Interzone: William S. Burroughs (Penguin Modern Classics)

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In an interview shortly after “Smells Like Teen Spirit” catapulted Nirvana into the mainstream, Cobain referred to Burroughs as his favorite author and called the cut-up approach “revolutionary.” On the 1991 European tour for Nevermind, Cobain’s sole piece of luggage was a small bag containing Naked Lunch, which he had recently rediscovered at a used bookshop in London. [25] Cobain was such a fan that he asked Burroughs to appear as a crucifixion victim in the video for “Heart Shaped Box.” In a 1993 letter to Burroughs, Cobain came across as sincere and respectful: “I wanted you to know that this request is not based on a desire to exploit you in any way,” he wrote. “I realize that stories in the press regarding my drug use may make you think that this request comes from a desire to parallel our lives. Let me assure you that this is not the case. As a fan and student of your work, I would cherish the opportunity to work directly with you.” [26] In his personal journals, Cobain described his vision for the video:

Burroughs' time at the Beat Hotel was dominated by occult experiments – " mirror-gazing, scrying, trance and telepathy, all fuelled by a wide variety of mind-altering drugs". [45] Later, Burroughs would describe "visions" obtained by staring into the mirror for hours at a time – his hands transformed into tentacles, [h] or his whole image transforming into some strange entity, [i] or visions of far-off places, [47] or of other people rapidly undergoing metamorphosis. [j] It was from this febrile atmosphere that the famous cut-up technique emerged. The only newspaper columnist Burroughs admired was Westbrook Pegler, a right-wing opinion shaper for the William Randolph Hearst newspaper chain. [8] :170 Burroughs believed in frontier individualism, which he championed as "our glorious frontier heritage on minding your own business." Burroughs came to equate liberalism with bureaucratic tyranny, viewing government authority as a collective of meddlesome forces legislating the curtailment of personal freedom. According to his biographer Ted Morgan, his philosophy for living one's life was to adhere to a laissez-faire path, one without encumbrances – in essence a credo shared with the capitalist business world. [8] :55 His abhorrence of the government did not prevent Burroughs from using its programs to his own advantage. In 1949 he enrolled in Mexico City College under the GI Bill, which paid for part of his tuition and books and provided him with a seventy-five-dollar-per-month stipend. He maintained, "I always say, keep your snout in the public trough." [8] :173Whereas Junkie and Queer were conventional in style, Naked Lunch was his first venture into a nonlinear style. After the publication of Naked Lunch, a book whose creation was to a certain extent the result of a series of contingencies, Burroughs was exposed to Brion Gysin's cut-up technique at the Beat Hotel in Paris in October 1959. He began slicing up phrases and words to create new sentences. [40] At the Beat Hotel, Burroughs discovered "a port of entry" into Gysin's canvases: "I don't think I had ever seen painting until I saw the painting of Brion Gysin." [41] The two would cultivate a long-term friendship that revolved around a mutual interest in artworks and cut-up techniques. Scenes were slid together with little care for narrative. Several of the short pieces were adapted into other media. Burroughs recorded the stories " The Junky's Christmas" and "Spare Ass Annie," which were set to music and released on the album Spare Ass Annie and Other Tales. "The Junky's Christmas" was also adapted as an animated film in the 1990s. The cut-up techniques made very explicit a preoccupation with exorcism – William's texts became spells, for instance." — Terry Wilson [32] The London years [ edit ] David Bowie (l.) and Burroughs (m.) together with journalist A. Craig Copetas (r.) for an interview in February 1974 for Rolling Stone. [49] Burroughs, William S. (2001). Grauerholtz, James; Miles, Barry (eds.). Naked Lunch (the restored texted.). Grove Press. ISBN 0-8021-4018-1.

