It’s become a tradition of mine during our club reading weeks to not only pull books from the mountainous TBR, but also try to read a variety of different kinds of work. So far this week I’ve focused on classic crime and highlighted some previous reads from 1976. Today is the turn of an author I read a lot of in my youth but who’s only featured a little on the Ramblings – William S. Burroughs.
Burroughs is best known as one of the triumvirate of American Beat authors, along with Jack Kerouac and Allen Ginsberg. A scion of the wealthy Burroughs adding machine family, he was a writer, visual artist and drug addict who’s now regarded as a major postmodern author. His works are often complex, and he helped popularise the cut-up technique which went on to be widely used, most notably by David Bowie. Burroughs was a controversial figure for many reasons: his sexuality, his drugs use, his killing of his wife in a shooting accident, and the extreme imagery in his writing. Yet as I commented on my review of his Penguin Modern, he can be “readable, entertaining, often funny and sometimes moving”. I haven’t read any of his heavier titles for decades, but I thought I would check to see if there were any of his writings available from 1976, and indeed there were.
The seventies for Burroughs were a strange time; hunkered down in his New York dwelling, ‘The Bunker’, he produced a number of experimental pieces, and I found two of these from 1976 hidden away in a collection I have called “The Burroughs File”. The works are “The Retreat Diaries” and “Cobble Stone Gardens” and so I figured the #1976Club would be a good time to reacquaint myself with Burroughs in provocative mode…
If I’m truly honest, these are not Burroughs at his easiest. “Retreat…” draws on a dream diary kept by the author when on a Buddhist retreat. By neccessity it’s a fragmentary work, filled with the strangeness and incoherence of half-remembered images that haunt the mind when asleep. Often beautiful sentences and phrases jump out, but there’s no single coherent narrative (although it *is* clear that Burroughs doesn’t agree that a Buddhist can make a good novelist, as he obviously intends to follow his muse whenever it appears, regardless of the strictures of the retreat!) In constrat, “Cobble Stone Gardens” (which is dedicated to the memory of the author’s parents) is much closer to Burrough’s more challenging works. Often scatalogical, full of startling and sexual imagery, it’s not for the faint hearted; yet, as with his other writings, there’ll be a sudden sentence or phrase which will jump out at you and stick in the mind. Part of the book seems to be fragmentary memories of his childhood, and I believe the original edition came with some very odd photographic illustrations…
Both of these pieces originally appeared in small publications, and were gathered with a number of others in “The Burroughs File”, along with some reproductions of scrapbook entries plus commentary by James Grauerholz, Burroughs’ companion and amanuensis. The whole collection is worthy of exploration, giving a fascinating insight into the mind of a true maverick, a one-off writer who can be challenging and rewarding to read. His influence is wider than you might expect (as my review of “Mentored by A Madman” by Andrew Lees makes clear); and if you like a little challenge in your reading I can recommend him (although this is not necessarily the best place to begin). I’m really glad that 1976 has taken me in the direction of reading some Burroughs – a reminder of my reading roots and also of the need to not always take the easy reading option!
MarketGardenReader/IntegratedExpat
Oct 13, 2021 @ 09:49:15
I’m not inspired to read him, but I wondered how David Bowie used the cut-up technique, so I looked it up and found it was about rearranging lines of text and was also used by Thom Yorke of Radiohead. I have learnt something today! I’m also intrigued by your mention of those photos.
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 13, 2021 @ 11:49:23
The cut-up technique is very interesting and I suppose found poetry is a bit similar, though maybe more controlled. An interesting volume, which I’ve had for years and never really explored!
MarketGardenReader/IntegratedExpat
Oct 13, 2021 @ 12:07:32
I have at least heard of ‘found poetry’, but I had to look that up, too. The only example I can think of is book spine poetry.
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 13, 2021 @ 12:16:47
I’m quite fond of book spine poetry, but not that great at it. I like found poetry though!
madamebibilophile
Oct 13, 2021 @ 09:58:33
I’ve never read Burroughs. I should probably explore the Beat generation more, although sometimes I wonder if the best time for that is your late teens/early 20s and I’ve let it slip! He does sound interesting though, so maybe one day… so many books, so little time…
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 13, 2021 @ 11:48:31
I think I would be less tolerant of some of the Beat antics nowadays but there’s no doubting there’s some interesting writing in there. If you were going to start anywhere, I’d suggest Junkie as it’s written in more traditional prose…
Cathy746books
Oct 13, 2021 @ 11:32:57
I read some Burroughs YEARS ago, after a trip to City Lights Bookshop in SF, but I’m not sure his work would resonate with me now I’m older.
