13/02/2020 William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin review - The TLS

North Ameriican lliiterature || Book Reviiew Cutting edge

Two majjor Beat figures:: Briion Gysiin and Wiilllliiam S.. Burroughs

By Julles Smiith

February 114,, 2020 Read thiis iissue

Brriion Gyssiin and Wiilllliiam Burrrroughss wiitth ““The Drream Machiine”” || © Harrolld Chapman//TopFotto

IIN THIIS REVIIEW

BLADE RUNNER:: A MOVIIE 88pp.. Tangerriine Prress.. Paperrback,, £9.. Wiilllliiam S.. Burrrroughss Buy

LET THE MIICE IIN Ediitted by Jan Herrman 80pp.. Molloko Prriintt.. €20.. Brriion Gyssiin

uriing an iinterviiew wiith Kathy Acker at the October Gallllery iin London iin 1988,, Wiilllliiam Burroughs remarked,, “I’’m seeiing a fillm when I wriite”.. Hiis prose iis iindeed ciinematiic,, wiith perverse echoes of Hollllywood product:: https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/blade-runner-a-movie-william-s-burroughs-let-the-mice-in-brion-gysin-review-jules-smith/ 1/4 13/02/2020 William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin review - The TLS

mordant voiiceovers,, hard--boiilled diiallogue,, sllapstiick comedy scenes,, niightmariish dream

sequences,, montages,, jjump cuts,, cross--cuttiing and any number of eniigmatiic fadeouts.. These D are most sensatiionalllly deplloyed iin Naked Lunch (1959),, but turn up iin many of Burroughs’’s other fictiions.. Art techniiques allso fed hiis word hoard,, notablly by way of the cut--up techniique whiich he and

the experiimentall artiist Briion Gysiin piioneered siixty years ago.. Burroughs’’s fillmiic aspiiratiions were variious..

He wrote the scriipt for – and appeared,, allongsiide Gysiin and theiir acollyte Ian Sommerviilllle – iin Anthony

Ballch’’s short fillms Towers Open Fiire (1963) and The Cut--Ups (1966).. Theiir entertaiiniing oddiitiies may be

viiewed on YouTube.. Moviing back to New York iin 1974,, he taught a course iin screenwriitiing,, and wrote two

fictiions approxiimatiing to fillm scriipts:: The Last Words of Dutch Schulltz (1970,, reviised 1975) and Bllade

Runner:: A Moviie (1979)..

It was the first two words onlly of the llatter that resullted iin Burroughs’’s most siigniificant iimpact on maiinstream Hollllywood,, beiing seiized on by the diirector Riidlley Scott for hiis otherwiise unrellated 1982 scii--fi

fillm of that tiitlle.. In a llengthy iintroductiion to thiis handsomelly produced fortiieth anniiversary ediitiion,, Olliiver Harriis expllaiins how iit happened.. Burroughs’’s source was The Blladerunner,, a 1974 dystopiian pullp novell by

Allan E.. Nourse set iin a near--future ravaged New York,, about a mediicall apocallypse averted by teenage boys runniing supplliies to underground mediics.. Harriis scrupullouslly outlliines the “worlld of diifference” between

the two tiitlles,, descriibiing Burroughs’’s lluriid storylliine – iin whiich,, after riiots at hospiitalls,, a viirus vacciine iis spread to counter an epiidemiic of “accellerated cancer” – as “a mutatiion” of Nourse’’s.. He poiints out severall

overt recyclliings from Naked Lunch (such as the drunken anaesthetiist and mouthwash gags),, as wellll as sexualliized boy gangs from The Wiilld Boys (1971).. Viirus B23,, wiith iits accompanyiing uncontrollllablle sexuall frenzy,, whiich has iits oriigiins iin Bllade Runner,, was soon to feature iin the novell Ciitiies of the Red Niight (1981)..

