William Seward Burroughs wrote some of the most brutal and hilarious texts of the 20th century, novels, stories, essays and paintings that sought to shatter the monotonous "control" of the present. In his writing practices, Burroughs had recourse to numerous machines - tape recorders, hypodermics, revolvers, and selves. Writer and composer Paul Bowles wrote of the Burroughs machine, not to be confused with the adding machine of the same name:
At any point of the day or night you might happen to catch him, you will always find that the whole machine is going full blast, and that means that he is laughing or about to laugh.[1]
This course will seek to map out the operation and effects of the Burroughs "machine", and to propagate the laughter associated with its operation. As such, we will traverse both Burroughs's own work and the artists, writers and psychologists - such as Brion Gysin, Allen Ginsberg, Alfred Korzybski andWilhelm Reich- that he cut up. Students will also participate in the construction of an orgone box, a machine that Burroughs favored in his everyday life.
Texts:
The Adding Machine
The Ghost of Chance ( Xerox)
Cities of the Red Night
Junky
Last Words: The Final Journals of William S.Burroughs
My Education : A Book of Dreams
Naked Lunch
Nova Express
The Place of Dead Roads
The Ticket That Exploded
The Western Lands
Yage Letters
Audio:
Video:
Construction:
Orgone Box
[1]The Burroughs File, p. 16.
