Critical Response To Chester Himes, Vol. 34 Book

For those who might not know, William S. Burroughs was associated with members of the original Beat Generation (he co-wrote a novel with Jack Kerouac and lived for a time with Allen Ginsberg). His best-known work is Naked Lunch, and in general his fiction is dystopic'sort of like J.G. Ballard, but with a lot more gangsters and cowboys. And heroin. And auto-erotic asphyxiation.

The Job reprints several interviews William S. Burroughs had with Daniel Odier in the late sixties. The questions and answers are edited so that different chapters are roughly about different subjects, including art, censorship, sex, drugs, and language. In addition to the interviews, the book reprints some of the stories Burroughs mentions to M. Odier; thus, there is a kind of movement in the text from fact to fiction and back to fact. This shifting between the factual and the fantastic is reflected within the interview as well, as Burroughs works from the realistic to the speculative and back again. For instance, at one point he talks about the possibilities represented by technologies as audiotape and film. Some of the realistic possibilities are associated with the creative process. However, he also suggests ways that audiotape and film might be employed to modify behaviour; these latter notions seem a little more fantastic.

Moreover, one of the great things about Burroughs's writing is the way that that the probable blurs with the incredible; Burroughs can begin with very reasonable claims, and work his way to far-fetched claims, and in such a way that the reader frequently goes along with Burroughs's argument, even when the argument itself has left the realm of the rational.

Many of Burroughs's arguments reflect his interests in resisting dominant power structures. With regard to his views on government and social control, in fact, Burroughs can be fairly conspiracy-minded. In one section, for instance, Burroughs discusses the technologies that the government is developing but wants to keep secret'for example, a device that produces sound waves with lethal frequencies.

Burroughs has some pretty interesting ideas. At the time of these interviews, he was studying Scientology, and in this book he employs some of Ron Hubbard's concepts to analyze not only the contemporary media but also the Mayan calendar'and how both are related to social control (note: Burroughs studied Mayan civilization at school, so he's got some scholarly understanding of what he's discussing. Also, here's a strange thing: in three of Kerouac's novels, the character based on Burroughs is surnamed "Hubbard." Coincidence?)

Although he was many things (godfather of punk, gun freak, junkie, Nike spokesman), Burroughs is probably best known for his writing. In these interviews, he discusses his own writing and that of others. He talks about the creative process, and in some of the more philosophical passages, he discusses language, not only as a means of communication, but also as a technology that affects those who use it (in this respect, Burroughs is making observations similar to those of media and technology analyst Marshall McLuhan). Most famously, Burroughs compared language to a virus (that's where performance artist Laurie Anderson got the title for that song); in addition to discussing in some detail the meaning of this suggestive metaphor, he also talks about the differences between ideogrammatic and syllabic systems of writing.

Pretty odd stuff, but certainly entertaining.