“The Great God Pan Is Dead!” the Ecological Elegy of William Burroughs’ Ghost of Chance

“THE GREAT GOD PAN IS DEAD!” THE ECOLOGICAL ELEGY OF WILLIAM BURROUGHS’ GHOST OF CHANCE CHAD WEIDNER The Roosevelt Academy University Honors College Utrecht University Abstract: The paper explores some of the profound political strains that work throughout William Burrough’s fiction. Many of the investigations done to date about William Burroughs are sentimental and nostalgic rather than scholarly. Now that Burroughs’ oeuvre is complete, it is time to reflect on the entirety of his work. This analysis will attempt to reveal some of the codified ideology in Ghost of Chance, a novella published many years after the publication of Burrough’s most controversial work. Introduction William S. Burroughs was a core member of the Beat Generation. Scholars and critics have described his novels (as well as the wider work of the Beat Generation) as a reaction to mid 20th century consumerism and the Cold War uncertainties. Jeffrey Falla has previously suggested a possible relationship between the Beats and the agrarian West of America, “Beat philos- ophy centers on a return to an American individualism which had as its core the myth of the pioneer” (2000: 24). Can parallels between the politics of seemingly antipatriotic Burroughs and the original patriot Jefferson be found? What might such a revelation tell us about Burroughs’ views on government and ecology? Critics have long wrestled with the problem of pinning Burroughs down as a conservative — or radical — or art revolutionary. Many believe that his work defies genre (was he a narrator of the grotesque, black comedian, absurdist?) Literary agrarianism places Burroughs in the long tra- dition of rural American thinkers, especially Thomas Jefferson. Literary Agrarianism I posit that a new conceptual model can be created from elements of anarchy, classical Marxism, and Jeffersonian ideas of government and agrarianism. Literary agrarianism attempts to place a given work into histor- B.A.S. vol. XIV, 2008 196 ical and political context by measuring it against the agricultural and political origins of the United States. This model is limited to American literature. According to agrarianism, farming is a righteous occupation. It considers the city, money, and the church as potentially evil in that they limit natural human freedoms. Agrarianism, though, tries to flesh out the contextual relationship between a given text and American notions of agriculture and government. In effect, I have pressed together three different ideological con- cepts, in varying degrees, to create a new lens to examine texts. Agrarianism recognizes the importance of nature. In this respect, it could be described as having similarities to ecocriticism. The goal of the concept, however, is different. As classical Marxism tries to put a given text into the context of class revolution, ecocriticism (and environmental criti- cism) seek out the relationship between texts and environmental praxis. Literary agrarianism is interested in fleshing out an ideology of agronomy, and as such examines a text in a more theoretical way. Now that Burroughs has been deceased for nearly a decade, perhaps it is time to reexamine his work in a new context. Burroughs greened as he grew older. His late works especially move towards an environmental con- sciousness. In Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Florian Vetsch (2003) argued that in Ghost of Chance, Burroughs has moved in the direction of politically engaged ecological writing, “Burroughs’ trickreich mit Synchronien arbeit- ende Prosa legt neben der ökologischen auch eine hellsichtig wahrgenommene politische Dimension frei…ein brandaktuelles, wunder- sam komponiertes Alterswerk gelungen, ein verwuchert glühendes Plädoyer für die Formenvielfalt der Natur.“ Others have described Burroughs’ feelings of absolute hopelessness at imminent environmental catastrophe. As Shirlaw (2002) argues, “Ghost of Chance is alienating. Burroughs seeks to retrieve the irrevocable, the futility of which leaves the novella with a sadness bordering on elegy.” If others have already argued that Burroughs’ writing contains an ecological component, then what is the point of this study? What is new here? I respectfully submit that the concept of literary agrarianism can provide even deeper historical and political meaning into Burroughs and his writing than simply placing him into the same tent as fellow Beat Gary Snyder. William Burroughs’ Ghost of Chance is a novella, containing just 58 pages. It appeared late in Burroughs’ career. It was published in 1991, some 32 years after the publication of the influential novel Naked Lunch. The dis- 197 CULTURAL SPECULATIONS tance between the two books is in some ways larger than the three decades that separate them. Naked Lunch is wholly scatological. It is difficult to read as there are no customary notions of plot, setting or theme. The work can hardly be described as a novel. It might be more