scarecrow poetics/essays
Monday, January 16, 2006
William Burroughs.
“What do you know of the hard man of Hip?”
Where do I start trying to tell someone about Burroughs? I could start with he was born on 5th February 1914, the grandson of the inventor of the Burroughs adding machine, older than Kerouac, Ginsberg & Corso. He took on the role of teacher encouraging them to write fiction and poetry. The Moroccans called him “El hombre invisible”: a man so ordinary he could walk by without being noticed.
It’s been said that he was a literary force both stylistically and socially. This can be said of my two favourite books; Junkie (Junky UK version), an unsentimental account of his drug addiction, published under the author’s sobriquet, William Lee, that chronicled Burroughs descent into the dirty underworld drug culture of New York, Mexico and New Orleans. The second book Naked Lunch is a surreal Dante’s inferno of narcotics, urban nightmares and explicit sex.
So what would I recommend reading? If you really want to get to know Burroughs read The Ticket that Exploded, the Soft Machine, Nova Express, Port of Saints, the Adding Machine, the Place of Dead Souls, the Western Lands and Cities of the red night.
“I am a man of the world. Going to and fro and walking up and down in it.”
Did he consider himself Beat or Hip?
“I have some close personal friends among the beat movement: Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso are all close friends of many years standing, but we’re not doing all the same things, either in writing or in out look…I don’t associate myself with them; it’s simply a matter of juxtaposition rather than any actual association of literary styles or over all objectives.”
So why do I want to be a writer? Well it certainly isn’t because of wanting to hang out with other writers or looking cool at open mike sessions or attending readings and book signings.
I’d probably go with why Burroughs wanted to be a writer…
“As a child I wanted to be a writer because writers were rich and famous. They lounged around Singapore and Rangoon smoking opium in yellow pongee silk shorts. They sniffed cocaine in Mayfair and they penetrated forbidden swamps with a faithful native boy and lived in the native quarter of Tangier smoking hashish and languidly caressing a pet gazelle.”
If that really had been the spark that fuelled his writing, would we have had the Burroughs we all know and worship?
Anyone who’s hot on Burroughs knows of a well-documented fact that’s been on hundreds of websites and in at least two films. On the 6th September 1951 whilst at a party, Burroughs suggested that he and Joan (his wife) do their William Tell act. Joan balanced a glass on her head; Burroughs shoots and hits her in the head, killing her. Later on in life Burroughs is quoted as saying:
“I am forced to the appalling conclusion that I would never have become a writer but for Joan’s death.”
This tragic incident gave him the drive to become a writer. The rest of his life would be atonement for his inexplicable act.
In May of 1982, he was inducted into the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. William S Burroughs died on 2nd August 1997 of a heart attack in Lawrence, Kansas. He was 83 years old.
So back to my original question. In a nutshell Burroughs influence on literature is without a doubt indisputable. He not only gave birth to the Beat Generation, he helped to inspire the generation X counter culture and the punk movements of the 60’s and 70’s, and I’d go so far as saying that he influenced Bob Dylan and all this punk rock influenced pop.
Before I sign off here’s one of my favourite quotes on what he thought about Britain.
“A socialistic police state”
Now that is pure “Burroughs”
Sean McGahey © 2006 [This article was first published in The Beat].
Where do I start trying to tell someone about Burroughs? I could start with he was born on 5th February 1914, the grandson of the inventor of the Burroughs adding machine, older than Kerouac, Ginsberg & Corso. He took on the role of teacher encouraging them to write fiction and poetry. The Moroccans called him “El hombre invisible”: a man so ordinary he could walk by without being noticed.
It’s been said that he was a literary force both stylistically and socially. This can be said of my two favourite books; Junkie (Junky UK version), an unsentimental account of his drug addiction, published under the author’s sobriquet, William Lee, that chronicled Burroughs descent into the dirty underworld drug culture of New York, Mexico and New Orleans. The second book Naked Lunch is a surreal Dante’s inferno of narcotics, urban nightmares and explicit sex.
So what would I recommend reading? If you really want to get to know Burroughs read The Ticket that Exploded, the Soft Machine, Nova Express, Port of Saints, the Adding Machine, the Place of Dead Souls, the Western Lands and Cities of the red night.
“I am a man of the world. Going to and fro and walking up and down in it.”
Did he consider himself Beat or Hip?
“I have some close personal friends among the beat movement: Jack Kerouac, Allen Ginsberg and Gregory Corso are all close friends of many years standing, but we’re not doing all the same things, either in writing or in out look…I don’t associate myself with them; it’s simply a matter of juxtaposition rather than any actual association of literary styles or over all objectives.”
So why do I want to be a writer? Well it certainly isn’t because of wanting to hang out with other writers or looking cool at open mike sessions or attending readings and book signings.
I’d probably go with why Burroughs wanted to be a writer…
“As a child I wanted to be a writer because writers were rich and famous. They lounged around Singapore and Rangoon smoking opium in yellow pongee silk shorts. They sniffed cocaine in Mayfair and they penetrated forbidden swamps with a faithful native boy and lived in the native quarter of Tangier smoking hashish and languidly caressing a pet gazelle.”
If that really had been the spark that fuelled his writing, would we have had the Burroughs we all know and worship?
Anyone who’s hot on Burroughs knows of a well-documented fact that’s been on hundreds of websites and in at least two films. On the 6th September 1951 whilst at a party, Burroughs suggested that he and Joan (his wife) do their William Tell act. Joan balanced a glass on her head; Burroughs shoots and hits her in the head, killing her. Later on in life Burroughs is quoted as saying:
“I am forced to the appalling conclusion that I would never have become a writer but for Joan’s death.”
This tragic incident gave him the drive to become a writer. The rest of his life would be atonement for his inexplicable act.
In May of 1982, he was inducted into the American Academy and Institute of Arts and Letters. William S Burroughs died on 2nd August 1997 of a heart attack in Lawrence, Kansas. He was 83 years old.
So back to my original question. In a nutshell Burroughs influence on literature is without a doubt indisputable. He not only gave birth to the Beat Generation, he helped to inspire the generation X counter culture and the punk movements of the 60’s and 70’s, and I’d go so far as saying that he influenced Bob Dylan and all this punk rock influenced pop.
Before I sign off here’s one of my favourite quotes on what he thought about Britain.
“A socialistic police state”
Now that is pure “Burroughs”
Sean McGahey © 2006 [This article was first published in The Beat].
posted by scarecrow # 2:38 PM 
