Product Description
William S. Burroughs died in August 1997 at the age of 83. A junkie for much of his life, he nonetheless survived all the younger Beat poets who saw him as their mentor. Graham Caveney has researched Burroughs' life and re-examined his complete writings and his forays into film, rock music and painting. The story of Burroughs' life from his ivy-league background through his early years of low-life in New York, his years of exile in Tangier, Paris and London following his accidental killing of his wife, his return to New York and old age in Kansas, is interwoven with an examination of his writings and of his collaborations with others such as Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Absolutely breathtakingly Beautiful book!
This has got to be the most beautiful book on Burroughs ever produced!Every page is a work of art. Pictures, paintings, drawings, poetry, notes, letters, short stories...this book has it all.No Burroughs fan should be without this book! ... Read more

Product Description
Burroughs, the eccentric, brilliant artist who burned the bridge with logic and wrote the classic Naked Lunch, has a court recorder in Victor Bockris. Bockris has collected into a cogent whole the man's most brilliant moments of conversation, thinking, and interview repartee. This fascinating material, gleaned from the fertile time at Burroughs's New York headquarters, the Bunker (which was located on the Bowery, three blocks from CBGB), encompasses the years 1974 to 1980, and also includes a 1991 Burroughs interview from Interview magazine. The Beats' devotion to subjective experience has left readers with a profound amount of objective material to analyze and debate. Choice public and private utterances, hallucinatory and prescient diatribes such as these, remain rich sources of literary history. As Americans we find the Beats' approach to life romantic, even heroic. Tearing the walls down in the name of freedom and spirituality strikes a particularly pilgrimesque chord. With William Burroughs: A Report from the Bunker is a fascinating compendium of Burroughs-speak, so complete it can be considered a credo. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

The New York years
In the second half of the 1970s, William Burroughs lived in a converted gymnasium in New York City. Dubbed 'the Bunker' (because it had no windows), he lived comfortably, working on Cities of the Red Night with his assistant, James. Victor Bockris was one of many people in Burroughs' social circle at the time, and he decided to document the Bunker years with this book of interviews.

The results are interesting only if you are a Burroughs fan. This is a portrait of a genius surrounded by his not-so-smart celebrity friends. Burroughs spends his time politely tolerating the presence of these people. His friends don't really get it, however --- they think "Bill" is here to have a big party, and they go on and on about their lives, asking him inane questions,while he waits for his chance to say something intelligent. He always comes across as thoughtful, someone who knows more than anyone else in the room. That's the best part of the book, when Burroughs gets an extended monologue on any subject.

But those monologues are too rare to justify reading this book. The interviews just don't dig very deep. You'll learn a lot more about Burroughs' cooking habits and his hobby of collecting canes (for self-defense against muggers) than you do about his ideas. If you've read everything else by --- and about --- Burroughs, you might enjoy this. But you would do better reading Naked Lunch, The Soft Machine, and Ted Morgan's biography..

rediscover burroughs
I picked this book up after reading a few other biograpies by Bockris, and, although I can say that I am bored by Burroughs the writer, I am facinated by Burroughs the man. Always interesting and funny, you don'thave to be a fan of William Burroughs' writing to be intrigued by hispersonality and intelligence.

the man who is the sharpest knife in the drawer...
The usual cold-fish attitude so closely associated with Burroughs is bowled over by a brilliant, funny-funny man who, through some divine intervention is seemingly unaffected by his "habits".This book is far better than a biography written by some wanna-be author who ran out the day before the interview and bought Naked Lunch.Observe the happenings and processes Burroughs goes through during his creative process and revel in the true glory of Bill Burroughs ... Read more

Product Description
This is the first volume of letters from William Burroughs, covering the years 1945-1959. The letters are entertaining and revealing, placing Burroughs' work in the context of an extraordinary life (J.G. Ballard once commented that Burroughs' life was more extreme than his writing) and Burroughs himself in the context of a decade and a half of momentous cultural change. Burroughs' circle at this time were the prime movers and shakers of the soon-to-be-realized Beat movement including Allen Ginsberg, Jack Kerouac, Neal Cassady and Brion Gysin. Throughout this period, writing letters was one of only two constant habits in Burroughs' life the other was heroin. Addiction was an abiding preoccupation, conferring an outsider status reinforced by his homosexuality (illegal in those days). Thus his life was one of constant movement - Texas, New Orleans, Mexico City, Tangiers and Paris. Letter writing was central to Burroughs' fictional process, it acted as a catalyst and he used his letters as an author notebook, much being cannibalized and used in his fiction. Many of his letters read like the "routines" which later appear in books such as "Naked Lunch". These letters are a key element to ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