Campbell, James (August 4, 1997). "Struggles with the Ugly Spirit". the Guardian . Retrieved August 28, 2021. a b Hassan, Ihab (1991). "The Subtracting Machine: The Work of William Burroughs". In Skerl, Jennie; Lydenberg, Robin (eds.). William S. Burroughs At the Front: Critical Reception, 1959-1989. Carbondale and Edwardsville: Southern Illinois University Press. pp.53–67. ISBN 0-8093-1586-6. I will examine the connections between so-called occult phenomena and the creative process. Are not all writers, consciously or not, operating in these areas?" — William S. Burroughs [88]Burroughs clearly indicates here that he prefers to be evaluated against such criteria over being reviewed based on the reviewer's personal reactions to a certain book. Always a contradictory figure, Burroughs nevertheless criticized Anatole Broyard for reading authorial intent into his works where there is none, which sets him at odds both with New Criticism and the old school as represented by Matthew Arnold. Terry Wilson, in conversation with Brion Gysin. Ports of Entry, published in Here to go: planet R-101 (1982). Re/Search Publications.

Organized by Columbia professor Sylvère Lotringer, Giorno, and Grauerholz, the Nova Convention was a multimedia retrospective of Burroughs' work held from November 30 to December 2, 1978, at various locations throughout New York. The event included readings from Southern, Ginsberg, Smith, and Frank Zappa (who filled in at the last minute for Keith Richards, then entangled in a legal problem), in addition to panel discussions with Timothy Leary and Robert Anton Wilson and concerts featuring The B-52's, Suicide, Philip Glass, and Debbie Harry and Chris Stein. William S. Burroughs, Letter to Allen Ginsberg, late July 1959. The Letters of William S. Burroughs, 1945 to 1959. Viking Penguin, 1993. Oliver Harris has questioned Burroughs' claim that Vollmer's death catalysed his writing, highlighting the importance for Queer of Burroughs' traumatic relationship with the boyfriend fictionalized in the story as Eugene Allerton, rather than the shooting of Vollmer. In any case, he had begun to write in 1945. Burroughs and Kerouac collaborated on And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks, a mystery novel loosely based on the Carr–Kammerer situation and that at the time remained unpublished. Years later, in the documentary What Happened to Kerouac?, Burroughs described it as "not a very distinguished work". An excerpt of this work, in which Burroughs and Kerouac wrote alternating chapters, was finally published in Word Virus, [36] a compendium of William Burroughs' writing that was published by his biographer after his death in 1997. The complete novel was finally published by Grove Press in 2008. Tour manager Alex MacLeod drove Cobain to meet the old man following Nirvana’s performance at Memorial Hall in Kansas City. “I called his room and he’s already ready to go,” MacLeod says. “I recognize this is completely different than any other day, because there’s no prodding. There’s no ‘come on, you’re killing me here.” [28] Cobain was not the kind of person to telegraph elation at the best of times; in the depths of narcotic numbness and depression, he was even more remote. But this day was different. “ He was quite excited, and he was nervous,” MacLeod recalls. “He was meeting someone who he had an immense respect for as a writer. Burroughs was this artist who covered so many mediums and it’s what Kurt wanted to be. He saw himself as someone who could create in different mediums as he did with his paintings, drawings, his writing, music and everything else.” Lee, Dave (1989). "Cut Up and Collage in Magic". Chaotopia!. Archived from the original on June 12, 2018 . Retrieved June 8, 2018.

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These routines emphasize addiction, especially to heroin, which can be read as a metaphor for broader social problems and obsessions. [21] [4] However, Frank McConnell argues that Naked Lunch is straightforwardly about heroin addiction in itself, and should not be read as symbolic. [15] Lydenberg argues that Burroughs' parenthetical asides challenge the reader's instinct to "evade" the darkness of the book by treating its disturbing elements as symbols or allegories, and instead show that Burroughs insists on a literal reading. [17] WB: I would say that that was accurate ... Of course the beginning of writing, and perhaps of all art, was related to the magical. Cave painting, which is the beginning of writing ... The purpose of those paintings was magical, that is to produce the effect that is depicted." — William S. Burroughs [89]