In recent entries this blog has featured the writing of James Joyce. However, I think it should also include some writing from “Naked Lunch” by William Burroughs, which is the book I first read using the, now famous, random passage method (again, see The Incomprehensibles). Of course, the Bible was really my first random read and this blog does already feature a Bible quote (see Bible Effulgent), but I would put reading religious texts into a different realm to other reading. I would also put reading science texts into a different realm to other reading - but not in the same realm as religious texts. They are completely different! I find them both interesting, though. The “Dictionary of Science” sits right next to the “Good News Bible” on my bookshelf – on the other side is the “Dictionary of Spanish”: Buenos Dias! But I think they should be studied separately (as should Spanish). And “Intelligent Design” is not Science, so keep it away from the bunsen burner, lest it combust. And, while it’s certainly an interesting metaphysical idea, I don’t know if Intelligent Design is even accepted as theology by mainstream religions. Maybe I’ll have to go back to church and find out – except I might not be allowed back in. I’ll have to wear a disguise. I think I’ll wear my Pope costume.
I seem to have digressed from my original purpose. From James Joyce to Intelligent Design in one rambling paragraph; this blog entry deserves a place in “Naked Lunch”. And I'm sure it would offend some people. But it’s probably too coherent. Something I admire in William Burroughs writing is his ability to write long and unwieldy sentences, such that by the time the reader gets to the end of the sentence they’ve forgotten what happened at the beginning (but worse than me). Here is an example:
“The scream shot out of his flesh through empty locker rooms and barracks, musty resort hotels, and spectral, coughing corridors of T.B. sanitariums, the muttering, hawking, grey dishwater smell of flophouses and Old Men’s Homes, great, dusty custom sheds and warehouses, through broken porticoes and smeared arabesques, iron urinals worn paper thin by the urine of a million fairies, deserted weed-grown privies with a musty smell of shit turning back to the soil, erect wooden phallus on the grave of dying peoples plaintive as leaves in the wind, across the great brown river where whole trees float with green snakes in the branches and sad-eyed lemurs watch the shore out over a vast plain.” (pgs 42-43)
He had some wild ideas and imagery (especially some unusual sexual imagery…or what appears to be sexual imagery), some of which came from frying his brain with psychoactive drugs. I’m not sure if this counts as cheating – I don’t think authors are subject to drug testing – they may even be encouraged to give their brains a little chemical frying every now and then. Maybe it’s a reasonable way to access hidden depths of creativity in the human brain. I’m drinking coffee while I write this, which is helping me access the hidden depths of 'crapping on' in my brain. I guess it depends on the individual and what’s important to them. I’m comforted to know that after drinking this coffee I’ll still be able to tie my shoelaces; something I might not be able to do after too much LSD (or whatever William Burroughs was taking, which I think was anything available). However, I do like wearing boots and hence, no shoelaces; although, it can be tricky getting my foot inside the boot before the boot tips over and crumples under my weight.
I’ll end this blog entry with some more “Naked Lunch” – I’ve chosen a passage featuring the infamous Mugwumps:
"Mugwumps have no liver and nourish themselves exclusively on sweets. Thin, purple-blue lips cover a razor-sharp beak of black bone with which they frequently tear each other to shreds in fights over clients. These creatures secrete an addicting fluid from their erect..." (pg 46)
...uh...well...that's about all that can be said about the Mugwumps, otherwise this blog will need to put up an "adult content" warning.
No comments:
Post a Comment