For the Burroughs Amateur
Interzone is the second book by Burroughs that I've read.I started to read Naked Lunch, but soon realized it was too much for me to handle having not read any Burroughs before.A friend recomended that I read Junky, Queer, and Interzone before I read Naked Lunch.I thank him for that.Interzone is easy to follow for the most part.
The first section called "Stories" is just that, a series of eight really interesting short stories.This section is definately reader friendly if you can keep of with Junky.The second section called "Lee's Journals" is Burroughs writing while he's staying in Tangier, a seaport city on the North African coast.It's in Journal form. He writes of things that are actually happening around him, his thaughts of the city, and the dreams he has.This section is slightly cut up and random, but I feel it is the perfect step up for a Burroughs reader, because you can still understand everything easily and stay very interested. "Word" is the third and final section.I feel that this section is just a freewrite.I know he has a point with his writing but I don't think I've read enough of his writing yet to get it.Word is hard to understand but still very interesting.
I feel I am an amateur Burroughs reader, and I am writing this review for those just getting into his writing as well. This book will definately step you up a notch in the world of William S. Burroughs, but it shouldn't be the first one you read.If you're just getting started with Burroughs, start yourself off with Junky, you will love it. ... Read more

Product Description
William S. Burroughs is one of America's most influential and widely studied writers. A leading member of the Beat movement, his books and essays continue to attract a wide readership. His films, paintings, recordings and other projects that grew out of his literary work, together with his iconic persona as a counter-culture (anti-)hero, mean his work has become a broad cultural phenomenon.

This collection of essays by leading scholars offers an interdisciplinary consideration of Burroughs's work. It links his lived experience – as junkie, bohemian, queer, drug-addict, visionary and much else besides – to his many major prose works written from 1953 on, as well his sound, cinema and media projects. Moving beyond the merely literary, the contributors argue for the continuing social and political relevance of Burroughs's work for the emerging global order.

Themes include: Burroughs and contemporary theory; debates on 'reality'; violence; magic and mysticism ; cybernetic cultures; language and technology; control and transformation; transgression and addiction; the limits of prose; image politics and the avant-garde. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Accessible Studies of Burroughs
This text joins what appears to be a growing number of books collecting critical essays on Burroughs' work.

The attempts to address Burroughs' relevance in the "Age of Globalization" are tenuous at best; Some authors wisely avoid the subject altogether, while others make a very shoddy job of it. It seems this was a term employed just to sell the concept of the book.

The earlier essays in the text, drawing parallels betweens Burroughs' work and other contemporary movements (Surrealism, Dadaism, etc.) are the most valuable.

Halfway through the book, however, one author writes his essay in a way that can only be described as "fan fiction," and things start to go downhill from there. I actually had to stop reading the book toward the very end, in the middle of a ridiculous essay that tried to connect dots between Burroughs and Crowley. There may be some connections worth mentioning between the two, but they were not at all well illustrated here; citing trends in the comic book industry didn't help the authors' cause or credibility. This, after a too long (and very messy) essay that tried to squeeze Burroughs' humor through some of the most excruciatingly dull scholarly language...

That aside, the book was not a total waste of time for this long-time Burroughs scholar. Start with the "At The Front" collection for a much better survey of Burroughs essays through the years.

All agents defect - wouldn't you?
Even the best ¨critical¨ ¨theory¨ is just stuff that's been made up to sound big and clever - and this anthology's no different. Some of the pieces are better than others - in that they correlate more with my personal prejudices. One might expect a book about WSB and Globalisation to critique Burroughs's engagement with the Control Machine: Nike/Gap ads, work with corp-rockers U2 blah blah, publication by Murdoch and so on. Strangely this is all omitted. There's not much point pretending it didn't happen just coz it's too hard for you. At least WSB never pretended he was a lefty like these guys do. ... Read more

