Word Virus The William S. Burroughs Reader

by Burroughs, William S.; Grauerholz, James; Silverberg, Ira

• ISBN13: 9780802136947
• ISBN10: 080213694X
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-06-22
• Publisher: Grove Press

Summary

With the publication of Naked Lunch in 1959, William Burroughs abruptly brought international letters into the postmodern age. Beginning with his very early writing (including a chapter from his and Jack Kerouac's never-before-seen collaborative novel), Word Virus follows the arc of Burroughs's remarkable career, from his darkly hilarious "routines" to the experimental cut-up novels to Cities of the Red Night and The Cat Inside. Beautifully edited and complemented by James Grauerholz's illuminating biographical essays, Word Virus charts Burroughs's major themes and places the work in the context of the life. It is an excellent tool for the scholar and a delight for the general reader. Throughout a career that spanned half of the twentieth century, William S. Burroughs managed continually to be a visionary among writers. When he died in 1997, the world of letters lost its most elegant outsider.

Table of Contents

Editor's Preface	xi
Ira Silverberg
``Punching a Hole in the Big Lie: The Achievement of William S. Burroughs''	xv
Ann Douglas
Editors' Note	xxxi
THE NAME IS BURROUGHS (1914--44)
``The Name Is Burroughs''	3	(20)
James Grauerholz
From The Adding Machine:
The Name Is Burroughs (excerpt) (1973)	15	(8)
Personal Magnetism (1929)	23	(1)
Twilight's Last Gleamings (with Kells Elvins) (1938)	24	(6)
And the Hippos Were Boiled in Their Tanks (excerpt) (with Jack Kerouac) (1945)	30	(7)
A HARD-BOILED REPORTER (1945--53)
``A Hard-Boiled Reporter''	37	(78)
James Grauerholz
From Junky:
Prologue (1952)	47	(3)
Selections (1950--52)	50	(22)
From Queer:
Selections (1951--52)	72	(14)
Epilogue: Mexico City Return (excerpts) (1953)	86	(4)
Introduction (excerpts) (1985)	90	(6)
The Yage Letters:
Selections (1953)	96	(13)
Roosevelt After Inauguration (May 1953)	109	(6)
INTERZONE (1954--59)
``Interzone''	115	(64)
James Grauerholz
From Interzone (1988 anthology):
International Zone (1955)	121	(7)
Lee's Journals (excerpts) (1955)	128	(3)
Spare Ass Annie (1955)	131	(2)
Ginsberg Notes (excerpts) (1955)	133	(2)
WORD (excerpts) (1957--58)	135	(14)
From Naked Lunch (1955--59):
I Can Feel the Heat Closing In	149	(7)
The Black Meat	156	(2)
Hospital (excerpts)	158	(3)
The Market (excerpts)	161	(2)
Islam, Inc. (excerpts)	163	(2)
Ordinary Men and Women (excerpt: The Talking Asshole)	165	(2)
Atrophied Preface	167	(9)
Quick...	176	(3)
THE CUT-UPS (1960--67)
``The Cut-Ups''	179	(68)
James Grauerholz
From The Soft Machine (1957--60):
Dead on Arrival	184	(3)
Case of the Celluloid Kali	187	(6)
The Mayan Caper	193	(6)
Where You Belong	199	(2)
Uranian Willy	201	(1)
From The Ticket That Exploded (1957--61):
``see the action, B.J.?''	202	(3)
do you love me?	205	(3)
operation rewrite	208	(2)
call the old doctor twice?	210	(8)
the invisible generation	218	(7)
From Nova Express (1961--63):
Last Words	225	(1)
Prisoners, Come Out	226	(1)
Pry Yourself Loose and Listen	227	(4)
So Pack Your Ermines	231	(1)
Shift Coordinate Points	232	(1)
Coordinate Points	233	(4)
Short Count	237	(2)
Twilight's Last Gleaming	239	(1)
Pay Color	240	(1)
Pay Off the Marks?	241	(2)
Clom Fliday	243	(4)
INSPECTOR LEE: NOVA HEAT (1964--84)
``Inspector Lee: Nova Heat''	247	(110)
James Grauerholz
From The Burroughs File:
Ancient Face Gone Out (1963)	250	(2)
The Beginning Is Also the End (1963)	252	(4)
Who Is the Third That Walks Beside You (1964)	256	(3)
The Last Post Danger Ahead (1964)	259	(2)
