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Technology in the Work of Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs

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Technology in the Work of Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs Technology in the work of Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs. Catherine Mary Nash, BA, MA. Thesis submitted to the University of Nottingham for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy April 2008 Abstract This thesis explores the use and significance of technologies of representation in the work of Jack Kerouac (1922-1969) and William S. Burroughs (1914-1997), particularly in relation to the development of ideas of free and improvisatory expression in the 1950s. More specifically it focuses on the role played by the technologies of the typewriter and tape recorder in the textual production of key works of each writer and how these technologies are also thematically important in their exploration of the topics of individual creativity and freedom in relation to social and technological control. It also examines the centrality of epistolary practice in the creative process. The focus on these technologies will allow the thesis to develop from this base into a wider exploration of many of the key themes of Kerouac’s and Burroughs’ work, placing them within a context of wider debates and concerns over the power of mass media and technology among contemporary social commentators as well as writers of the Beat generation. The thesis is broadly divided into two sections, with the first half concentrating on Kerouac and the second half on Burroughs. Chapter one explores Kerouac’s writing practices in an analysis of the scroll draft of On The Road. Chapter two examines Kerouac’s representation of a variety of media including the printed word and radio in Doctor Sax. In chapter three, I look at Kerouac’s spontaneous prose method in an analysis of The Subterraneans. Chapter four concentrates specifically on Kerouac’s experimentation with the tape recorder in Visions of Cody. Chapter five focuses on framing Burroughs’ Junky and Queer in terms of cybernetics. In chapter six I present an analysis of Naked Lunch, looking at the techniques that Burroughs uses to disrupt the traditional narrative form, and in chapter seven I look at Burroughs’ cut-up method by examining his Nova trilogy: The Soft Machine, The Ticket That Exploded, and Nova Express. 2 Acknowledgements As the time comes to think about repaying the huge financial debts accumulated in the writing of this thesis, so too has the time come to thank all those people to whom I am indebted in ways that can never adequately be repaid. I must first thank the University of Nottingham School of American and Canadian Studies for funding in the form of a studentship for 2003-2004. This enabled me to study full-time for one year. Thanks also to Steve Bean at Team Co-Activ for a bursary and the impetus to begin my studies. I would also like to thank Helen Harbey in the Human Resources Department at the University of Nottingham for her work, which allowed me to focus on my studies. I owe a great deal to my supervisors Dave Murray in particular, and also Paul Jenner. They have provided support, encouragement, insightful criticism and helpful advice throughout my postgraduate studies. I would also like to thank other members of staff in the School of American and Canadian Studies, in particular Douglas Tallack and Sharon Monteith for their assistance during the earliest stages of this project. Thanks also to other PhD students for contributing to such a supportive and vibrant scholarly community over the years that I have been part of the School, particularly Erica Arthur, Jim Burton, Owen Butler, James Campbell, Sophie Cartwright, Bronagh Clarke, Dave Deverick, Paul Edwards, John Fagg, Alan Gibbs, Joanne Hall, David McBride, Maha Marouan, Champa Patel, Lisa Rull and Adie Smith. 3 This PhD also owes so much to the support of some fantastic friends, namely Fiona and Ainsley Sillence, Kate and Paul Hewitson, Matt and Steph Pyburn, and Darren Sykes, all of whom have variously provided vast quantities of moral and practical support and encouragement over the last seven years and more – at times quite literally keeping a roof over my head and food in my cupboard. I owe an immense debt of gratitude to you all for everything you have done to help me, and this would truly not have been possible without you. Thanks to my family, to my siblings and Mum and Dad for letting me get on with it, and also especially to Aunty Kay for the various ‘red cross parcels,’ cards and letters to keep me going that have always been so very gratefully received. To all at the International Office for support and understanding especially during the final stages of this project, especially Claire Taylor, Claire Bailey, Laura Follows, Harriet Matthews, Lisa Blanch and Michelle Reynolds. Celeste-Marie Bernier deserves special mention for massive amounts of support, encouragement and biscuits especially in the endless rewriting stages of this project, and also Andy Green for some very helpful suggestions. Thanks are also due to Fiona Nesbitt, Laura Galley, Clare Caress, Fiona Vale and Jennifer Lloyd at the Berridge Centre, Clare and Graham Miles, Ann Garton, Victoria Crane, Martin Mienczakowski and Amanda Stafford. And finally to Ross, who has never let me fall. 4 List of Contents Introduction ............................................................................ 6 1. On The Road: Driving, Writing and Typing. .................... 29 2.Doctor Sax ......................................................................... 63 3. Spontaneous Prose in The Subterraneans ....................... 97 4. “Do you feel through your shoes the machine?”: Tape, Text and Body in Visions of Cody. ............................................... 117 5. Junky and Queer .............................................................. 151 6. The Naked Lunch ............................................................ 173 7. Cut-ups ............................................................................. 197 Conclusion .......................................................................... 235 Bibliography and Reference Material ................................ 243 Introduction This thesis explores the use and significance of technologies of representation in the work of Jack Kerouac and William S. Burroughs, particularly in relation to the development of ideas of free and improvisatory expression in the 1950s. More specifically it focuses on the role played by the technologies of the typewriter and tape recorder in the textual production of key works of each writer and how these technologies are also thematically important in their exploration of the topics of individual creativity and freedom in relation to social and technological control. It also examines the centrality of epistolary practice in the creative process. The focus on these technologies will allow the thesis to develop from this base into a wider exploration of many of the key themes of Kerouac’s and Burroughs’ work, placing them within a context of wider debates and concerns over the power of mass media and technology among contemporary social commentators as well as writers of the Beat generation. The Beat label that has been attached to both writers has often been an unhelpful generalisation. The Beats have been understood in many different ways: as literary movement, media creation and mutually exploitative marketing strategy, and for such a “statistically tiny group,” a great deal of attention, statistical and otherwise, was paid to them in the Fifties.1 The Beats’ emphasis on the centrality of individual experience as exemplified in Kerouac’s work led to difficulties of classification, with the suggestion 1 Douglas T. Miller, and Marion Nowak, The Fifties: The Way We Really Were (New York: Doubleday & Company Inc., 1977) 387. being raised that the writers grouped together as Beats were in fact “too distinctly individualistic to allow their work to be classified.”2 The highly individualised styles and perceived thematic disparities between Kerouac and Burroughs’ work have produced an uneasiness in categorising and containing them both under the umbrella term of Beat. Burroughs’ status has in particular been contested, and as Oliver Harris points out, “He was never completely there and never quite belonged, but always marked a limit, a point of excess, a kind of strange inner extremity.”3 This thesis focuses on the ways in which each writer approaches the technologies of literary production and technology more generally, with the aim of establishing a wider framework in which to situate Kerouac and Burroughs so that more fruitful comparisons of their work can be made. It is though, impossible to divorce Kerouac and Burroughs entirely from their Beat identity. However uneasy or problematic these relationships may be, these writers formed a community based, among other things, around epistolary practice and as such this links them together in a virtual communications network of a wider Beat circle that cannot be ignored. Moreover, as the correspondence of Kerouac and Burroughs is intimately and intricately tied up with the development of their novels, in order to understand their work it is essential to recognise this context. As Oliver Harris explains, the letter plays a central role in the development of the writing practices of Kerouac and Burroughs: For the Beats the letter represented a technology of self-expression and intimate communication opposed to the impersonal relations of commodity exchange and 2 Wolfgang B. Fleischmann, “A Look at the ‘Beat Generation’ Writers,” Recent American Fiction: Some Critical Views ed. Joseph J. Waldmeir. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin
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