Product Description
The journal of the last months of William Burroughs' life.20 November 1996: 'Well, it's time for my Ovaltine and a long good night.'Burroughs died in 1997, after a lifetime of notoriety. The granddaddy of the Beats, druggy, dangerous and bleak, author of thirteen controversial, shocking novels.In his final years, he was writing only in his journals. The last nine months of his diaries are here in 'Last Words', and they form a complex, rarely seen, personal portrait of Burroughs at the end of his life, coming to terms with ageing and death. Although well into his eighties, the man we see is nevertheless the same old Burroughs, still riling against the Establishment, still contemptuous of the state of the human race, still shocking, bleak and very funny. The diaries are full of anecdotes and memories, entries on the joys of housekeeping, dealing with doctors, shooting a video with U2, musings on his beloved cats, drug-taking and government cover-ups.These journals contain some of the most brutally personal prose Burroughs has ever written.The deaths of his friends, Allen Ginsberg and Timothy Leary, provide a window onto the preparations he was making for his own death -- a quest for absolution marked by a profound sense of guilt and loss. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

Only for fans
These last words of Burroughs will have great poignancy for his fans, but might not be all that meaningful to the casual reader. He writes about mundane everyday occurrences, memories of his eventful life, makes extensive literary references and provides loving descriptions of his cats. For me, the Burroughs magic is here in abundance and this book helps to complete the big picture of his life and work. It's not all smooth sailing, though, as his repetitive railings against the "war on drugs" can become a bit tedious. Obscure references are explained in the explanatory notes: I was interested to see he was a member of IOT (International Order of Thanateros - see the books Liber Kaos and Liber Null & Psychonaut: An Introduction to Chaos Magic) and friends with V. Vale (See Re/Search Publications like Industrial Culture Handbook: Re # 6/7 and Re/Search #14: Incredibly Strange Music, Volume I (Re/Search ; 14)).

Some sections are funny, some are sad (especially where he writes about Joan Vollmer and his family) and some very interesting from a literary perspective. There are powerful passages of great beauty that stick in the mind. His love for his cats and for other animals like lemurs is very moving and shows that he may have been larger than life, but in the end he was very human. So, to wrap it up: Last Words is essential reading for the Burroughs enthusiast and the Burroughs scholar, to finally understand the man and his writing. Phew ... I am relieved, to know how much he loved some people and his pets, in the end.

Queer

Junky ... Read more

Product Description
"litanies from the underworld of the mind" (WSB) ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

poetry from the trenches
John Giorno is one of the finest spoken word poets in New York City.He is also quite adept at getting the word down on paper, too.You Got to Burn to Shine is a great collection of poems.It even includes anintroduction by William S Burroughs.Giorno writes poetry from the gut. It is free verse that swings with intensity.if you like a snifter ofrealism in your poetry then this book is for you.Giorno writes with ahard nosed frankness that is both poignant and refreshing without beingoverbearing.Poems like Stretching it Wider and (Last Night) I GambledWith My Anger and Lost are classic free verse.I read this collection withgreat delight.

A powerful look at the truth of life.
I found this book to be powerful and truthful. The context and the langauge were delicate machines portaying the life of the author. It should not be read by anyone with a closed mind. ... Read more

Product Description
new 10th edition, redesigned w/Gysin photo of WSB ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

buy this book
I thought this book was really cool. All sorts of ways to destroy lives and buisnesses. cause car crashes and make the cops drive by and cause riots with only a tape recorder (or a few)and a camera. Learn how to cause viruses in humans by recording their voice cutting it up and spicing it with other words and sounds. I really found it entertaining. I did get a little bum when Hubbard's name started popping up. But this book is stil full of great things to do with a tape recorder. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (1)

nice little academic analysis
Skerl's book is a volume in the Wayne's United States Authors Series.This slender volume is an attempt to write a reader-friendly introduction to Burroughs' writing anda non-specialist's analysis of Burroughs' literature, as well as to delineate Burroughs' spot in the larger canon, our outside it.It is well written and would serve as an excellent source to supplement Ted Morgan's biography LITERARY OUTLAW.

Skerl's thesis is that Burroughs' fiction is an expression oriented within hipsterism as a world-view. The book has a bibliography and an index.Bibliography also includes a selection of journal articles the author finds of value.

All in all, this would be a nice supplement to LITERARY OUTLAW by Ted Morgan, if the reader wishes to have a reasonable academic analysis of some of Burroughs' fiction.

ken32 ... Read more

Product Description
First Naked Lunch, Burroughs's original manuscript entitled Interzone includes a long and brilliant section known as "WORD." This previously unpublished text is the highlight of Interzone. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (8)

Huge assembling of unrealased Burroughs essays and short sroties
This book is an assembling of previously unreleased short stories and essay from Burroughs between the time where he wrote Queer and Naked Lunch. The book countains The Junky Christmas and other stories ending on Word a text where the writer transforms in the radical seer of Naked Lunch. The book countains elements of writing that bad been assembled in Naked Lunch in the cut-up method. This book is enjoyable by the fact that it countains thirteen differents stories and that those essay had been unpublished with wonderful introduction by Oliver Harris giving the exact sense of the feeling of those writtings. Burroughs is always unpredictable going from stories of Tnager to crude hardcore violence and crude metaphors that complete the huge writing og one of the most important American writer of the 60's.

