LINKS....The Soft Machine
A William S. Burroughs Site
The following are excerpts cited
here for educational and review purposes only.
Where possible references are made available.
William Seward Burroughs 1914-1997
"Biologically speaking the Afro-asiatic block is in the ascendancy---always remember that both Negro and White are minority groups---the largest race is the mongoloid group. In the event of atomic war there is a tremendous biological advantage in the so-called underdeveloped areas that have high birth rates and high death rate because, man, they can plow under those mutations. The country with a low birth rate and low death rate will be hardest hit---and so the poor may indeed inherit the earth, because they're healthier." W.S.B.
"The whole point is I feel the machine should be eliminated. Now that it has served its purpose of alerting us to the dangers of machine control. Elimination of all natural sciences----If anybody ought to go to the extermination chambers definitely scientists, yes I'm definitely antiscientist because I feel that science represents a conspiracy to impose as, the real and only universe, the Universe of scientists themselves----they're reality-addicts, they've got to have things so real so they can get their hands on it. We have a great elaborate machine which I feel has to be completely dismantled--- in order to do that we need people who understand how the machine works ---the mass media---paralleled opportunity. " W.S.B.
``nothing is true, and everything is permitted.'' W.S.B.
"Language is a virus..." W.S.B.
Revulsion No. 1: Shooting
Joan
In 1951 Burroughs was living in Mexico City with his wife, Joan,
and young son, Billy Jr., after a heroin and marijuana possession
charge against him back in the States had been dropped. One
September afternoon, Burroughs and his wife dropped by to see an
acquaintance and a few other friends who had gathered to enjoy
some drinks. Burroughs was packing a Star .380 automatic. At one
point in the festivities, he said to his wife, who was sitting in
a chair across the room, ``I guess it's about time for our
William Tell act.'' They'd never performed a William Tell act in
their lives, but Joan, who was drinking heavily and undergoing
withdrawal from a heavy amphetamine habit, and who had lived with
Burroughs for five years, was game. She placed a highball glass
on top of her head. Burroughs, known to be a good shot, was
sitting about six feet away. His explanation for missing was not
that his aim was off, but that this gun shot low. The bullet
struck Joan in the head. She died almost immediately.
The judge in Mexico believed the shooting to be accidental, as
the other people present in the room asserted that this was the
case. And so after paying a lawyer $2,000 and serving thirteen
days in jail, Burroughs was allowed to post $2,312 and was freed.
Eight years later; Burroughs's first novel, ~Naked Lunch~, was
published. One of the last books in America to be the cause of an
obscenity trial, it is a biting, hallucinatory work that Norman
Mailer described as having been composed by a genius. But
Burroughs might never have written a word of it had he not shot
his wife in the head. ``I am forced to the appalling conclusion
that I would never have become a writer but for Joan's death,''
Burroughs has said, ``and to the realization of the extent to
which this event has motivated and formulated my writing. I live
with the constant threat of possession, and a constant need to
escape from possession, from control. So the death of Joan
brought me in contact with the invader, the ugly spirit, and
maneuvered me into a lifelong struggle in which I have had no
choice except to write my way out.''
Which Is the Fly and Which Is the Human?
by Lynn Snowden
from ~Esquire~, Feb 1992, pg. 112-116
`I would have to say yes, evil exists, definitely, I'm very interested in the whole matter of possession and exorcism. I asked myself, why do these demons have such necessity to possess, and why are they so reluctant to leave? The answer is, that's the only way they can get out of hell -- it's sort of like junk. They possess somebody and they want to hang onto it because that's their ticket out of hell.'' W.S.B.
``Valerie Solanis'' -- the woman who shot Andy Warhol -- ``in her manifesto, gets around to the position that females are almost as bad as males. And that's much closer to my position, where it all a bad idea. Male and female. You know, let's just call the whole thing off.'' W.S.B.
"I want my painting to literally walk off the goddamned canvas to become a creature and a very dangerous creature. I see painting as an evocative magic. And their must always be a random factor in magic, one which must be constantly changed and renewed." W.S.B
LINKS....
The William S. Burroughs File.
This sight is dedicated to Sean Marley, who first introduced me to W.S.Burroughs.
Return to PLACE OF DEAD ROADS.