Harriis’’s enthusiiasm iis iinfectiious,, but he admiits that Bllade Runner iis diifficullt to viisualliize as a fillm.. It iis riiddlled wiith repetiitiions,, narratiive diiscontiinuiitiies and tiime shiifts – the very features that,, for Harriis,, make iit

“exempllary”..

Burroughs was fond of quotiing Gysiin’’s decllaratiion that “wriitiing iis fifty years behiind paiintiing”,, from Gysiin’’s essay “Cut--Ups Sellf--Expllaiined”.. Thiis appears iin Briion Gysiin’’s Let the Miice In,, oriigiinalllly publliished iin 1973 by

the Somethiing Ellse Press iin San Franciisco.. Thiis new ediitiion of an iinfluentiiall work,, both iinstructiion manuall and maniifesto,, iis extended by the use of photographs of a smartlly dressed Burroughs,, Gysiin,, Sommerviilllle

and others,, iin Tangiier and at the Beat Hotell iin Pariis.. Gysiin sets out the how and why of the cut--up method.. Yet,, he wriites:: “Anythiing I may say about Cut--Ups must sound lliike speciiall plleadiing unlless you try iit for

yoursellf”.. The purpose was to “cut through the word lliines to hear a new voiice off the page”,, a concept that Burroughs llater extended to tape recordiings..

A sectiion of Gysiin’’s “Permutated Poems” (the permutatiions carriied out by Sommerviilllle’’s computer and arranged iin collumns over severall pages) shows them to be sound poetry remiiniiscent of the work of Kurt

Schwiitters,, word patterns giiviing “an expandiing riipplle of meaniings”.. Of “I Am That I Am”,, Gysiin states that he heard “the diiviine Tautolloy” as “a sort of wiilld pealliing iinsiide my head,, lliike an ether experiience.. Other

works iindiicate the drug habiits that Burroughs and Gysiin lliived wiith and among:: “KICK THAT HABIT MAN / THAT HABIT KICK MAN / MAN KICK THAT HABIT / KICK THAT MAN HABIT”..

https://www.the-tls.co.uk/articles/blade-runner-a-movie-william-s-burroughs-let-the-mice-in-brion-gysin-review-jules-smith/ 2/4 13/02/2020 William S. Burroughs and Brion Gysin review - The TLS

Of partiicullarlly eccentriic iinterest iis the essay by Ian Sommerviilllle about the “Flliicker”,, patented iin 1961 as “The Dream Machiine” by Gysiin,, desiigned “to stiimullate our facullty of iimage--makiing” and ecstatiic viisiions

through endlless viisuall repetiitiions.. Consiistiing of a cardboard cylliinder wiith a lliightbullb on a gramophone at 78 rpm,, the Dream Machiine was augmented by Gysiin wiith an iinteriior cylliinder covered wiith hiis own paiintiings.. The whiirlliing shiimmeriing deviice can be seen and heard iin actiion duriing Ballch’’s fillm Towers Open

Fiire.. Burroughs contriibutes two essays to Let the Miice In:: “The Inviisiiblle Generatiion” about the potentiiall effect of tape recordiings contaiiniing “wakiing suggestiions”,, and “Word Authoriity More Habiit Formiing Than

Heroiin”,, iitsellf a bravura examplle of the cut--up method,, shuffliing llanguage iinto abstract patterns..

Gysiin iis a lluciid and wiitty wriiter.. He giives viiviid glliimpses of Burroughs at the moment when Naked Lunch was beiing ediited for Ollympiia Press – as he “ranted through the gargantuan rolles of Doc Benway,, A..JJ..,, Cllem

& JJody”,, or,, as a drug addiict,, “through the shadows from one pharmaciia to another,, huggiing a bottlle of paregoriic … hiis raiincoat glliintiing lliike the underbelllly of a shark”.. Briion Gysiin’’s Let the Miice In iis a key

collllaboratiive work.. It represents those llate 1950s to earlly 1960s years when Beat wriitiing met European experiimentalliism.. The most sophiistiicated iintelllliigence of the Beat Generatiion was permanentlly affected..

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