This is an important book after you read his experimental work.
I know Burroughs's work. This book has one piece called 'Word' that you should read AFTER reading his experimental work.

I think his true value as an American writer lay in his experimental work, and his strong influence on the Beats. Interzone lets you see the growth of his experimental approach.

Burroughs was a fearless writer who inspired many. His subject matter and experimental technique were both significant literary developments for American Literature. This book gives insight into his earliest attempts at developing something truly novel.

The piece called 'Word' is culmination of his efforts where his unique style and approach first become apparent.

Read it after the Naked Lunch and/or The Nova Express. Once you understand that his work is not actually just total incoherent Dada, you may like to read Interzone.

Besides, even if his experimental works are totally incomprehensible due to their fragmentary, and syntactically bizarre style, his experimental works seem to teach one about how we create meaning. And they still contain all the significant and serious subjects expected of literature. In addition, thanks to the internet and non-hierarchical hyper linked documents, his technique is not so incoherent after all.

One last point about his value as a writer:he studied his own mind and behavior with some detachment.True some of his actions are moral issues for some, but he has value in that he did not try to cover up who he was and what he did, nor did he try to white wash, and avoid topics he thought others may not want to read about.This is an important quality for a great writer to exercise.

SMTECH

Shame about that Burroughs fellow...
There are several brilliantly subversive ideas here, but this book suffers from two things that make Burroughs' writing in general frustrating:

The first is lack of coherence.If Burroughs had had the discipline to take an idea like he introduced in the "assassinating the holy man" piece and turn it into a full blown novel his observations might have reached a larger audience.I understand the argument that Burroughs was creating a new impressionistic writing style where the logic of time and continuity is upended to make some transcendent statement, but I don't buy it.To me, this is rationalizing a wilful failure to connect; and I suspect it reveals a strong tendency to indolence and/or self-sabotage.

The second frustration I have with this book is Burroughs' insistence on long sexual and scatological rants.Now I realize he may have been desperately horny, and writing these sections may have felt enormously liberating; but reading them is decidedly uninteresting.I love crude humour.Jokes combining religion and profanity are my particular favourite; but while this technique can be used effectively to subvert stale attitudes, the sex and filth in "Word" serve no such purpose.It can't even be appreciated as "Caligula" where I remember basking in the lustful heat as over half the audience walked out during the first extended sex scene."Caligula" was genuinely erotic, and this blended well with the story of Roman power and madness.In "Word" one feels stuck in a dirty old man's wet dream of phoney-homosexuality-as-a-panic-reaction-to-a-deep-seated-fear-of-vaginas.Maybe being gay is necessary to enjoy this, but these sections feel contrived to me.

People are so charmed by Burroughs and his intelligence (the man could certainly write a mean routine) that they forgive his lack of discipline too easily.Reviewers say that "Word" marked an important stylistic transition, and that it is purposefully offensive.Well, this all may be true, but what does it mean as far as enjoying the book as literature?I really believe I could produce the same effect by smoking a lot of pot and writing the most disgusting things imaginable.I surely wouldn't expect anyone to respond positively to such a product.

essential reading to really fully grasp burroughs genius
Burroughs has incredible insight and an unmatched knack for spotting a con. This book contains an invaluable collection of short stories and journal rants that really showcase an emerging writer exploding with ideas in the transient surroundings of Tangier, which he describes as "the listening post of the world":

"Here East meets West in a final debacle of misunderstanding, each seeking the Answer, the Secret, from the other and not finding it, because neither has the Answer to give".

You hear firsthand his ideas and theories on writing so this is probably the best introduction to William Burroughs, as you prepare with the artist himself, stranded in interzone, for the arrival of a much more fragmented and explosive Naked Lunch.

A great starting place
I think if you want to start out reading Burroughs, the best place to start out is here. In my opinion, Burroughs wrote better short stories than novels. Recommendations are Sapre A** Annie (that's only the please the censors), Twilight's Last Gleamings, A Junky's Christmas and Word. Overall an excellent documentation of the twisted mind of one of the most celebreated authors of the last century. ... Read more