appropriate to describe it as a series of sketches, some satirical, but most revolving around descrip- tions of paranoid visions, homosexual promiscuity, and the quest to acquire and use drugs. Ghost of Chance, on the other hand, while still displaying Burroughs fascination with a derangement of the senses, though, is softer in its tone. The book is overall much more accessible than Naked Lunch. Literary agrarianism puts the two books in the same class, however, as they both promote lesser control from ruling forces. Both books are critical of the church and promote broad individual liberties. While Naked Lunch could be described as an anti-urban book, Ghost of Chance can be described as ecologically conscious. After the novella was published, many of the same old criticisms were made: Burroughs was still a literary idiot, an obscene and hackneyed recy- cler of used images. Will Self (1995) criticized Burroughs’ uneven use of footnotes and citations in a review in The Guardian, “[M]uch of what Burroughs says in the lively and idiosyncratic footnotes to this text is hideously unpalatable”. Admittedly, Burroughs does try to bring a scientific and impartial approach to the novella, an approach that is perhaps less than fully successful. This attempt at journalistic detachment and objectivity is common even in Burroughs’ early work. Naked Lunch is written in a chaotic, freecutting style that is more muted in Ghost of Chance. If Naked Lunch is chaotic, then Ghost of Chance is at times coherent. Both books seem to be a kind of warning in support of individual liberties against monolithic forces. Some critics find Burroughs’ style flawed or even silly. As Kalka (2003:36) writes, “Hier jedoch erscheint es nicht als Strategie, als literarische Form, sondern als kunstlose, bare Albernheit.” Throughout Burroughs’ career, he was criticized time and time again for not fitting into established genres. It is not surprising that some critics found his work indigestible, as it does not easily fit into their notions of genre. Libertania The setting of Ghost of Chance is a settlement called Libertania. It is located on the West coast of Madagascar, far away from the developed B.A.S. vol. XIV, 2008 198 world and its emphasis on consumption and hurried production. Burroughs provides the reader a version of an apparently failed historical attempt by a group of pirates to create a free and independent state. The choice of using former pirates as settlers in a utopian setup is important in the agrarian context. Pirates are certainly those who live outside established laws. Burroughs’ employment of pirates as ideological pioneers would suggest that Burroughs at least believed that those who have lived outside established social structures have an appreciation for personal liberties that those who have not. The protagonist of the book is Captain Mission, a name that could have been drawn from a comic book. The protagonist’s mission here is not to defeat Godzilla but to establish a new world. In the story, the settlers draw up a limited constitution based on respect for both nature and individual freedoms. The establishment of a perfect place, away from old corrupt and oppressive systems mirrors the founding of the American colonies. Just as the American colonies sought refuge from oppressive monarchial and religious institutions, Captain Mission seeks refuge for his band of liberty loving pirates from the overwhelming and encircling power of the developed world. The emphasis in this settlement, though, is not religious freedom, but freedom from economic pressures and ecological contamination. There is serenity in the rural community that Captain Mission and his ex-pirates have founded. “He saw the settlement, the freshly molded red bricks and thatch already timeless as houses in fairyland” (Burroughs 1991: 3) History tells us that Utopia is impossible, and the hint that the settlement is a fairytale land makes the temporary balance clear to the reader. For a short time, it does appear that humans are able to live in equilibrium with nature. The community works together to solve the most basic of human problems, the need to eat, “A reed…a loaf of bread…A bird wheels in the sky. A woman plucks feathers from a fowl, takes a loaf of bread from an adobe oven.” (13) The basic social code of the settlement is do as you please, as long as it does not harm anyone else or the animals that also inhabit the area. In the book, as was not so uncommon during the late 18th century in America, disagreements that could not be resolved through debate are settled by duel. In Ghost of Chance, this practice was spelled out in Article 23 of the settlement’s constitution. The article describes how if no resolution to a disagreement between two individuals in the settlement can be found, 199 CULTURAL SPECULATIONS that the issue could be settled in a fair duel (1991: 7). Captain Mission chal- lenges Bradley to a duel after he kills a lemur for a mango.

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