Last Awning Flaps on the Pier (1964)	261	(1)
St. Louis Return (1965)	262	(8)
From The Third Mind (with Brion Gysin):
The Exterminator (1962--65)	270	(2)
The Future of the Novel (1964)	272	(1)
Notes on These Pages (1964)	273	(2)
Technical Deposition of the Virus Power (1965)	275	(5)
In Present Time (1965)	280	(9)
From The Job:
The American Non-Dream (1969)	289	(4)
Institute of Advanced Sexual Studies: Academy Bulletin No. 18 (1969)	293	(1)
Electronic Revolution (1970--71)	294	(19)
Control (1970)	313	(7)
From The Adding Machine:
It Is Necessary to Travel...(1969)	320	(1)
Remembering Jack Kerouac (1969)	320	(6)
From The Burroughs File:
The Bay of Pigs (1972)	326	(7)
From Roosevelt After Inauguration and Other Atrocities:
When Did I Stop Wanting to Be President? (1975)	333	(1)
Roosevelt After Inauguration: A New Introduction (1975)	334	(2)
From The Adding Machine:
A Word to the Wise Guy (1975)	336	(3)
The Limits of Control (1975)	339	(3)
Les Voleurs (1976)	342	(2)
Immortality (1976)	344	(8)
The Johnson Family (excerpts) (1977)	352	(5)
QUEER UTOPIA (1968--73)
``Queer Utopia''	357	(46)
James Grauerholz
From The Wild Boys (1968--69):
And Bury the Bread Deep in a Sty	363	(3)
The Penny Arcade Peep Show	366	(6)
``Mother and I Would Like to Know''	372	(4)
The Wild Boys Smile	376	(7)
From Exterminator!:
``Exterminator!'' (1966)	383	(3)
The Discipline of DE (1970)	386	(6)
``What Washington? What Orders?'' (1972)	392	(2)
From Here to Eternity (1972)	394	(2)
Seeing Red (1972)	396	(1)
The ``Priest'' They Called Him (1967)	397	(2)
Cold Lost Marbles (1972)	399	(4)
THE RED NIGHT TRILOGY (1973--87)
``The Red Night Trilogy''	403	(98)
James Grauerholz
From Cities of the Red Night (1974--80):
Fore!	414	(2)
Invocation	416	(1)
Politics Here Is Death	417	(4)
Harbor Point	421	(2)
The Private Asshole	423	(4)
Letter de Marque (excerpt)	427	(3)
Port Roger (excerpt)	430	(2)
Cities of the Red Night	432	(4)
We Are Here Because of You	436	(2)
Return to Port Roger	438	(2)
From The Place of Dead Roads (selections) (1977--83):
Shoot-Out in Boulder	440	(4)
``For three days Kim had camped on the mesa top...''	444	(1)
``Kim has never doubted the possibility of an afterlife...''	445	(2)
``Kim got off the stage at Cottonwood Junction''	447	(3)
``Look at this picture from Tom's collection...''	450	(1)
``Kim recruits a band of flamboyant and picturesque outlaws...''	451	(2)
``Killed in the Manhattan Shoot-Out...April 3, 1894...''	453	(2)
``William Seward Hall...''	455	(1)
``Kim sees his life as a legend...''	456	(1)
``Guy Graywood arrived from New York...''	456	(2)
``Kim spent three years in Paris...''	458	(3)
``The guide traces the area on the map...''	461	(2)
``So in what guise shall he return to the New World...''	463	(4)
``Kim is heading north for Boulder...''	467	(2)
From The Western lands (selections) (1982--86):
``The old writer lived in a boxcar by the river...''	469	(4)
``Joe the Dead lowered the rifle...''	473	(2)
``Neferti is eating breakfast...''	475	(2)
``The Door Dog is a limited artifact...''	477	(2)
``Consider the One God Universe...''	479	(1)
``The Road to the Western Lands...''	480	(4)
``Neferti is dropping his Ego, his Me...''	484	(2)
``June 6, 1985. Friday. I am in Iran someplace...''	486	(2)
``In present-day Egypt...''	488	(1)
``The Land of the Dead: a long street with trees...''	489	(3)
The Wishing Machine	492	(2)
``It was a hectic, portentous time in Paris, in 1959...''	494	(7)
LATE WORK (1984--97)
``Late Work''	501	(25)
James Grauerholz
From The Cat Inside (selections) (1982--85)	504	(3)
From My Education: A Book of Dreams (selections) (1986--94)	507	(19)
``Epilogue''	526	(5)
James Grauerholz
Selected Bibliography	531