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 13, 2021 @ 11:54:27
I think I’m definitely less tolerant as a reader – I was a sponge back in the day, just absorbing so many books and authors. I still like much Beat prose but feel a bit of distance sometimes.
Cathy746books
Oct 13, 2021 @ 12:06:31
Yes, I know what you mean!
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 13, 2021 @ 12:07:02
😀
Jane
Oct 13, 2021 @ 14:58:22
This is all very interesting thank you! I haven’t read anything by him and he’s the one of the triumvirate that I know least about. But I take your point about not being the easy option!
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 13, 2021 @ 15:45:29
No, some of his work can be really difficult. As I mentioned in another comment, I would think Junkie would be a good place to start if you want a flavour of his writing as it’s more straightforward and also explores his relationship with the drugs that so shaped his life.
buriedinprint
Oct 13, 2021 @ 19:09:05
Agreed on the interest in reading-past-easy. Although as with everything, I suppose it’s a matter of balance. Keeping a variety of styles and voices in the stack, so we don’t weary of it all.
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 13, 2021 @ 19:32:54
Exactly that – too much of the same kind of book is not good!
heavenali
Oct 13, 2021 @ 19:31:08
I haven’t read Burroughs either, and knew nothing about him, so found your review very interesting. Clearly a fascinating and controversial figure. What an interesting and varied set of books you’ve read for the 1976 club.
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 13, 2021 @ 19:32:29
I always try to read a variety during the club weeks, and Burroughs is someone I haven’t got back to very often. He certainly is controversial but also often funny and lyrical – a complex man for sure.
JosieHolford
Oct 13, 2021 @ 19:53:00
The seventies were a strange time for a lot of people! And then along came Thatcher and Reagan.
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 13, 2021 @ 20:24:54
Yes, I lived through the era and it was a really odd one. Not sure the 1980s were all that straghtforward either!!!
WordsAndPeace
Oct 13, 2021 @ 21:53:10
Thanks for introducing me to this author!
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 14, 2021 @ 09:55:46
Most welcome! 😀
Julé Cunningham
Oct 14, 2021 @ 00:00:48
Even in my 20s I have to admit I didn’t have much patience for the Beats, so have probably read more about Burroughs than actually read him and that didn’t really inspire me to pick up his books either. But I’m enjoying the range of 1976 books you’ve explored.
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 14, 2021 @ 09:51:54
No, I accept Burroughs is not for everyone. But I’m going for a range of reads and this is certainly very different from Agatha!!!
gertloveday
Oct 14, 2021 @ 00:40:44
Did you know Anthony Burgess used to go drinking with Burroughs when he was in London. Can you imagine!
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 14, 2021 @ 09:51:14
I didn’t – being a fly on the wall might have been interesting (as well as alarming…)
whisperinggums
Oct 14, 2021 @ 12:27:03
I have never read Burroughs … and am only generally across the Beat poets in that I know who they are but have never sat down and made a study of them, like I did, say, of the Bloomsbury group. (Yes, English, not American, I know, but you know what I mean.)
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 14, 2021 @ 15:04:56
Yes, I get what you mean about those literary groupings! The Beats intrigued me in my younger years because of their rebel qualities. I think nowadays I look more for the quality of their prose. Definitely best to have read young, I think!
whisperinggums
Oct 14, 2021 @ 15:22:29
Interesting how there are some books/writers that age better than others. I started reading Hunter S Thompson’s Fear and loathing in Las Vegas a few years ago because a friend and work colleague loved it. However, I think he read it when he was young (and, perhaps it’s because he was male), but I just couldn’t get invested as a middle-aged woman (though that doesn’t stop me reading other books about different ages, cultures.) Maybe it was these opinionated men that just got to me!
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 14, 2021 @ 15:49:16
Yeah, I get that – I had a big HST phase but I’ve slimmed down my collection now, and although I love Fear and Loathing, I’m less likely to just absorbe everything he wrote….
1976 Club: Review Round-Up – Stuck in a Book
Oct 16, 2021 @ 16:06:02
Liz Dexter
Oct 18, 2021 @ 13:09:06
Lovely to go back to your reading roots there!
kaggsysbookishramblings
Oct 18, 2021 @ 15:43:49
It was – I do like to revisit authors I’ve loved in years gone by!
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