Archives: writing

Where Cows Are More Real Than Policemen

Posted on April 20, 2017 by Lee

Lawrence Ferlinghetti wrote a poem about a dog. This dog is a “real realist,” which means he looks up and down and smells with his nose and asks questions and doesn’t have any smart answers. “Dog” is a poem about … Continue reading →

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How To Make Word Dust

Posted on April 4, 2017 by Lee

Besides being a science fiction novel, Nova Express is a how-to book.  It tells us how to make cut-ups and create “word dust”. For example, Burroughs has a character called “The Subliminal Kid” use tape recorders to create cut-ups: “‘The … Continue reading →

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William S. Burroughs: Vision and Intuition

Posted on April 3, 2017 by Lee

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 →

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The Myth of Burroughs

Posted on March 7, 2017 by Lee

It’s no use trying to cut through the myth of William S. Burroughs to get to the truth of the man himself. The truth of Burroughs is found in the myth: “the idea of Burroughs has its own realities, its … Continue reading →

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Beat Freedom

Posted on December 12, 2016 by Lee

Gregory Corso’s Variations on a Generation, exploring what it means to be “beat.” First it’s about how to write poetry: beat writers use “spontaneity ‘bop prosody’ surreal-real images jumps beats cool measures long rapidic vowels, long long lines, and, the … Continue reading →

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Angels Can Make Change Happen

Posted on November 16, 2016 by Lee

“I just started hustling, just knocking around, you know, scrounging, learning I guess.” This is Herbert Huncke: drug addict, criminal and writer. He moves in his own little group of junkies and criminals, otherwise he is cut off from people … Continue reading →

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Notes on Allen Ginsberg’s “Howl”

Posted on October 20, 2016 by Lee

Allen Ginsberg gives us picture after picture of the lost minds, “the best minds of my generation”, images of entire lives lived and lived out and used up, flashes of light and life like the images in Whitman, who also … Continue reading →

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